All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Gray Lensman]

NY does have so BS rules for the primaries. Like you can only sign a petition for one candidate.

My take on the 2016 primaries is that both things are true. Bernie lost fair and square....but many of Clinton's surrogates weren't willing to take the chance again. John Oliver reported that in Nevada, they changed the rules and backdated them. Basically saying "Sorry Bernie, we decided just now that the deadline to do that was three weeks ago."

Sanders would have lost anyways, but it wasn't a good look for Clinton to have her people doing stuff like that. Even if she wasn't directly involved (State party politics has its own stink much of the time) it reflected poorly on her.

[Tendrin]

https://twitter.com/Kalarigamerchic/...69883082067968

This twitter thread is a pretty good one on 'why Joe Biden has strong black support'.

Money quote: "Your respond to our best with your worst."

[numberthirty]

Last I checked, Bernie asked to use the infrastructure for nomination that the Democrats built. He knew what he signed up for.

He didn't get cheated even a little bit. He lost by 12%. 3 million votes. All while a party he had rejected for 30 years gave him more of a platform than he ever deserved or could've achieved without them.

Cheated indeed. Good lord.

To put this simply...

No.

Voters were cheated.

As for "Conducted Like Every Other Primary..."?

That's either...

- A Provably "Hot Garbage..." Assertion

or

- The Democratic Party Is Worse Than Even I Think That They Are

[numberthirty]

Sanders is right that it wsan't the time and place. But if Warren is that bothered by this, I'm surprised she wasn't more aggressive in the debate.

Put simply...

Because there was no real upside to doing it.

[Malvolio]

Last I checked, Bernie asked to use the infrastructure for nomination that the Democrats built. He knew what he signed up for.

He didn't get cheated even a little bit. He lost by 12%. 3 million votes. All while a party he had rejected for 30 years gave him more of a platform than he ever deserved or could've achieved without them.

Cheated indeed. Good lord.

Exactly. You don't join a club on Monday and then demand they change all their rules to suit you on Tuesday. And merely checking a box on a voter registration card does not mean you have to agree with everything the leaders of the Party say. Even the Republican Party doesn't expect that from common voters.

[numberthirty]

From the "Illinois..." corner, it was kind of wild to see some of what actually got said out loud and in front of a camera on this one -

https://abc7chicago.com/5854181/

Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she's 'disturbed' by aldermen's comments on LGTBQ business study

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Lev Parnas Says Trump Knew Everything In Ukraine Scandal

The former Giuliani associate suggested Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William Barr and former national security adviser John Bolton were all in the know. Was this THE smoking gun?

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‘Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy’: Trump Hotel Trends After Bonkers Interview

Lev Parnas said GOP figures and Trump insiders would mingle with some unusual characters at the president’s Washington hotel. Scum and villainy, eh? Par for the course when it comes to Trump and company.

**********

Kentucky Teen Expelled From School For Rainbow Shirt And Cake, Mom Says

Kimberly Alford said 15-year-old Kayla Kenney’s attire was deemed a violation of Whitefield Academy’s policy because it appeared to reflect the LGBTQ community. What the ****? Oh, yeah, I forgot, it's Kentucky, backwards as all hell.

**********

Cutting Social Security Disability Benefits Can Backfire Horribly

The Trump administration wants to trim the disability rolls through extra vetting of recipients — possibly repeating a disastrous Reagan-era move. But hey, Trump will go ahead with that plan anyway since the past to him is what he had for dinner last night.

**********

State Senator Tells Female Reporter Boys Could ‘Have A Lot Of Fun’ With Her

The remarks made by Michigan state Sen. Peter Lucido before a group of high schoolers were slammed as sexist and belittling “from a place of power.” And yeah, he's a Republican. Oh, WBEEEEEEEE....!

[worstblogever]

fOn this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Joe Read,a former member of the Montana House of Representatives who got into office by a mere 72 votes during the 2010 Tea Party Wave, and served one zany term in office with his goatee giving him the look of Mephistopheles himself. Read became infamous for submitting unconstitutional legislation repeatedly during that term, including separate bills to nullify the Affordable Care Act, environmental regulations, and went as far to produce one that not attempt to nullify federal firearms laws, but declare it a crime for federal agents to attempt to enforce them in Montana. Read's "over the line" moment came two months into his career, though, when he drew the attention of the Colbert Report by drafting legislation that would declare global warming not just a natural phenomenon that's totally not man made, but also declare that the phenomenon was "beneficial to the welfare and business climate of Montana". Joe Read's ideas were kooky enough that he decided to leave the GOP in the 2014 election cycle, attempting to find his way back into office as a member of the Constitution Party. He failed, and has now been out of office since early 2013.

