1. #39181
    Astonishing Member JackDaw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shooshoomanjoe View Post
    I really hope Putin is just flexing his muscle and pulls away when/if the west starts to send soldiers to back up Ukraine. But when Putin invaded and occupied two areas in Ukraine a decade or so ago, the west didn't send boots on the ground so who knows how th dois will play out.
    I’d been pretty sure it’s effectively an American call.

    The combined EU is too dependent on Russian gas, and basically doesn’t (even combined) have conventional forces with the ability to effectively fight Russian troops. And UK will certainly not fight except possibly to support an American led initiative.

  2. #39182

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    Quote Originally Posted by BeastieRunner View Post
    Who knew the female M&Ms were responsible for so many boners?
    I just want to make sure that conservatives aren't mixing up their Viagra with Green M&Ms or something.
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  3. #39183

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    On this date in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profile the 2018 candidate for U.S. Senate from West Virginia, Don Blankenship, whose claim to fame is as a coal mining company executive who just so happened to get sentenced to a year in jail for conspiring to skirt federal laws that regulated his coal mine (specifically, the safety laws) that led to the deaths of 29 workers in a mine explosion, the deadliest accident in mining in four decades. Blankenship, a true exemplar of the GOP’s “party of responsibility” ethics blames everything on the Obama administration for putting him behind bars. Anyway, in 2018, Blankenship tried aping much of Donald Trump’s talking points, include ing the insane plan to build a border wall along the U.S./Mexico border, and calls to “Drain the Swamp”, but his flat, deadpan delivery of a rant against Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in his initial 30-second ad spot really cemented why the coal baron was not ready for politics, where he called him “Cocaine Mitch”, accused him of creating “millions of jobs for China-people and claiming that “Mitch has gotten rich. In fact, his China-family has given him tens of millions of dollars”. Don Blankenship only managed 20% of the vote in the GOP Primary for Senate in West Virginia in 2018. In 2020, he filed paperwork to run for President of the United States as the nominee for the Constitution Party, but was obviouslt not even competitive as a candidate.

