All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Revolutionary_Jack]

What's kind of astonishing is how quickly WV went from VERY solidly Blue Democratic to VERY solidly RED Republican/Trumpian.

Defections and betrayals are always sore.

Still we got Georgia and Arizona, both states have blue senators and Georgia's two incoming senators (Ossoff and Warnock) are progressive. Someone pointed out Georgia has more progressive senators than California where you have Diane Feinstein who's moved quite a bit to the right from when she started, albeit the newcomer Alex Padilla is a Green New Deal backer.

[Tendrin]

Yeah but with the filibuster in place, that won't matter right? You only get one shot at budget reconciliation every year and since there's no way that the Dems are ever going to get 10 GOP senators to side with them on anything, pretty much nothing else will get passed.

Three times a year, actually, which means six in the first two years of Biden's term. There's a lot of stuff that can get done with that. And budget chairman Bernie Sanders has already said a covid relief bill will be going into reconciliation if the GOP filibusters it. There is a *lot* of stuff that can be done with a simple majority, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Manchin reverse his position on the filibuster.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

There have been a few stories over the past few days that "officials" who are of course unnamed because they are fucking cowards are arguing that the number of people who will end up being charged and prosecuted for their part in the events of Jan 6 at the US Capitol should be limited because otherwise they 'threaten to overwhelm the District of Columbia's court system.'

**** THAT.

I don't give a damn if it take 10 years to prosecute these fuckers EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM must be held accountable and answer for their actions.

Exactly that. None of those bastards should get off with a slap on the wrist. Prosecute ALL OF THEM to the fullest extent of the law, no matter how long it takes.

====================

New Video Makes Powerful Case That Trump Incited His Followers To Storm The Capitol

“President Trump said we are not giving up the White House. He said we are going to fight,” recounted a supporter at the U.S. Capitol on a Just Security video.

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Biden Wants Congress To Pass COVID Relief Before March

That’s when federal unemployment benefits for millions of people would expire — again.

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Anthony Fauci Finally Reveals What He Was Thinking When Trump Suggested Bleach

Trump suggested disinfectant “by injection” as a potential coronavirus treatment.

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CNN’s Brianna Keilar Incinerates Dr. Deborah Birx’s ‘Apology Tour’

The doctor’s excuses are too little, too late, Keilar said of the COVID-19 misinformation that flowed from the White House under Birx’s watch.

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Twitter Permanently Bans MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Over Baseless Election Claims

Lindell is also facing potential litigation from Dominion Voting Systems for claiming that their voting machines played a role in alleged election fraud.

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Can A Former President Be Impeached? The Precedent For Trump’s Senate Trial

Republicans argue that Donald Trump cannot be impeached because he’s no longer in office. Democrats call that “a constitutional get-out-of-jail-free card.”

[worstblogever]

Welp.

Got one for you, WBE, though you may have already seen him.



https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/01/ha...ng-us-capitol/

He ran for the Hawaii state house in 2020 and got 32% of the vote. An actual $#$$ing Proud Boy.

https://ballotpedia.org/Nicholas_Ochs

Added to the queue.

