All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[worstblogever]

But surely, Paul Ryan can at least have shown the American people he’s able to stand up to Donald Trump after their long, murky relationship with each other, and the fact that the entire Trump administration has been a cesspool of corruption and incompetence, right? HA! No. Paul Ryan ignores all the failings and wrongdoing the way you’d expect, by pretending it’s not happening and just wanking even harder about screwing over poor people. When the story of the day is that Trump campaign officials are getting indicted, Ryan would much rather talk about how great his s***ty tax plan is going. And honestly, that’s one of his more honorable moments. Ryan defended Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey for not making the Russian collusion investigation go away. Which is goddamned pathetic when you remember there’s audio of Paul Ryan being told by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy that “Putin pays Trump”. He's riding a horse along the U.S./Mexico border like a putz as part of a fundraising blitz and wanting Trump’s stupid border wall built (which is an interesting stance for a supposed intelligent fiscal conservative to want to waste money on a useless novelty project). Paul Ryan had to be shamed by Jake Tapper in a CNN interview to even acknowledge that Donald Trump’s “both sides” remarks after the terrorist attack carried out by Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville was wrong. Like, if you couldn’t bring yourself to speak ill of Trump then? He did only moderately better when Trump spoke about “s***hole countries”, managing the nerve to say those remarks were “unfortunate” and “unhelpful”.

In effect, Paul Ryan is a craven s*** who feared not winning re-election, so opted to “retire” in 2018, not long after our last profile. He was one of the LAMEST lame duck Congressmen in the history of the House, twiddling his thumbs impotently and shrugging whenever asked to comment on any of the abhorrent quotes from Donald Trump. The only thing he could be arsed to do in his last days in office was to try and increase the amount of immigration in America… provided those immigrants are IRISH. This during a supposed “immigration crisis” at our southern border. If you think the infectious touch of Paul Ryan is gone from American politics… not exactly. He’ll continue smearing his own brand of s*** about because even further underlining the fact that Fox News is state television for the Republican Party… Paul Ryan was hired with no experience to be on the Board of Directors of Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News. In conclusion, f*** Paul Ryan, and may he never win any political office again. We will set aside his profile at this time and profile a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 847-45, since this was established in July 2014.)

[PaulBullion]

Many product warnings had to be placed after someone with no common sense used the product in an obviously improper way. I mean, really, ingesting a substance meant to be used in fish tanks? What an idiot!

Well yeah, they believed something Trump said. That means Trump puts about 34% of likely voters and their families at risk when he keeps it up as he did just now:

What do u have to lose...take it...but hydroxychlorquine, try it, if u'd like...if u have a heart condition, probly stay away from the Zpak, but that's an antibiotic, it can clean out the lungs &the lungs are a point of attack for this horrible virus

Video

[JackDaw]

Are there no homophobes, transphobes, or racists among those groups?

I wouldn't be surprised to see that there were maybe less, but this kind of thing could get hairy pretty quickly.

I sometimes think a certain amount of racism is just about “hardwired into the human psyche”...

Put it this way, in my own country (UK) the Labour Party is the most progressive large scale political party, the one on the surface most committed to equality of all classes, sexes, races, creeds..

And to quote a mate: “The least racist part of town is the Labour Club at 6pm. At 11pm...after the beer flows and people reveal their true colours...it’s the most racist part of town”

[worstblogever]

Jose Oliva

Welcome to what is the 847th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Jose Oliva, who has been a member of the Florida House of Representatives for District 110 since winning a special election in the middle of 2011, and is currently serving as the Speaker of the Florida House, a role he has held since 2018. Oliva spent eight long years being a toady as a legislator for former Gov. Rick Scott, where we’ve seen him support some of the Florida GOP’s more extreme bills through that time:

