All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[numberthirty]

The Clinton era is basically another world as far as politics are concerned. Bringing up Obama, however, merely proves my point given how both his victories were over Republican (and a Democrat in the 2008 primaries) candidates chosen for their 'electability' and supposed ability to sway unaffiliated voters.

Never mind that said era of "Centrist..." garbage got you mass incarceration.

Folks always seem to forget when they are on about how "Centrism..." wins you the election allowing you to shift "Left..." when you govern.

If mass incarceration is your shift "Left...", you can keep that garbage.

[worstblogever]

The only era the Trump administration is remotely comparable to is the Nixon or Reagan eras.

The former, for how corrupt a nationalist president was in it. The latter, for how corrupt the entire Cabinet was and setting records for prosecutions and indictments (now being rivaled, of course). The Trump administration seems to have both angles covered, and it's all under conservative leadership.

Now, if you want to contrast eras... sure, mention Obama. Or mention how desperate the GOP was to impeach Clinton, but could only come up with "lying about a blowjob" in terms of actual impeachable offenses.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" featured a profile of former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a voraciously anti-immigrant Republican who not only signed SB1070 into law, but had done FOX interviews where she said illegal immigration was a form of "terrorist attack", insisted repeatedly that illegal immigrants were decapitating Arizonans and headless bodies were being found in the desert (even while her law enforcement agencies were debunking her), but perhaps it became clear she might have a racist streak a mile wide when she wanted courses on Native American and Hispanic culture banned because they "breed treason" When accused by some critics of having policies not unlike the Nazis (-1 points for them breaking Godwin's Law), Brewer defended herself by saying her dad died fighting against the Nazis in World War II. Fact checkers, though, found out her father died of lung cancer in 1955, which left her scrambling even more. Details on the case are sketchy, because days before she took office, a judge did a solid and sealed them. Brewer left office in January, and left the Grand Canyon State far worse than she inherited it from Janet Napolitano, and her career in politics may have come to a close, save for sticking around as a consultant (although I don't see what insight she could give anyone about public speaking or avoiding controversy, at this point). Brewer has served as a campaign proxy for Donald Trump here in the 2016 elections, where last week, she managed to stir up a hornets' nest by laughing off the idea that Trump might lose Arizona by saying, "Latinos don't vote."

In 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Joe Carr, a former member of the Tennessee state legislature who challenged Senator Lamar Alexander for his U.S. Senate seat in 2014. Back n 2012, though, Carr weighed in on the controversy over Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" remarks telling a reporter that not only did he feel Akin shouldn't drop out of the race, he felt that Akin's assessment of women having a way to shut down pregnancies conceived in rape was true. Carr actually tried claiming Lamar Alexander was "supporting amnesty" on illegal immigration, and his campaign webpage feaured bizarre ideas to do things like restore the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and his thoughts on foreign policy included a Thomas Jefferson quote that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Which is rather dumb interpretation when you consider it was written to discuss the Shays rebellion that took place prior to the Constitutional Convention, and really shouldn't be used as a justification to go send our armed forces off to die like a blood sacrfice. Anyway, Carr ended up losing to Alexander, but it was closer than you'd think, with him getting 41% of the vote. Its real success, though, was how he exploited his campaign to funnel money to his daughters, who were paid $6500 a month working on his campaign. He ended up out of the Tennessee state legislature in January of 2015, and followed that with a losing bid to run for chairman of the Tennessee GOP.

In 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" featured a profile of Jim Spurlino, a candidate for U.S. House from Ohio's 8th Congressional District, who claimed, without any evidence, that he received an anonymous letter threatening to blackmail him should he run for office, and then stalking his children on social media. While that in and of itself is a little bit chaotic for a candidate to tell the media in an interview, Spurlino actually chose to make it the center point of his whole campaign for Congress, and ran ads where he talked about shady back-door deals like this. This may or may not have had something to do with the fact that Spurlino was discovered to be a deadbeat dad who was nearly $24,000 behind on child support payments, as the local media discovered. And while Spurlino was also a political outsider, he had some pretty radical views on issues, especially abortion where he falsely accused Planned Parenthood of ”selling baby parts” and was “pro-life from conception”. Suffice to say, he did not fare well in the GOP Primary to replace Speaker Boehner, finishing fourth with 6.9% of the vote in a field of no less than fifteen Republicans.