Also I'll point out, Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys' de facto leader ran for Congress as a Republican in Florida in 2020. He at least didn't win the primary... but this guy is not an isolated case.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, who we noted actually was videotaped complaining to energy company executives about the price of gasoline dropping, because it would make it harder for them to keep fracking away if there was a lower demand for fossil fuels. Gov. Bryant also fought tooth and nail against gay marriage, trying to get a federal judge to override the lifting of Mississippi’s ban on it, and tried to pass a “religious freedom” law in his state to allow for the discrimination of LGBTQ citizens because of an individual’s “deeply held faith”. Bryant also has a terrible track record on women’s issues, supporting a statewide Personhood law (comparing its opponents to Nazis marching Jews to the ovens), pushing for abortion laws restrictive enough that he admitted he wanted to close all the clinics in the state that perform them (seething when it was overturned by a federal judge), frames the pro-choice argument as “Democrats have one mission in life, to abort children” and blaming Mississippi’s low test scores on public school students on “working moms making dumb kids”. Gov. He also lied to the public regarding Voter ID laws that had yet to go into effect already in the 2012 elections, claiming they were already the law, in a shocking attempt at voter intimidation. In June of 2015 Bryant to both the King vs. Burwell and the Obergefell vs. Hodges rulings by the Supreme Court that legalized same sex marriage, where he released a statement following each. After the former, he was whining about “the socialist takeover of healthcare being forced down our throats”, and in the latter ruling, he was bemoaning how the courts “usurped” his states’ right to decide if they could ban same sex marriage, showing that the governor could use a civics lesson. In late November of 2016, Gov. Bryant came out hard against the “liberal media” and the idea of Syrian refugees being relocated to Mississippi, countering critics who compared his attitude to that of the Americans who turned their backs on Jews fleeing Europe during World War II by arguing that it was an unfair comparison because “unless I missed my history lesson, the Jews coming out of Europe at that time were not blowing people up”. (Please note that the refugees being offered asylum in the United States are not carrying out attacks of any kind, and are almost exclusively women and children.) Phil Bryant has also formed a bizarre fellowship with Nigel Farage, the British anti-immigrant lunatic who orchestrated Brexit, hosting him in Mississippi, and then inviting him as his guest to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration, as well. Gov. Bryant signed HB 1523, an anti-gay “religious freedom” bill into law, releasing a statement on Twitter, unironically, that he signed the bill into law "to protect sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions ... from discriminatory action by state government." Phil Bryant later was interviewed by Tony Perkins, the leader of the anti-gay hate group the Family Research Council, where he insisted that Christians are still being “bullied”, and that’s why he signed HB 1523. When the law was predictably overturned by a federal judge, Bryant still decided to waste his state’s money, appealing the federal judge’s ruling against HB 1523, because y’know, he’d rather be “crucified” than allow that sort of thing to stand. Sadly, people didn’t start showing up with nails and boards to grant him his wish. In the wake of U.S. Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith cracking jokes about public hangings in a state infamous for lynching (and photos emerged of Hyde-Smith wearing Confederate regalia). Well, Phil Bryant just couldn’t let facts impugn the honor of Hyde-Smith, giving a bizarre defense that opened with him referencing the conspiracy theory that “African American women are carrying out a genocide against their own race by utilizing their constitutional right to an abortion. When the local press in Mississippi called him out on it, Bryant tried claiming he read the statistic on Wikipedia… where no one can find such a claim. Then, only weeks later, he started railing about young African American men to high school boys, ranting, “I said they even changed the name to what you guys are now? Not dads or fathers anymore. What are they? Baby daddies. What a sad commentary for this nation.” The good news we have is that Phil Bryant was term-limited in 2019, and went off into the sunset to fantasize about denying LGBTQ citizens, minorities, and women their rights.

[Robotman]

If/when the Dems can’t find 17 Republicans to help convict Trump and he is acquitted, what happens then? Trump is back in the spotlight that he so loves and he is deified even more by his cult and the new GOP. They absolutely have to bring charges against him for his role in the coup, but I’m worried that this will just make him more powerful in the long term. He’ll solidify his control over the Republican Party, could kick start his run in 2024, and show that he can get away with everything including trying to destroy our democracy.

[worstblogever]

On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Steve Palazzo, the sitting U.S. House Representative for Missouri’s 4th Congressional District, who after serving five years in the Mississippi state legislature, was first elected to Congress in… what else? The 2010 Tea Party Wave. And, we have concerns about Steve Palazzo because of his close ties with the anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council, and its lunatic leader, Tony Perkins.

It was back around 2013 that Palazzo really kicked the homophobia into overdrive, when he reacted strongly to the Boy Scouts of America planning to lift its ban on gay scout leaders by comparing it to his career fighting in the Marines. He said at the time that President Obama and “his highly organized liberal machine”had “unfairly attacked” the organization. “These people who are out there protesting and petitioning, I don’t think they care one thing about the Boy Scouts of America and want the organization to fail,[/I]” he insisted.

Palazzo did not dial back his homophobic comments until January of 2014, when he started up a Facebook campaign against "Gay Hollywood's version of matrimony" in response to that year’s Grammy Awards, where on air, Queen Latifah officiated 33 same sex marriages on air. As commenters on the thread began to point out how bigoted Palazzo was being, his people responded by not just deleting their comments, but blocking them.

So brave, Steve. So brave.

Steve Palazzo’s intolerance against the LGBTQ community is so ingrained that in November of 2013, when as a part of his defense of another anti-gay hate group, the American Family Association, it made him come to the logical conclusion that President Obama’s support of LGBTQ rights and that he signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was clearly a sign that he was “doesn’t share the same Christian faith that we do”, as part of some backwards Birther logic. Because, y’know, if Obama is a secret Muslim, that would make him REALLY supportive of gay rights, y’know?

