All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Mister Mets]

Yeah, being right wing ideologues who, in more than a few cases, couldn’t judge a high school beauty pageant, and, more importantly, loyal buttmunches for Trump.

I don't believe that was the point the guy from Vox was making.

Those qualifications seem to focus primarily on furthering a strictly conservative evangelical agenda.

They may also further a conservative agenda, but they do appear to generally meet high standards on particular objective measures.

The judiciary is where policy is made in the United States. And that policy is likely to be made by Republican judges for the foreseeable future. Further in the article Millhiser describes the partisan decisions these appointees have already leveled and the increased power they will have over the lives of average Americans in the next several decades.

This is one of the things where conservatives are happy, and liberals are not.

In political discussions I've followed the main way judges come up is an explanation about why left and far-left voters should be willing to stomach support for a center-left presidential candidate, but that perspective neglects that this is something Trump's done that a mainstream Republican like Rubio or Jeb Bush wishes he had pulled off.

I'd wager most of those judges these appointees clerked for were heavily conservative in their leanings, otherwise the Federalists wouldn't have vouched for them.
There is obviously nothing democratic about any of this and it should be illegal for any political group to have so much influence over a process that will shape the American legal system for decades to come.

What regulations would you like in order to shut down a form of commentary on legal matters?

[Mister Mets]

Time Magazine is announcing the person of the year tomorrow, and it seems to me that there has been very little speculation.

I’m not sure if it was you and I going around on Democrat’s giving up gay rights if it meant getting Republicans to support climate change, but I DO vividly remember you and I, about a year or so ago, going around regarding your contention that the Democrats should ‘compromise’ and stop supporting a woman’s right to an abortion if they were serious about Climate Change. Because, as your argument - facetious or serious - went, Climate Change is so much more a serious issue, so Democrats should be willing to dip out of the fight for a woman’s right to be more than beoodmares for the men around them. At least, if they want Republicans to be willing to accept science and fact on climate change and stop being obstructionist dicks about it.

Which, if we’re being honest, is as COMPLETELY asinine a stance as ‘Democrats should stop supporting gay rights if they want Climate change legislation to get past Republican blockades’, and just as damning of your party’s lack of concern for human rights, ACTUAL lives, or any sort science or reality not paid for by their corporate sponsors AS WELL AS illuminating your party’s willful stupidity and ignorance and it’s abject pettiness and cruelty, so that might be where the confusion lies...

I recall a similar discussion. My point was that it suggested that Democrats generally saw climate change as a serious issue, but not an existential one.

I didn't really see the compromise as a possibility.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post3994778

Even if you think support for abortion is as necessary as support for gay rights, these are different topics.

[zinderel]

Time Magazine is announcing the person of the year tomorrow, and it seems to me that there has been very little speculation.

I recall a similar discussion. My point was that it suggested that Democrats generally saw climate change as a serious issue, but not an existential one.

I didn't really see the compromise as a possibility.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post3994778

Even if you think support for abortion is as necessary as support for gay rights, these are different topics.

Both abortion and LGBT rights are civil rights issues your party despises. Both are supported by decades of science and research and evidence and reality. Both are dismissed utterly by your party - alongside climate change - since your party doesn’t support science or facts or civil rights for anyone but rich, white, Christian males and their ‘lessers’ who know their place.

And you are correct that in not one of the three cases being discussed should ‘compromise’ be a ‘possibility’. Truth and facts don’t compromise. And ‘compromise’ is ESPECIALLY egregious here because to compromise on these issues is to compromise with terrorists. And make no mistake...the people who hold power in your party are beholden to the barely-literate ‘Real American’ terrorists who make up the core of your party and who ABSOLUTELY want to wipe ‘uppity’ negroes and ‘illegal immigrants’ from the planet. As well as ‘killer Jews’, and queers, and atheists, and women who want to decide for themselves whether they get pregnant, and people who trust science over a collection of stories told by illiterate goat herders over thousands of years that someone finally decided to write down and call ‘truth’ without knowing one thing about what that word means...

