All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[worstblogever]

If only the voters of Florida’s 12th Congressional District might cease to re-elect this hack, and he wouldn’t have a voting record like this:

• November 7th, 2007: Gus Bilirakis votes against ENDA, allowing the continued discrimination of LGBTQ citizens based on their sexual identity in the workplace.
• January 9th, 2009: Bilirakis votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
• April 29th, 2009: Gus Bilirakis votes against the Hate Crimes Expansion that would provide protections to LGBTQ citizens.
• June 30th, 2010: After Wall Street bankers taking unnecessary risks nearly imploded the global economy in 2007, legislation finally comes forward to prevent the same behaviors from being permitted in the future. The signature piece of legislation to prevent another financial meltdown was Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, which Gus Bilirakis voted against.
• July 30th, 2010: Months after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a bill comes to the floor to better regulate off-shore drilling. Bilirakis is apparently alright with ecological disasters continuing in the future, as he votes against it.
• December 8th, 2010: Rep. Bilirakis votes against the DREAM Act.
• December 15th, 2010: Bilirakis votes against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
• On January 5th, 2011, Rep. Bilirakis votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
• On February 18th, 2011, Gus Bilirakis votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
• September 15th, 2012: Rep. Bilirakis votes for the "No More Solyndras Act".
• January 15th, 2013: Gus Bilirakis votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
• February 28th, 2013: Bilirakis votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Bilirakis votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Gus Bilirakis goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
• January 22nd, 2015: Gus Bilirakis votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
• March 3rd, 2015: Bilirakis votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
• September 11th, 2015: Bilirakis votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• September 18th, 2015: Rep. Bilirakis votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
• November 19th, 2015: Bilirakis votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
• February 2nd, 2016: Gus Bilirakis votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
• February 16th, 2017: Bilirakis votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping.
• March 16th, 2017: Gus Bilirakis votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order.
• May 4th, 2017: Bilirakis votes for the GOP's healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partum depression, and sexual assault as "pre-existing conditions". Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Bilirakis would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Gus Bilirakis votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• October 3rd, 2017: Bilirakis votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Gus Bilirakis votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
• February 18th, 2018: Rep. Bilirakis and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Bilirakis voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Bilirakis votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Bilirakis votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Gus Bilirakis is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 17th, 2019: Bilirakis votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Bilirakis votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Gus Bilirakis votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.

We’re waiting to see what happens in Florida’s 12th Congressional District in 2020, and how the Trump impeachment hearings play out… because the district has only a +8 Republican lean. It’s possible that if Bilirakis stays loyal to an obviously corrupt president, that he might end up facing the consequences at the polls in 2020, before he can get an eighth term in office.
 

[Tami]

Five better uses of Michael Bloomberg’s money

Michael Bloomberg is well-known for his philanthropy and his dedication to causes such as reducing gun violence and reversing climate change appears entirely sincere. His tentative conclusion that his money and time might be best used running for president is faulty, as well as a regrettable and extreme case of missing self-awareness.

However, there are many fine things the former New York mayor could devote himself to — things which he might be in a unique position to pull off, and which would do more for restoring democracy and securing America from racist thugs and con men than any presidential campaign could.

First, buy Fox News. I’m entirely serious. It is a journalistic toxic-waste dump that has misinformed millions of Americans, damaged our civic culture, spread xenophobia and insulated an unfit president from scrutiny. Certainly there is some price the Murdochs would accept for the Fox News empire. (They’ve already sold the entertainment portion of the company). Imagine a smart, fact-based cable TV news giant that adhered to journalistic standards and featured (and separated) smart conservative commentary, clearly labeled as opinion. It could spend the first six months simply running stories to correct past errors and bogus conspiracy theories. Getting more Americans back to looking at the same set of facts might be the best contribution Bloomberg could possibly make to American democracy.

Bloomberg could also devote billions to a campaign for automatic registration and voting by mail. Evading efforts to massage the electorate (i.e., suppress the vote) to extend the dominance of aging white and rural voters is undemocratic. Helping the electorate to look like America would result in far more elected officials responsive to the will of a diverse country.