Mind you, that isn’t the only example we have of Steve Palazzo irrationally hating President Obama. Such much so that during the 2013 Government Shutdown he helped a bunch of right-wing nut-jobs and Neo-Confederates who staged a protest at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. to start grabbing barricades to drag over to the White House and throw down in impotent rage. Y’know, while Larry Klayman yelled at the president to “put down the Koran and come out with his hands up”. That would be the government shutdown that PALAZZO VOTED TO CREATE.

Speaking of stupid things Palazzo has voted for or against, there was also the time he voted against disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, when he seems to want disaster relief whenever a hurricane hits his district.

But then… his whole voting record is a series of damaging ideas for the country, from repeated attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to twice voting to defund Planned Parenthood, to votes against disaster relief unless it’s for his district, to votes for the past two government shutdowns, he is, for lack of a better term, a legislative miscreant. Oh, and in the waning days of the GOP’s majority in the House, Palazzo sponsors legislation to create bonds for the American people to buy that would fund Donald Trump’s insane idea for a wall on the U.S./Mexico border.

Over the past few years, Palazzo has continued to make a name for himself, and not in a good way:

• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Palazzo voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Palazzo votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 7th, 2019: Palazzo votes against HR 183, a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism as a hateful extension of intolerance.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Palazzo votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Steve Palazzo is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 17th, 2019: Palazzo votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Palazzo votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Steve Palazzo votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• October 17th, 2019: Palazzo is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
• December 3rd, 2019: Steve Palazzo is one of 71 Republicans who vote against House Resolution 546, which stated disapproval of any attempt to readmit the Russian federation back into the G7 and make it the G8.
• December 19th, 2019: Rep. Palazzo votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump, in spite of glaring evidence of abuse of power.
• May 15th, 2020: Palazzo votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• December 10th, 2020: Palazzo signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
• January 6th, 2021: After a group of Trump-supporting, fascist domestic terrorists spend a day terrorizing the Capitol Building, upset over the results that Trump lost the election, Steve Palazzo votes against certifying the electoral college results.
• January 13th, 2021: Palazzo votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, commenting before his vote that “impeachment is the most inappropriate course of action at this time.” Because accountability is anathema to this seditious ***hole.

Steve Palazzo has the advantage that the partisan lean of Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District is +21 Republican. This helped him easily win re-election in 2020, only having to survive a few primary challengers, which he did with 65% of the vote, and then he did not face an opponent in the general election. It will be interesting to see if he is willing to abandon Trumpism, as his party begins to watch approval polls for their despot fade, and try and reinvent himself. His entire decade in Congress has shown he only seems to understand operating from an insurrectionist’s stance, so it will take a level of growth we’ve yet to see from him.

[worstblogever]

If/when the Dems can’t find 17 Republicans to help convict Trump and he is acquitted, what happens then? Trump is back in the spotlight that he so loves and he is deified by his cult and the new GOP. They absolutely have to bring charges against him for his role in the coup, but I’m worried that this will just make him more powerful in the long term. He’ll solidify his control over the Republican Party and could kick start his run in 2024.

The evidence needs to be damning enough that everyday the Democrats show he was engineering a coup. And everyday to peel away at Trump's support and force the GOP to read those tea leaves and know only the crazies are going to stick by him and he's not worth it.

Hell, Rand Paul is intimating they'll "boycott" which doesn't actually help. Sure, it might make it look like only Democrats are voting him out... but the GOP won't be voting to save him either.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The evidence needs to be damning enough that everyday the Democrats show he was engineering a coup. And everyday to peel away at Trump's support and force the GOP to read those tea leaves and know only the crazies are going to stick by him and he's not worth it.

Hell, Rand Paul is intimating they'll "boycott" which doesn't actually help. Sure, it might make it look like only Democrats are voting him out... but the GOP won't be voting to save him either.

Let’s not forget SDNY will be breathing down his neck with federal charges and could well take him to court, thus his desperation to get re-elected and keep his immunity. If he’s convicted of the crimes for which he’s charged, even if Trump isn’t sent to prison, that conviction will sink any chance he has of running for office again.

[worstblogever]

Let’s not forget SDNY will be breathing down his neck with federal charges and could well take him to court, thus his desperation to get re-elected and keep his immunity. If he’s convicted of the crimes for which he’s charged, even if Trump isn’t sent to prison, that conviction will sink any chance he has of running for office again.

What I've been reading is SDNY can't get him until AG Merrick Garland is confirmed... but that will be coming in February. Letitia James might go get him first. After that, he's also got the Georgia AG looking into him.