Abortion rights, LGBT+ rights, climate change. All are things your party refuses to accept as valid because all three interfere in some way with the only people Republicans think matter (rich, white, Chiristian, male or some combination of those), so any compromise on any one of them in order to get something on another is a fools game that lets the Republicans know that the evil little games they play with human lives in order to make a profit, work. Your party wants power and is willing to sell out everything America, Jesus, and the party itself once stood for if it means more donor money and more power for the Red Team.

That’s how they all tie together and become the same topic for people who aren’t trapped in the Red Bubble so badly that they defend and uphold as heroic dim little monsters like Trump, Cavanaugh, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Richard Spencer, Ann Coulter, Kellyanne Conway, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Barr, Nunes, Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, Stephen Miller, Putin, Zimmerman, Kim Davis and all the other Republicans who commit daily and have committed blatantly self-serving, if not outright evil, acts in your party’s name, with your financial and voter support. Your party has made clear they will do anything but fight honorably or with actual facts, if it gives them what they want. And you and other party-before-people loyalists continue to support and make excuses for them by presenting facetious ‘compromises’ that are anything but well-intentioned and then blaming the left for not accepting a ‘deal’ based on what everyone knows is a lie told for the appeasement of American terrorists like the Christian Right as a compromise. That is how these topics all tie together.

[Kirby101]

Well the Dems and GOP compromised today on a Defense Omnibus bill. The Dems were allowed to put in 12 weeks paid family leave for Fed employees. The Republicans were able to make the Space Force official. I am not kidding. They need to appease their dear leader so much that they gave a big win to the Democrats for a hair brained fantasy. No military spending will change and the Air Force will continue their current Space programs. They just get to name it Space Force. If the GOP wants to continue compromises like this could rename Union Station after Trump in exchange for Climate Change legislation.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4...ace-force-deal

[zinderel]

Well the Dems and GOP compromised today on a Defense Omnibus bill. The Dems were allowed to put in 12 weeks paid family leave for Fed employees. The Republicans were able to make the Space Force official. I am not kidding. They need to appease their dear leader so much that they gave a big win to the Democrats for a hair brained fantasy. No military spending will change and the Air Force will continue their current Space programs. They just get to name it Space Force. If the GOP wants to continue compromises like this could rename Union Station after Trump in exchange for Climate Change legislation.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4...ace-force-deal

That is a compromise I can get behind, because it is as utterly farcical as the concept of honorable, intelligent Republicans and it shows how low the party has sunk. Hell, if it gets a climate change bill, let’s give Trump a few miles of his pathetic, easily scaleable, easily vandalizable ‘wall’ that will inevitably be torn down by either a President who isn’t a virulently racist man baby or by the Free People when America collapses under the weight of it’s own hubris...

[Tendrin]

"Dems don't REALLY see climate change as an existential threat because they're not willing to ban abortion and throw away gay rights to fight it" Really?

[Mister Mets]

"Dems don't REALLY see climate change as an existential threat because they're not willing to ban abortion and throw away gay rights to fight it" Really?

I've never made that argument in a gay rights context. Although I have made it in reference to nuclear power, and fracking.

[Tami]

Donald Trump Jr. Was Treated Like a King on a Trip to Mongolia and Then He Killed a Rare Sheep

Donald Trump, Jr. used a seven-day hunting trip to Mongolia he purchased during a National Rifle Association charity auction before his father was elected to the White House to allegedly kill a rare sheep on the endangered species list, ProPublica reports. Trump documented the excursion, during which he stayed in a yurt and was accompanied by Secret Service agents and apparently a Republican donor, on his various social-media channels, but did not admit to killing the rare sheep. ProPublica reports the kill was made legal after the president’s son was given a hunting permit retroactively after he had returned from the trip. The news outlet interviewed the hunting guide the Trump party used, who said he shot his argali at night using a rifle with laser sight, but would not allow the local guides to dismember it at the kill site, which is customary to leave scraps for scavenging animals. Instead, he instructed them to carry the carcass on an aluminum sheet to preserve the fur and horns. It is unclear whether he has imported his trophy to the U.S.