• March 1st, 2012: Jose Oliva votes for HB 1209, a bill aimed at prohibiting courts from basing decisions on “foreign laws” which was a piece of legislation created by Islamophobic conservatives trying to stop the spread of Sharia Law in the United States (that isn’t, at all).
• March 1st, 2012: Oliva votes for SB 98, to authorize student-led prayer in school.
• February 20th, 2014: Jose Oliva co-sponsors and votes for HB 1047, an attempt to limit abortion by changing the legal definition of fetal viability.
• April 9th, 2015: Oliva votes for HB 7111, a bill aimed at allowing adoption agencies to refuse to grant adoptions to same sex couples based on their religious need to be discriminatory homophobes.
• April 22nd, 2015: Jose Oliva votes for HB 633, a medically unnecessary 24 hour waiting period for abortions.
• February 3rd, 2016: Oliva votes for HB 163, to allow for the open carry of firearms in Florida.
• March 2nd, 2016: Jose Oliva votes for HB 43, to authorize churches to decline marriage services to same sex couples.
• March 9th, 2016: Oliva was apparently motivated by the fear-mongering by the Center for Medical Progress about Planned Parenthood, because he voted for HB 1411, to make stricter requirements on the disposal of fetal tissue.
• January 12th, 2018: Jose Oliva votes for HB 9, the prohibit local cities and governments from creating sanctuary cities for undocumented citizens.
• May 1st, 2019: Oliva, only months after the mass shooting at Parkland, votes to authorize firearms on school campuses, because the solution is always an influx of more guns.

But, where we truly realized that Jose Oliva should have no place in politics was back in February of 2019, when during an interview about abortion, he referred to pregnant women as “host bodies”:

”Well the challenge there is that there are two lives involved. So, where I believe that we should stay out of people’s lives, I don’t believe that people’s lives should be taken. It’s a complex issue because one has to think, well there’s a host body and that host body has to have a certain amount of rights because at the end of the day it is that body that that carries this entire other body to term. But there is an additional life there. And the question that we have to ask ourselves is: What is the limit to which we are going to give one person complete power over the life of another?”

This was not a one-time slip off, because later in the same interview, Oliva mentioned that he believed in life at conception, before doing it again:

”Science believes that. “I mean the only definition of science of life is something that grows. From the moment that conception occurs there begins to be growth. And so scientifically that’s what it is. But that’s not the question. The question is: What is the value of that life? And is it subordinate to the value of its host body?”

Jose Oliva is term-limited in the Florida House in 2020. We’re pretty sure that given his age, we won’t be hearing the last of him, however, and we’re expecting him to run for higher office at some point, likely in the Florida State Senate. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis might appoint him. Given the above quotes, he may have damned himself from being able to “fail up” politically, but only time will tell.

[Gray Lensman]

Many product warnings had to be placed after someone with no common sense used the product in an obviously improper way. I mean, really, ingesting a substance meant to be used in fish tanks? What an idiot!

I remember reading that the instruction manual for the Winnebago specifically states that Cruise Control is not Autopilot, and that you can't turn it on, then leave the driver's seat to go make a pot of coffee in the back - because apparently someone did just that.

Or to put it another way....

[Darkspellmaster]

Holy **** France. Why the hell would you even suggest using people in Africa as test subjects!

French Doctors suggest using Africaas testing ground for vaccine.

Two French doctors have been accused of racism for suggesting that a potential vaccine for coronavirus should first be tested on people in Africa.

The comments were made on the French television channel, LCI, during a discussion on Wednesday about COVID-19 trials set to be launched in Europe and Australia to see if the BCG tuberculosis vaccine could be used to treat the virus.

"It may be provocative. Should we not do this study in Africa where there are no masks, no treatment or intensive care, a little bit like it's been done for certain AIDS studies, where among prostitutes, we try things, because we know that they are highly exposed and don't protect themselves?" said Jean-Paul Mira, head of the intensive care unit at the Cochin Hospital in Paris.

Camille Locht, research director at France's national health institute, Inserm, agreed: "You are right. And by the way, we are thinking of in parallel about a study in Africa using this same approach."

It did not take long for the backlash to begin on social media.

"Africa isn't a testing lab," Ivorian professional football player Didier Drogba, who used to play for Chelsea, wrote on Twitter. "I would like to vividly denounce those demeaning, false and most of all deeply racist words."

Olivier Faure, of France's Socialist Party, said the marks were hardly a provocation. "It's not provocation, it's just racism," he wrote on Twitter. "Africa is not the laboratory of Europe. Africans are not rats!"

The anti-racism group SOS Racisme called on France's media regulator, the Conseil Supérieur de L’Audiovisuel (CSA), to formally condemn the remarks.

The group issued a statement saying, "No, Africans aren't guinea pigs", adding that comparison with AIDS and prostitutes was "problematic" and "unwelcome".

