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

[Mister Mets]

One thing I don't get. If they don't want to take the vaccine, and they don't want vaccine mandates, why do they care if immigrants take the vaccine? Is it a similar concept to them being upset about immigrants taking jobs that Americans don't want?

First, there is a distinction between not wanting the vaccine and not wanting vaccine mandates.

Greg Abbott supports the vaccine. He's against vaccine mandates. His primary opponent Allen West is against the vaccine, and currently hospitalized with Covid.

One reason for caring about whether migrants are vaccinated is that it seems hypocritical to have vaccine mandates on American citizens, but not on people coming from places where they have not been socially distanced, or tested for Covid, asking for help. For people skeptical of the vaccine, it's an indication that the left doesn't take it seriously (I know the situation is more complicated, but that's part of how it's seen.)

The United States is comfortable with holding immigrants to a different standard than citizens, one reason we allow for deportation after criminal offenses and try to ensure that immigrants don't become public charges. So someone who is against the mandate can be intellectually honest if they insist on this for people who are asking for aid. It's perfectly fine for help to be conditional.

[worstblogever]

sdOn this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had a profile of Jon Hubbard, a former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives who was elected to office ssin 2012, and didn’t last too long in office after the Arkansas times started thumbing through a book he wrote called “Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative” where he discussed how the institution of slavery was not “an abomination upon black people” so much as a “blessing in disguise” that gave them the opportunity to have “lives as Americans likely much better than they would have enjoyed living in sub-Saharan Africa”. He also predicted that immigration as an issue in America would lead to “planned wars or extermination” and assured us that while that thought might seem “barbaric and uncivilized”, and some point it would “become as necessary as eating or breathing”. When all these revelations came to light, Jon Hubbard didn’t apologize, of course, he defended them to the hilt, and the Koch Brothers kept funding his campaign and sending out mailers to try to keep him in office. Since being voted out , Hubbard has shifted the blame for his fall from grace on, who else? President Obama. He compares the president to Hitler and he’s started calling the IRS the Gestapo while claiming that Planned Parenthood have been blessed by Obama’s god (lower case G, so it’s clear it’s not the Judeo-Christian one). Yes, Jon Hubbard was very, very racist and is highly unlikely to every hold office again.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Catherine Templeton, Va candidate for Governor of South Carolina in 2018. And yes, as shown above, she tried winning the Republican primary in that race by airing ads to show her proficiency with firearms, taking aim at a rattlesnake, because that’s a good measuring stick for office these days from the GOP. It might have helped, however, if the animal she chose to use to embody what’s wrong with politics that she was about to slay was not an endangered animal. That, however, is not the reason why we took notice of Templeton, who formerly served as the Director of Labor and the Director of the Department of Health and Environmental Services at two different points during the administration of former Gov. Nikki Haley. No, it would probably be Templeton’s desire to win the bigot vote by doing things shortly after announcing her candidacy like declaring she was “proud of the Confederacy”, and also that she would not allow a Confederate monument to be removed if elected. A little digging from local historians found out that maybe there was even less of a reason for Templeton to be proud of an rebellion fought for the right to keep slaves… her family fought in it, sure… but they also were literally some of the slave owners running a plantation in South Carolina. She claimed, of course, to be unaware of her family’s own sordid past. But Templeton was also an equal opportunity bigot, adding to her racist fandom with transphobic bathroom fearmongering. Templeton’s less than subtle trucking in hate did not help win her the election, and that she finished third in the primary with only 21% of the vote


In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, as well as 2020, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Garry Smith, a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives who worked on the presidential campaign of Scott Walker (as short as that lasted) who actually tried filing a bill to create a “2nd Amendment Education Day” to be celebrated annually on December 15th, which would be the day after the anniversary of the Newtown Massacre, by coincidence (sure it is). Where Smith really got attention, though, was to strip money away from South Carolina universities for having reading programs that included LGBTQ literature. In totals that just so happened to be their entire reading budgets. He went on CNN to defend this decision in March 2014, and gave the response you’d expect from another poor “victim” of the gay agenda, ”Their stance is, ‘Even if you don’t want to read it, we’ll shove it down your throat.’ It’s not academic freedom, it’s academic totalitarianism.” As a legislator, Smith has submitted legislation to attempt to nullify the Affordable Care Act or federal firearms laws, tried to criminalize abortion outright (forgetting that Roe v. Wade is a thing), and submitted amendments to the state constitution to try and define marriage as between one man and one woman.

