All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[PaulBullion]

Not only that, he also called for Trump to resign, or at least let the medical experts do the talking during those daily briefings.

I'm wondering if Stern ever felt friendly towards Trump, or if he just kept having him on because the circus was good for ratings.

[worstblogever]

In 2015, as well as 2016, and 2017, that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the former U.S. House Representative for Florida’s 19th District, Curt Clawson, who won the special election to replace Trey Radel in April of 2014 on his portrayal of his business record as a “successful executive”, while failing to mention that under his leadership, Hayes-Lemmerz, the company he ran, skipped safety inspections as a cost-cutting measure, leading to the death of an employee, a huge OSHA fine, and then laid off a quarter of their work force before going bankrupt while he drew a seven-figure income. Which is an interesting definition of “successful”, isn’t it? Clawson’s capable understanding of finance has also led him to be a proponent of a “flat tax”, in spite of the fact that actually enacting his tax plan would be economically disastrous for the country. Clawson also met a group of senior officials of the U.S. government shortly after taking office who were Indian-American, and because all people of color apparently look alike to him, mistook them for visiting dignitaries from India, embarrassing the bejeezus out of himself (and the GOP, considering they put him on the House Foreign Affairs Committee). For whatever reason, the Tea Party decided to let Curt Clawson give their rebuttal to President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Address, and all he did with his time, for the most part, was talk about his college basketball career at Purdue. He is, for lack of a better term, an incompetent boob. Now, here’s the kicker… to the surprise of everyone on Capitol Hill, the particularly young (but not too bright) Curt Clawson decided that after one term and change in office, he would not run for re-election in Florida’s 19th Congressional District, giving the always-suspicious reason that he was instead going to “spend time with his family”, leading everyone to speculate what scandal actually was covered up behind the scenes to make him flee Washington, DC so fast.

On this date in 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Sheri Few, a candidate for Congress in the 2017 special election for the seat to represent the 5th Congressional District of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives. That seat, of course, was vacated by Mick Mulvaney when he took the job to be part of the Trump Cabinet of Horrors. And maybe she was never really a threat to win, as she failed to ride the Tea Party Wave into the South Carolina state legislature in 2010, and even with GOP tail winds strong in 2014, failed to even be elected as South Carolina’s Superintendent of Education. Still, she was terrifying committed to her big two issues… guns, and the Confederacy. She attacked the two leading candidates in the GOP Primary for the seat in Congress, South Carolina state legislators Ralph Norman and Tommy Pope, over the fact that the both of them voted to remove the Confederate flag from the state capitol in Charleston after the mass murder carried out by White Nationalist Dylann Roof at the Emanuel AME Church. Few doubled down on this stance, and in an interview with The Guardian, argued that if the rest of the Confederate Memorial at the state capitol were removed, she would see the memorial that’s there acknowledging the atrocities of slavery would also be removed. Which, was an inflammatory reaction to something no one was suggesting at the time. Still, Few didn’t get much of a bump in the polls from her racist, Stars & Bars-humpin’ idea. So she made sure that everyone was positive she meant business by running one last political ad featuring her brandishing an assault rifle while she continued complaining about Norman and Pope, saying, "Weak politicians are too quick to blame a horrible tragedy on a flag or a gun, or even free speech, and that's how bad laws are made." Never mind that she was complaining about the removal of a Confederate flag while standing in front of what their soldiers regarded as “the Union flag” in her video. Few finished fifth in the GOP Primary for the seat to represent South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District, pulling down only 4.9% of the vote.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Augustus Invictus, an utter scumbag and 2018 Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Florida, who was a keynote speaker at the “Unite the Right” white supremacy rally in Charlottesville in August of 2017. He's also tight with Richard Spencer, and runs the “military division” of the Proud Boys. Invictus would like to start a second American Civil War, and is a Holocaust denier known for ending his speeches with “Hail Death.” In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, he admitted that he is, in fact, a practitioner of Thelema, the same pagan religion practiced by Aleister Crowley, and once sacrificed a goat to drink its blood in an occult ritual. Now, let’s not be content to just say August Invictus is a hatemonger. He’s also a serial sexual predator, who has been accused of domestic violence, sexual assault, and kidnapping, and terroristic threats by multiple women. While Invictus knew he would never stand a chance against the fundraising of Rick Scott for that Senate seat, he re-registered as a Libertarian and still failed to win even that nomination. As of six days ago, Augustus was arrested for aggravated stalking, so hopefully he’ll go to jail where he can f*** off until the end of time, and thus will set aside his profile and we’ll look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 858-45, since this was established in July 2014.)

