All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[InformationGeek]

Just more cruelty to fuel Trump's ego.

To accommodate Trump’s sudden decision to speak at West Point, cadets will be called back, tested off campus, then isolated for 14 days in rooms with masks. They’ll eat in segregated groups. No decision on whether family members may attend. https://t.co/64YyFn5TaZ

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2016 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Timothy Jones, a former Missouri state legislator and the head of ALEC in Missouri who supported a variety of unconstitutional legislation, including drug testing welfare recipients, Voter ID laws so strict they were overturned by courts, as well as bills to nullify federal firearms laws and the Affordable Care Act. He might have seemed like a bit of a conspiracy theorist, because he passed legislation to prevent the implementation of environmental measures from the United Nations’ Agenda 21 conspiracy theory. But any doubt he was a kook goes out the window when you see the lengths he went to in support of the Birther conspiracy theory, signing off on the original lawsuit filed by “Birther Queen” Orly Taitz, claiming Joe Arpaio’s investigation into the birth certificate had “uncovered the truth”, and supporting the Birther Bill pushed by fellow state legislator Lyle Rowland. Once Jones left office, he apparently decided he never wanted to have to run for election again, going out of his way to say as many racist things as he could about unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, like “black elites are more of a threat to the black community than the Ku Klux Klan”, or get on social media to defend racist remarks about black-on-black crime made by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Last time we checked, Jones was still running ALEC in Missouri.

It was on this date in 2016 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of JoAnn Windholz, a former one term member of the Colorado House of Representatives who won office in 2014 by a mere 104 votes. Her margin of victory proved easy for Democrats to overcome in the 2016 election to try and retake her seat, though, because but days after the shooting rampage by James Roland Dear at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, Windholz blamed THE VICTIMS of that massacre for bringing the attack upon themselves. 60,000 people signed a petition calling on her to resign, and began discussing a recall election, but they figured it would be cheaper instead to just endure her for the rest of her term and be rid of her in 2016. For their patience, they were rewarded with a few rather anti-LGBT votes from Windholz, including her vote against a ban on gay conversion therapy in Colorado.

On this date in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Kurt Schaefer, a former Missouri State Senator who who served on that body from 2009-2016, and while staring down the prospect of term limits in the 2016 election, figured he’d run for Missouri Attorney General. That campaign wasn’t going Schaefer’s way, and it looked like he’d be facing a loss to his GOP Primary opponent, Josh Hawley, based on early polling. And that was unacceptable for Schaefer, who decided if he couldn’t hook his way into the AG spot, he’d crook it. Thus, he contacted Hawley’s boss at the University of Missouri, Tim Wolfe, and tried pressuring him to deny Hawley unpaid leave from his teaching job and force him to be unable to enter the race. If a state legislator pressuring one state employee to abuse their authority to prevent the political aspirations of another state employee sounds like some sort of breach of ethics to you, give yourself a pat on the back. An official complaint against Kurt Schaefer for his actions was filed shortly after the primary, which Hawley won with 65% of the vote (likely boosted by the story already being in the media). This isn’t to say that this is the only thing that concerns us about Kurt Schaefer, not by a long shot. During his eight years in the Missouri State Senate, he also led investigations into Planned Parenthood clinics in Missouri (finding no evidence of wrongdoing like he expected to after seeing the Center for Medical Progress’ “sting” video, at taxpayer expense, of course), or how he wasn’t just opposed to raising the Minimum Wage in Missouri, he actually floated the idea of punishing Kansas City for trying to raise it themselves by eliminating their earnings tax. He supported the failed conservative policy of drug testing welfare recipients, Republican efforts at voter suppression via unnecessary stricter Voter ID laws, and also voted for bills to attempt to nullify federal firearms laws. Schaefer, as we said, was turfed out of office by term limits in 2016.

