All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Michael Watkins]

https://news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-...jtc_news_index



And this is where you are, my american friends!

pretty bold of Perry to call Trump imperfect to his face. maybe that's why he resigned.

[worstblogever]

or it was the scheming to rig the primary basically telling a chunk of the base that our opinions didn't matter. but by all means tell the truth about Trump's corruption.

I mean... I think a lot more family thanksgiving dinners this year are going to have that one MAGA uncle be oddly quiet. Because discussing Trump being a criminal is non-controversial opinion. Most of the cabinet are admitting it, and the only argument left is if the crime is impeachable or not (it is).

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Jimmy Kimmel Pranked Trump Supporters Into Defending Richard Nixon's Crimes, And It Was Way Too Easy

But those older Trump supporters found out they were PIIIISSSSSED lol. They hate being mocked for things like this.

[Tami]

U.S. Resumes Large-Scale Operations Against ISIS in Northern Syria

MANAMA, Bahrain — United States troops have resumed large-scale counterterrorism missions against the Islamic State in northern Syria, military officials say, nearly two months after President Trump’s abrupt order to withdraw American troops opened the way for a bloody Turkish cross-border offensive.

The new operations show how the military is following Mr. Trump’s orders first to withdraw from Syria and then to narrow the mission to protecting Syria’s oil fields — but then also returning to its original priority of rooting out militants on the battlefield.

“Over the next days and weeks, the pace will pick back up against remnants of ISIS,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the commander of the military’s Central Command, told reporters on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain on Saturday.

American-backed operations against ISIS fighters in the area effectively ground to a halt for weeks despite warnings from intelligence analysts that Islamic State militants were beginning to make a comeback from Syrian desert redoubts even though their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed during an American raid on Oct. 26.

Huh?

[Tami]

Former White House counsel Don McGahn must obey subpoena to testify before Congress, judge rules

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled late Monday that former White House counsel Don McGahn must obey a subpoena for his testimony issued by the House Judiciary Committee.

Federal District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said McGahn must appear before Congress but retains the ability to "invoke executive privilege where appropriate" during his appearance. The judge did not put her own ruling on hold, but the Trump administration will likely seek one to put the effect of her ruling on hold while it pursues an appeal.

"It is clear to this Court for the reasons explained above that, with respect to senior-level presidential aides, absolute immunity from compelled congressional process simply does not exist," Jackson said in her ruling.

[Robotman]

Jimmy Kimmel Pranked Trump Supporters Into Defending Richard Nixon's Crimes, And It Was Way Too Easy

The stupid, it burns us!!!

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Jimmy Kimmel Pranked Trump Supporters Into Defending Richard Nixon's Crimes, And It Was Way Too Easy

So much stupidity in that video. I felt my IQ drop several points while watching those morons.

[BeastieRunner]

Don McGahn must appear in front of Congress, orders Federal judge.

House Judiciary Committee gets to see him or they get a free evidence marker for the Articles of Impeachment.

This is the first time the HJC will see the first round of redacted Mueller evidence.

He supplied over 30 hours of testimony and 160 documents to Mueller.

[Mister Mets]

Don McGahn must appear in front of Congress, orders Federal judge.

House Judiciary Committee gets to see him or they get a free evidence marker for the Articles of Impeachment.

This is the first time the HJC will see the first round of redacted Mueller evidence.

He supplied over 30 hours of testimony and 160 documents to Mueller.

According to the court, McGahn doens't have to provide any evidence. They didn't address the privilege question so he could just say that.

[Dalak]

According to the court, McGahn doens't have to provide any evidence. They didn't address the privilege question so he could just say that.

They'll have him on camera dodging questions, that's worth something even if not as much as answers.

[worstblogever]

They'll have him on camera dodging questions, that's worth something even if not as much as answers.

I honestly wonder if McGahn doesn't want to dish on some things.

[Tami]

I honestly wonder if McGahn doesn't want to dish on some things.

