All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Gray Lensman]

It was meant as a quip. But I trust the FBI more than the CIA. I trust both more than traitor Trump.

Trump is over 15000 verifiable lies since becoming President. At this point, if he said the sky was blue I would probably start walking to a window in order to check on reflex alone.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of the former U.S. Congressman from Indiana, Dan Burton, a former head of the House Oversight Committee who used that body to conduct witch hunts against the Clinton administration all through the 1990s, including at one point subpoenaing the entire Christmas Card list of Bill and Hillary. Burton also claimed the Clintons had former aide Vince Foster murdered, conducting a recreation of his death using a cantaloupe and handgun in his yard for assembled reporters, and further enflamed the insanity of conspiracy theorists by releasing false data about what happened at the Branch Davidian compound, in Waco, Texas, during the cult’s standoff with the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. After becoming appreciably more quiet during the Bush administration, in 2009, the uglier side of Rep. Burton returned, as he started signing on to Birther Bills, making false statements about Barack Obama conducting deals to get George Soros rich, and in the middle of a Congressional hearing on autism, trying to use data gathered by disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield to prove a link between autism and vaccines. Burton finally retired in 2012, and is now in his eighties.

In both 2015, in 2016, and in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles of Ada Fisher, a highly anti-gay member of the Republican National Committee and failed political candidate from North Carolina who unsuccessfully ran for office to be a U.S. Senator in 2002 against Elizabeth Dole , then cried foul to complain that she wasn’t allowed to participate in television forums. In 2004 and 2006 she attempted to challenge Congressman Mel Watt in North Carolina’s 12th District, losing handily both times. Fisher supports the nutty idea of adopting a flat tax, and on immigration, runs to the right of even former President Bush, whose guest worker program, she classified as “amnesty”. Fisher has a few typical conservative positions like how she is opposed to gay marriage. Her argument, though, seems limited to the fact that gays should have to wait, because ”Marriage ought to be between one man and one woman at one time, and I'm still waiting.” Fisher’s tantrum after losing to Elizabeth Dole was not a run-off, but somewhat of a pattern of behavior, as she also threw a fit when a candidate other than the one she supported for the Chairman of the Republican National Committee won back in 2009. About six weeks into Michael Steele being elected, Fisher was trying to drum up support to get his resignation, in effect asking for the election to be conducted again until a result she liked occurred. The same thing happened in the 2015 GOP Primary race in Mississippi for Thad Cochran’s U.S. Senate seat, when she wanted Reince Priebus to investigate how Chris McDaniel could have lost to Cochran, volunteering herself to look into “racism” that led to Cochran’s victory. Fisher’s notorious about being so reactionary on both sides of the aisle, and if you need another example, there was the time in 2010 when she e-mailed the media a link to the following Youtube video she saw a poorly edited Youtube video that admitted to being made of “snippets” of President Obama, but Fisher seemed generally conflicted if it was legitimate, or made of out of context sound bites when her message asked, ”This tape should be investigated and verified. I am not an expert ontapes but if this isn't doctored we have a constitutional issue of humongous proportions to deal with.” That wasn’t Fisher’s only time taking shots at President Obama, by any stretch. In 2008, while campaigning for Sen. John McCain during his presidential run, Fisher tried saying that Obama should never be president because he admitted to using marijuana in his book, and that should disqualify him from the office. The media asked her how President Clinton could have held office, after his own discussions about marijuana, and all of the discussions about President Bush’s previous cocaine use, and she actually tried saying that it’s okay for a presidential candidate to have used drugs… so long as they lied about it and never admitted it. The last we heard from her, she was putting out editorials where she seemly like she was trying to convince herself that Donald Trump wouldn't keep ties to his businesses to avoid conflicts of interests (Hint: He didn’t exactly, because his children still have controlling interests in his company, and get regular updates from dad). If you were wondering to what depths of selling out Fisher might stoop to, well, in August 2017, only days after the attacks by Neo-Nazis and White Nationalists in Charlottesville, she was oddly silent about the bigotry and hatred of the Alt-Right. What she was far more concerned with, and wrote an op-ed about was seeing an African American woman but a noose around the neck of a Confederate statue in Durham, North Carolina, and bring it down. At this point, the question isn’t if Fisher is drinking the GOP’s Kool-Aid, but whether she has drank so much that she is, at this point, the Kool-Aid Man.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Tony Cornish, a former police chief, and now former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, serving District 23B from 2003 through 2017. Over the course of his last decade in office, his voting record grew more and more extreme, with four separative votes to block minimum wage increases, votes for stricter Voter ID Laws to suppress the vote, plenty of strict anti-choice legislation including bills he co-sponsored, his vote for transphobic bathroom legislation to be applied at schools, and not just a vote against legalizing same sex marriage, but his vote to ban same sex marriage completely, instead. But that isn’t the reason why we’ve chosen to take time out to profile Tony Cornish a little over a year after he left office. No, we’re highlighting him for being a serial sexual harasser while in office, including not just a Democratic colleague, but other staffers from both sides of the aisle. After Democratic Rep. Erin Quade came forward, a lobbyist came forward and said she received a string of texts from Cornish trying to solicit sexual favor s from her. At first, Cornish denied all the accusations, but when the former Minnesota Speaker of the House came forward to say he had warned Cornish about similar behavior back in 2012, over two dozen other accusers came forward to report him for sexual harassment, and the media noticed Cornish’s ex-wife filed a protection order against him back in 1990… Only then did Tony Cornish resign. As such we will retire his profile at this time to go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 809-40, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Todd Rokita