It was on this date in 2018 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Bill Lant, a former member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 2010-2018. Back in 2014, where he wrote an opinion editorial that featured a 68 year old Lant discussing his high school reunion, and one of his favorite parts was how all the pretty cheerleaders he had the hots for but couldn’t woo back in the day didn’t show up because they “didn’t want us to see how old they looked.” That might seem a little misogynist, but then when you read the whole story, where Lant discusses a woman who DID show up who he remembered for filling out a tight sweater five decades ago, but as he remarked, “Time has not been kind to that girl! What was stretching the cardigan 50 years ago is now bumping the belt.” We know, a Republican who only seems to regard women as sexual things. Shocking. Fast forward a few months, and Lant was sponsoring right-to-work legislation in Missouri, not that he wrote it, of course. He was handed the bill by the conservative organization ALEC, which finds schmucks like Lant to push forward whatever idiot ideas they come up with in state legislatures around the country. While some Republicans might argue somehow gives “freedom” to workers… but Bill Lant’s too much of a dumbass to lie to the people of Missouri. He actually boasted about how right-to-work laws had lowered average hourly wages in states where it had passed, and laughed about how the reward workers got was… “less wages, more work”. (Again, why no one seriously ever challenged this ***hat for his seat…) In 2017, in a hearing in the Missouri House of Representatives regarding discrimination law, he silenced a witness, Ron Chapel, called from the NAACP called to give his expertise, choosing to instead berate and whitesplain how discrimination works to him. He then refused to allow Democrats to continue questioning Chapel during their own time with the witness. Missouri’s Democratic House Minority Leader summed it up quite nicely, saying, “A white man abused his power to stop a black man from expressing a contrary view, and on legislation that seeks to turn back the clock on Missouri’s anti-discrimination laws, no less. This situation is simply dripping in irony.” Lant faced term limits for his seat in the Missouri House of Representatives in 2018, and at the age of 72, does not seem to be up t the task of running for statewide office, or a spot in the Missouri State Senate.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Iowa State Senator Bill Dix, who was in the Iowa state legislature since 1996, and actually made a run for Congress to represent Iowa’s 1st Congressional District in 2006. However, while serving as the Majority Leader of the Iowa State Senate, Dix abruptly resigned under the cloud of what appeared to be a combination of sex scandal and ethics scandal. Yes, the double-whammy of political ruin came in March of 2018 when Dix was filmed on video out at a bar in Des Moines kissing a woman who was not his wife (yes, he is married), but was in fact, a lobbyist who was apparently hunting for some… policy shifts. Go figure, only about five years earlier, Dix was the same person who fired a caucus communications director for reporting a hostile work environment at the state capitol with sexual harassment being a part of the normal culture. Also, he liked to brand himself an anti-LGBTQ “defender of marriage”, who co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Outside of all the hypocrisy and getting caught on camera playing a game of tonsil hockey with a lobbyist, there’s also Bill Dix’s legislative record and policy stances where he was against raising the minimum wage (during the greatest period of income inequality in our country in almost a century), supported anti-abortion legislation as extreme as fetal heartbeat bills, was homophobic enough that he opposed bans on gay conversion therapy on minors, and his record on voting rights shows a distinct pattern of being anti-democratic and trying to keep citizens from exercising that right. As he resigned in disgrace, we will set aside his profile and we’ll look at another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 857-45, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

George Papadopoulos

Welcome to what is the 857th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing George Papadopoulos, the dumbass former Trump 2016 campaign staffer who helped draw enough attention to himself by boasting about Russians helping them try to get access to Hillary Clinton’s e-mails while drunk that it drew the attention of the FBI, and then when Special Counsel Robert Mueller followed up by questioning him, he lied to investigators. Which, of course, is a different crime in and of itself, which ended up in Georgie P. being found guilty and doing jail time. As a result, he was mocked by President Trump and those loyal to him for being “just a coffee boy”, so that they wouldn't go down with him. (Which is false, Papadopolous sat in on high level Trump foreign policy meetings, but calling him dismissing him as if he was just some barista had to sting.)

Now, most people after living through that kind of saga would just write a tell-all book, or go on a talk show tour to cash in… (in this instance Papadopoulos and his wife were trying to cash in on his ill-gotten fame to get a reality show. When nobody really cared enough for a network to green-light that show, he still wasn't ready to call it a career. Because George Papadopoulos is a special kind of stupid, and thought being a felon who got caught lying about a foreign power interfering in American elections would be a great launching pad towards having a career in Congress, specifically in California’s 25th Congressional District, to replace Democratic Congresswoman Katie Hill. He insisted there was a “deep state” conspiring against the Trump administration, but said virtually nothing about what his stances on issues were, but specifically did endorse Donald Trump’s stupid idea for a border wall along the U.S./Mexico border.

George Papadopoulos ended up finishing eighth out of fourteen people who were running for the seat, earning a whopping 2% of the vote. His wife, Simona Mangiante, promptly filed to divorce him while posting on social media that he was abusive, and that she regretted ever defending him in public.

It seems the coffee boy could not fail up, and will be available to be hired by the Trump 2020 campaign with all the free time he’ll have.

[Jack Dracula]

1. Hard to give time to charity when working two or more jobs.
2. Easy to give money when you’ve got a lot of money.
3. Easy to donate blood when you’re not discriminated against.

If conservatives feel so good about being parted from their money why are they so against tax increases for the wealthy when those funds could be used to keep people alive and teach people to read?

Paying taxes to fund social programs denies them the self-congratulation and feeling of superiority they get from donating to their favorite Christian charity.


