All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[numberthirty]

I personally haven’t seen this interview but Biden seemed pretty polished at the debate and even won it over Sanders in my view. So, yeah, I will have to disagree quite vehemently. We always knew he was a gaffe machine, but certainly not more so than Trump. No intellectually honest observer can make such a claim.

Politely?

Kinda feels like you are trying to have a discussion that no one else is.

Trump being a guy who constantly trips over his own two feet does not somehow negate that Biden's recent behavior could be enough to hurt him in a race where he might not be able to afford it.

Two separate issues.

[Tazirai]

This is what happens when people don't care about people.

[Kal-El Summers]

Thank GOD someone up in Montgomery isn't a Trump-loving dipshit puppet like Kay Ivey. At the same time, the numbers he's citing in his letter are downright terrifying because there are so many ignorant morons in the more rural parts of Alabama that he might be underselling the number of cases by a good bit. I have quite a few relatives in the medical profession(including my younger brother) and I can only hope they don't catch it while working.

https://www.alreporter.com/2020/03/2...e-to-covid-19/

[TheDarman]

I agree with Xpac. There is something wrong with Biden, seriously. He is not a well man. I've worked with older patients in a nursing home and have seen, mental decline in people. They have moments of extreme lucidity. But are for the most part in decline most of the time. Biden is being kept out of sight for a reason.

Something is not right with him. I'm not trying to be an ass, but objectively something isn't there that used to be.
Him standing at a podium just chillin and saying nothing, just staring? That's not a stutter or a gaffe, that's loss of thought.

Confirmation bias is a helluva drug I guess.

But in other, happier news:

Bernie Sanders wins showdown with Republicans who wanted to kill unemployment provisions under the current bill. Lindsey Graham concedes and promises to vote for the bill as is.

[Tami]

Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook

The Trump administration, state officials and even individual hospital workers are now racing against each other to get the necessary masks, gloves and other safety equipment to fight coronavirus — a scramble that hospitals and doctors say has come too late and left them at risk. But according to a previously unrevealed White House playbook, the government should’ve begun a federal-wide effort to procure that personal protective equipment at least two months ago.

“Is there sufficient personal protective equipment for healthcare workers who are providing medical care?” the playbook instructs its readers, as one early decision that officials should address when facing a potential pandemic. “If YES: What are the triggers to signal exhaustion of supplies? Are additional supplies available? If NO: Should the Strategic National Stockpile release PPE to states?”

The strategies are among hundreds of tactics and key policy decisions laid out in a 69-page National Security Council playbook on fighting pandemics, which POLITICO is detailing for the first time. Other recommendations include that the government move swiftly to fully detect potential outbreaks, secure supplemental funding and consider invoking the Defense Production Act — all steps in which the Trump administration lagged behind the timeline laid out in the playbook.

“Each section of this playbook includes specific questions that should be asked and decisions that should be made at multiple levels” within the national security apparatus, the playbook urges, repeatedly advising officials to question the numbers on viral spread, ensure appropriate diagnostic capacity and check on the U.S. stockpile of emergency resources.

[Tazirai]

Confirmation bias is a helluva drug I guess.

But in other, happier news:

Bernie Sanders wins showdown with Republicans who wanted to kill unemployment provisions under the current bill. Lindsey Graham concedes and promises to vote for the bill as is.

I was literally about to post this... But in video form.

[aja_christopher]

Something is not right with him. I'm not trying to be an ass, but objectively something isn't there that used to be.
Him standing at a podium just chillin and saying nothing, just staring? That's not a stutter or a gaffe, that's loss of thought.

Then it says a lot about Sanders that Biden was able to defeat him easily both in votes and in the most recent debate.

You can't have it both ways -- if Biden is a "bad" candidate then that only accentuates the fact that Sanders is an even worse candidate to most voters.

If Biden is as "mentally deficient" as you claim then that just makes Sanders look even worse for losing to him -- consistently.

[Malvolio]

WHO offered them to US?

That's what I'm trying to find out!

[XPac]

Then it says a lot about Sanders that Biden was able to defeat him easily both in votes and in the most recent debate.

You can't have it both ways -- if Biden is a "bad" candidate then that only accentuates the fact that Sanders is an even worse candidate to most voters.

If Biden is as "mentally deficient" as you claim then that just makes Sanders look even worse for losing to him in the recent debate.

I won't say either candidate is "bad" .... but they both have flaws which potentially make it hard to beat Trump if the coronavirus can't stop him. Do you want a candidate which potentially which doesn't know what day of the week it is or what office he's running for, or do you want one which is a socialist? That's the decision the democrats were stuck with this year.

[JCAll]

Twitter user Polimath considers the argument for why people should not consider the health of the economy at all when lives are at stake.

The argument that we can't put a price on human life just isn't feasible. Otherwise, we would go broke as a nation keeping hopeless cases alive a little bit longer.

We're not talking about reattaching heads here, we're talking about not deliberately causing a plague outbreak that doesn't need to happen.