It was in both 2017, and in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Wendy Rogers, who not only failed to get herself elected to the Arizona State Senate during the 2010 Tea Party Wave then failed in the past four elections to get herself elected to Congress, first losing in 2012 in the GOP Primary for Arizona’s 9th Congressional District, then in 2014 in the general election to Kyrsten Sinema for that district, before carpet-bagging her way down to try to get elected further north in Arizona’s 1st District and lose in the primary to the child-abusing anti-gay, anti-immigrant sheriff who dates gay illegal immigrants, Paul Babeu in 2016, before losing to Democratic Congressman Tom O’Halleran in 2018 after petitioning voters to “send Trump some back up”, while calling Democrats “radical, crazy, and unhinged” in campaign ads. Now, why is it that Wendy Rogers has repeatedly failed to win office? Well, she touts her experience as an Air Force veteran, which is always good. On the other hand, she runs fear-mongering ads that should come with trigger warnings like when she included a few seconds of footage of ISIS beheading James Foley in her 2014 campaign video. Even the traditionally conservative Arizona Republic condemned that choice, especially because Foley lived in Phoenix, where his loved ones could get triggered whenever their local television programming went to commercials during election season. After Rogers’ campaign manager actually argued why this bit of Islamophobic propaganda wasn’t so bad…they changed the ad so instead it showed head lice, because once Kyrsten Sinema pointed out there were polls out that said Congress was less popular than head lice (and was correct). Her insane campaign tactics have continued, but this time may have proved fruitful, as she won the GOP Primary in 2018 for this seat by running attack ads against fellow Republican, and State Senator Steve Smith, claiming the modeling agency he works for “specializes in under age girls” and is “linked to sex trafficking” (law enforcement actually spoke in Smith’s defense on this). Anyway, this was hardly the only flag we saw on Wendy Rogers, because looking at her issue stances, on immigration, she supported building a physical wall along the U.S. Mexico border (which explains why she campaigned with Trump in Arizona), opposed migrant resettlement including from Syria (of course she does, she’s scared of those Muslims doing all the terrorisms!), and even pushing for English to be made the official language of the United States, which has kind of repeatedly been established as unconstitutional (and the first historic time was in her home state, to boot). Her national security policy is her belief that the American government was doing nothing to help Christians being attacked by ISIS, but America was committing “suicide” by allowed Muslim refugees in “without screening”, in spite of the quite rigorous screening process in place. In May of 2018, she compared the fact that abortion is legal in the United States to… oh… you know… the Holocaust. It’s these sorts of details that have made Rogers a five-time loser. We have yet to hear of her running for office in 2020, and as such, we’ll set aside 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 796-40, since this was established in July 2014.)

[WestPhillyPunisher]

White House Official Who Listened To Trump Call Says Readout Had Key Omissions: Report

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman told House lawmakers he was deeply concerned by the call between Trump and the leader of Ukraine.

**********

Chuck Schumer ‘Increasingly Worried’ Trump Will Shut Down Government Over Impeachment

“He always likes to create diversions,” the Senate minority leader said Tuesday. That hadn't occurred to me, but yeah, I wouldn't put it past Trump to hold government workers hostage in exchange for ending the hearings.

**********

Republicans Defend Key Witness Who Expressed Concern About Trump’s Ukraine Call

“I’m not going to question the patriotism of any of the people coming forward,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. Hmmm! Didn't expect to hear words like that from Moscow Mitch. Meanwhile....

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Trump Allies Smear Decorated Veteran Testifying In Impeachment Inquiry

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was listening in on the president’s July 25 call to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky. Which, in turn, led to this....

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MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Calls Fox News Attacks On Veteran Official ‘Chickens**t’

Wallace also threw shade at Jared Kushner by pointing out that Alexander Vindman was at least able to pass a background check. Yup! That summed up the actions of Republicans perfectly.

[worstblogever]

Randy Baumgardner

Welcome to what is the 796th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be taking a look at Randy Baumgardner, a stunt double for villains in old-timey Western flicks, and a former Colorado state legislator from 2009 through 2019, who spent his first four years in office in the state House, before moving on to the Colorado State Senate in 2013.

Baumgardner was a hard-right hardliner, to be sure, who touted States’ rights to rage against the Obama administration whenever possible, once sponsored legislation to try and reclassify “person” in murder cases to include fetuses as an end-around against Roe v. Wade, and also traveled to Arizona in the hopes of bringing an anti-immigrant racial profiling bill like SB 1070 to Colorado.


But, the main reason we were meaning to profile Randy Baumgardner was the multiple credible accusations of sexual harassment levied against him (What? An anti-choice fanatic with issues towards women? THE HELL YOU SAY.) that forced his resignation. Taking a look at his photo, and then hearing that he slapped a woman on the ass without her consent seems to track, and we can visualize him going, “YEE-HAW!” before threatening anyone who has a problem with it like Yosemite Sam in a Looney Tunes picture.

Kinda makes this an easy profile to recap.
 

[worstblogever]

Chuck Schumer ‘Increasingly Worried’ Trump Will Shut Down Government Over Impeachment

“He always likes to create diversions,” the Senate minority leader said Tuesday. That hadn't occurred to me, but yeah, I wouldn't put it past Trump to hold government workers hostage in exchange for ending the hearings.

I predicted that as something I was worried about like 6 weeks ago. And I'm still thinking Trump's going to do it, after the House and Senate agree, but Trump just vetoes all budgets to cause a shutdown to be an ***hole.

And it's not going to distract people, it's only going to make government workers who weren't supporting impeachment get on board with impeaching the f***er because they need their paychecks, and maybe Mike Pence wouldn't block 'em just to be a spiteful douchebag.

[Tami]

A Nazi flag was hanging in a corrections department window. California officials are trying to find out why.

The flag was unmistakable — even through a partially closed window, even from across the street.

A black swastika, set against a white background, framed by red.

