All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[jetengine]

What kind of fancy dress party did that guy go too ? Afaik theres a subset called "Bad taste" parties where you go as intentionally horrible things. Now GAY hitler seems dumb but he's a Republican so thats even worse in his eyes.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Mitch McConnell Says The GOP Can’t Block Witnesses — Yet

The Senate majority leader spoke with Republican senators in a closed-door meeting about Democrats’ efforts to call John Bolton to testify in the impeachment trial. Makes me wonder what sort of tricks Midnight Mitch has up his sleeve.

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GOP Senators Ready To Acquit Trump Despite ‘Unknown Unknowns’ About New Evidence

The last time Republicans did this, in 1974, they voted in a committee to protect Nixon just before the release of the Watergate tapes. It didn’t end well for them. Could history repeat itself here?

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Trump Defense Urges Senators To Feel Bad For Trump

The legal team asked lawmakers to put themselves in the president’s shoes. My response? BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

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Rudy Giuliani Goes After John Bolton For Book Revelations: ‘He’s A Backstabber’

The lawyer’s remarks to CBS come as the Senate clashes over whether to call Trump’s former national security adviser to testify in the impeachment trial. Don't go away mad, Rudy, just go away.

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Alan Dershowitz In 2016: Trump Is Corrupt, Will Likely Be Corrupt As President

In audio unearthed by CNN, Dershowitz, a lawyer on the president’s impeachment defense team, said Trump was far more corrupt than Hillary Clinton. Just call ol' Dersh Nostradamus, because he was right!

[worstblogever]

Patricia McElraft

Welcome to what is the 830th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be profiling Patricia McElraft , a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives from District 13, and former Delta Burke stunt-double. McElraft has held office now in North Carolina since 2007, meaning she’s been at the heart of some of the s***tiest moments from Tar Heel State Republicans over the past decade, but let’s just look at what she’s been up to since 2013:

• August 2nd, 2012: McElraft drafts HB 819, a bill to ban all research on the impacts of climate change upon the North Carolina coastline.
• April 11th, 2013: Patricia McElraft votes for HB 392, another of those insane GOP bills that seek to drug test welfare recipients, then lose a state a ton of money on the cost of drug testing only to find no significant drug use until lawsuits against the laws succeed to prove the law is a violation of the 4th Amendment rights of those it seeks to test.
• June 5th, 2013: McElraft votes for the Repeal of the Racial Justice Act.
• July 11th, 2013: Patricia McElraft votes for SB 353, an extremely restrictive anti-abortion bill that was amended by the North Carolina GOP from a motorcycle safety bill into an anti-choice measure.
• July 25th, 2013: McElraft votes for HB 589, one of several “stricter Voter ID laws” North Carolina Republicans push during her tenure aimed at suppressing the vote.
• June 3rd, 2015: Patricia McElraft votes for HB 465, a TRAP law aimed at creating abortion regulations so restrictive that they would effectively force the closure of all abortion clinics in the state for failing to be able to meet them.
• June 11th, 2015: McElraft votes for SB 2, a bill to allow state officials to refuse to perform “certain marriage duties” if they have a “sincerely held” religious objection.
• July 21st, 2015: Responding to the South Carolina state legislature voting to remove the Confederate flag from their state capitol after the mass murder of nine African Americans at the historical Charleston AME Church, Patricia McElraft is one of several North Carolina Republicans who vote for SB 22, and to make it harder to remove Confederate monuments in North Carolina.
• March 23rd, 2016: McElraft co-sponsors HB 2, North Carolina’s disastrous anti-LGBT law, and boycotts over the law cost the state well over a trillion dollars of revenue from business boycotts and the tourism industry.

She was even a part of the revolting vote by the North Carolina GOP on the 2019 anniversary of 9/11, when the Republicans in the state legislature told Democrats that no votes were scheduled on the anniversary to honor the victims of 9/11… and then they called a vote to pass a veto-proof budget anyway without the opposition in the chamber.

DEMOCRACY! FASCIST-RULING MINORITY-STYLE!

We’ll note that our final reason to single out McElraft for a profile is related to that first bill that she drafted, HB 819. Literally passing a law to deny the existence of climate change by ignoring scientists takes some serious chutzpah, but it’s the quotes she used to justify it that are truly bonkers:

“In 1974, the alarmists were talking about the ice age coming in. What has happened, has the ice age come in?”

