All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[SquirrelMan]

Sanders fired David Sirota and Briahna Joy Gray, two of the most toxic members of his campaign staff.

[jetengine]

Sanders fired David Sirota and Briahna Joy Gray, two of the most toxic members of his campaign staff.

What now ?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Behind Trump’s Botched And Delayed Coronavirus Response

Urgent warnings were ignored by a president consumed by his impeachment trial and intent on protecting a robust economy that he viewed as central to his reelection chances.

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Coronavirus Will Likely ‘Stalk The Human Race’ Until There’s A Vaccine, WHO Envoy Says

Dr. David Nabarro said outbreaks are likely to continue for “a long time to come” and advised countries to focus on detecting and isolating cases.

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Nursing Homes Deaths Linked To Coronavirus Soar Past 3,300 In Alarming Surge

The true toll among the 1 million mostly frail and elderly people who live in such facilities is likely much higher, experts say.

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Trump Retweets ‘Fire Fauci’ Coronavirus Message In Easter Sunday Twitter Rampage

The retweet came hours after Fauci suggested earlier action could have saved lives from COVID-19.

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Republican Gov. Disputes Trump Claim About Medical Equipment Availability

The president on Friday insisted states are in “great shape” and said governors’ calls for help have slowed to a trickle.

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‘What The Hell Is Happening To Fox News?’: Trump Slams Critical Chris Wallace

The Fox News host featured a health expert who said had the Trump administration taken earlier action against COVID-19 “we’d be in a much better position.”

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of Brenda Barton, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 2010-2018 who during the 2013 Government Shutdown, compared President Obama to Hitler, and then when she was widely criticized for it, defended the move because she had seen pictures of President Bush compared to Hitler online (mind you, elected officials weren't the ones doing it, so there's that). Barton also made a road trip up to the Bundy Ranch to get to know Cliven Bundy and the Oath Keepers to support those militia goons during their standoff with the Bureau of Land Management in 2014. fter a high-speed chase near the Oregon Malheur Refuge back in May of 2016, Barton wanted the federal agents who shot an armed Lee Roy Finicum while he went for his gun charged with manslaughter, because she feels a kinship towards paranoid militias. Factor that in to the reason why she might have sponsored legislation to try and create statewide militias out of all able-bodied citizens in 2017.Her voting record is full of legislative votes that were even too extreme for former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to have signed, including a "religious freedom" law to allow for discrimination of LGBT citizens, and a bill to make gold and silver legal tender in Arizona. Barton also is terrible on votes regarding women's issues, supporting legislation to allow warrantless surprise inspections of abortion clinics at any time, to nullify the Affordable Care Act, and to allow business owners the right to opt out of contraceptive coverage in female employees' health insurance plans. But the bigger kerfluffle Barton was involved in was regarding a bill she sponsored, HB 2150 that was supposedly written as a measure to prevent animal hoarding, or from people running illegal puppy mills out of their home, but because she decided to throw a little hidden provision into the bill to change the definition of "livestock" so they are no longer considered "animals", it would have allowed Arizona ranchers to ignore previous legislation to prevent the abuse of livestock from 2006, through the loophole of just renaming and reclassifying whole species of creatures, easy-peasy. After dumbfounded animal rights groups caught on to Barton's attempt at turning Arizona into a butcher shop horror show, by the time the bill hit the desk of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey he chickened out and vetoed it. Brenda Barton capped off her career in 2018 by introducing legislation to honor one of her ancestors, John D. Lee, with a memorial plaque at the state capitol in March of 2018. This would be the same John D. Lee who was a bigamist mass murderer back who back in 1857, carried out the Mountain Meadows Massacre, where he led 50 Mormon militiamen and a group of Native Americans to slaughter 120 settlers from Arkansas travelling in a caravan through Utah to reach California. Lee wasn’t tried for this crime for twenty years, had some children (thus how Barton is his living descendant) before being executed by firing squad. Because, hey, there’s nobody who needs a monument to their memory like someone executed for mass murder, right? We are relieved to report, though, that in 2018, Brenda Barton was term-limited in the Arizona state legislature and headed off into retirement.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Idaho State Senator Dan Foreman, who served in office from 2017-2018 after winning the right to represent that state’s Senate District 5 in 2016 with all of 50.8% of the vote. We can’t say there was a lot of crazy legislation tied to Foreman, but when he brought the wacky, he brought it. It wasn’t just his support of “Stand Your Ground” gun legislation, it was the fact that he sponsored a bill that would straight up charge any doctor performing an abortion with murder, as well as the woman seeking it out. But no, where we started to take notice of Dan Foreman was his hair-trigger temper, and the way he taunted his own constituents as a spiteful partisan, always trying to play the threatened and oppressed victim in every encounter. Whether he was sending them letters to proclaim that “climate change is a liberal scam”, or when he declared that “a separation of church and state is a figment of someone’s imagination”. This pattern quickly escalated until March 2017, a whole whopping third month into his tenure, when he absolutely flipped out at the Idaho State Fair, calling someone with an opposing opinion a “liberal nuttard”, and crying to police about how that constituent was “lecturing me about the Constitution”. After all was said and done, Foreman had the chutzpah to demand the Idaho State Fair issue HIM an apology for his tirade. A year goes by, and most of Dan Foreman’s district became very aware of his antics, but he made headlines yet again after a group of college students from the far end of his district drove 300 miles to visit him at the state capitol to discuss his votes on bills regarding birth control. Foreman showed them all the hospitality of a rabid badger, shouting out, “ABORTION IS MURDER!” at them again and again (and they weren’t there to discuss abortion). The confrontation ended when the elected penis-with-ears impersonator threatening to have his own constituents arrested. Only a few weeks later, Foreman spoke in front of his church, and told those present that Latah County, the heart of his own district was “a cesspool of liberalism”. Alas, Dan Foreman is enough of an ***hole that his constituents that he barely even survived the 2018 GOP Primary for his seat, winning with 51%, and then voted by a 56-44% margin to replace him with Democrat Dan Nelson. It was the only Idaho State Senate seat that was flipped that year, because Foreman is quite specifically that easy to loathe. Since his career seems to be over, we’ll profile another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 851-45, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Mark Finchem