[Malvolio]

A Plea From 33 Writers: Words Matter. Stop Using ‘Quid Pro Quo.’

I agree with this. All Quid Pro Quo really means is, "I do something for you, you do something foe me." The crime here is extortion and that is what we should call it.

[Tami]

Nikki Haley claims top aides tried to recruit her to ‘save the country’ by undermining Trump

NEW YORK — Two of President Trump’s senior advisers undermined and ignored him in what they claimed was an effort to “save the country,” former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley claims in a new memoir.

Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson and former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly sought to recruit her to work around and subvert Trump, but she refused, Haley writes in a new book, “With All Due Respect,” which also describes Tillerson as “exhausting” and imperious and Kelly as suspicious of her access to Trump.

“Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” Haley wrote.

“It was their decisions, not the president’s, that were in the best interests of America, they said. The president didn’t know what he was doing,” Haley wrote of the views the two men held.

[jetengine]

Nikki Haley claims top aides tried to recruit her to ‘save the country’ by undermining Trump

They arent wrong to be fair

[SquirrelMan]

Chesa Boudin, a public defender backed by Black Lives Matter is the new DA of San Francisco.



https://theappeal.org/public-defende...utor-movement/

Does this mean Chesa --- is a cop now?

[SquirrelMan]

Morales resigned in Bolivia.

[Tami]

National Sec Adviser: Top Impeachment Probe Witness Will Be Removed From WH Council

On Sunday, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who gave a bombshell testimony in the House impeachment investigation last month on President Donald Trump’s Ukraine scheme, will be removed from his post at the White House National Security Council.

“Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, who has testified under oath, is serving on the National Security Council currently,” CBS News’s “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan said during her interview with O’Brien. “Will he continue to work for you despite testifying against the President?”

“Well look, one of the things that I’ve talked about is that we’re streamlining the National Security Council,” O’Brien replied. “It got bloated to like 236 people up from 100 in the Bush administration under President Obama.”

The national security adviser said Vindman, who currently serves as the council’s Director for European Affairs, will be removed as a part of the White House’s “streamlining” efforts.

“My understanding is he’s–that Colonel Vindman is detailed from the Department of Defense,” O’Brien said. “So everyone who’s detailed at the NSC, people are going to start going back to their own departments and we’ll bring in new folks.”

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Does this mean Chesa --- is a cop now?

It depends his performance.

Right now the cops see him as the enemy, they spent $650,00 trying to beat him, and sent out mailers with messages like "Chesa Boudin: The #1 Choice of Criminals and Gang Members!”.

Top cop Kamala Harris and the former police chief that resigned in disgrace supported his opponent, so he's a huge improvement at the least.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Morales resigned in Bolivia.

Well, that country is fucked.

Another victory for the CIA.

[jetengine]

Well, that country is fucked.

Another victory for the CIA.

Do you believe HK was CIA as well ?

[PwrdOn]

Do you believe HK was CIA as well ?

Don't really need the CIA to get involved in a place where people have been conditioned for 150 years to think of their own culture as backwards and barbaric and revere anything Western as good and proper. It's actually a pretty interesting case study, because just about all the societal problems in Hong Kong are due to it being this island of capitalism run amok, yet the protesters mostly use vague populist rhetoric that dances around the obvious solutions, because anything tinged with socialism is Chinese and therefore bad. It is sad because Hong Kong is really quite an amazing place to visit, but if you strip away the gaudy veneer it reveals a pretty rotten social order that should never have existed in the first place and is now unraveling in the face of its own self-contradictions.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Do you believe HK was CIA as well ?

Of course the CIA is involved in Hong Kong, but the situation there is complicated. It's no coincide that the protests in Bolivia, Hong Kong, and Venezuela have so much support in the US, but you hear barely anything about Chile, Haiti, and Ecuador.

The protesters in Hong Kong aren't monolithic. Some are pro-US, while others are anti-US. Some are right-wing, some are left-wing.

The people of Hong Kong want the right of self-determination, to not be ruled by another nation and they deserve that much.

It isn't comparable to what's happening in Bolivia.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

[wjowski]

Well, that country is fucked.

Another victory for the CIA.

Do you have a source on...any of the stuff you said about the situation because I'm reading a very different story.