Displayed anywhere, the image is jarring. But the flag was glaring through half-closed blinds at a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation building near downtown Sacramento, prompting outrage at the open exhibition of one of the world’s most infamous hate symbols on public, government-owned property.

“That’s cute, that’s real cute, City of Sacramento, letting people like that work in your state buildings,” said one passerby, adding an expletive, in a video of the office window he uploaded to Imgur. The caption reads, “This is a trashy way to represent this beautiful city, especially in a state building.”

The flag hung above a pair of SS bolts, a white supremacist symbol inspired by Nazi Germany’s police force, and other symbols of hate, said Michael Johnson, the man who local media said made the video, which has been viewed tens of thousands of times.

[ed2962]

The Clinton era is basically another world as far as politics are concerned. Bringing up Obama, however, merely proves my point given how both his victories were over Republican (and a Democrat in the 2008 primaries) candidates chosen for their 'electability' and supposed ability to sway unaffiliated voters.

Early on the pundits were saying that Obama had no chance and that people in middle America would not vote for a black man. Some folks were saying that he should either drop out and run in the next election or team up with Hilary as her VP ( this includes many black voters). It wasn't until after he did well in certain areas over Clinton that some folks got on board.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I predicted that as something I was worried about like 6 weeks ago. And I'm still thinking Trump's going to do it, after the House and Senate agree, but Trump just vetoes all budgets to cause a shutdown to be an ***hole.

And it's not going to distract people, it's only going to make government workers who weren't supporting impeachment get on board with impeaching the f***er because they need their paychecks, and maybe Mike Pence wouldn't block 'em just to be a spiteful douchebag.

Even though Republicans got hammered every damn time they authored a shutdown, they'll sit idly by while Trump threatens to play that bad hand yet again. And yeah, pulling that dick move will only bring more workers over to the impeachment side once the money stops coming in, especially around Christmas time.

[Tami]

Even though Republicans got hammered every damn time they authored a shutdown, they'll sit idly by while Trump threatens to play that bad hand yet again. And yeah, pulling that dick move will only bring more workers over to the impeachment side once the money stops coming in, especially around Christmas time.

When Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th avenue, it turns out the the someone he is going to shoot is himself.

[Tami]

U.S. slowdown deepens as economic growth slips to 1.9 percent pace in third quarter

The U.S. economy cooled over the summer, growing at a 1.9 percent annualized pace from July through September, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, the latest sign that the slowdown is deepening.

Economists anticipated slightly weaker growth after President Trump announced a dramatic expansion of his trade war in early August, spooking business leaders and deterring them from making major investments during a period of so much uncertainty.

Consumer spending continues to power the economy, but business investment has slipped sharply, falling 3 percent in the third quarter, the biggest drop since the end of 2015. This is the second straight quarter of contracting business investment, as companies pull back amid uncertainty. Spending on both structures and equipment was deeply negative.

Slow growth abroad and problems at big employers such as Boeing and General Motors also were a drag on growth. Tens of thousands of workers went on strike at GM in September, halting most production at the company. And Boeing, the U.S.'s largest exporter, remains under pressure after two fatal crashes of its 737 Max jets in the past year.

[Theleviathan]

Early on the pundits were saying that Obama had no chance and that people in middle America would not vote for a black man. Some folks were saying that he should either drop out and run in the next election or team up with Hilary as her VP ( this includes many black voters). It wasn't until after he did well in certain areas over Clinton that some folks got on board.

Which parts of the country did Obama surprisingly win over again? Right...more "centrist" type states.

Centrist isnt even the right word. Just less fringey.

[Theleviathan]

I don't know about anyone else but IMO Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were mostly centerists and they are the most popular presidents of recent times. The thing is that the nature of the centerist have evolved over the years to accept things like gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana.

Yup. And centrism is really just being independent. Less driven by ideology and more by pragmatism. So your voting principles are more flexible than the rigid fringes.

As forsaken points out, the real advantage is that right fringes hold their noses and vote. Left fringes clutch their unicorn ideas and pout.

[Tami]

Trump Thanks Jeff Van Drew For Opposing Impeachment Inquiry

For now, Jeff Van Drew is a Democrat in President Donald Trump's good graces. President Trump praised Van Drew on Twitter on Sunday after the congressman reiterated to "Fox & Friends" that he opposes impeaching the president.

Van Drew is the only Democrat in New Jersey's Congressional delegation opposed to an impeachment inquiry. The 2nd District representative said he believes there's a lack of evidence that Trump did anything that rises to an impeachable offense.

Lets' see how long he keeps that view. Lets' see how long he keeps his seat in Congress.

[4saken1]

Never mind that said era of "Centrist..." garbage got you mass incarceration.

Folks always seem to forget when they are on about how "Centrism..." wins you the election allowing you to shift "Left..." when you govern.

If mass incarceration is your shift "Left...", you can keep that garbage.

While overall, the crime bill was a bad thing which Clinton now regrets and has apologized for, it did come with a ban on certain assault weapons and provided sorely needed funding to many local police forces. Had a Republican been in office at the time, it would have passed anyways, except without the ban. Clinton realized that he was the President at the time for Democrats and Republicans, and had to pass legislation for all Americans.