Welcome to what is the 851st original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Mark Finchem, who has served as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from District 11 since first winning office in the 2014 elections. Our dismay that this man serves in government has something to do with the fact that he is simultaneously a member of the anti-government militia group known as the Oath Keepers.

Now, as one might expect, that means that Mark Finchem might be into some far-right conspiracy theories, and you’d be right, as he was convinced that the domestic terrorism carried out in Charlottesville was in fact a “deep state conspiracy” carried out by two separate groups of Democrats as a “PSYOP”. In the same blog post where he claimed that, he went on to claim that the Ku Klux Klan is, to this day, an organization run by Democrats. Perhaps it should come as little surprise that Mark Finchem spent the Obama administration ranting online about the 44th President becoming a dictator, and during political unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, he lauded members of the Oath Keepers who turned up to point guns at civil protesters as additional “security” in the town.

Looking at Finchem’s voting record, and well… he’s just as awful as a legislator as he is a human being:

• February 18th, 2015: Finchem sponsors and votes for HB 2173, a particularly insane bill to allow gold and silver to be used as legal tender in Arizona.
• March 11th, 2015: Mark Finchem votes for HB 2643, a bill to prohibit the enforcement of the Affordable Care Act. In 2015. Because let’s nullify what was already being implemented and working, right?
• March 28th, 2017: Finchem votes for SB 1122, a bill to allow the sale of firearms without a background check.
• March 29th, 2017: Mark Finchem votes for SB 1367, an insane anti-choice bill that would require doctors performing an abortion to attempt to resuscitate fetuses after performing the procedure (that can’t survive outside the womb, anyway).
• February 25th, 2019: Finchem votes for HCR 2009, to declare pornography a public health crisis.
• April 10th, 2019: Mark Finchem is one of only 5 members of the Arizona House to vote against SB 1346, to include HIV prevention in sex education to public school children.
• February 6th, 2020: Finchem co-sponsors and votes for HB 2804, to allow private citizens to build their own border walls without permits from cities and municipalities.
• March 3rd, 2020: Mark Finchem co-sponsored HB 2706, legislation to ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports in public schools.

Mark Finchem will be running for his fourth term in office in 2020. We obvious would prefer to see him lose in November, but realize that he’ll be term-limited in 2022. If this were a sane country these days, he would have never been elected, but hopefully he’ll never sniff any other higher office once his days in the House of Representatives are done.

[worstblogever]

‘What The Hell Is Happening To Fox News?’: Trump Slams Critical Chris Wallace

The Fox News host featured a health expert who said had the Trump administration taken earlier action against COVID-19 “we’d be in a much better position.”

He's starting to crack under the pressure again, and his own stupidity and inaction made a bad situation far worse than it would have been if he'd JUST. LISTENED. TO. EXPERTS.

And now, there's leakers and whistleblowers inside the CDC, public health, Pentagon, and National Security apparatus who are letting the media know exactly how badly he botched this. Because there's only so many times someone can almost get someone killed before someone reports something, but this time, people are literally going to die in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands.

Motherf***er couldn't lead his way out of a paper bag, with all the loyalty he inspires.

[SquirrelMan]

What now ?

Well, the campaign is suspended. It does seem as if less "destroy Biden and the Democrat party NAOW!" staffers still have a job, though.

[worstblogever]

Well, the campaign is suspended. It does seem as if less "destroy Biden and the Democrat party NAOW!" staffers still have a job, though.

Anyone who isn't down with working WITH the main party whose nomination they were seeking to make it platform better, and will accept nothing less than Bernie... are being shown the door by Bernie.