Food is still being produced, trucks are still running, the supply line is still in place. Not because of "Elves" like some dismissive Twitter ******* might think, but because people are putting their lives on the line to keep it up and keeping the nation functioning in a crisis. Because it they don't the bodies will pile even higher. I've yet to see one troll come up with a decent reason cut the quarantine short that doesn't involve stock prices, and until they have one they can all "go jump in a lake".

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Cathie Adams, a former National Republican Committee member, and Chairwoman of the Texas Republican Party who compared President Obama to Hitler, warning of the United Nations taking over the planet, refusing to support cancer research for fear it could lead to human cloning experiments, and that she blamed the high teenage pregnancy rate in Texas on illegal immigrants (and not her party's campaign against sex education unless it's abstinence only). She also was convinced extreme conservative Grover Norquist is a secret Muslim infiltrator... because he grew a beard. Rounding out Adams' kookiness was her belief that people were leaving states that had legalized marriage for ones that opposed it in droves, her quote that anti-abortion protesters screaming in the Texas capitol were "what evil must sound like emanating from the Pit of Hell", and that Muslim Americans were prepping for a "stealth jihad" and are waiting to "shoot you in the back". Adams is, and this is really saying something... too insane for even the Texas Republican Party, who jettisoned her after less than a year after her election, leaving her .

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Lee Terry, the former eight-term Congressman who represented Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999-2015. Who responded to a reporter's question during the 2013 Government Shutdown as to whether he was keeping his paycheck by saying, “Dang straight. I've got a nice house and a kid in college, and I'll tell you we cannot handle it. Giving our paycheck away when you still worked and earned it? That's just not going to fly.”Less than a year later, Rep. Terry voted against a minimum wage increase, then justified it by saying he "hadn't earned a pay raise since 2008." Make sure the guy with a six figure salary gets his first, right? Through his sixteen years in office, Terry's voting record included support for a constitutional amendment to allow government buildings to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments, voting for the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill, co-sponsoring a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, voting against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and even the Zadroga Bill, to provide healthcare for first responders from 9/11. Among many other heartless conservative stances. Even in his Republican-leaning district and in a year that strongly favored Republicans, Lee Terry was enough of a selfish tool that he was jettisoned from office in 2014, moving on to work as a lobbyist.

On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Tom Hooker, a former teacher and former three-term member of the Michigan House of Representatives who was swept into office with the help of the 2010 Tea Party Wave, and went out of office in a homophobic blaze of glory during his final term serving the Great Lakes State, who went from just being opposed to same sex couples adopting children and sponsoring a resolution in the Michigan state legislature to ignore the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling on same-sex marriage in December of 2015. He even led a rally at the state capitol where hundreds railed against the idea of marriage equality, and during his speech to the crowd, Tom Hooker showed the people of Michigan that he is in desperate need of a civics lesson, because he doesn't understand the point of the judicial branch, saying, “The Supreme Court is not a Legislature. Courts do not substitute their social and economic beliefs for the judgement of legislative bodies or elected and passed laws.” All right, that first sentence, at least, is true. But what Hooker seemed to be failing to understand is... Obergefell v. Hodges was not the passage of a same sex marriage law, but overturning any bans that were on it nationally, and thus legalizing it. It's... not complicated. Fighting a crusade that was going positively nowhere must have been frustrating for Hooker, because only a month later, he submitted a bill to attempt to defund Planned Parenthood clinics in Michigan. The proposed bill, however, was not written so well by Hooker (go figure) and would not have affected Planned Parenthood services in Michigan, because its funding comes from the federal government. Still, Hooker refused to admit his quest was in vain, telling the press, “I’ve voted against four state budgets where any state taxpayer funding went to an organization whose primary purpose is aborting unborn children… the goal of HB 4145 is to make this permanent.” Maybe, however, it should have been clear that Tom Hooker's hatred of Planned Parenthood had a poor basis in reality a few months earlier in September of 2015 when he claimed that Planned Parenthood teaches sex education "so they can drum up more abortion business". We'll note, of course that failure rates for condoms are actually much higher when people aren't educated on how to use them properly, and shake our heads in frustration that his man was ever allowed to teach. Throughout his legislative career, Hooker voted against minimum wage increases, and voted to drug test welfare recipients. Hooker was sent packing by term limits in 2016.

[TheDarman]

I won't say either candidate is "bad" .... but they both have flaws which potentially make it hard to beat Trump if the coronavirus can't stop him. Do you want a candidate which potentially which doesn't know what day of the week it is or what office he's running for, or do you want one which is a socialist? That's the decision the democrats were stuck with this year.

I think both of these drawbacks are insanely overplayed/exaggerated. Biden is fairly quick to correct his errors, which isn’t consistent with those suffering from even Mild Cognitive Impairment. Sanders is also not a “socialist” in the Venezuelan or Cuban sense. He is a democratic socialist in the vein of a left of center politician in the Netherlands. One of the fascinating things that I discussed with my Dutch friend during my Fund for American Studies time in Washington DC was about where I would fall on his country’s political spectrum. He said I would be pretty center-right, especially given my moderation on guns (I say treat them like cars). It was truly eye-opening for him to tell me that directly. And I don’t see many people pointing to the Netherlands as a problematic state.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Honestly as much as Pelosi and Shumer will get big credit for this bailout (and they should) , the guy who changed the course of destiny for things was this moment on Monday...



