All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Dan Lungren, the former U.S. House Representative from California’s 3rd District. Lungren had co-sponsored anti-abortion legislation to specify it should only apply to “forcible rape”, meaning he there would be no exceptions for incest or statutory sexual assaults. He also was an adamant denier of climate change, in California, no less. He also had a key staffer convicted of a fraudulent voting drive scheme (after campaigning for Voter ID laws). By the end of his career, he managed to be booed at a town hall for still wanting a return to the Bush tax cuts for the rich. After Lungren lost in the 2012 elections, he apparently decided to call it a career.



In 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as in 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published its profiles Bill Chumley, a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives who has served in that body to since coming to power in 2010, the Tea Party year. He has managed to stay in office through the benefit of not being challenged, at all, in 2012 or 2014 in a primary or general election. Bill Chumley is one of the contingent of South Carolina Republicans who in the wake of the shooting at the AME Emanuel Church in June of 2015 by a shooter motivated by Confederate iconography and white nationalist views that fought tooth and nail to try and keep the Confederate Flag flying at the state capitol. Hell, Chumley’s legislative profile on the website of the South Carolina legislature lists him as a proud member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, so maybe that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. What sets Bill Chumley apart from the rest of his colleagues is how on June 23rd, 2015, among all the prayers for the victims and talk to remove the flag, he desperately tried to steer the conversation away from his beloved Stars & Bars, and tried to spin the issue into a debate on gun control by blaming the victims for not being armed in church or fighting back, chuckling about their deaths in a CNN interview about how they were “waiting their turn to be shot”. As disgusting as a moment as that is, it’s not an isolated incident of outrageous behavior from State Senator Chumley. Like say, back in December of 2012 when he sponsored legislation in the South Carolina legislature that would jail state and federal officials who tried to implement the Affordable Care Act in South Carolina, specifically referring to this measure as an attempt at nullification, and as one of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, it’s a pretty safe bet that the history of South Carolina trying to nullify federal laws, like say at Ft. Sumter, was not lost on the Chumster. A few months after that in March of 2013, he suggested South Carolina return to having low-level inmates return to being indentured labor for the state in chain gangs. Yes, CHAIN GANGS. And even as recently as February of 2015, Chumley brought stunningly stupid legislation to the floor, when he was overcome by Islamophobia and submitted one of those bills that would put an unnecessary ban on Sharia Law in South Carolina. He’s still working on nullification bills, including one he filed in December of 2015 (just in time for Christmas!) to try and nullify the Supreme Court’s Obergefell vs. Hodges decision, and outlaw same sex marriage in South Carolina. We’d say he’s willing to fight a Civil War to prevent gays from being married, but it actually looks more like Bill Chumley just wants to fight a Civil War, period, over whatever issue is convenient to get it done.

And, about that whole Civil War thing… in late 2017, Chumley actually co-sponsored a bill in the South Carolina legislature to honor “black Confederate veterans”, presumably in an effort to prove that Confederate monuments aren’t racist. There’s just one problem with that… historical records can find not a single black soldier who served in the Confederacy (go figure, the Confederate racists hoping to defend an empire built on slavery didn’t trust any of their slaves with guns in combat to fight for the right to stay enslaved). Upon hearing that fact, Chumley denied reality. still didn’t withdraw his bill, and said:

“We don’t see that’s a problem. If they served in the Confederate Army, they deserve to be recognized.”

That bill, of course, is going nowhere. Sadly, a bill he voted for that might be was when he voted for a bill to prevent abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected, or in other words, as early as six weeks, before many women even realize they are pregnant. We only wish the same were true of Bill Chumley’s political career, but we’ll have to see if he runs for a sixth term in office here in 2020 The deadline for him to file for re-election is March 30th.

[Malvolio]

Seriously, if the last four years haven't taught liberals that these types of problems aren't going to be solved by working within the system and trying to reach across the aisle, then nothing will.

QFT. You can't beat the heel by hoping that the referee will enforce the rules this time around. You beat the heel by making it one of those matches where there are no rules, like a street fight. By that I mean, use the strategy that Bill Maher spoke about a few weeks ago. Hit Trump where it hurts. Remind people of the things Stormy Daniels said about his manhood. Bring up the pee-tape. That's how you fight dirty, and that may be the only way to win.