Welcome to what is the 809th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be discussing Todd Rokita, the former U.S. House Representative from Indiana’s 4th Congressional District from 2011 to 2019. In 2016, he attempted to succeed Mike Pence to be the next Governor of Indiana, but lost in the GOP Primary to Eric Holcomb. But it was back in 2000 that Todd Rokita first cut his teeth in Republican politics by serving as legal counsel for several Florida counties during the lengthy recount into the presidential election that got handed to George W. Bush, and his interest in manipulating elections continued on into his tenure as Indiana Secretary of State in 2005, when he pushed for that state’s Voter ID law to help suppress the vote.

On policy, Todd Rokita might not have embarrassed himself on cable news as often as some of his counterparts, but he was representing the second most conservative district in all of Indiana, and thus could support Donald Trump’s Muslim ban, or go to a town hall and declare that admitting a link between human activity and climate change was “arrogant”.

So based on that, it’s of little surprise that his voting record looked a little something like this:

• On January 5th, 2011, Rep. Rokita votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He voted for almost every attempt to do so since.
• On February 18th, 2011, Gus Rokita votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
• March 17th, 2011: Rep. Rokita votes to cut funding to National Public Radio.
• September 15th, 2012: Rep. Rokita votes for the "No More Solyndras Act".
• September 21st, 2012: Rokita votes for the "Stop the War on Coal Act".
• January 15th, 2013: Todd Rokita votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
• February 28th, 2013: Rokita votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
• June 19th, 2013: Todd Rokita votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Rokita votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the vote came up seventeen days later to re-open the government, Rokita voted to keep it closed.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Todd Rokita goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
• July 10th, 2014: Rokita votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• January 22nd, 2015: Todd Rokita votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
• February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Rokita votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• March 3rd, 2015: Rokita votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
• September 11th, 2015: Rokita votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• September 18th, 2015: Rep. Rokitavotes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
• November 19th, 2015: Rokita votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
• February 2nd, 2016: Todd Rokita votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
• February 16th, 2017: Rokita votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Todd Rokita votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order. We feel safer already.
• May 4th, 2017: Rokita votes for the GOP's healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partum depression, and sexual assault as "pre-existing conditions". Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Rokita would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Todd Rokita votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• October 3rd, 2017: Rokita votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Todd Rokita votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
• February 18th, 2018: Rep. Rokita and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.

