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

[babyblob]

They usually crawl out after russia suffers substantial defeat and there have been quite a few in last couple days.


... Speaking of, there is talk about a next round of mobilisation possibly starting any day now. I wonder if it turns out to be true, it wouldn't surprise me even though russian Christmas are just starting. What a gift that would be.
Some "motivation": A suicide note from one of the soldiers fighting in Ukraine: https://twitter.com/igorsushko/statu...88438800654336

I get being a Russian and spouting the company line. But how any person that does not live in Russia and is subject to their lies every day can spout their BS and lies I do not know. I dont know how they can sleep in night.

[worstblogever]

There's going to be a point where Fox News blames Democrats for not helping get McCarthy over the line. For now, they're complaining about a supposed "Teletubbies/Rupaul crossover" while not mentioning the GOP is in a historic level of chaos.

[scourge]

There's going to be a point where Fox News blames Democrats for not helping get McCarthy over the line. For now, they're complaining about a supposed "Teletubbies/Rupaul crossover" while not mentioning the GOP is in a historic level of chaos.

Fox 'News' hasn't gotten there yet but some of the morons on twitter were crying about how the Democrats should stop voting for Hakeem Jeffries and help McCarthy instead.

[worstblogever]

Fox 'News' hasn't gotten there yet but some of the morons on twitter were crying about how the Democrats should stop voting for Hakeem Jeffries and help McCarthy instead.

Exactly. Conservatives/Republicans cause America's problems and then whine that Democrats/progressives can't fix them, or just won't fix them fast enough.

It's their political support strategy in a nutshell, especially whining that they're voting for an African American, so it has that white nationalist favor they've loved for some time.

[Mister Mets]

Clearly, the only reporting from the Donbas you've been following is that from MSM: none. Otherwise you'd want to reconsider both statements.

Plenty of non-mainstream media would say that Ukraine didn't start the war, and that Ukrainian soldiers are more interested in avoiding civilian casualties than the Russians who made the decision to invade.

I am curious about the contrary arguments.

And as is the case when I argue with people on the left, I'm interested in these specific goalposts, and not as a proxy for some different argument.

What are media sources that you believe to be good-faith that describe Ukraine as the aggressor in the conflict, and Ukrainian soldiers as equally willing to put Ukrainian civilians in danger as the Russians are?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Whats sad is the GOP has had control of the House what 2 days and it is already a train wreck on an epic level.

Really looking forward to the next two years yep.

Our allies abroad watching this clown show unfold must be wondering, “What the **** are those idiots in America doing”? It’s evident after half a dozen tries that Craven Kevin won’t get the votes, but Qpublicans won’t cave and vote for Jeffries, instead, opting for nobodies like Byron Donalds, or not voting at all. It’s a circus without end.

[Mister Mets]

Our allies abroad watching this clown show unfold must be wondering, “What the **** are those idiots in America doing”? It’s evident after half a dozen tries that Craven Kevin won’t get the votes, but Qpublicans won’t cave and vote for Jeffries, instead, opting for nobodies like Byron Donalds, or not voting at all. It’s a circus without end.

Britain had two prime ministers resign on consecutive months. It's sad, but a lot of world politics is a circus.

[Coin Biter]

Britain had two prime ministers resign on consecutive months. It's sad, but a lot of world politics is a circus.

Don’t remind me. I’m writhing in shame at the spectacle that Britain has made of itself politically since 2016. However, this isn’t exactly a common situation in the UK - I haven’t seen such chaos in the Conservative party before in my lifetime, not in the days of Thatcher, Major, Hague, Howard, or (until 2016) Cameron.

It’s what happens, I would tentatively suggest, when you hand over an established right wing party to its extremist/Charlatan faction.

[worstblogever]

Britain had two prime ministers resign on consecutive months. It's sad, but a lot of world politics is a circus.

Hey look. Whataboutism to try to normalize that the GOP is a non-functional cesspool of chaos and white nationalism.