This should be a subtle hint for his non-paid supporters as well about what they should be doing right now. LET'S SEE IF THEY CAN TAKE A HINT...

[jetengine]

Well, the campaign is suspended. It does seem as if less "destroy Biden and the Democrat party NAOW!" staffers still have a job, though.

Well I meant more, did he sack them NOW or were you implying at as a genersl statement of Bernies skill

[jetengine]

Anyone who isn't down with working WITH the main party whose nomination they were seeking to make it platform better, and will accept nothing less than Bernie... are being shown the door by Bernie.

This should be a subtle hint for his non-paid supporters as well about what they should be doing right now. LET'S SEE IF THEY CAN TAKE A HINT...

They'll just get money from Republicans and Russia instead

[worstblogever]

They'll just get money from Republicans and Russia instead

Too many are misguided enough to do their work for the GOP and Russians for free.

[PaulBullion]

Well I meant more, did he sack them NOW or were you implying at as a genersl statement of Bernies skill

They both changed their twitter bios last night to indicate that they are no longer with the campaign.

[SquirrelMan]

They both changed their twitter bios last night to indicate that they are no longer with the campaign.

Yeah, it's like NOW now.

[Mister Mets]

It might take that or longer. An honest question, is the name Republican tainted enough now thanks to Trump that any candidate would not want to put the letter next to their name?

Republicans are probably not in that much trouble in the long term.

Politics in the US is remarkably cyclical. Parties do well, then they peak, then the other side wins. And then the other side peaks.

Republican have been resilient after past reputation-harming setbacks. Nixon resigns due to Watergate, and the party's back in the White House six years later. George W Bush becomes massively unpopular, but after two terms of Democrats, swing state voters decide that the worst general election candidate in generations is a better choice (for any comments that it was a fluke of the electoral college, Trump also overcame the worst October surprise in American political history.)

Republicans benefit from geographic sorting in the House, the Senate and the electoral college, The way Democrats are over-represented in high-density urban areas, or liberal enclaves within conservative districts (IE- college towns in Rural Indiana) means the party is likely to lose 50/50 elections, since it doesn't matter if they win Los Angeles with 51% or 90%.

Parties in the White House tend to do worse in off-year and midterm elections and Republican voters tend to be more active in those, so Democrats congressional majorities may be short******d. Turnout was fantastic in 2018, but will Democrats be as inspired to go vote if Biden's in the White House when they weren't under Obama?

Democrats are very diverse, but with diversity comes potential for conflict. What works for one group may not for another. Forgiving student loans is popular with left-leaning educated white people, but could be seen as a giveaway to an economically privileged group by others. Women who consider themselves potential victims of crime might not care for the justice reform movement. "Believe all woman" is incompatible with an understanding that many African-American men have been wrongfully convicted. There are many potential fractures here.

This is before we get to the ideological schisms. There could easily be a vicious and close primary between Biden's centrist running mate and a younger far-left progressive with broader appeal within the party than Sanders.

Much of the Democratic agenda is unpopular. A majority of Democratic voters don't support increases in immigration.

https://apnews.com/fd35d6b9eba64f8e884168ef064be080

Reparations and Abolish ICE poll at below thirty percent.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...ted-questions/

Paying trillions of dollars for the green new deal is at thirty percent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/clima...***reach-them/

Much of the agenda is expensive. So that is going to require figuring out ways to pay for it, when the Republican opposition doesn't have to offer alternatives, only delay.

There are a lot of unknowns. Will the Suburban women who got disgusted with Trump be on board with most of what a Democratic President or Congress want to do? How will voters feel in the aftermath of the pandemic? Will they be more anti-immigration? Will they think liberal grievances are fundamentally unserious?

If Trump wins, this discussion is delayed a few years.

If he loses, the comeback could begin quickly, especially with 2024 likely an open election, robbing Democrats of the advantage of incumbency.

Perhaps, Democrats will manage to stay in power longer than they have since FDR. Stuff could happen that rallies the nation. New policies might become immensely popular. Biden's Vice President might get reelected in 2028, benefiting from incumbency then.

But consider the reasons you think one side will win in the long-term. How consistently do political outcomes match what you'd like to see happen?

It's way too premature to say that the party that currently holds just the House of Representatives is on the verge of long-term dominance.

[numberthirty]

Yeah, it the Sanders' camp who represent an issue...

https://prospect.org/power/steve-ric...care-lobbyist/

Steve Ricchetti, Top Biden Campaign Aide, Was a Health-Care Lobbyist

Ricchetti founded and ran his own lobbying firm with his brother. He personally represented drugmakers Novartis, Eli Lilly and Sanofi (the latter two are among the three major insulin manufacturers), as well as health IT company NaviMedix (now NaviNet) and the American Hospital Association. The hospital lobby, as well as pharmaceutical companies, have been primary opponents of Medicare for All. The Ricchetti firm continues to operate, with Ricchetti’s brother actively lobbying for clients, including in the health-care space.