Garry Smith advanced out of the GOP Primary in 2018 with 75% of the vote against two challengers, and did not face a challenger in November from Democrats. That gave Smith a chance to co-sponsor a fetal heartbeat bill in the hopes that it might help outlaw abortion as early as six weeks (before many women even realize they are pregnant), He also continues to be an extreme homophobe, suggesting that the South Carolina state legislature should vote on amendments to strip funding from any library in the state that would dare to host a Drag Queen Story Hour event. After Smith was called out for his dumb, dumb idea, the amendment was tabled 17-5.


Our regrettable update is that due to Covid-19, Garry Smith the GOP Primary for his seat in the South Carolina state legislature was cancelled, and Smith was allowed to run for re-election completely unopposed.

He has returned to his partisan roots in the current session, having voted for a fetal heartbeat anti-abortion bill, a bill to legalize the return of firing squads as a method of execution, and of course, a bill to declare that churches are “essential services” so that they cannot be asked to avoid gathering crowds of people, let’s just say… during a pandemic.

If this man were any more regressive, he’d be a jump to the left or two on the evolution of man.

[skyvolt2000]

They have fewer and fewer live voters each day because of the virus. Don't make much sense to blame the Biden Administration for the spread of the plague (though I agree with you that that's how they'll twist it come election season) when they're the ones allowing their own herd to be thinned out. They are literally enacting a slow, half-assed Jonestown massacre of their entire party.

This is really about MONEY.

Look at the NHL-FULL Capacity at games. At most MLB games-I saw stadiums way too PACKED. Look at college football games-way too PACKED. NFL is slowly getting there.
They want stuff back to normal no matter what. Thinning the herd does not come to mind for most of them.

Because they think they will still show up at the polls. Once issue-hard to do that when a lot of party is dying from Covid.
In Texas 8 out 255 counties saw a turnout lower than 50%. Biden WON 6 of them. The 2 he lost one by 207 votes and the other 859.
Only one county Trump won by triple digits. Biden 4. Biden won 1 by 23 votes. Trump won 2 by 59 and 62 votes. The Green, Liberation and others would have made NO difference.

[skyvolt2000]

First, there is a distinction between not wanting the vaccine and not wanting vaccine mandates.

Greg Abbott supports the vaccine. He's against vaccine mandates. His primary opponent Allen West is against the vaccine, and currently hospitalized with Covid.

The folks being the most violent are the ones who don't want neither one.

The same folks making crap up and NOT saying they don't want a mandate. They just make crap up for losers like Kyrie Irving to take as the truth.

If the Republicans believe in less government for PRIVATE companies-Abbot has ZERO right to pass that bill preventing them from doing what they feel right for their companies.

He has taken away the rights of local governments in making any choice and thus the guy in the White House fired back.


We wouldn't need a mandate if the Kyrie Irving and Shuri from Black Panther and Nicki Minaj SHUT UP. Fountains of misinformation and fake woke black folks trying to use Tuskegee Experiment as weapons of discord.

Yes there are some who can not take the vaccine. We can't hear their voices because of the cries of misinformation.

[numberthirty]

Man...

As much as I have almost no use for mainstream news media?

When Don Lemon is busting your chops about what you ain't getting done?

You need to seriously consider checking yourself before you wreck yourself.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the heir apparent to his father, Ron Paul’s political legacy and generally demented views. He’s a board-certified ophthalmologist*, has been repeatedly caught plagiarizing from other sources for speeches (including from Wikipedia articles), and has hired Neo-Confederates to serve on his campaign staff, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise because Rand also once told Rachel Maddow in an interview that he wouldn’t have voted for the Civil Rights Act. Rand’s also discussed conspiracy theories like the Bilderberg Group, the American Union, the Jade Helm conspiracy theory, and even some 9/11 Trutherism, and experts who analyze the speeches of Congressmen determined he speaks roughly at about the 8th Grade Level. A fine example was in 2014 when he blamed “political correctness” on people being afraid to declare a travel ban because of the Ebola Virus outbreak in Africa, as opposed to the actual doctors and epidemiologists who said a travel ban would only make things worse. Instead, he tried accusing the Obama administration of deliberately exposing 30,000 American troops to the disease. Rand Paul once sponsored a Personhood bill that would apply the 14th Amendment to fetuses, as well, showing he’s not exactly the libertartian “hands off” type he portrays himself as. After a long pattern of Rand Paul shushing female journalists emerged and was noted by political commentators as evidence of sexist behavior, Paul responded by telling critics that it was “sexist to call him sexist”, which is similar to how racists insist their accusers are the real racist ones. In June 2017 he compared National Health Care to "the gulag". (Which is amazing, because the gulag is where Stalin sent millions to DIE whereas healthcare does the EXACT OPPOSITE FOR PEOPLE).