    On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”posted profiles of former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, who is most famous for battling in the United States' culture wars since 2001, in particular his fetish for placing monuments of the Ten Commandments in government buildings. That battle led to a series of unsuccessful lawsuits, and eventually was tossed off the bench in 2003 for staunchly refusing to honor a superior federal judge's decision that the monument should be removed, as it violated the First Amendment rights of non-Christians. In 2012, for whatever reason, the people of Alabama returned him to the bench, where he's resumed his mad push for making America a theocracy. Incidentally, Moore has gone on record before and stated his opinion that non-Christians like Hindus or Buddhists aren't "real" religions, and don't deserve 1st Amendment protections, and even has stated his belief that an unborn zygote should have more rights than they do. He founded a SuperPAC that funded a celebration of the anniversary of the day Alabama seceded from the union to join the Confederacy in 2010, claims Thomas Jefferson did not intend for the First Amendment to apply to non-Christians and that he was a fierce opponent of abortion, and has called for the impeachment of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Judge Moore is also stubbornly anti-gay, and is not only opposed to gay marriage, but believes that gay couples who have adopted should have their children taken away from them, arguing that "the laws of our state have always recognized the Biblical admonition" and comparing the acceptance to same sex marriage as being akin to "following Nazi orders". In fact, it was his refusal to acknowledge the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that got Moore removed from the Alabama Supreme Court a second time in 2016. He also floated his belief that Congressman Keith Ellison was illegitimate because he was sworn in with a Quran, and not a Bible (go figure, Ellison's a Muslim), and advised parents to pull their children out of public school if it dares to teach evolution. Where things got truly interesting was when Moore decided to run for office to replace Sen. Jeff Sessions as a U.S. Senator for Alabama in 2017… we had no idea how staggeringly more insane the story of this little lunatic might get. With the help of white supremacist supporters like Steve Bannon, Breitbart News, and every intolerant ideological extremist in the GOP, Roy Moore threw down in the GOP Primary for U.S. Senate against establishment GOP candidate Luther Strange. Moore was eccentric as ever, pulling out a pistol in front of a crowd at a campaign rally, and riding a horse to the polls to vote. The unthinkable happened… Roy Moore won that primary. Some national Democrats began to wonder that in a matchup between Roy Moore, if his opponent, attorney Doug Jones, could win. Yes, it was Alabama, one of the reddest states in the union, but Jones was actually a pretty solid candidate, with his history of successfully prosecuting members of the Ku Klux Klan who carried out a church bombing that resulted in four girls’ deaths decades earlier. And, y’know, Moore had already shown himself bats*** extreme enough to have been not once, but twice removed from office for refusing to honor the rulings of the Supreme Court. It shouldn’t have even been a question if Jones should have had a chance, but… Alabama. Well, then the question got easier to ask, because as it turns out, Roy Moore’s reputation of a dedicated Christian man neglected to include that while he was an assistant prosecutor in Gadsden, Alabama four decades ago, he was a serial pedophile. When one woman comes forward, maybe there’s some chance people might not believe them. But when seven of them come forward, and members of Gadsden law enforcement and people who run both the Gadsden Mall and Gadsden YMCA come forward and say they banned Roy Moore from the premises for creeping on teenage girls? Kinda hard for even the biggest misogynist to disregard that accusation as having been true… but then again, many Alabama Republicans actually started to argue that they believed his accusers, but that they still would vote for a pedophile before they voted for a Democrat. Hell, Donald Trump even decided it would be a great time to endorse Moore, because sexual predators stick together in the face of accusers. Polls started coming out showing that Doug Jones was tied with Roy Moore after the accusations first hit the news, some even with Jones in the lead. An ideological, fanatical man who preyed on teenage girls like Moore knew he had to dig deep to pull out a victory in the end. And so, he had all the people closest to him talk up how great he was at a last minute rally… that included one friend of Moore’s from his tour of Vietnam talking about how they went to a sex club where you could get child prostitutes together back in the day, and Roy Moore’s wife insisting he wasn’t a bigot because “one of our attorneys is a JEW”. (Note: As it turned out later, their “Jew lawyer” is actually Christian.) The day of the election came, and for the first time in a quarter century, a Democrat was elected to the U.S. Senate in Alabama, with Roy Moore losing to Doug Jones by 22,000 votes. Roy Moore did not accept defeat gracefully, instead insisting that there was “massive voter fraud”, posting insane conspiracy theories about how that happened, and starting to attack Doug Jones’ gay son in social media posts. Nobody bought his voter fraud theories, though, because Alabama has a Republican Secretary of State whose entire reputation is about stomping out voter fraud with Voter ID laws and voter suppression tactics (the latter of which did pop up to HELP Roy Moore, and there are ACLU lawsuits filed to prevent them in future elections). A judge certified Doug Jones’ victory, and that was that. Roy Moore currently has bigger problems, though. Like being sued by his accusers for defamation for all the ways he called them liars after they came forward, and he and his wife should probably pay their “not actually Jewish” lawyer a bunch of money to protect them from the fact that the charity they run is being investigated for fraud by the IRS. And YET… we have an update. Yes, we thought last year that we would have heard the last of Roy Moore, but we’ll be goddamned if this creeptastic, intolerant old sumb**** has not filed to run for U.S. Senate again in 2020. He was a long-shot what with only $34,000 in donations on hand as of October, and several more renowned Republicans without a track record of being alleged of trying to woo teenage girls running in the primary against him, including former Attorney General Jeff Sessions trying to slide his way back into the Senate on a slime trail, Congressman Bradley Byrne taking a crack at things, and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville throwing his hat in the ring. And alas, Roy Moore finished fourth among all GOP candidates with 7.2% of the vote. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that NOW we’re going to be able to say this will the last time we have to update a profile on him, and he’s going to f*** off and into retirement. Hopefully nowhere near a junior high school. As such, we will set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1068-50, since this was established in July 2014.
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  4. #39184

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    Jack Williams

    Welcome to what is the 1068th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Jack Williams, who served District 47 of the Alabama House of Representatives from 2004-2018. And of course, being an Alabama Republican, we could gesture in the direction of his voting record to note extremist stances on issues, whether it was trying to prevent the removal of Confederate monuments, trying to allow adoption agencies to deny LGBTQ couples the right to adopt children, voting for a bill to suspend all marriage licenses in a bid to stop same sex marriage, supporting any and all anti-choice legislation that came before him, or voting to bring back the barbaric execution method of the electric chair, this guy was in lockstep with the worst the Alabama GOP had in office. But, that’s not why we’re profiling him.