[worstblogever]

In 2018, Rokita attempted to get elected to the U.S. Senate, and got into an ugly, ugly primary against Mike Braun and Luke Messer. It wasn’t just the fact that Rokita was pathetic enough to campaign in a MAGA hat with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump, or all the mudslinging he dove into… it perhaps was not the best idea to air an ad featuring Rokita shooting an AR-15 only days after the Parkland shooting, spliced inbetween footage of Colin Kaepernick kneeling to protest police violence during the national anthem at NFL games. But Rokita also had ghosts from his time serving as Indiana’s Secretary of State coming back to haunt him, as it was revealed he was using state resources to aid himself in winning elections, effectively using a record of political donations as his own personal rolodex. Rokita even tried winning over Republican primary voters by denying the American intelligence communities analysis that Russia interefered in the 2016 election, and defended Donald Trump after he was completely dominated by Vladimir Putin at their Helsinki summit. In the end, he only got 30% of the vote, losing by double digits and is now out of office. We’d like to wish him the finest of “Good Riddance” greetings, and hope that he continues to bugger off.

[numberthirty]

For those of you who are for Bernie, I have some questions. Full disclosure, I was a registered Republican but I am going to change that to Independent. I'm no longer going to be sucked in by one establishment or the other. Instead, I will choose who the best person, in my mind, who most aligns with my views. I'm sick and tired of our country's war mongering and bailouts of corporate billionaires. I want our country to help our citizens and stop destroying our families, middle class and poor.

I like what Tulsi stands for in regards to stopping the US from being the world police and dumping trillions into the pockets of war mongers. But I also like Bernie's views on a lot of things. I don't agree with everything he says, but I do love his ideas on healthcare, free college tuition (and forgiveness of said tuition to those who already have the debt), mass incarceration, legalization of marijuana, capital punishment, cutting military spending, supporting veterans and some others.

I always thought of Bernie as a flake and nutcase (sorry). I came to that conclusion based on others assumptions, instead of doing my own research. I have listened to Bernie, read about him and concluded for myself that I like a lot of what he is saying. I also plan on going to one of his upcoming rallies.

My biggest concern (and fear) in supporting Bernie, is that I'm worried that if he were elected he would not stand up to the establishment and would cave in to them and just go along to get along, once he was in the WH. I see some times where he could stick by some people that he should, but doesn't because of pressure from the left. Or he has a chance in the debates to go after his opponents, but decides not to (see Hilary in 2016 and this year).

Can the Bernie supporters here please assure me that he would not, in your opinion, cave to the establishment once in the WH? Also, I get mixed signals from him when it comes to being isolationists. He says, like Tulsi, that he wants to cut back on our military spending (which I like, because that money could and should be used for funding programs for the poor and other projects), but then he says he would take down Assad because he's using tanks and his military to hurt his own people. I guess I don't get that logic. If we had to stop every dictator that did this, we would never be able to cut back on military spending and would have to keep sending our troops into harms way over in other countries.

Can you all please enlighten me on these two issues and any others that you may feel would help me understand Bernie better? Thank you

As a Sanders supporter, I have to ask.

What is it(exactly, if you could) that you saw that suggests that Sanders might?

[Tendrin]

Lawl.

https://twitter.com/fox32news/status...37321715630080

OK, BOOMER: A new study has found that baby boomers, or people between the ages of 55 to 73, are the most sensitive generation.

[numberthirty]

Since this comes up...

https://www.npr.org/2019/12/16/78823...emocratic-race

NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll: Biden, Sanders Lead 2020 Democratic Race

Notably, though, Sanders is the candidate who narrowly leads with nonwhite voters, 29% to 26%, over Biden. This might be because of Sanders' strength with younger voters of color and Latinos. But the margins of error with these subgroups are too high to draw any definitive conclusions.