(Spoiler alert: climate change scientists never said anything like that. It’s only reported that they did on the sorts of websites where you can read about lizard-men infiltrating our government to steal our water, and the Bilderberg group ruling over the planet.)

Patricia McElraft will be 73 when November 2020 rolls around, and she will not face a primary challenger prior to her matchup with Democrat Buck Bayliff in the general election. Her district leans so conservative that she’s unlikely to go anywhere of her own will, much to the detriment of North Carolina.

[numberthirty]

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Rudy Giuliani Goes After John Bolton For Book Revelations: ‘He’s A Backstabber’

The lawyer’s remarks to CBS come as the Senate clashes over whether to call Trump’s former national security adviser to testify in the impeachment trial. Don't go away mad, Rudy, just go away.

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While I'm not even sure I want the actual answer, what ever happened to that Rudy supposedly had "Biden"/"Ukraine" "Evidence..." that was going to come out?

I had kinda forgot about Rudy until he turned up to contend with Bolton.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

While I'm not even sure I want the actual answer, what ever happened to that Rudy supposedly had "Biden"/"Ukraine" "Evidence..." that was going to come out?

I had kinda forgot about Rudy until he turned up to contend with Bolton.

That was probably Rudy spouting b.s., nothing more. Between him and Lapdog Lindsey Graham, I can't tell who's further up Trump's orange ass.

[Tami]

Trump’s Digital Advantage Is Freaking Out Democratic Strategists

In a blog post published in November, a year before the 2020 election, Brian Burch, the president of CatholicVote.org, a socially conservative advocacy group, announced that in Wisconsin alone his organization had identified 199,241 Catholics “who’ve been to church at least 3 times in the last 90 days.”

Nearly half of these religiously observant parishioners, Burch wrote, “91,373 mass-attending Catholics — are not even registered to vote!” CatholicVote.org is looking for potential Trump voters within this large, untapped reservoir — Republican-leaning white Catholics who could bolster Trump’s numbers in a battleground state.

Burch, whose organization opposes abortion and gay marriage, made his plans clear:

We are already building the largest Catholic voter mobilization program ever. And no, that’s not an exaggeration. Our plan spans at least 7 states (and growing), and includes millions of Catholic voters.

How did Catholic Vote come up with these particular church attendance numbers for 199,241 Catholics? With geofencing, a technology that creates a virtual geographic boundary, enabling software to trigger a response when a cellphone enters or leaves a particular area — a church, for example, or a stadium, a school or an entire town.

Geofencing is just one of the new tools of digital campaigning, a largely unregulated field of political combat in which voters have little or no idea of how they are being manipulated, in which traditional disclosure requirements are inoperative and key actors are anonymous. It is a weapon of choice. Once an area is geofenced, commercial data companies can acquire the mobile phone ID numbers of those within the boundary.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump’s Digital Advantage Is Freaking Out Democratic Strategists

What should worry EVERYONE, not just Democratic strategists is the openly relentless march towards the elimination of the separation between church and state as holy rollers are, pardon the pun, hellbent on putting their agendas into play in government. It's no secret bible thumpers are notorious one issue voters, and that issue is killing Roe v. Wade, they don't give a **** about guns or free speech or the economy or anything but getting rid of a woman's right to choose. And with shameless politicians like Trump eagerly slurping religious types for their votes, that is shaping up to be a huge problem down the road.

[Tendrin]

https://twitter.com/RonWyden/status/1222200935159599104

After I opened an investigation into whether Donald Trump meddled in the criminal investigation into Turkish-owned Halkbank,
@USTreasury
confirmed that Steve Mnuchin was tasked with intervening in the investigation to benefit Pres. Erdogan. AG Barr was given the same direction.

Barr really is an enormous problem.

[Tami]

House Democrats to Unveil $760 Billion Infrastructure Plan

The framework will outline investment over the next five years and provide a foundation for legislation that is currently being drafted or debated in House committees.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Wednesday plan to unveil a five-year, $760 billion framework for rebuilding the nation’s highways, airports and other infrastructure, laying out an election-year package with little chance of enactment after bipartisan talks with the White House on the issue failed to gain traction.