[Tami]

Thanos Creator Says He Felt ‘Violated’ by Bizarre Trump Campaign Video

Yesterday, President Trump’s 2020 campaign superimposed his face on Thanos in a deeply weird online video. On Wednesday, the creator of the Marvel Comics megavillain asked the question on everyone’s mind: Why did they think it was a good idea to compare Trump to a genocidal maniac? Writing on Instagram, comic-book legend Jim Starlin said that he initially felt “violated” when he saw “that pompous dang fool using my creation to stroke his infantile ego.” But, after giving it some thought, he said: “It finally struck me that the leader of my country and the free world actually enjoys comparing himself to a mass murderer. How sick is that?” Starlin, who is clearly no fan of Trump, added: “These are sad and strange times we are going through. Fortunately all things, even national nightmares, eventually come to an end.” The video used footage from Avengers: Endgame to depict the president as Thanos disintegrating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

[worstblogever]

On this day in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, a man who responded to the Columbine shooting by saying he felt that bazookas should be legal, who fretted over the gay community "infiltrating" centers of power in America to push for more abortions in 2004 (since gay people cause so many pregnancies in the first place), and advocated for the death penalty for abortion doctors (even though abortion is legal). Coburn also was involved in the attempted coverup in former Sen. John Ensign's affair in 2008, denied climate change by claiming Earth was entering a "mini ice age", and moved unilaterally to try and block the Zadroga Bill to provide healthcare assistance for 9/11 First Responders. He also helped add fuel to the conspiracy theory that the government was trying to "buy up all the ammunition", terrifying gun lovers in 2013, voted against disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy (even though he constantly asks for relief aid for tornadoes in Oklahoma), and complained about NBC airing "Schindler's List" on television because it had too much violence and sex in it. Sen. Coburn retired this past year, to battle prostate cancer, and we continue to wish him well in his recovery, even in spite of all of the valid criticisms we have with his politics.

It was on this date in 2015 that Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of Chris Buttars, a former Utah State Senator who found his calling working for fifteen years as executive director and fundraising consultant for Utah Boy Ranch, a place where parents who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints send their "troubled youth" who are thinking of leaving the church to teach them a lesson, that's known in many circles as "The Mormon Gulag". And according to many accounts, the Utah Boy Ranch was an environment where children were forced into backbreaking labor, and sexual abuse was not unheard of among the charges, and Buttars even admitted to a reporter once that the ranch should not be funded, for fear of government oversight actually getting eyes upon the camp's practices.Outside of that, as a legislator, Buttars co-sponsored a bill to ban all student organizations that support alternative lifestyles taking to the floor of the Utah State Senate to say that organizations were "recruitment tools for gays" and would "tear down the moral pillars of society", tried to vote to allow corporate water systems to refuse to fluoridate their water supplies (John Birch Society territory), argued against evolution being taught in schools unless intelligent design was also allowed to be discussed, and he supported legislation which would allow for gold and silver coins to be accepted as legal tender in Utah. But Buttars drew our attention because he was an equal opportunity bigot, on different occasions making a variety of vile comments about gays, minorities, and Muslims, including arguing that gays cannot actually be discriminated against, stating his belief that the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling was “wrong”, claiming that Islam had completely been taken over by “the radical side”, and referring to homosexuality as “sexual perversion”, or “pig sex”. Buttars retired for health reasons in 2011, hinting he’d written a memoir that will not be published after his death, because he’s self-aware enough to know all his ugly opinions in it will face criticism he’d rather not deal with.