    Our reason for profiling Williams is that he was arrested in April of 2018 on bribery charges brought forward based on his activities while in the lower chamber of the Alabama state legislature. The lawmaker, along with former state GOP Chairman Marty Connors, and Trina Healthcare CEO Ford Gilbert, were arrested in early April and charged with conspiracy to commit bribery related to federal programs and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and honest services wire fraud. The Department of Justice accused the men of conspiring to create a plan to push a bill through the Alabama Legislature in 2016 that would have required Blue Cross and Blue Shield to cover diabetes treatments offered by Trina Health, a California company owned by Gilbert that had three clinics in the state to which the insurance company had denied treatment coverage. Gilbert allegedly paid House Majority Leader Micky Hammon to help with the bill and hired Connors to act as a lobbyist. Hammon and Connors then allegedly recruited Williams, the chairman of the Commerce and Small Business Committee, to hold a public hearing on the bill. So, so much corruption. Williams signed a pre-trial diversion agreement to avoid jail time, and defiantly insisted on finishing out the remainder of his term in office.

    We’d like to think someone indicted for bribery will never return to office. But then again, Yellowhammer State politics are corrupt as all get out, so that’s not a guarantee.
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  5. #39185
    Braddock Isle JB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shooshoomanjoe View Post
    I really hope Putin is just flexing his muscle and pulls away when/if the west starts to send soldiers to back up Ukraine. But when Putin invaded and occupied two areas in Ukraine a decade or so ago, the west didn't send boots on the ground so who knows how th dois will play out.
    Just reported within the last hour.

    Nato sends additional ships and fighter jets to eastern Europe as invasion fears grow
    https://inews.co.uk/news/russia-ukra...ws-1419027/amp

    Denmark is sending a war ship to the Baltic Sea and is set to deploy four F-16 fighter jets to Lithuania in support of Nato’s long-standing air-policing mission in the region. Spain is sending ships to join Nato naval forces and is considering sending fighter jets to Bulgaria.

    France and the Netherlands are set to send troops to Romania on Nato’s command. The Netherlands is sending two F-35 fighter aircrafts to Bulgaria from April to bolster Nato’s air-policing activities in the region.
    Apparently Australia and the UK have started evacuating diplomats from Kyiv.
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  7. #39187
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, stoked outrage on Sunday by predicting members of the House committee investigating the Capitol attack will be imprisoned if Republicans retake the chamber this year.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...?ocid=msedgntp

    Totally not a fascist party.

  8. #39188
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Start the Steal: New MAGA Emails Reveal Plot to Hand Arizona to Trump

    The technology was complicated, but the plan was simple: Scan mail-in and absentee ballots in populous Maricopa County, remove the “invalid votes,” and recertify the state’s 2020 election count, surely declaring then-President Donald Trump the rightful winner.

    This scheme to subvert the election outcome in Arizona is laid out in newly released emails obtained by Rolling Stone. Sent in early December 2020, the emails cover a critical moment when the post-election push by Trump and Republican allies to find fraud and overturn the presidential election was in full swing.

    The emails show how a group of fringe election sleuths pressed state legislators on a plan to disrupt the 2020 election certification and potentially change the vote count in a battleground state that helped deliver Joe Biden the presidency. The emails also reveal that several Trump advisers, including campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis and legal adviser Bernie Kerik, were included in the discussion.
    Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, was one of several election officials in Arizona who debunked many outlandish accusations of fraud and wrongdoing made by Trump and his allies. For this, Gates was called a traitor, he and his family faced harassment, and he feared for his physical safety. Gates, who reviewed the emails, says they show pro-Trump activists and lawmakers “trying to figure out that hail-mary pass” to overturn the election. “They’re drawing up the hail-mary pass that obviously culminated in January 6,” he adds. “This is part and parcel of it.”

    Gates says the records also illustrate how people outside of Arizona drove the election-fraud frenzy, supplying state legislators with strategies, talking points, and reams of technical jargon. “This was not an organic effort,” he says. “This is obviously people from outside, along with Trump and his lieutenants, pushing this.”
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  9. #39189
    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    I’m curious, exactly what would the 1/6 investigators be jailed for?
    Avatar: Here's to the late, great Steve Dillon. Best. Punisher. Artist. EVER!