[Malvolio]

I'm wondering if Stern ever felt friendly towards Trump, or if he just kept having him on because the circus was good for ratings.

I've been reading the transcripts of some of those old interviews from Stern's recent book, and it sounds like he's friendly, but then Stern sometimes acts friendly in interviews with people he strongly disagrees with, ie. Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Howard Stern endorsed Joe Biden.

I wonder if Trump, given how thin-skinned he is, will attack Stern for endorsing Biden?

[worstblogever]

Anthony Sabatini

Welcome to what is the 858th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Anthony Sabatini, a freshman member of who won office for the first time in 2018 after winning a plurality of votes in the GOP primary against two opponents, and defeating Democrat Cynthia Brown with 56% of the vote in the general election. That was even after how in October of 2018, photos emerged of Sabatini in blackface. Now, there are some examples of this from modern politicians and they shrug and say, “it was a different time” and the photos are from the 1960s or 1970s is a pattern we’ve seen. Sabatini, however, doesn’t have the benefit of time being on his side, because the photos of him are from 2005. But he assured the Orlando Sentinel that he wouldn’t be resigning. And then, the photo emerged of Sabatini dressed up as a “Mexican” wearing brownface from 2004, and that he drove around a car painted up with a Confederate flag like the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard. He apparently spent most of his high school days throwing themed parties encouraging people to dress up as racial and ethnic stereotypes.

Perhaps this would be a good time to also point out that while a city commissioner for the city of Eustis, Anthony Sabatini responded to national news of Confederate statues being removed to have them all brought to his town to be displayed. And that in May of 2018, he posted video from “The Planet of the Apes” and claimed it was former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.  

But, y’know, it’s not like there’s a pattern on display showing he’s racist.

Well, six months after he was in office, Sabatini’s true colors continued to be on display, as a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, Michael Williams, posted a video of a Trump supporter at an Orlando rally attacking him, trying to slap his phone out of his hand and threatening him (the attacker was arrested and charged with battery). However, Williams and most everyone else were disgusted when Sabatini responded to the video of his assault by commenting, “MAGA” to it. Williams then asked Sabatini to explain his “MAGA” tweet, and Sabatini answered, “The most appropriate reaction to the deliberately biased and distorted coverage of the rally by the anti-Trump Orlando Sentinel yesterday is to not comment on its spin and sensation, but to ignore the content and reply with the peaceful phrase they hate – MAGA.” Williams referred him specifically not towards the rally, but towards his assault, asking in a follow-up, “Is this conduct you condone?” Sabatini then said Williams was “illiterate and a modern journalist,” before later telling the Orlando Sentinel that “You’re searching for incidents that were very rare at the event in order to cast a dark, negative light on the event.”

In more recent news, Anthony Sabatini, along with Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva and Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz were all exposed at CPAC 2020 to a man who later tested positive for Covid-19. And so, he did what someone should and self-quarantined… BUT ONLY FOR ONE DAY.

Somehow, we’re thinking that maybe the Florida GOP might want to consider having someone primary this bigoted moron before he can do any more damage.

[worstblogever]

I wonder if Trump, given how thin-skinned he is, will attack Stern for endorsing Biden?

I for one, would love for a s***-talking civil war to break out online between fanatical Stern supporters and fanatical Trump supporters. The winners would be everyone else who stays out of it and lets them destroy each other.

[TheDarman]

The Supreme Court rules, with an 8-1 decision, in favor of protecting payments to insurers who were promised money for engaging in ObamaCare exchanges.