On this date in 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Anthony Cappola, a candidate for New Jersey State Assembly in 2015 whose resume was that he ran a company that provides DJs, videographers, and other entertainers at weddings. Well, he also was an amateur author, and someone got their hands on his 2003 book, “Outrageous”, in which he provided his thoughts on gays, Asians, senior citizens, blacks, public breastfeeding, and even singled out Pope Jone Paul II and John Tesch for other criticism. It is, quite simply, a string of 223 pages of slurs and graphic sexual discussion chock full of spelling and grammatical errors. Now, here’s the kicker… Cappola did apologize, and withdrew from the public eye when he was “found out”… but he declined to leave the race for the Assembly seat. The New Jersey GOP only let him remain on the ballot because it would have cost $200,000 to have his name removed from the ballot as they wished. Cappola stayed in until the bitter end, insisting his book was supposed to come off like a cross between “Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern”, but insisted his book was just satire and that he wasn’t a sexist bigot because he “cherishes the relationships I have with my friends who are gay, bisexual, black and Hispanic and the Korean community that I’m a part of.” Ah yes. The classic, “I can’t be racist because I have minority friends” defense. That clears it all up, right? Yeah… not so much. Cappola ended up losing the race for his seat, and even dragged down Mark DiPisa, the Republican he was bracketed with on the ballot. Cappola’s political career is apparently over.

Randy Voepel
It was on this day in both 2017, as well as 2018, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Randy Voepel, a former mayor of Santee, California, who had the good fortune of running for a seat in the California State Assembly in 2016 without being challenged by a Democrat. Specifically, our issue with Randy Voepel begins with his views on climate change, which somehow also becomes how to weaponize it against faiths other than his own. Voepel thinks the planet actually is getting warmer… but he feels like that is a good thing because as he explained in an interview back in 2007, “our enemies are on the equator” and a hotter climate would harm them. He still feels this way today, giving an interview to the Los Angeles Times where he explained, “Most of the Muslim nations are in the hot areas of the world”. It’s hardly just Muslims in the Middle East that Voepel has issues with, however, as he also have some unfortunate opinions about both the Asian people. He responded to a Chinese citizen who wanted his autograph for a collection he keeps by writing them in e-mail in which he stated:

”I respectfully decline to cooperate in any way with what I consider to be an enemy of the United States. The People's Republic of China is a repressive and evil communist regime that runs a Police State. I fought in Vietnam to stop communism and will fight communism until the day I die. Please accept me as a very determined enemy, as I assume you to be to me.”

He also once gave a paranoid rant about the Vietnamese supposedly stripping a local mine, saying, “I served two tours in Vietnam. And I’m getting attacked here by the Viet Cong, stealing my copper, and I don’t like it.” There’s a lot to unpack there… does Voepel think there’s no difference between Vietnamese Americans and the Viet Cong he fought over forty years ago?

Needless to say, Voepel is probably not the kind of person you’d want to serve as an ambassador. Or as a legislator. Or as any kind of government employee. And yet… and yet he won re-election even in the 2018 Blue Wave with 61% of the vote. He thus will remain ignorant, and in office, until at least 2020.

[Billy Batson]

At a rally just now in Hershey, PA, Trump called FBI Agents "Spies and Scum".

So he's taking the IG report well.

He's not wrong.

[Kirby101]

I've never made that argument in a gay rights context. Although I have made it in reference to nuclear power, and fracking.

Which is the GOP saying we agree that Climate Change is an existential threat. But unless we can get environmental dangerous energy sources that benefits large corporations, we ain't doing a damn thing about it. And we will hold wind and solar hostage. So screw the world unless our keepers make money.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Which is the GOP saying we agree that Climate Change is an existential threat. But unless we can get environmental dangerous energy sources that benefits large corporations, we ain't doing a damn thing about it. And we will hold wind and solar hostage. So screw the world unless our keepers make money.

Speaking of which, got an alert that Greta Thunberg, the teenage environmentalist calling for action against the dangers of climate change was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

[Tendrin]

Speaking of which, got an alert that Greta Thunberg, the teenage environmentalist calling for action against the dangers of climate change was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

Oh man the rage is gonna be SO LOUD. Good on TIME.

[worstblogever]

Speaking of which, got an alert that Greta Thunberg, the teenage environmentalist calling for action against the dangers of climate change was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

Oh man the rage is gonna be SO LOUD. Good on TIME.

AND Greta gave him a stink-eye at the U.N.