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 Rex Duncan, a former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. It wasn’t enough for us that Duncan was hard to the right on abortion rights, and gun rights, or that he supported strict Voter ID laws to combat the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud that bothered us. It wasn’t even the fact that Duncan sponsored bills to nullify federal law, whether it was the Affordable Care Act, or firearms laws. It wasn’t even that he voted to make English the official language of Oklahoma, and that given precedent, that’s patently unconstitutional. No, it was more of the fact that he was the sponsor of HJR 1056, Oklahoma’s attempt to place a ban upon Sharia Law or International Law in Courts that really struck us as being silly. Even more so when he accused the African-American judge who overturned it of “going out of her way to side with minorities and make up a reason for it”. Duncan left the Oklahoma state legislature in 2010 and has yet to make good on a promise to return to politics that we know of.

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Glen Bradley, a former one-term member of the North Carolina House of Representatives who after cutting his teeth in North Carolina politics by working on the 2008 Ron Paul campaign for president (which will explain a lot of where Bradley got his ideas), got elected in (what else?) the Tea Party Wave of 2010, quickly becoming allies with CSGOPOTD alumni Larry Pittman, and the two frequently began to back the ideas of the other. Glen Bradley would come up with ideas like having North Carolina develop its own currency and co-sponsored North Carolina's attempt to nullify the Affordable Care Act. By September of 2011, Bradley was already getting a reputation for being "out there", like when he gave a speech warning that gay marriage will increase the divorce rate and perpetuate the cycle of poverty. In 2012, things got more interesting regarding Glen Bradley. He set himself up to run for the upper chamber, and his campaign website listed him as a "founding member of the Oath Keepers", and Stuart Rhodes, the leader of the anti-government group, came to Raleigh, North Carolina to meet with Bradley, publicly, to talk about his desire to nullify the National Defense Authorization Act. Bradley's increasing paranoia started to become a distraction to even the simplest legislation on the floor of the North Carolina House before much longer. In June 2012, a simple discussion over extending the local Food Advisory Council's mandate for another three years was enough to get Bradley to start rambling about the United Nations' Agenda 21 Treaty being behind the move, and that any talk of "sustainability" was actually coded talk to help "lull the public into complacency". Bradley's attempt to make the jump to the North Carolina State Senate saw him get crushed in the GOP Primary for that seat, finishing third with 13.8% of the vote. He since has also failed to get elected to the Vice-Chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, he has mercifully faded from relevance.

On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled John Bradford, a former two-term member of the Kansas House of Representatives from 2013-2017 after winning office in 2012 by less than 200 votes. For a term, Bradford was reasonably unassuming in that role. And then he got a bit of notoriety for having a less than politically-savvy response to an e-mail from a constituent who was upset that Kansas Republicans were going to pass a bill that might force the ride service Uber to leave Kansas, and her blind husband used it frequently. You see, Bradford decided to answer, simply, "I received your email. I don't need it, so I am sending it back to you." A few months later, John Bradford was speaking before a group of school students touring the state capitol, where, unprompted, he went on a rant against gays and lesbians, and lamenting the "gay disease". It was shortly after John Bradford lost his seat in the 2016 elections that he took solace in the fact that President Obama was leaving office, taking to Facebook to celebrate by sharing racist memes about it that managed to feature both a caricature of the president, and or whatever reason, some offensive jokes about Mexicans. That's especially sad, because Bradford once voted to punish a colleague who called them racist for voting for policies that were, y'know, racist. Considering that during his time in office, he voted to ban all D&E abortions, voted for "religious freedom" laws to allow for the discrimination of LGBTQ citizens, and once sponsored legislation to attempt to nullify federal firearm laws, we're rather tickled to learn that he is now out of office.