Justice Alito is the lone dissenting voice. This doesn’t bode well for Conservative efforts to repeal the law. This was supposed to be more of a slam-dunk than the upcoming California v. Texas case where they are trying to argue that the act itself should be overturned. You’ll recall that Obamacare was narrowly saved in 2012’s NFIB v. Sebelius by surprising swing vote, John Roberts, keeping the individual mandate in place. Now, two of the dissenting voices in that case have been replaced. And that case is established precedent.

[PaulBullion]

ReOpen NC leader says she tested positive for COVID-19

[Ragged Maw]

ReOpen NC leader says she tested positive for COVID-19

If she pulls through, hope it was the wake-up call she needed. It’s not a political ploy to “tread on you”. It’s a goddamn virus.

[Tami]

If she pulls through, hope it was the wake-up call she needed. It’s not a political ploy to “tread on you”. It’s a goddamn virus.

It sounds like she still thinks she has the 1st amendment right to go out and infect others.

[PaulBullion]

If she pulls through, hope it was the wake-up call she needed. It’s not a political ploy to “tread on you”. It’s a goddamn virus.

If I read the timeline correctly, she never went to any protests because she knew she was positive and stayed quarantined while organizing the protests on Facebook.

[Wildling]

I for one, would love for a s***-talking civil war to break out online between fanatical Stern supporters and fanatical Trump supporters. The winners would be everyone else who stays out of it and lets them destroy each other.

Did something like that break out when Ann Coulter said Trump was the biggest wimp in Office since Dubya?

[Ragged Maw]

It's just that less privileged groups have started organizing more and speaking up more. The actions and words being called racist are, for the most part, actually racist - with the exception of white people calling out supposed racism against whites (also see: "Karen").

On that note, the whole “It’s only racist if you’re privileged, so don’t complain.” argument didn’t exactly encourage more potential “allies” to join the fight, so to speak.

[Mister Mets]

People get more upset about being called a racist than actual racism.

There are going to be a few reasons for this.

People are more likely to be upset about things that happen to them. The victim of a mugging is going to care more about that than about someone who suffered something worse.

There is general agreement that racism is wrong. So there is the idea that there would be a penalty for racism, while there isn't necessarily a penalty for calling someone racist when it isn't the case.

The word is also used very imprecisely. Conor Friedersdorf showed the problem, asking "A question about the word "racism" in journalism: if you had 280 characters or less to write a *New York Times* style guide entry that editors and writers would diligently consult and defer to when deciding whether or not to use the word, what definition would you put forth?" Sometimes when people talk about racism it's progressive white people talking about their own shortcomings. And sometimes it's the shortcomings of people who should be shunned by polite society, and will leave the world a better place with their deaths.

"But people like voter ID! and its a good wedge issue!" isn't really the great argument that someone thinks it is.

The question was why a party might go for it. And it wasn't the complete answer.

I just cant honestly see what purpose conservatism has in this world anymore frankly.

For a check against liberals.

I think if they said on this board what their party actually does, they'd be banned.

I'm a bit confused by this one.

Do you think standard Republican orthodoxy is so far beyond the pale on this message board that if someone were to express it, they would be banned?

Or that it would be seen as lying?

The term was thrown around so often that more and more people (especially those accused) started doubting that such accusations were in good faith. Seeing it more as a low ad-homenim tactic to quash dissent (and in some cases, social standing) by weaponizing the crowds against those marked. So at the very least, it got less people supporting or voting for Trump’s opponent - one who unfortunately, inadvertently poured gasoline on the proverbial fire by labeling an entire voter base as ”racists” and ”deplorables”, among other things.

Also, already having wealth from day 1 helps to a degree. Influence and all that.

It's tougher to take it seriously as an allegation when it's exaggerated in the past.

It's just that less privileged groups have started organizing more and speaking up more. The actions and words being called racist are, for the most part, actually racist - with the exception of white people calling out supposed racism against whites (also see: "Karen").

The big change in recent politics has been the radicalization of liberal white people, not any change in the attitudes of racial minorities.

https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/182598...ing-trump-2020

[Gray Lensman]

Nevada and Colorado have joined the Pacific Compact for reopening. Since the first wave of anyone coming to Nevada is likely to be people from California, it's a move that makes sense.