[numberthirty]

While that is not exactly "Open And Shut...", the idea that Sanders' minority support is not on solid footing does not seem to be reflected in those numbers.

[numberthirty]

Also worth noting in that piece...

And by a 49% to 42% margin, they say it's more important to have a nominee who will move in a different direction from former President Obama's policies. Among those who think it's more important to move past Obama's policies, Sanders leads the field with 28%, followed by Biden at 17%, Warren at 16% and Buttigieg at 9%.

[numberthirty]

Haven't seen this mentioned...

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcar...ent-in-win-for

Congress reaches deal to fund gun violence research for first time in decades

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Haven't seen this mentioned...

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcar...ent-in-win-for

I’m surprised. Didn’t think this would ever happen.

[numberthirty]

I’m surprised. Didn’t think this would ever happen.

To be honest, I thought I misread the title the first time that I saw it.

[Tendrin]

I’m surprised. Didn’t think this would ever happen.

Yeah, that's a win. A small one. A needed one.

[Tendrin]

Since winning a landslide reelection victory in May, Modi has moved swiftly to implement his party’s agenda of emphasizing Hindu primacy in India, a diverse democracy home to more than 1.3 billion people.
Hindu nationalist ideologues view India’s history as a series of humiliations — centuries of rule by Muslim kings followed by British colonialism — that must be redressed.

Demonstrators in India’s northeast region Dec. 11 protested as Parliament passed a controversial law to include religion as a criterion for nationality. (Associated Press)
They despise the secularism embraced by India’s founders, who sought to create a country where all faiths were treated equally. And they accuse India’s previous leaders of pandering to religious minorities, especially Muslims, in search of votes.

Modi’s radical move on Kashmir takes India into uncharted territory
Now, in just months, Modi has achieved some of their top objectives. In August, he reversed seven decades of policy in Kashmir, stripping the Muslim-majority state of its autonomy and instituting a crackdown that endures to this day. Last month, India’s Supreme Court greenlighted the construction of a grand Hindu temple at the site of a 16th-century mosque Since winning a landslide reelection victory in May, Modi has moved swiftly to implement his party’s agenda of emphasizing Hindu primacy in India, a diverse democracy home to more than 1.3 billion people.
Hindu nationalist ideologues view India’s history as a series of humiliations — centuries of rule by Muslim kings followed by British colonialism — that must be redressed.

Demonstrators in India’s northeast region Dec. 11 protested as Parliament passed a controversial law to include religion as a criterion for nationality. (Associated Press)
They despise the secularism embraced by India’s founders, who sought to create a country where all faiths were treated equally. And they accuse India’s previous leaders of pandering to religious minorities, especially Muslims, in search of votes.

Modi’s radical move on Kashmir takes India into uncharted territory
Now, in just months, Modi has achieved some of their top objectives. In August, he reversed seven decades of policy in Kashmir, stripping the Muslim-majority state of its autonomy and instituting a crackdown that endures to this day. Last month, India’s Supreme Court greenlighted the construction of a grand Hindu temple at the site of a 16th-century mosque illegally razed by Hindu extremists in 1992.

Tell me some more about how India's current slide into fascism is no big deal and totally predictable and I'm only concerned out of white guilt over our treatment of muslims.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...6da_story.html

It should be noted that this law is primarily about addressing already mostly undocumented lifetime Indian citizens and denying them citizenship since they're Muslim.

We should be very alarmed about what's happening in one of the world's largest democracies.

[Theleviathan]

While that is not exactly "Open And Shut...", the idea that Sanders' minority support is not on solid footing does not seem to be reflected in those numbers.

He's got solid footing. That poll is one of the more favorable for him out there, so I think it bears looking at the broader context - others are less favorable.

https://www.politico.com/2020-electi...didates/polls/

By this poll it's quite clear that Bernie's non-white support is heavily latino. Biden has a heavy advantage in the black community. Buttigieg and Warren are more exclusively white voters.