Now before this moment McConnell was trying to force a **** bill through. He was then trying to paint Democrats as non-caring for not passing this terrible bill which appealed more to corporations than those suffering and the very Hospitals who needed aid right now.

Then on Monday , Joe Manchin got up on Senate floor and just unleashed on Mitch McConnell. He literally unleashed on McConnell and those not caring about people on the front lines battling. The speech changed the course of things as it POPPED on social media and become a driving thing online. Manchin changed the tide and made people question just exactly what McConnell was doing.

Facing extreme criticism over this McConnell had to come more or less to the table and work a fair deal.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in both 2018, and 2019, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Jim Lucas, who has served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from District 69 since 2012 (he would not be challenged for his seat by a Democrat in either 2014 or 2016). In the six years he’s been in office, he has become synonymous in the Hoosier State with conservative douchebaggery. And it would be one thing if he was infamous for his voting record, but it’s honestly Lucas’ social media presence that tends to be what defines him as an unrepentant ***hole.

Not long after the 2016 election, Lucas twice made headlines for extremely misogynistic posts, the first when on Dec. 19, 2016 Lucas shared on his page the photo of a woman in a car trunk with the words, "Wanna know who loves you more your wife or your dog? Lock them both in your trunk and see who's happy to see you when you let them out". A month later in January of 2017, Lucas was criticized for a Facebook post he shared over the weekend that showed a police officer in riot gear pepper spraying a woman in the face, with the words: “Participation trophies, now in liquid form.” The Indiana GOP chose to not punish him for pushing the boundaries of good taste in spite of numerous complaints, and thus, Lucas didn’t learn his lesson to keep his stupid mouth shut about how much he resents women. So five months later, he took to Facebook again to attack a reporter from the Indianapolis Star, and wrote about how women who get raped are at fault for not doing enough to prevent their assault:

“After reading your front page article in the Sunday Star about the tragedy of rape, it would be nice to see a follow up article about the thousands of Hoosier women that are taking steps & learning how not to be a victim.”

But it isn’t just that Jim Lucas has issues with women that’s a bother, it’s his fascist ideas to attack the media by demanding that all journalists be licensed by state police to do their jobs. And of course, the guy who wants licensing of the press and wants the First Amendment restricted so much believes there should be zero restrictions on the Second Amendment, so everyone can have a tactical on it.

While what we’ve already listed should be more than enough to qualify Jim Lucas for a CSGOPOTD profile, we’ll also add that he has co-sponsored, and frequently votes for attempts by the Indiana GOP to drug test welfare recipients (even though when enacted, it catches next to no one on drugs on government assistance before courts overturn the laws as violations of the 4th Amendment), and didn’t just vote for a state constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between “one man and one woman” back in 2014, but was a sponsor of Indiana’s SB 101, the disastrous “religious freedom” bill that was written poorly enough that it amounted to legal discrimination.

Sadly, Lucas coasted to re-election in 2018, getting 60% of the votes in a three-way GOP Primary, and 69% against Democratic challenger Steve Schoettmer. He has not kept his foot out of his mouth online, having responded to the news of an African American man pleading guilty to rape charges in court by posting noose emojis under the article.

This would be in Indiana, the state where at one point a century ago, 30% of white men had a membership in the Ku Klux Klan. So there’s no unseemly history with lynchings and the state, or anything. The Indiana GOP have taken the bold step of getting a primary challenger for Lucas… HAHAHAHA, just kidding, they’re continuing to do their best to let this piece of garbage coast into a long, disgraceful career, that is quite on-brand for the current white-nationalist version of the Republican Party that’s developed over the past decade or so.

[aja_christopher]

I won't say either candidate is "bad" .... but they both have flaws which potentially make it hard to beat Trump if the coronavirus can't stop him. Do you want a candidate which potentially which doesn't know what day of the week it is or what office he's running for, or do you want one which is a socialist? That's the decision the democrats were stuck with this year.

It has nothing to do with what certain politically biased individuals "want" -- it's about who won the primaries and the last debate.

People keep pushing this narrative that Biden "doesn't know what day of the week it is" which is both slanderous and blatantly biased.

I could just as easily point out that Sanders looks like a slovenly old homeless man who finally decided to buy a suit and run for office.

It would be biased but it's true -- to me he looks and often acts like a slovenly angry old homeless man who decided to buy a suit and run for office.

Even so, if he wins the most votes/debates then he's who the people want and it's self-defeating to keep attacking him based on personal bias.

Biden does know what day of the week it is and what office he's running for -- namely the one Americans nominated him for over Sanders.

Sanders supporters real problem isn't with Biden because they will attack any candidate who opposes Sanders with similar lies and vitriol.

It's with the American voter who doesn't share their political views or buy their propaganda, which is why they are always arguing with everyone.