[Billy Batson]

QFT. You can't beat the heel by hoping that the referee will enforce the rules this time around. You beat the heel by making it one of those matches where there are no rules, like a street fight. By that I mean, use the strategy that Bill Maher spoke about a few weeks ago. Hit Trump where it hurts. Remind people of the things Stormy Daniels said about his manhood. Bring up the pee-tape. That's how you fight dirty, and that may be the only way to win.

Republican/swing voters don't really care about those things.

[PaulBullion]

The DJI is now down over 1000 points. Have not seen that in a while.

[4saken1]

Seriously, if the last four years haven't taught liberals that these types of problems aren't going to be solved by working within the system and trying to reach across the aisle, then nothing will.

No, but they can be solved if enough people came out and voted for Democrats so that they didn't even have to bother reaching across the aisle.

[JackDaw]

QFT. You can't beat the heel by hoping that the referee will enforce the rules this time around. You beat the heel by making it one of those matches where there are no rules, like a street fight. By that I mean, use the strategy that Bill Maher spoke about a few weeks ago. Hit Trump where it hurts. Remind people of the things Stormy Daniels said about his manhood. Bring up the pee-tape. That's how you fight dirty, and that may be the only way to win.

Is telling the truth about the candidate himself/ herself really “fighting dirty”?? I suppose we all have differing definitions but for me that wouldn’t be “dirty”...for me that would have to include telling lies, and/or involving innocent members of the candidates family.

I certainly think constantly poking fun at the Donald might well be a winning tactic...he does come across as a bit of a tender flower.

[kidfresh512]

Is telling the truth about the candidate himself/ herself really “fighting dirty”?? I suppose we all have differing definitions but for me that wouldn’t be “dirty”...for me that would have to include telling lies, and/or involving innocent members of the candidates family.

I certainly think constantly poking fun at the Donald might well be a winning tactic...he does come across as a bit of a tender flower.

We know he is narcissistic and vain. But, how does this tactic get Democratic voters excited and come out for whoever wins?

[4saken1]

He lost the primary but was polling better than her in the general.....

Yeah, but in which states did he poll better? This is an important distinction. If memory serves, there were a few states that Hillary lost to Trump with a smaller margin than Sanders beat her in. Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Alaska come to mind (I could be wrong) There were a few other key states that Sanders lost to Hillary in the Primary, but she ended up winning them against Trump. Again, I'm not sure, but I think they were Virginia, Nevada, and Florida. When you do the math, it still doesn't add up to a Sanders win.

[Tami]

“Canceled Because of a Video You Didn’t Even Make”: Inside a Bernie-Biden Troll War

On Saturday, Lindy Li, who helped lead Joe Biden__’s Asian American outreach and will be a delegate at this year’s Democratic National Convention, was tutoring several Chinese American students at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Philadelphia when she tweeted a video of Bernie Sanders waxing poetic about the Moscow metro. “#BernieSanders lavishes praise on Communist Russia, preferring the Soviet Union to the American way of life,” Li tweeted to her 4,500-plus followers. Not 100% accurate, but not totally off base—and in keeping with other things Sanders had said not only about the Russians but the Sandinistas and the Cubans.

Li’s tweet went out at 11:27 a.m., and, almost immediately, she started taking flack. “Basically, it was like, ‘You have brain worms,’ or stuff like that—stuff I can handle,” said Li, who is 29 and lives in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square. “It’s not, ‘Go die.’ It’s not, ‘You’re a ****.’ It’s not death threats.”

Then, at 11:48 p.m., #NeverTrump pundit Bill Kristol retweeted Li’s tweet to his more than 591,000 followers. (“I was so excited, I called my Dad,” Li said.) That opened the floodgates: CNN contributor Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, Meghan McCain, and George Conway, husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, also retweeted Li. By Sunday evening, Glenn Greenwald, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and left-wing provocateur who has praised, if not endorsed, Sanders, weighed in. “The Joe Biden delegate who spread the manipulatively edited Sanders video and lied about what he said, causing this fraud to go viral due to high-profile media people—mostly #NeverTrump operatives—spreading it,” Greenwald wrote, adding, “Democratic Party politics in 2020.”