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of David Dewhurst the former Lieutenant Governor of Texas who back in 2010 falsely claimed that Phoenix, Arizona has become second only to Mexico City in the rate of kidnapping and in 2014 while interviewed by Sean Hannity, and discussed illegal immigrants in hyperbolic, and demonizing terms, claiming one quarter of them had criminal records. Not long thereafter, Dewhurst was campaigning in public by claiming Muslim prayer rugs had been found along the U.S./Mexico border by law enforcement (which was a huge lie) to further stir up anti-immigrant fears. He also was a part of the Texas GOP's attempts to ban abortion in 2013 after the filibuster by State Senator Wendy Davis, calling them, “An unruly mob, using Occupy Wall Street tactics, disrupted the Senate from protecting unborn babies.” He later would lie and accuse Davis of "doing a fund-raiser in Chicago with the international socialists organization". David Dewhurst's politcal career is all but over now, as in his past two runoff election losses, he spent millions of dollars of his own personal fortune desperate to hold on and win against Tea Party challengers. And that's not even including the fact that while he ran against Dan Patrick, one of his top aides, Buddy Barfield got caught embezzling a couple of million dollars, himself (he's looking at a 7 year prison sentence).

On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Mike Webb, a challenger in the GOP Primary for the U.S. House seat against Rep. Charles Hernick, because of his online presence, and apparent savvy in social media, the proof being that at one point, Webb had the fastest growing Facebook page of any Republican running in 2016. Fast forward five months from that report to April of 2016, and things didn’t look as promising, after Webb failed to file his FEC report on time… which he suspiciously blamed on a “targeted cyber-attack” whose origins or execution was never exactly explained. Webb began raving about online critics with user names like “GOP Establishment”, wished people on his Facebook page a “Happy 4/20” (because so many Republicans are fans of marijuana legalization) and could never produce evidence to prove any of the online harassment, criminal or otherwise. On May 7th, at the Virginia GOP convention, they named Charles Hernick their candidate for the general election on May 7th. Webb wasn’t giving up, though, and vowed he would still run for office as an Independent. Nine days later, Mike Webb made the news cycle by using all of his online savvy to have posted an image of his own computer where he showed a Google search of Curzon Staffing Agency in his district to call them out for, in his mind, “pranking him” with a job offer on his Facebook page. As DJ Khaled might say, Mike Webb “played himself”, and may have been playing with himself, too. Because the other tabs open on the screenshot on Mike Webb’s internet browser included two links separate pornographic videos. The screenshot was up for almost half a day before Webb took it down, and then tried explaining his inquiries into adult entertainment as an “empirical inquiry”, and promising that his political career was “far from over”. (Hint: It was pretty much over.)

On this date in both 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Texas State Senator Konni Burton, a Fundamentalist who was propped up and into office in the 2014 elections by over a million dollars of campaign donations and the support of that unlikable blight on the Lone Star State, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. Every step of the way, Konni Burton’s voting record has shown her willing to go to extremes on abortion (more on that later). But just as one cannot live on bread alone, Burton is unable to spend all of her time on an insane quest to find a way around Roe v. Wade. Instead, her off-hours as a legislator have been spend demonizing the LGBTQ community, with perhaps her most alarming effort having been a bill she proposed in November of 2016 that would force teachers in school to “out” gay and transgendered students to their parents. She also interpreted the 2nd Amendment absolutely, and wanted to outlaw all abortion. Rest assured, that with her obsession with making LGBTQ citizens treated so poorly, Burton’s seat was strongly targeted by Democrats in 2018, and with the Blue Wave and Beto-Mania running wild that November, Democrat Beverly Powell managed to send this Fundamentalist twit packing. Thus, we’ll set aside her profile at this time, and profile a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 823-40, since this was established in July 2014.)


Jeff Monroe

Welcome to what is the 823rd original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be discussing South Dakota State Senator Jeff Monroe , a chiropractic neurologist who has served on that body since first winning office back in 2012 by a whopping 35 votes in the GOP Primary against incumbent Tad Perry. He has not been given a primary challenge now since Perry attempted to avenge that loss in 2014, and when facing off against Democrats in 2014 and 2018 in the general election, Monroe has won comfortably by over an average of 20 points.