It's almost as if people were apologists for these clowns for years, they enabled them to continue to do things this embarrassing at the risk of damaging the republic further, and haven't learned yet that it's smarter to hold them to account.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of Lyle Rowland, a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, hailing from the Show-Me-State’s District 155 who wrote Missouri’s own “Birther Bill”, HB 283 back in 2011, and after it did not pass, he actually submitted a second one in 2012, HB 1046. The idea that President Obama is secretly not an American citizen and “stole” the 2008 and 2012 elections is not the only paranoid conspiracy theory that Rowland believes in, though, as he also submitted legislation to prevent the adaptation of environmental standards from the United Nations’ Agenda 21 treaty from 1992, with his reason for the move being a video from Glenn Beck raving like a lunatic about how it’s a secret plot for global domination. Among his “smaller government” priorities has been his need to respond to the public outcry after the killing of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson, by taking the classy step of trying to vote for SB 199, to amend the justification for deadly force to make it EASIER for police to get away with shooting civilians, and also another vote for HB 499, a bill that would require not just all public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance with “under God” in it, but specifically to have to do so in English (which based on previous court rulings, is unconstitutional on multiple levels). He’s also tried to nullify federal gun laws, legalize guns in schools, and pass legislation to create unnecessary waiting periods for abortions, to round out his rap sheet. Since Rowland took office in 2010, he only once faced a primary challenger for his seat in 2016, and has never been challenged by a Democrat. After four terms in the Missouri House, he faced term limits in 2018 and had to leave office.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled Warren Love, a member of the Missouri House of Representatives first elected in 2016. He's pretty damned racist, as we’ll get to the bulk of why, but there was a tip-off in January of 2016 when he made a reference to a “black Negro” in a committee meeting. It didn’t get better from there. In August of 2017, after the campaign of terror carried out by White Nationalists in Charlottesville, a push back against hatred began, with Confederate monuments around the country getting torn down, or in some instances, vandalized. Warren Love responded to the removal and vandalism by getting on Facebook and calling for those who would act against memorials to a failed rebellion carried out in the name of keeping African Americans slaves to be “hung from a tall tree”. We’ll repeat that… he called for opponents of Confederate monuments to be LYNCHED. Now, almost immediately after that, Love was criticized from both sides of the aisle, but he tried a folksy version of the “I was taken out of context” defense, saying, “That was an exaggerated statement that, you know, a lot of times is used in the Western world when somebody does a crime or commits theft.... That’s just a Western term, and I’m very much a Western man.... You know, I wear a coat. You know, I dress Western. And, you know, I’m the cowboy of the Capitol.” And then, people realized that his comments were not a one off, as Love, a member of the GOP, offered some unique thoughts in another Facebook post, about the founder of his party, Abraham Lincoln, and how “Lincoln was the greatest despot and tyrant in American history.” Almost every Democrat in the Missouri state legislature, and several Republicans called for Love’s resignation,but when it came time to actually reprimand him and remove him from his committee assignments, Missouri Republicans managed to somehow look the other way, and not vote to take him to task. We’ll note that when you look at Warren Love’s voting record, you’ll find other evidence other than his love for the Confederacy that shows he’s has his head either up his arse and/or in the 19th Century, like how he voted against a measure to prevent child marriages in Missouri, is a supporter of Personhood, as well as support for Voter ID measures that are the modern equivalent of Jim Crow legislation. Love also voted for nullification legislation to attempt to ignore federal firearms legislations, voted for paranoid and unnecessary anti-Sharia legislation aimed at banning “foreign laws”, and voted to try and block the implementation of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 Treaty (because he’s apparently convinced it’s a plot for global domination), and he also voted for a clearly unconstitutional measure that not only would force schoolchildren to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day, but specified that it must be spoken IN ENGLISH. Luckily, Warren Love was term-limited in 2020.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Joe Thalman, a 2020 candidate running for a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives, specifically in District 49B. We are profiling him because he is yet the latest in a line of Qanon conspiracy theorists who got on the ballot this year as a Republican trying to win office, having repeatedly made posts on social media with the Qanon hashtag. When asked about Qanon by the local press, Thalman offered, ”I’m aware of Q and I’m aware that there are other attributions of that phrase as well. General (Michael) Flynn had made the same statement on a post that he had done a day or two before. I love the sound of it. … I like the spirited statement.” When the negative press started to be a detriment to Thalman, he revisited the topic, adding, “It’s one of many news sources that a lot of people are going to outside of the traditional mainstream media. I would suggest people always do their own research and come to their own conclusions.” We couldn’t find much else about Thalman on issue stances outside of his love of Qanon, but we can say when it comes to Coronavirus, he’s a true Covidiot, focusing on wanting the economy opened without giving any thought or mention to the hundreds of thousands of people who have died, or any concern for public health. Joe Thalman was defeated in the 2020 election, getting only 38% of the vote.