[Tami]

[Tami]

An activist who tried to get Democrats to switch parties was arrested for his role in the Capitol riot.

Brandon Straka, a conservative activist and media personality, has become one of the most high-profile defendants to face charges after the Capitol riot.

Mr. Straka, 44, urged a crowd outside the Capitol to grab a protective shield from a police officer who was guarding an entrance, according to a criminal complaint that was unsealed on Monday. Mr. Straka yelled, “Take the shield!” as the officer fought with the horde to get his shield back, the complaint said.

Mr. Straka reached the top of the Capitol steps but did not enter the building, turning back when tear gas poured from the entrance, the complaint said.

Mr. Straka is a New York hairstylist who rose to prominence in recent years as the founder of a movement called the WalkAway Campaign, which urged Democrats to leave their party. Mr. Straka has described himself as a “former liberal” who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 but switched his allegiance to former President Donald J. Trump.

[Steel Inquisitor]

The evidence needs to be damning enough that everyday the Democrats show he was engineering a coup. And everyday to peel away at Trump's support and force the GOP to read those tea leaves and know only the crazies are going to stick by him and he's not worth it.

Hell, Rand Paul is intimating they'll "boycott" which doesn't actually help. Sure, it might make it look like only Democrats are voting him out... but the GOP won't be voting to save him either.

I don't think it's about evidence or facts, if it was the last senate trial would have been a slam dunk for the Democrats. This is about the GOP's lack of shame, corruption and how much they fear their base. A base which is threatening many of the Republican politicians showing doubt with Trump and it worked before with the last impeachment. That's why there weren't more defectors. Rand Paul isn't someone who's reachable to defecting, I can't tell if he's just a grifter or true believer but he's a waste of time trying to court.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

WV itself is weird mix of Democrat and Republican. Manchin was a Democrat governor for a couple terms. He then became a Senator. Manchin is very loved in WV. He's more a Republican on things but Democrat on others. Remember it was him who helped crack Mitch McConnell on TV last March to get the 1st virus package done. Jim Justice ran as a Democrat and switched parties which ticked a lot of people off. (After Justice is done its more than likely the next Governor will be a Democrat again)

[Mister Mets]

Three times a year, actually, which means six in the first two years of Biden's term. There's a lot of stuff that can get done with that. And budget chairman Bernie Sanders has already said a covid relief bill will be going into reconciliation if the GOP filibusters it. There is a *lot* of stuff that can be done with a simple majority, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Manchin reverse his position on the filibuster.

We're going to learn a lot about the nuances of what can be done with reconciliation and what the limits are.

The bad news for Democrats is that the limits on three times an year are about types of legislation, affecting spending, revenues and the debt limit. They can only do one per year in each category, with taxing and spending typically combined.

The good news for Democrats is that they can get an extra shot at it by considering fiscal rather than calendar years.

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federa...reconciliation

How Many Reconciliation Bills May Congress Consider Each Year?
Under Senate interpretations of the Congressional Budget Act, the Senate can consider the three basic subjects of reconciliation — spending, revenues, and the debt limit — in a single bill or multiple bills, but a budget resolution can generate no more than one bill addressing each of those subjects. In practice, however, a tax bill is likely to affect not only revenues but also outlays to some extent (for example, via refundable tax credits). Thus as a practical matter a single budget resolution can probably generate only two reconciliation bills: a tax-and-spending bill or a spending-only bill and, if desired, a separate debt limit bill.

In 2017, however, Congress was able to take up an additional reconciliation bill by passing two budget resolutions: one for fiscal year 2017 (the fiscal year already underway, for which a budget resolution had not yet been adopted) and then another for fiscal year 2018 (the fiscal year that would begin on October 1, 2017). Congress used the overdue fiscal year 2017 budget resolution to trigger a reconciliation bill intended to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and then used the fiscal year 2018 resolution to trigger a tax-cutting reconciliation bill.

There will be an opportunity to repeat this process in 2021, since no fiscal year 2021 budget resolution was adopted in calendar year 2020. That would allow Congress to first take up the overdue budget resolution for fiscal year 2021, use that to generate an initial reconciliation bill, and then take up a budget resolution for fiscal year 2022 (which begins on October 1, 2021) to generate a second reconciliation bill.

Under the Budget Act, Congress can revise a budget resolution after adopting it, although it hasn’t done so in decades. In theory it could use such a revision to trigger another reconciliation bill, but this has never been done.