[Tendrin]

Holy **** France. Why the hell would you even suggest using people in Africa as test subjects!

French Doctors suggest using Africaas testing ground for vaccine.

Let's be fair and say that it's two French doctors, not' France', but it's not like there's not a history of this stuff or that it would have been considered unusual to them all that long ago.

Colonizers gonna colonize.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Coronavirus Is Upending Many Of The World’s Biggest Religious Holidays

Nearly every major religion has an important holiday in April — which means it will be a month of surreal new changes for American believers.

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As Fauci Pleads For Americans To Keep Distance, Trump Talks Of Opening Country

Despite saying that the worst was yet to come, President Trump talked of opening things back up: “We don’t want to be doing this for months and months.” Rather TRUMP doesn't want to be doing this for months and months. He knows the economy is the only thing keeping his poll numbers from flatlining. As for the American people? He could care less.

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‘It Was Terrible What He Did’: Trump Rips Navy Captain Who Sounded Alarm On His Sick Sailors

“This isn’t a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that’s nuclear-powered. He shouldn’t be talking that way in a letter,” Trump said of Brett Crozier. Let me see if I've got this right, in Trump's warped mind, a ship commander protecting his crew is bad, but a SEAL who committed war atrocities is good. Got it.

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Jared Kushner’s COVID-19 Brainstorms Stole Time From Scientists Racing The Clock: Report

The former real estate developer threw half-formed ideas at health experts they didn’t have time to deal with, The Washington Post reports.

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As U.S. Food Lines Grow, Chef Jose Andres Warns The ‘Worst Is Yet To Come’

Latest consequence of grim COVID-19 pandemic in America: Hunger

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Governors Are Going To Extraordinary Measures In Hunt For Medical Supplies

They’re bidding against each other and the federal government for supplies Americans desperately need. Then sometimes the orders just don’t show up.

[PaulBullion]

Good luck to Keir Starmer as new leader of the Labour Party in the UK.

[JackDaw]

Good luck to Keir Starmer as new leader of the Labour Party in the UK.

Can’t get my head round a Labour guy who uses his title (it’s actually Sir Keir Starmer) in everyday life.

More worrying his wishy washy approach to Brexit..it bordered on dishonesty...lost Labour a massive number of votes in last election.

Having said that...no idea who I would have voted for if I’d been a member of Labour Party, he may well be right choice

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Trump himself was part of Mid-Terms. A number of candidates tied themselves to him and his message and went down in flames. One of the funniest I remember was a Senator or Governor in one state who realized Trump's name was garbage to use. So he told Trump to not mention his name or campaign for him. Because in order to win he didn't want voters thinking he was fully in Trump's camp.

Donald saw this and began actually calling the guys name out in rallies and praising him etc. That he would love to come to the state and support him. It was almost insanely comical that Donald didn't realize he was costing the guy the election because he wanted to do a rally to praise his own ego then. The guy kept telling Trump's people to stop him , they wouldn't and end result was the guy lost his election.

Then Donald blamed the losers in a speech.

[jetengine]

People were eating tide pods two years ago, so....

They werent. Like....maybe two peoole did ? The the media Streisand effected it inyo a bigger thing whilst all the teens and 20 somethings stood around going "What the **** are they talking about?" followed by the internet mene machine going into overdrive.

[jetengine]

Can’t get my head round a Labour guy who uses his title (it’s actually Sir Keir Starmer) in everyday life.

More worrying his wishy washy approach to Brexit..it bordered on dishonesty...lost Labour a massive number of votes in last election.

Having said that...no idea who I would have voted for if I’d been a member of Labour Party, he may well be right choice

Anything Corbyn related is radioactive now, like it or not. I'm hoping Starmer is more central since the socialist left element of the party just cant get stuff done unfortunately. Its like the biden situation. He may not be what I want but its better then nothing and hopefully can be moved in the right direction by the socialist element towards policies that help everyone

[Mister Mets]

Don’t think this got covered, but for all the Stacey Abrams haters and “Democrats and Republicans are the same” folks out there:

Brian Kemp admits he didn’t know asymptomatic people could transmit COVID-19 to other people.

So did my Democratic mayor.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ements-978553/

[PaulBullion]

It's gonna be so nice to have a president again who believes in science.

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1246788656276307974?s=20