The outline, billed as the “Moving Forward Framework,” provides a foundation for legislation that is currently being drafted or debated in House committees, according to a senior Democratic aide who was familiar with the plans but was unauthorized to discuss them before a public announcement on Wednesday.

It is the product of a collaboration led by Representative Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee; and Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

“This is not just about fixing our roads and bridges,” the three said in a joint statement. “It is about seizing the opportunity to make transformational changes in communities of all sizes, in every corner of our country.”

[kidfresh512]

House Democrats to Unveil $760 Billion Infrastructure Plan

This is an easy straightforward campaign type issue for Democrats. Its something anyone who has been in our of our airports should be able to see and want improved. It isn't controversial or needing a ton of explanation or convincing. And its something that the GOP has not done at all. All that energy they spent on useless issues like building a wall. Or trying to strong arm allies with tariffs that WE pay for, they failed to put together anything on infrastructure and even though Democrats did it isn't expected to go anywhere with #moskowmitch.

[Tami]

Trump allies are handing out cash to black voters

Allies of Donald Trump have begun holding events in black communities where organizers lavish praise on the president as they hand out tens of thousands of dollars to lucky attendees.

The first giveaway took place last month in Cleveland, where recipients whose winning tickets were drawn from a bin landed cash gifts in increments of several hundred dollars, stuffed into envelopes. A second giveaway scheduled for this month in Virginia has been postponed, and more are said to be in the works.

The tour comes as Trump’s campaign has been investing its own money to make inroads with black voters and erode Democrats’ overwhelming advantage with them. But the cash giveaways are organized under the auspices of an outside charity, the Urban Revitalization Coalition, permitting donors to remain anonymous and make tax-deductible contributions.

The organizers say the events are run by the book and intended to promote economic development in inner cities. But the group behind the cash giveaways is registered as a 501(c)3 charitable organization. One leading legal expert on nonprofit law said the arrangement raises questions about the group’s tax-exempt status, because it does not appear to be vetting the recipients of its money for legitimate charitable need.

Isn't 'cash stuffed in envelopes' usually considered 'bribes'?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

House Democrats to Unveil $760 Billion Infrastructure Plan

Look for Midnight Mitch to kill that bill for no other reason than because he can.

Trump allies are handing out cash to black voters





Isn't 'cash stuffed in envelopes' usually considered 'bribes'?

Damn right it is. So, if Trump can't earn black votes, he'll resort to buying them instead. Crass as ****.

[Tami]

Five Bernie Sanders supporters have been arrested for criminal trespassing on Joe Biden’s Des Moines Campaign HQ.

Twitter Link

Protesters Arrested at Joe Biden’s Des Moines Campaign Office

DES MOINES, Iowa – Five people were arrested Monday night after they refused to leave the Des Moines campaign office of presidential candidate Joe Biden.

According to the Des Moines Police Department, officers were called to the office at 2411 Grand Ave. at 7:13 p.m. because about two-dozen protesters had entered the campaign’s field office and were refusing to leave.

Once officers arrived, several of the protesters did leave the premises but five people remained and were arrested:

John Reardon, 22 years old, resident of Clive
Michael McKinley, 68 years old, resident of Des Moines
William Floyd, 22 years old, resident of Des Moines
Denise Cheeseman, 21 years old, resident of Iowa City
Kiran Loewenstein, 19 years old, resident of Grinnell

They face a charge of criminal trespassing. They were released at the scene after the arrest, with a summons to appear in court.

Not sure what to make of this.

[Tami]

Trump allies are handing out cash to black voters





Isn't 'cash stuffed in envelopes' usually considered 'bribes'?

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Trump’s legal team gave thousands in contributions to Republican senators ahead of impeachment trial

President Trump's legal team made numerous campaign contributions to Republican senators overseeing the impeachment trial.

Former independent counsels Ken Starr and Robert Ray, who both investigated former President Bill Clinton ahead of his impeachment, contributed thousands of dollars to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last year before they joined the president's team, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics (CFPR).

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Twitter Link

Protesters Arrested at Joe Biden’s Des Moines Campaign Office



Not sure what to make of this.

Me either because the actual article and headline of the article never mentions sanders supporters, just says protestors. Only the random twitter person linking the article is saying that