  10. #39190
    BANNED Xheight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    Show trials are actually a specialty of Left wing Authoritarianism and hence the outrage at the prosecutors. It extends from the sense of having to "convince" the masses and partly themselves that they are serving history as much as their own power. It dovetails with having "correct" thoughts of Self-criticism and being aligned with the norms of the regime. Sounds like the Liberal Democrats of today does it not? Weatherman's faction of the Students for a Democratic Society had a whole chapter on self-criticism

    "official abuse of power", is the commission of an unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of official duties. Malfeasance in office is often a just cause for removal of an elected official by statute or recall election. Officials who utilize abuse of power are often those who exploit the ability to use corruption in their advantage.
    Holding up up the Steal will be just such a abuse. or it could be "Malfeasance in office"
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    Last edited by Xheight; 01-24-2022 at 08:05 AM.

  11. #39191
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Xheight View Post
    Show trials are actually a specialty of Left wing Authoritarianism and hence the outrage at the prosecutors. It extends from the sense of having to "convince" the masses and partly themselves that they are serving history as much as their own power. It dovetails with having "correct" thoughts of Self-criticism and being aligned with the norms of the regime. Sounds like the Liberal Democrats of today does it not?
    My eyes can not roll hard enough.

  12. #39192
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Gorsuch derides the 'so-called' separation of church and state

    It's not the session's most high-profile case, but the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in Shurtleff v. Boston, which is an interesting First Amendment dispute. Just as notable, however, was something Justice Neil Gorsuch said during Tuesday's proceedings.

    The case is relatively straightforward: Boston's city hall generally flies national, state, and city flags on its public flag poles, though there are occasional exceptions. On Pride Day, for example, Boston will fly a rainbow flag. If foreign dignitaries visit Boston, the city's flag poles will feature the flag of the foreign officials' countries.

    With this mind, Harold Shurtleff, who represents a group called Camp Constitution, applied to have Boston fly a white flag with a red cross. He described it as a "Christian flag," at which point the city declined his request. Gregory Rooney, a local commissioner, concluded that Boston's city hall had to remain neutral on matters of faith.
    A legal fight soon followed, and the case made its way to the Supreme Court. By all accounts, given the dominance of conservative justices, Shurtleff is very likely to prevail, but consider an off-hand comment Gorsuch made during oral arguments:
    "As I understand it, Mr. Rooney said that he thought it was concern about the so-called separation of state, church and state, or the Constitution's Establishment Clause."
    Ordinarily, when we hear references to the "so-called" constitutional principle of separation of church and state, the rhetoric is coming from televangelists or far-right politicians eager to curry favor with activists in the religious right movement.

    This week, however, the phrase came from a sitting justice on the nation's highest court — suggesting he has a dismissive view of this bedrock principle of religious liberty.
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    Braddock Isle JB's Avatar
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    Once allies, Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti face off at trial
    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...rial-rcna13273

    Avenatti, who rose to fame representing the porn star in lawsuits against former President Donald Trump, is accused of cheating Daniels of $300,000 in book proceeds.

    Stormy Daniels, the porn star who catapulted herself and Michael Avenatti to fame with lawsuits against former President Donald Trump, will have a starring role in court beginning Monday when prosecutors try to prove that the California lawyer cheated her of $300,000 in book proceeds.

    Her testimony in Manhattan federal court will be pivotal for prosecutors trying to prove Avenatti engaged in wire fraud and aggravated identity theft to keep from giving his client money he had received from her publisher. Opening statements are set for Monday. Daniels is not expected to testify until Tuesday, at the earliest.
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  14. #39194
    BANNED Xheight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malvolio View Post
    "...a populist conservative who's not a conman..." Does that even exist?
    All too true if one looks at the faux populism of people like Romney and Mitch or even Kevin McCarthy - elites that pretend they are not are not going to be driving the revolution. Then again that is who the Coulter piece is calling the ex-GOP, those disinterested in a populist revolution and cleaning house of politicians that favor charity cases and the rich simultaneously and screw the working majority. The I've Got-mines of the suburbs who are turned off by the mannerisms of the declasse Trump and following who wish for their party back but are worried that what they handed power over to the hoped for middle of the road Joe is not the happy choice ahead either.
    Last edited by Xheight; 01-24-2022 at 08:31 AM.

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    BANNED Xheight's Avatar
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    The founders had no context for an ideology that wouldn't be "religion" so there is merit in expanding the idea to "beliefs" being understood as protected by Natural Rights.

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