There was a point when Rand Paul was considered a potential front-runner for the Republican nomination for president, since the Tea Party was originally fomented with the help of his father, Ron, and their “outsider” group of ultra-conservatives. But having a daddy like Ron Paul “helping” isn’t always as much of a benefit as one might like, as the scandal surrounding Ron Paul’s 2012 bid for president where adviser Jesse Benton handicapped Paul’s chances early on. Then, the Tea Party got hijacked over time by even more outspoken bigots than Rand, who was pulling punches, like Ted Cruz, and eventually Donald Trump, who whipped them up into an anti-immigrant frenzy before Rand even realized what happened. Paul lost so much heat that when he published a book to hype on the campaign trail, it sold only a few hundred copies. He couldn’t escape the bottom tier of the GOP, ending up polling somewhere around tenth and barely qualifying for most of the primary debates, and using what little time he had on stage to bicker with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who made it his own personal mission to destroy Rand with every opportunity given in the debates. In the midst of Rand Paul looking visibly depressed about his failed presidential campaign all year, he managed to prove he's the same libertarian wing lunatic, voting against the permanent approval of The Zadroga Act, talking about getting rid of the Postal Service, voting to make sure anyone found to be on a terror watch list during a background check should still be allowed to purchase a firearm or explosives (which they could use to carry out a terror attack) and reintroduces his own Personhood bill, the "Life at Conception Act", which would grant Constitutional rights to zygotes from the moment of fertilization. In November of 2018, he annoyed senators on both sides of the aisle by holding up military aid to Israel, because he will never miss an opportunity to grandstand about his isolationist bent.

Rand Paul staggered out of the 2016 GOP Presidential Primary in February of 2016, inexplicably hanging in far longer than he should have, after polling always down near 1%, and raising virtually no money from donors for his doomed campaign. He instead focused on defeating Jim Gray, the openly gay mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, to reclaim his U.S. Senate seat with 57% of the vote, which he now will not have to defend until 2022.

Rand gets more partisan with each passing year, and not just because he voted to approve every member of the Trump cabinet, or to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, or even that he voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act back in July 2018, and would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those pesky kids Murkowski, Collins, and McCain. His "smaller government" heartless principles also saw him vote against disaster relief for Houston after Hurricane Harvey.

[worstblogever]

We can’t emphasize this statement enough, Rand Paul’s image that he is somehow not a reliable Republican vote, and that he’s an “outsider” because of his Libertarian views? HE IS FULL OF S***. Sure, he’ll have “doubts” about Republican nominees and go on cable news shows to vaguely talk about them, but he still goes out and votes for them anyway and hopes no one notices his actual voting record. He’s done this on some of the worst candidates for nominations, like say when Mike Pompeo is up for Secretary of State, or when torture-enthusiast Gina Haspel is up for CIA Director. Even more galling is that when an accused rapist, widely regarded drunk, and partisan hack is up for a Supreme Court seat, like say Brett Kavanaugh, he doesn’t even HAVE a doubt.

Back in mid-February of 2017, the Trump administration had its first, and not last ties to the Trump campaign being tied to Russia, after General Michael Flynn resigned after it was revealed he failed to disclose several meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign and the transition. And while the Democrats thought that warranted an investigation and several Republicans like Sen. John McCain agreed... Rand Paul deemed such a move "excessive" and "it makes no sense for Republicans to investigate Republicans", proving that he views oversight as a partisan matter completely.

...

Rand Paul moved into “ride or die” territory when it comes to Donald Trump, as after Trump’s “s***hole countries” remarks in January of 2018, Sen. Paul actually chastised people for calling the president a racist because “it hurts immigration talks”. You see? Trump isn’t the problem. It’s all the people rightly pegging him a racist that are the problem. Can’t say I’m shocked from the guy who wouldn’t back the Civil Rights Act, though.