One of the first bills Jeff Monroe submitted in the legislature was based on anti-vaccination paranoia, and wanted to allow South Dakota, one of the states with the most lax vaccination requirements, to make it even easier to allow parents to refuse to vaccinate their children, and leave them vulnerable to highly-preventable diseases.

But it’s the bills that don’t pass that draw our interest to Monroe. Back in 2014, Jeff Monroe first made himself noteworthy by sponsoring SB 112, a bill aimed at prohibiting public schools from forbidding teachers from teaching intelligent design in classrooms. For those keeping track, the Supreme Court already ruled in 2005 that such a bill would be unconstitutional because it’s an obvious violation of the separation of church and state. When SB 112 died in committee because smarter folks acknowledged it would just result in South Dakota getting sued, losing, and paying a fortune in legal fees, Monroe did what you might expect… he submitted SB 114 the next year, a bill that aimed at doing exactly the same thing. The same thing happened. So he sponsored another one in 2016. And that died. So he submitted another one in 2017. He also submitted legislation to allow the questioning of actual scientific theories, like climate change or evolution.

Of course, Monroe is also committed to anti-choice buffoonery, as in 2016, he submitted a “fetal pain bill” aimed at banning abortion at 20 weeks, and in 2019, he was still petitioning Congress to defund Planned Parenthood, based on the highly-doctored, fraudulent video produced by the Center for Medical Progress almost four years prior.

While he might not make headlines with stupid quotes like some of his colleagues, like say, Phil Jensen, we’re going to start keeping tabs on Jeff Monroe because he seems obsessively and fanatically determined to turn South Dakota’s government into a theocracy.

[Tami]

Nunes seems to be almost as 'sue' happy as Trump

Dem lawmaker says Nunes threatened to sue him over criticism

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that a lawyer for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) threatened to sue him if he did not apologize for saying last month that the Republican conspired with an associate of Rudy Giuliani.

Lieu’s comments were made in light of an interview Nunes gave on Fox News claiming he had spoken with Lev Parnas, a Giuliani associate, but that he “didn’t know his name.”

Nunes’s interview was the same night Parnas sat down for an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, leveling new accusations against President Trump related to the White House pressure campaign in Ukraine in light of the evidence he had recently supplied the House committees overseeing the impeachment process about the communication with the country.

“Amazing Lev Parnas interview on #Maddow,” Lieu tweeted. “Also, I’m disclosing that the lawyer for @DevinNunes wrote a letter saying Rep Nunes will sue me if I didn’t apologize for saying last month that Nunes conspired with Parnas.”

“Devin, I’m adding to my statement: ‘Your pants are on fire,’” Lieu added.

[Tami]

Ukraine launches probe into alleged surveillance of former U.S. envoy

Ukraine has launched criminal investigations into the possible illegal surveillance of former U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, and the alleged hacking of Burisma Holdings, the natural gas company at the center of the Trump impeachment.

"Ukraine's position is not to interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States of America," the country's Interior Ministry said in a statement. However, recent reports pointed to the possible violation of Ukrainian and international law, it said.

"Ukraine cannot ignore such illegal activities on the territory of its own state," the statement added.

Earlier this week, records released by House Democrats appeared to show that Yovanovitch was being closely monitored by a Republican congressional candidate, her physical movements tracked in real time along with her computer and phone use.

[Kirby101]

Ukraine launches probe into alleged surveillance of former U.S. envoy

The irony that Ukraine will launch an investigation into the Trump campaign is too karmic.

[Tami]

The irony that Ukraine will launch an investigation into the Trump campaign is too karmic.

Amoung my favorite responses I saw on twitter was 'Well, Trump finally got his investigation'

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Ukraine launches probe into alleged surveillance of former U.S. envoy

Oh, this is rich, not to mention hilarious as sin! I'm sure this has got Caramel Caligula all kinds of constipated, to which I say....GOOD!

[Theleviathan]

To put this simply...

Technically, if that's your argument, everyone who ran (including Hillary) were cheated. Thus negating any importance to any one person being cheated.

Bernie was allowed, despite not being a Democrat (by HIS choosing) to use the primary process of the Democrats, knowing full well all that came with that. He wasn't cheated. If anything he was gifted more of an opportunity than his prior 30 years of cooperation warranted.

[Theleviathan]

Put simply...

Because there was no real upside to doing it.

Maybe not. However, when you make an accusation like that and have your first public opportunity to reassert it and you backpedal....then after the fact bring it up again in a public setting.....you send odd mixed messages. It's one of those "In for a penny, in for a pound" sort of things.