McGahn has already spilled his guts to Mueller, if he doesn't talk about what is in the report, it will be bad for him.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Andre Bauer, who for years was a thorn in the side of former Governor Mark Sanford, and looked to supplant him after his "hike in the Appalachians". After spending years intimidating local police in the Palmetto State into not giving him tickets for extreme speeding violations, and crashing his own personal plane, he garnered further attention for pushing for state-issued license plates with a crucifix on them that said "I Believe", and condemned anyone opposed to this violation of the separation of church and state to hell. His campaign for governor was marred with ugly gaffes, like having former CSGOPOTD Jake Knotts say that his opponent, Nikki Haley, "wasn't really a Christian", and a "raghead", dragging as many men out of the woodwork as he could to claim they had participated in adulterous affairs with Haley, and then Bauer himself comparing people on welfare to stray dogs. Needless to say, there's a reason that people now refer to her as "Governor Nikki Haley", and Andre Bauer went on to fail to be elected in South Carolina's 7th District two years later in 2012.

On this date in 2015, we published our original "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Stephen LaRoque, a former member of the North Carolina General Assembly who was an opponent of voting rights, gay marriage, and climate change research who mocked protesters who appeared at the state capitol to protest the Republican-controlled legislature stripping unemployment benefits by offering them a job doing yard work for a pittance at his home. LaRoque tried to act like these workers were getting a sweet deal by being paid more than a dollar an hour than he gets paid as a legislator... but then word broke that LaRoque had been caught embezzling $2 million in ill-gotten interest on state agriculture loans since 1998. Since he was found guilty and sentenced to 24 months in prison

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Don Dwyer, a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates whose career when spiraling out of control, much like the vehicles Dwyer would often operate while inebriated. Dwyer’s first incident back in 2012 saw him crashing his boat, “The Legislator” while intoxicated, injuring himself, another adult, and four children with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit. Not even a year later, Dwyer was charged with DUI during a traffic stop where he failed three different sobriety tests and was cited for over 14 violations including driving without a license. Supposedly, that second incident went on record while Dwyer claimed to be in a treatment program, and while he was about to be sentenced for his drunken boat crash. Dwyer, though, had a reasonable explanation for losing himself to raging and irresponsible alcoholism… His wife left him and he was really sad because his colleagues had allowed gay marriages to start happening. In the small world of Maryland politics, maybe it should come as little surprise that Dwyer is also closely linked to the White Nationalist Michael Peroutka, as he once served as the executive director for Peroutka’s Institute on the Constitution. When you’re pals with a Neo-Confederate lunatic, it can’t come as a surprise that Dwyer ended up frequently submitting nullification legislation to any law he didn’t like. Or, y’know, the fact that Dwyer misinterprets the Constitution to think that people should have to pass religious tests to hold public office (The Supreme Court’s Tarasco v. Watkins ruling says otherwise). And, it’s real hard to feel bad for him for getting voted out of office considering that Dwyer responded to the Sandy Hook Massacre in early 2013 by holding a fundraiser where he auctioned off two assault rifles. Anyway, Don Dwyer failed to get re-elected in 2014, finishing a distant sixth in an eight candidate Republican primary for his seat. He did not run for any office in 2016.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in both 2017, as well as 2018, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Glenn Gruenhagen, a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives who first came onto the scene back in, you guessed it, the 2010 Tea Party Wave with but 51% of the vote. He since has somehow gathered a following among GOP voters, winning with at least 60% of the vote in 2012, 2014, and 2016. Perhaps his charm with his party lies in his radical social conservative views, like that he is “pro life from conception to natural death” and thinks that abortion somehow has “economic consequences” or that he claims the Affordable Care Act will lead to “healthcare rationing”, a frequently debunked myth the right likes to spread about the ACA that has been widely known to be a bogus talking point for around… oh, eight or nine years now.

Gruenhagen’s signature issue, however, is LGBT rights, or why we should not have them. Going back to his earliest days serving on a school council, Gruenhagen has been fervently anti-gay, often interrupting school board meetings to, non sequitur, rant about the evils of sodomy. In 2005, his own colleagues noted:

. . .With regularity Mr. Gruenhagen inserts his own biases into school board meetings with not the least provocation. Abortion, homosexuality, safe sex, evolution and countless other topics that do not appear on the school board’s agenda are brought to the fore, repeatedly, and forced onto unsuspecting school board members, administrators and individuals in the viewing audience. To do so is rude, a violation of school board decorum, a waste of attendees’ time and a disruption in the flow of otherwise quality public meetings. He ignores the expert advice of the superintendent of schools, two architectural firms, a construction management firm ... Incredible! . . .