How much of a spineless toady is Sen. Paul? At this point, he’ll hand deliver letters to Vladimir Putin from Donald Trump (really) that the public don’t get to ever learn the contents of, while claiming that the Mueller investigation and people upset about Russians hacking the 2016 election are just “Trump Derangement Syndrome”.

His support of smaller government principles flew right out the window after a member of the Trump administration wrote an anonymous opinion editorial in the New York Times in July 2018, when he demanded that White House staff should have to begin taking lie detector tests to determine who actually wrote it. And Rand Paul was trying to root out the identity of the CIA whistleblower who revealed Trump tried holding up military aid to Ukraine in exchange for their assistance in smearing Joe and Hunter Biden, indicating he has no issue with Trump openly breaking the law. Well, that and continuing to look like a Russophile by recommending that we abandon our ally and just don’t give Ukraine the military need they need to fend off the Russian army in Crimea.

We have to cover the plain weird factor. In January of 2018, one of the more bizarre and mysterious news stories broke… Rand Paul was attacked by his elderly neighbor, and actually suffered six broken ribs and other injuries in the assault. A lot of folks wondered if the beat-down was politically motivated… but no. Apparently, and this might come as a shock to those who have never met Ayn Rand fans… but Rand Paul is a s***ty neighbor, because he’s a selfish d*** who just throws his lawn trimmings and leaves wherever he wants, i.e. right along the property line. (That neighbor’s last name was Boucher, and we keep picturing Adam Sandler from The Waterboy tackling Rand Paul. It is… soothing to picture.)
As a result of that attack, Sen. Paul had to have a portion of his lung removed.

The past several months have shown that Rand Paul is an ignorant, trollish twit more than usual, as last year, he was one of only two Senators to vote against the Zadroga Act to provide healthcare to 9/11 First Responders, and in June 2020, he held up an Anti-Lynching Bill unilaterally, because again, his “libertarian principles” matter so much to him that they matter more than punishing racists who want to hang minorities.

Really, though, the main issue impacting the country is, obviously, Covid-19. And Rand Paul has been drawing headlines for being a dumbass through all of the crisis. Early in the days of the pandemic, Paul tested positive for Covid-19… and then went to the Congressional gym to work out, utterly not giving a f*** if he got anyone sick. His colleagues, were obviously, enraged. But as hearings continued in the Senate to try and come up with solutions with public health experts, Rand Paul has constantly ignored the science, and actively spread misinformation about Covid-19. So much so that he has been repeatedly called out on it by Dr. Anthony Fauci in several hearings. And Fauci wasn’t the only one annoyed with Sen. Paul’s insistence on spreading misinformation during a pandemic, as even Twitter, with their high bar to clear to earn bans, made the senator go stand in the corner and gave Rand Paul a one week ban for doing exactly that.

The question is… why? Why would this libertarian aligned ***hole continuously do that? Not just attacking the effectiveness of vaccines, social distancing, but even that masks are effective in preventing the spread of respiratory diseases like Covid-19? A likely answer? Rand Paul’s wife invested in the drug company that created the drug remdesivir (a fact they concealed from the public for over 16 months), which was being used to treat the disease. In other words, Rand Paul’s family would be financially incentivized to see more people getting sick, and having to be treated.

Yes, Aqua Buddha is that much of a selfish motherf***er. We always knew, but if you had any doubts about how much of a scumbag he is, there you go. He's apparently going to milk his dad's legacy as long as he keeps getting re-elected, and we have to cross our fingers and hope that when his current term is up in 2022, that voters in Kentucky don’t give him a third chance at damaging our nation. We’re not counting on that by any stretch, given it’s the same state that’s elected Mitch McConnell seven times, though. But if they were to, say, choose Charles Booker, instead?

We’d be over the moon, the same one Rand Paul bays at.

[Tendrin]

This excellent take down of Justice Alito's speech at Notre Dame deserved to be read more widely.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...ortion/620339/

Alito might simply have focused, in his speech, on the procedural issues that the majority hid behind in its Texas opinion—but this wasn’t enough. He wanted to act like a GOP-primary candidate and wag his finger at the press, and he did so with a level of dishonesty and obfuscation you might expect from a politician. I have had more honest interlocutors on Twitter, people whose handles were puns on bodily secretions. Alito’s claims were below the level of what you would find in a Facebook thread from an anti-vax group. It is a style of argument that belongs at a Thanksgiving dinner with exasperated blood relatives in New Jersey.