But there was no stopping “Rose Twitter”—many Sanders supporters sport rose emojis on their Twitter profiles—which Li says “was outraged,” pummeling her with tweets. On her Facebook page, commenters called her a “piece of **** racist” and a “shitty bitch.” She was also being called an anti-Semite, which she was especially upset about. (Li is very close with a woman, Tereza Solomon, who is Jewish, and who she met a few years ago.) The charge stemmed from another Twitter incident, in early January, when she retweeted one of Solomon’s tweets calling Sanders a “self-hating Jew,” upsetting those who felt that only a Jew could call another Jew self-hating. Li apologized and deleted the tweet and the controversy died down, but the Berners dredged up the accusation in light of the video.

On Sunday evening, she said she turned off her Twitter notifications. Then, on Monday, she stepped down from her role as treasurer of the Pennsylvania Young Democrats. She told me she didn’t go out much the rest of the week. Every time we spoke, she sounded shell-shocked, then angry. She said her boyfriend lived in San Francisco, and they hadn’t spoken in a few days—“we probably play these stupid fucking mind games, and I don’t want to capitulate first.” Late Thursday, she texted me: “I work so hard day and night to make a difference. I live such a disciplined life. No alcohol, obviously no sex. Nothing. Just work and the gym. To hear people en masse say that you’re all of a sudden canceled because of a video you didn’t even make is shattering.”

[jetengine]

If the dems take GOP tactics then they are indeed, just the same. Which is kind of not the point you know ?

[PaulBullion]

If the dems take GOP tactics then they are indeed, just the same. Which is kind of not the point you know ?

#NotAllDems

I saw a Bernie supporter unironically accuse a Democrat of suffering from "Bernie derangement syndrome" - which is straight out of the MAGA bot playbook. Has me wondering if Putin has them share office space in their troll farm in *******irsk.

[Superbat]

In 2019 speech, Bloomberg mocked Brooklyn father and son who died from heroin as ‘not a good family’

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...6uq-story.html

[JackDaw]

We know he is narcissistic and vain. But, how does this tactic get Democratic voters excited and come out for whoever wins?

By constantly making fun of him..(and incidentally I’d also be doubting his physical courage...as he most likely dodged military service and asking him where the wall is to establish the point he’s a blatant liar)..you increase the chances of him completely losing it in televised debates...and generally looking like a twerp.

It’s not the safest tactic. But everybody on these boards (much to my amazement) regards him as favourite to win whoever wins the Democratic nomination...so it’s maybe not the right time to play safe.

And its surely not about getting Democratic supporters out...any Dem who’s not a complete pillock having seen the Donald in action should turn out to vote against him. It’s about winning”floating voters”, and maybe getting a few people who normally Republican to vote against the Donald.

[Celgress]

By constantly making fun of him..(and incidentally I’d also be doubting his physical courage...as he most likely dodged military service and asking him where the wall is to establish the point he’s a blatant liar)..you increase the chances of him completely losing it in televised debates...and generally looking like a twerp.

It’s not the safest tactic. But everybody on these boards (much to my amazement) regards him as favourite to win whoever wins the Democratic nomination...so it’s maybe not the right time to play safe.

I think slinging mud with Trump is doomed to fail as he loves getting down in the dirt and tagging his opponents with nicknames and negative catchphrases. Don't take the bait doing so is a loser's game. The best strategy is to remain calm, explain your policies, and only hit back when need be. Trump is akin to General Grievous from Star Wars - all attack but no defense, he's a buzzsaw. Grievous lost when Obi-wan stonewalled his attacks until there was an opening.

[4saken1]

If the dems take GOP tactics then they are indeed, just the same. Which is kind of not the point you know ?

Only if one is to ignore all of the other ways in which they are different......like legislation that they vote for, judges they appoint, etc. What tactics candidates use are often probably a result of focus group data which informs the candidates what has worked in the past, even among people who say that they supposedly don't like said tactics.