On this date in 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled the former U.S. Congressman from Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, Rod Blum, who was first elected in 2014 with only 51% of the vote, and in 2016, getting what might possibly be Blum’s high water mark when he got 53% against Democrat Monica Vernon. That seemed like it might be the best he would ever manage, because he’s in what’s decidedly swing-territory, and is currently catching hell from every direction from his constituents, whenever he’s tasked with actually facing them down in public. The two biggest gaffes from Rod Blum came in May of 2017, while many members of the GOP were turning tail and running from town halls, Blum was still trying to meet the voters from his district face to face, and suffice to say, he did not come off as a savvy veteran politician. The first came in a local news interview where Blum responded to a perfectly reasonable question about if he would accept donations from outside his district by flipping out, unhooking his mike, and storming away in front of a group of schoolchildren. Only days later, Blum hosted a town hall and his constituents had a lot of thoughts about the GOP’s attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And, this time, he cracked not under the pressure from one journalist, but a jeering, booing crowd. His performance was not much better, as he opted to draw the line at the way women can get an insurance plan that covers maternity leave. Quote: “Get rid of some of these crazy regulations that Obamacare puts in, such as a 62-year-old male having to have pregnancy insurance.” Now, Blum’s voting record was obviously along party lines, and he was thought as one of the most vulnerable members of the GOP House caucus in the 2018 elections including how in December of 2017, a poll of Iowa’s 1st showed that a generic Democrat would beat a generic Republican there by a whopping 18 points. Then, in March of 2018, the Des Moines Register published a story revealing that he failed to disclose he was the director of an internet company and that same company posts testimonials… from his own chief of staff. And worse yet, Blum’s firm, Tin Moon, was offering to change FDA warnings to obscure the dangers the products for sale might have for the public. Rod Blum left office under a cloud of ethics violations that make his return to Washington, D.C. any time soon highly unlikely. We will set aside his profile at this time and profile a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 846-40, since this was established in July 2014.)

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Certainly hold his feet to the fire, I just feel we have to acknowledge as well the Chinese governments culpability in all this with their flagrant disregard for hygiene. Its not exactly einstein levels of brains to keep dead/living/raw animals away from each other

Everyone is well aware of China's glaring culpability in this raging clusterfuck, you're beating a dead horse. The problem HERE, in the U.S. has been Trump's near criminal negligence of the crisis and how he purposely sought to minimize the significance of coronavirus, taking cues from Faux News by calling it a hoax and a plot by Democrats to derail his re-election bid. Trump only started taking COVID-19 seriously after it caused the markets to tank, the invaluable time lost while he screwed around directly resulted in cases of the disease skyrocketing and people dying, and, due to his wanton mishandling of the situation, things figure to only get worse before they get better.

[jetengine]

Everyone is well aware of China's glaring culpability in this raging clusterfuck, you're beating a dead horse. The problem HERE, in the U.S. has been Trump's near criminal negligence of the crisis and how he purposely sought to minimize the significance of coronavirus, taking cues from Faux News by calling it a hoax and a plot by Democrats to derail his re-election bid. Trump only started taking COVID-19 seriously after it caused the markets to tank, the invaluable time lost while he screwed around directly resulted in cases of the disease skyrocketing and people dying, and, due to his wanton mishandling of the situation, things figure to only get worse before they get better.

Yeah the "Democrats caused this" thing was insane

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Yeah the "Democrats caused this" thing was insane

Even worse, with Trump falling back on his old habit of race blaming as a means to cover up his failures, purposely calling the disease "Chinavirus", that's only going to invite violence upon Asian-Americans from members of his deranged base and frightened people who should know better, but succumb to anger as the crisis deepens.

[numberthirty]

Glad to see Lipinksi went down. His seat is safely blue and there's no reason he should be representing that district from what we know of it.

One small detail there...

I believe that there was a third person in the race. Along the line of Doug Jones, I'm not so sure Lipinski would have lost without that third candidate. I'll take it, but I wouldn't rule out a scenario where he could have a realistic chance in the future.

[XPac]

No, you don't get to defend China on this. The current crisis is a direct result of their incompetent and corrupt government:

-They knew about this by mid December at the latest: https://www.********/articles/how-it...ps-11583508932

-They ordered a lab that isolated the virus to destroy it in December: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c...mber-rz055qjnj

-They arrested doctors who attempted to warn the world about the virus: https://www.thedailybeast.com/china-...s-are-plunging

-China stated that there were no new cases on 1/11/2020: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...arther-faster/

-China told WHO that there's no sign of human to human transmission on 1/14/2020: https://twitter.com/WHO/status/12170...on-coronavirus

-They waited seven weeks to quarantine Wuhan and meanwhile allowed the bulk of their citizens to celebrate the Chinese New Year, letting them travel around the world infecting thousands of others and thereby rendering attempts to contain it all but impossible.

Now their official party organs are attempting to hide their culpability by blaming everybody but themselves.

In a weird sort of way, I actually find information like this oddly comforting.

No matter how bad the US government under any administration might seem at times... I at least don't think we're THIS bad.

Cause this is some messed up stuff you'd only think might happen at the start of a B rate pandemic movie.