The rank dishonesty and arrogance of Alito’s speech at Notre Dame are symptoms of the conservative majority’s unchecked power on the Court, and the entitlement that flows from having no one around you who can tell you what you sound like. It is not simply enough for the right-wing justices to have this power; Alito insists that the peasantry be silent about how they use it, and acquiesce not only to their delusions of impartiality but to their mischaracterization of verifiable facts. These are imperious demands for submission from someone who is meant to be a public servant.

[achilles]

Since this is also a news thread; here is some news: Captain Kirk made it back safely from space, which he fittingly went to in a giant flying space er...sex toy. His flight only lasted like a couple of minutes in space, with a few more getting there and back...somehow doesn't seem worth it for the risk of death...

He seems very moved by that, he can't stop...babbling on and on about it. So it must be quite an experience. Still doesn't seem worth it for how short a time it was.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Since this is also a news thread; here is some news: Captain Kirk made it back safely from space, which he fittingly went to in a giant flying space er...sex toy. His flight only lasted like a couple of minutes in space, with a few more getting there and back...somehow doesn't seem worth it for the risk of death...

He seems very moved by that, he can't stop...babbling on and on about it. So it must be quite an experience. Still doesn't seem worth it for how short a time it was.

I'm glad he enjoyed the experience.

[CSTowle]

I get it, he was Kirk before we'd landed on the Moon. Now here he is getting to finally reach "the final frontier". A big deal, I say give him a pass for babbling. Not a fan of the Star Trek franchise or him (though of course love that classic Twilight Zone episode on the plane), but glad for him.

[Hellion]

Not attempting to start a BoTh SiDeS debate, but apparently Dave Chappelle is being targeted for comments about the LGBTQA+ community in his new standup special on Netflix: https://www.gq.com/story/chappelle-t...=pocket-newtab

Anybody else able to weigh in on this? I'm probably not the best person to opine on this matter because I find humor in just about everything, so I certainly didn't share the author's reaction to watching this special. I've observed over the years that right-leaning individuals I know personally have been losing any sort of sense of humor they may have once possessed. I don't have them round for parties anymore. Are people on the left starting to suffer the same fate?

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Not attempting to start a BoTh SiDeS debate, but apparently Dave Chappelle is being targeted for comments about the LGBTQA+ community in his new standup special on Netflix: https://www.gq.com/story/chappelle-t...=pocket-newtab

Anybody else able to weigh in on this? I'm probably not the best person to opine on this matter because I find humor in just about everything, so I certainly didn't share the author's reaction to watching this special. I've observed over the years that right-leaning individuals I know personally have been losing any sort of sense of humor they may have once possessed. I don't have them round for parties anymore. Are people on the left starting to suffer the same fate?

I don't have anything on this or against Chappelle. I saw him detail a story about his friend Daphne from the special. According to reports her family is standing with Chappelle and that Daphne was a big fan of his and friend. Chappelle was also more of a mentor and was gonna help her with stand up.

[Malvolio]

I don't have anything on this or against Chappelle. I saw him detail a story about his friend Daphne from the special. According to reports her family is standing with Chappelle and that Daphne was a big fan of his and friend. Chappelle was also more of a mentor and was gonna help her with stand up.

I've read a few comments comparing Chapelle's Daphne story to the "Some of my best friends are black" trope, but if Daphne's own family is confirming the story, then I'm buying it. And yes, even as someone who is definitely on the left, I do think some on the left have lost their sense of humor, at least when the jokes hit close to home.

[Jack Dracula]

First, there is a distinction between not wanting the vaccine and not wanting vaccine mandates.

Greg Abbott supports the vaccine. He's against vaccine mandates. His primary opponent Allen West is against the vaccine, and currently hospitalized with Covid.

Has Abbot gone on record protesting mandatory polio immunizations for school children or state fire codes or any of the other dozens of local, state, or federal ordinances and laws put in place to ensure individuals do the right for the good of the public?
No, he has not.
Please don’t make excuses for any of these Governors who are engaging in political theatre to gin up outrage and make Biden the bully. Frankly, it’s a bit insulting.