Back in 2007, Gruenhagen also wrote an op-ed in his local paper, where he wanted to discuss Christmas… The topic he veered off for a moment to show how aghast he was at Congressman Keith Ellison being sworn in on a copy of the Koran and how it was a plot to have it someday take the place of the Bible, and somehow, he went even further off course from talking about celebrating the birth of Jesus and instead onto the dread topic of sodomy:

”When newly elected U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison insisted on using the Koran (Qur’an) at his oath of office, many citizens raised concerns about the symbolism of that event. . . . . I believe we see the disturbing and subtle influence of using the Koran to replace the Bible as our source of “civil and religious liberties.”

. . .Many have great concern for our country as we have drifted from the Judeo-Christian principles which gave us our liberties and freedoms, into the religion of atheism, such as the belief in abortion, pornography, sodomy as an orientation, evolution, etc. The corruption of atheistic values in our schools and government institutions leaves open the door for a foreign religious value system to influence our country’s culture. [emphasis added] Many patriotic Americans are concerned that our freedoms and liberties will be lost with the censorship and removal of our Creator who authored our liberty and freedoms. Is it important for publicly elected officials to place their hand on the Bible during their oath of office in spite of the American Civil Liberties Union? I’ll let you decide.”

At another point in 2013, Gruenhagen wrote a column online that linked any constituent who read it to an anti-gay hate group from Massachusetts that conveniently still reports sodomy is a crime (which, no, not after the Lawrence v. Texas ruling in 2003). The gist of all this rants is, by being allowed to exist, and marry people, and have any gay sex, the gay community are “coming after Christians with their gay agenda” and that homosexuality is just a form of “sexual addiction” based on an “unscientific lie”. And he will, at any point, reflexively start telling lies about homosexuals.

The “secret gay agenda” is hardly the only bizarre conspiracy theory Gruenhagen believes in, as he is also a climate change denier wielding a particularly abhorrent lack of logic, insisting that talk of it is “a United Nations fraud”, while making the idiotic accusation that those who do acknowledge evidence of climate change “believe that exhaling is causing global warning”, citing “facts he learned at CPAC”. And honestly, when the most sane idea you’ve pitched in government is to castrate sex offenders because “it worked on the farm”, maybe you shouldn’t be a legislator. That’s just us at CSGOPOTD thinking, though.

And, regrettably, Glenn Gruenhagen was elected to a fifth term in office in 2018, where we’re sure he’ll continue to try and block any LGBTQ rights bills that cross his path. Or any measure that has any common sense, even something as simple as a ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to include an equal rights amendment.

We’re hoping that 2020 will end Gruenhagen’s career at an even decade, and not allow him to linger and obstruct the positive progressive changes being enacted in Minnesota.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Pentagon Chief Says Trump Ordered End To Disciplinary Process Against Navy SEAL

Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher was convicted of posing in a photo with the corpse of an Iraqi teenager. What I don't understand is what prompted Trump to get involved in this mess from the get go.

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Washington Post Board: Donald Trump’s Presidency Has Entered A Dangerous New Phase

The newspaper’s board explained how administration officials are contributing to “the progressive erosion of core institutions.” And all to slurp a lunatic who'd throw the party under the nearest Greyhound in a New York minute to save his skin. Speaking of slurping....

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Lindsey Graham Refuses To Back Down On Investigating Bidens

The Trump enthusiast said he’s undeterred by former Vice President Joe Biden’s criticism. Anything to make Dolt45 happy, right, Linds?

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John Dean: ‘Trump’s Presidency Is Like A Mafia Soap Opera’

The famous Watergate witness suggested Rudy Giuliani is “blackmailing” Trump with his claims of having “insurance.” Trump probably watches The Sopranos for ideas on how to run the country like the criminal fiefdom he treats it as.

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Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Subpoena For Trump’s Tax Returns

The president’s legal team has until next month to formally request a hearing on the case over his financial records. Okay, let's see what happens when a Democrat retakes the presidency and refuses to release his (or her) tax returns.