On this date in 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Larry Elder, the long-time right-wing radio talk show host who made a bid in a 2020 recall election to become the next Governor of California. This is amazing, given Larry Elder’s disgusting laundry list of terrible hyper-conservative takes. Just on racial issues alone, he’s on record that he wouldn’t have supported the Civil Rights Act when it was passed, that police are more inclined in his mind to shoot white people than black people, that voter suppression against minorities doesn’t exist, his never-ending vitriol towards the Black Lives Matter movement, and his denial that racism even exists. There’s a reason there have been several protests outside of Los Angeles conservative radio stations airing Elder’s show calling for him to be fired, and that’s just a handful. Let’s also consider that he was accused of sexual harassment while working in radio back in 2011, and his defense amounted to, “she’s too ugly for me to have done it" (right out of Donald Trump’s playbook, frankly), that he once allegedly pulled a gun on his own girlfriend in 2014, that he denies the existence of sexism, and then there’s his contempt for the disabled, with his maniacal opinion that the Americans with Disabilities Act should be undone and employers should be allowed to fire workers with disabilities. Does he deny science, as well as all the realities of discrimination? You know he does… Elder called climate change a “crock” back in 2008, and has spread misinformation about Covid-19, masks, and vaccines during the pandemic. There’s of course his opposition to the minimum wage (he said it should be set at $0.00, which is… kinda slavery) his belief that emergency aid should be denied to undocumented immigrants, and that he helped spread the conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was somehow “stolen” from Donald Trump. Gavin Newsom failed to be recalled, and it wasn’t even close. The final tally had him with 62% of the vote in the “Recall: Yes/No”, portion of the ballot. Which is good, because somehow, Elder did receive the majority of 48% of the vote from those who wanted Newsom gone, because conservatives, even in a blue state like California will pick the worst people to cause as much pain as possible out of spite. As she is no longer in office, we will set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1172-55, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Mike Gallagher
Welcome to what is the 1172nd original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’re profiling Mike Gallagher, who has served as the U.S. House Representative for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District since first winning office back in the 2016 elections. We raised our eyebrows a little to see Gallagher encourage Donald Trump when he tried to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland, or that he applauded Trump for assassinating Iranian general Qasem Soleimani via airstrike in 2020, but there’s a level of political cowardice that has stuck in our craw enough to profile him.

The point where Gallagher truly became noteworthy of us to consider profiling him was a few months into his third term in office, specifically as related to his reaction to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. On the day of the attack, Gallagher made no illusions to who we all knew who was responsible for inciting a mob to storm Congress, first getting on social media and posting videos begging Donald Trump to tell the domestic terrorists to “call it off”, referring to what occurred as “banana republic crap” then doing an interview with CNN where he said the violence was wilder than he ever saw while serving in Iraq, and asking Trump to “call off” his minions, yet again. In the days after, Gallagher talked about pulling a Marine sword from a decorative display on the wall and barricading himself in his office, and was willing to talk about censuring Trump (but would not vote to impeach him), before he eventually fell silent about who was responsible for the violence that day, or that it happened at all. Then, he voted against even having an investigation into the causes of January 6th, when the vote came, likely fearing a primary challenge if he didn’t shut his mouth and stop blaming the Orange Menace for all the things he actually did.

Ten days prior, you could already see he was spooked by what his own constituents might think of him, as he started using the same social media accounts to demand answers from Dr. Anthony Fauci about “the origin of Covid-19”, and what he knew about “function research in Wuhan”, lending into conspiracy theories about the virus being engineered and deliberately released by the Chinese government, in some version of the tale with the knowledge of Fauci.