[Jim Kelly]

If things get as bad as it seems they will, who would want to be President of the United States? Seems a lot of grief and not much glory. Certainly not a job that Donald Trump would want to have.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

If things get as bad as it seems they will, who would want to be President of the United States? Seems a lot of grief and not much glory. Certainly not a job that Donald Trump would want to have.

Oh, you'd be surprised at the people who want to be POTUS. To most, it's about serving the people in the highest office in the land, for Trump, it was all about the power and how it sated his monstrous ego, as for serving the people, I doubt he seriously gives even half a **** about lowly guttersnipes like you or me. And yeah, there are two reasons Trump wants very much to be re-elected: A) the power; B) to stave off the inevitable trial from his misdeeds mentioned in the Mueller Report that could quite possibly send him to prison. Trump is a sociopath who doesn't process grief, probably couldn't spell it if you spotted him the first four letters, but the glory? That comes from being the Leader of the Free World, that's all he cares about.

[Kirby101]

If things get as bad as it seems they will, who would want to be President of the United States? Seems a lot of grief and not much glory. Certainly not a job that Donald Trump would want to have.

He would have to feel grief and suffering first. It is all, and only about him. He will see himself as the great leader who saved his country, no matter how much he screws up.

[PwrdOn]

In a weird sort of way, I actually find information like this oddly comforting.

No matter how bad the US government under any administration might seem at times... I at least don't think we're THIS bad.

Cause this is some messed up stuff you'd only think might happen at the start of a B rate pandemic movie.

That's exactly the problem though, our misplaced cultural superiority complex gives us this false sense of security at times like this. Obviously the Chinese government fucked up its response to the virus, probably motivated by the same instinct that our government has to try and tamp down on any widespread panic and keep the economy chugging if at all possible. However, they pulled a complete 180 on that pretty quick once the scale of the epidemic became clear, and it has been effective in that the worst of it is now clearly behind them, even if they probably are fudging the numbers a bit. We had two months to prepare for this, and we didn't, and instead of buckling down and coordinating an effective response, our government has decided to start pointing fingers to try and deflect blame from its own failings. Would things really get better if we just sent the Chinese government a huge bill for the damage the virus has caused?

[XPac]

That's exactly the problem though, our misplaced cultural superiority complex gives us this false sense of security at times like this. Obviously the Chinese government fucked up its response to the virus, probably motivated by the same instinct that our government has to try and tamp down on any widespread panic and keep the economy chugging if at all possible. However, they pulled a complete 180 on that pretty quick once the scale of the epidemic became clear, and it has been effective in that the worst of it is now clearly behind them, even if they probably are fudging the numbers a bit. We had two months to prepare for this, and we didn't, and instead of buckling down and coordinating an effective response, our government has decided to start pointing fingers to try and deflect blame from its own failings. Would things really get better if we just sent the Chinese government a huge bill for the damage the virus has caused?

It's less that I have a superiority complex with the US and more that I think the Chinesse government right now really really sucks. And I'm glad we don't have the sort of system of government where that sort of thing can happen to the degree that it does.

I'd be less critical if I was as convinced as you were that they pulled a complete 180 here, but from the sound of things they are STILL lying and STILL downplaying the impact it's having on them. So they don't get the benefit of the doubt in my book. I don't in any way condone any sort of backlash against the Chinesse people... but the Chinesse government deserves whatever criticism they get and then some.

[Kirby101]

Trumps approval ratings are actually going up. It boggles the mind!

[XPac]

Trumps approval ratings are actually going up. It boggles the mind!

News of a thousand dollar check possibly coming in the mail will do that.

[Gray Lensman]

Trumps approval ratings are actually going up. It boggles the mind!

He is really good at taking the credit for things other people do.

This keeps up, and people might decide that the American Revolution wasn't all that great, and we should have had the French one instead. Bring back the National Razor! It's circumcision, for dickheads!

[PwrdOn]

It's less that I have a superiority complex with the US and more that I think the Chinesse government right now really really sucks. And I'm glad we don't have the sort of system of government where that sort of thing can happen to the degree that it does.

I'd be less critical if I was as convinced as you were that they pulled a complete 180 here, but from the sound of things they are STILL lying and STILL downplaying the impact it's having on them. So they don't get the benefit of the doubt in my book. I don't in any way condone any sort of backlash against the Chinesse people... but the Chinesse government deserves whatever criticism they get and then some.

I don't think anyone at this point can doubt that China's approach to the virus has been effective, albeit draconian and heavy-handed. Yeah, it's not a great sign that they are ready to do a victory lap over beating the virus when the risk of a second wave of infections is still pretty high, but they've done a far better job of handling this crisis than our government has.