Side note: Anyone notice how Conservatives have taken to doing drive-by turd flinging instead of actually sticking around to defend their arguments? It's like they know deep down their ideas are indefensible and wrong-headed.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Just more cruelty to fuel Trump's ego.

It’s pretty much a slam dunk certainly Trump will turn that commencement into a campaign rally because he’s been dying to have one for weeks now. It doesn’t matter half a damn to him that those cadets risk getting infected or turning West Point into one huge Petri dish, and if what I heard was even half true that Trump won’t let anyone wear masks at the ceremony, then he’ll risk a disaster for the sake of his ego.

[PaulBullion]

So let's take a look at the last week or two:

-There's been massive developments in the world of fossil fuels
(snip)

Do you mean the oil price dropping into negative territory? RuPaul being revealed to make money off fracking? Seriously, I have no idea what you mean.

[Kirby101]

Do you mean the oil price dropping into negative territory? RuPaul being revealed to make money off fracking? Seriously, I have no idea what you mean.

That's okay, he also thinks the majority want things opened up. When all polls show the opposite. I am curious to what Right Wing source he follows for this stuff.

[Joker]

Fair enough. I misread that. Do you really think a thousand dollars a week is a bad salary?

No, I don't think a thousand a week is a bad salary. What's the point your making? I'm confused.

[PwrdOn]

Paying taxes to fund social programs denies them the self-congratulation and feeling of superiority they get from donating to their favorite Christian charity.


Side note: Anyone notice how Conservatives have taken to doing drive-by turd flinging instead of actually sticking around to defend their arguments? It's like they know deep down their ideas are indefensible and wrong-headed.

This is what conservatives have always done though, whenever people dismiss their ideas they claim that the mainstream is biased against them and then retreat to their right wing safe spaces where they can hear everything spun in a way that makes them feel better about themselves.

[Tami]

I love Randy Riainbow. Why he doesn't have a show on Comedy Central or something, I don't know.

I thought I posted the video to that, but I can't seem to find it. :shrug: oh well.

[Tami]

They Stand Behind the President

A short film

Donald Trump loves attention, and people can’t help but give it to him. It’s been this way for a generation. Television cameras and tabloids were trained on him long before he was president, and even more so now. In the three years since he took office, it can sometimes seem impossible to look away. But I’ve always found that paying attention to the people around Trump is far more revealing than watching the man himself.

[Tami]

At Least 13 Public Companies Give Back $170 Million in Small-Business Stimulus Money. Others Say They’ll Keep It.

At least 13 of the public companies that received coronavirus hardship loans said they would return the money amid mounting scrutiny, while some of the smaller public companies said they needed the money to keep employees from losing their jobs.

The decisions are the latest twists in the rushed and turbulent rollout of the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, a portion of last month’s $2 trillion stimulus package intended to help small businesses and limit layoffs through the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers and independent business owners have criticized public companies for tapping a program that quickly ran out of funds.

On Friday, AutoNation Inc., AN 8.69% the nation’s largest car-dealership chain with a $3 billion market capitalization, gave back $77 million it received in forgivable loans. An AutoNation spokesman said the company was eligible and applied on behalf of the 7,000 employees it furloughed.

[PwrdOn]

I'd say thats more of an "american" thing then a white people thing. Most British people annoyed by those on "the dole" are more concerned about their class and (to a lesser degree) ethnicity then their skin tone.

Like I've seen people shit on zero class (their used to be 3 classes but a fourth has kind of evolved as below working class) irrespective of their ethnicity because their seen as lazy assholes who refuse to work and steal government benefits when realistically its not that big a deal. Its something like 1-3 billion a year compared to the 900 billion in tax the UK avoids

In America the whole welfare queen stereotype developed because of an organized propaganda campaign to dismantle social safety nets because they knew that whites would be disgusted at the notion of their tax dollars going to support anyone who wasn't white. If Britain or any other European country had had the same kind of racial demographics that the US did at the time, the same kind of argument could have been deployed to dismantle your welfare systems. Indeed this is sort of what we are seeing now as more and more immigrants and refugees enter the continent, and all of a sudden the same people who loved to talk down to Americans about how we don't look after each other are all of a sudden not so keen on the idea.

The development of a large underclass in the UK and other rich countries shouldn't be a surprised to anyone, now that nearly all of the low skilled work has been farmed out to cheaper labor markets there isn't really much that these people can contribute. And it's not so easy for these people to climb the social ladder either, because there are often far more qualified candidates from overseas to compete against for those higher paying jobs, and shutting them out by favoring local hires typically makes your companies less competitive.

[4saken1]

They Stand Behind the President

A short film

Some of those looks are priceless!

[Tuck]

Goodman is still a complete idiot though.

The Goodmans are just an odd pair. Did Oscar's Mob Museum ever happen?