[worstblogever]

So of course, this political coward has a voting record like you’d expect:

• May 4th, 2017: Gallagher 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 Gallagher 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: Mike Gallagher 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.
• February 18th, 2018: Rep. Gallagher 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.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Gallagher voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Gallagher votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Gallagher ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: Gallagher votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Gallagher votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
• February 4th, 2021: Mike Gallagher votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
• February 25th, 2021: Gallagher votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Gallagher votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 3rd, 2021: Mike Gallagher votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Gallagher votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Gallagher is one of 172 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 19th, 2021: Rep. Gallagher votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• November 5th, 2021: Mike Gallagher votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• March 31st, 2021: Gallagher votes against HR 6833, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which would limit the cost that drug companies could list insulin at to $35 and make sure no diabetic was priced out of surviving their condition. Mike Gallagher would rather they be gouged by pharmecutical giants and/or die.
• May 18th, 2022: Rep. Gallagher votes against HR 350, the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, because these days, a plank of the Republican Party is ostensibly domestic terror.
• May 19th, 2022: Gallagher votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
• July 15th, 2022: Mike Gallagher votes against House Amendment 262, which would require the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary of Defense to publish a report on the infiltration of American law enforcement by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, offer measures to be taken to remove them from their ranks, and prevent further infiltration by others.
• July 19th, 2022: Rep. Gallagher is one of 157 Republicans who vote against the “Respect for Marriage Act”, which would codify same sex marriage into law nationally.
• July 21st, 2022: Gallagher is one of 195 Republicans who vote against the Right to Contraception Act, which codified the right of Americans to have access to birth control.
• December 6th, 2022: Gallagher, embracing the GOP’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant sentiment votes against HR 7946, which was meant to honor the promise to grant citizenship to immigrants who served in the United States Armed Forces.

Mike Gallagher did not have to face a Democratic challenger in 2022, and was elected to a fourth term in office with 74% of the vote. We look forward to him being out of office someday so he can pursue his true calling, being a stunt double for Mr. Bean.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Days ago I had a comical debate with a family member over his belief that the Democrats were evil to pass a budget bill so late and how "NO ONE READ ANY OF IT !" as he proclaimed with Rand Paul claiming he couldn't read 4,000+ pages of it. His entire posting points were right wing nonsense over how awful it was to pass a budget bill so quick and not realizing the country could default if one isn't done. I tried explaining that these budget bills do get passed in December and sometimes late sessions to avoid this.

I was told how ...I don't know what I'm talking about repeatedly and how this was scummy etc.


Now here we are days later and the very people he was taking up for can't even lead the House because of the sure ineptness they have. Makes me proud to see this play out.

[Mister Mets]

The problem for McC, well the biggest problem, is that those opposing him aren't opposing HIM, They are seeking power by proving that they can take down the designated Speaker-elect.

McCarthy can yell and scream and chastise and barter and beg all he wants, but he won't get the votes.

They are to the Republican Party what Manchin and Sinema are to the Democrats, only worse.

It is worse and a bit different.

Sinema and Manchin have never gone as far. They have not tried to prevent Schumer from being Senate Majority Leader.

It's also different to take a stand from the center rather than the fringes. I get the argument that Sinema does not need to be so abrasive to the base in a swing state, but Democrats benefit greatly from having Joe Manchin in West Virginia rather than a typical Republican Senator. The Republicans voting against McCarthy tend to come from safe districts and to say things that hurt the Republican party's reputation with voters who are sometimes willing to support Democrats.

Can't tell if Donalds is fringe or moderate.

Those aren't the only two choices, as it would suggest an argument you probably don't want to make that the 90 percent of Republican members of Congress who keep voting for McCarthy are moderate.

Donals seems to be fringe, but not as fringe as some of the others.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...-mccarthy.html

He's a member of the freedom caucus, which consists of a fifth of Republican members of Congress and is probably the most far-right bloc in Congress. However, he is not one of the three dozen Republican members of Congress who explicitly denied the results of the 2020 presidential election. He voted for McCarthy in the first two rounds of the Speaker vote, and Jim Jordan in the third.

He's been in Congress for one term as a freshman member of the minority party, so his record is a bit limited.

Hey look. Whataboutism to try to normalize that the GOP is a non-functional cesspool of chaos and white nationalism.

It's almost as if people were apologists for these clowns for years, they enabled them to continue to do things this embarrassing at the risk of damaging the republic further, and haven't learned yet that it's smarter to hold them to account.

You seem to interpret my comment as a proxy for different views rather than offering a disagreement on the specifics. If someone else makes a comparison between America and the rest of the world, it's not about whataboutism to look at how things are going outside the US. It may also offer a better understanding of how to fix the problems in the United States.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Ladies and germs, I'd call this the kiss of death for Craven Kevin: