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

[hyped78]

One thing I find funny is when a member of the GOP cult or Fox news bitch about how much CNN and the Democrats talk about Trump and how sad it is we are so hyper focused on one person. Then do a 5 hours special on Hunters Laptop.

Well, I mean, Fox News - and there's even worse in OAN and what was the other one? (I forgot but there was another wacky right-wing network) - makes headline news about things that either don't exist or are spun in a completely wrong way.

I just opened Fox News and they have this on the front page, it's the 2nd top article as I'm typing:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gra...fection-in-fbi

"Senator calls out FBI over alleged bias in Hunter Biden, Trump investigations"

They have an uncanny ability to disregard whatever Trump is being investigated for/ accused of and to scream "Hunter Biden's laptop!", "Hillary's e-mails!".

The problem is that if you're someone who ONLY watches Fox News, of course you're going to believe this and think that there's FBI bias and some sort of witch hunt.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2014 that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published our profile of Tye “Glenn” Champ, a GOP candidate for governor of California in 2014 who just so happened to have a record as a felon for soliciting underage prostitutes and committing manslaughter, who after faring surprisingly well in the primary (finishing better than ten other candidates), managed to later get into an argument with a neighbor where Champ fired off several rounds at the neighbor and his son, instead missing wildly and killing a horse. He is now back in prison, and as such, seems unlikely to be politically relevant for some time (but nice job inviting him to your state party convention, California Republicans!)


In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who in 2010, had colorful campaign discussions that included pushing back against calls to increase the statute of limitations on sexual abuse in Wisconsin, leaving victims of abuses years ago unable to seek justice, labeling Social Security "a Ponzi scheme", saying that the 97% of climate change scientists who say the phenomenon is man-made were "crazy", the real cause of climate change was sunspots, and that Greenland is covered in snow and ice because we're actually witnessing "global cooling". In 2013 that Ron Johnson answered criticism from the League of Conservation Voters that he denied climate change by accusing them of waging “environmental jihad” and has compared politicians and activists trying to prevent climate change to Joseph Stalin, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Castro.

Johnson also was against marriage equality, and was pro-life to the extent where he considers that life begins at conception (which means he's also against most forms of birth control). Johnson also showed quite a bit of hypocrisy, railing against the economic stimulus packages passed by Congress to help the American economy, that as it turned out, his business had accepted funding from. Or perhaps he showed a great deal of personal bias for attacking the Obama administration for trying to take BP Oil to task after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill for the environmental damage he caused, by categorizing it as "launching an assault on BP" and after some digging, the media found out that Ron Johnson had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock in BP Oil, and he made the excuse of not selling it because he was waiting for the stock market to be better so he could get more money out of it. And that was just what we discussed from BEFORE him reaching office in the 2010 Tea Party Wave in an upset victory over three-term Senator Russ Feingold. Since reaching office, Johnson has stayed to party lines in almost every obstructing vote in the Senate, voting against increasing the debt ceiling, the new version of the Violence Against Women Act (which he said was “unconstitutional”), and disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, just to name a few choice “blocks”. Heck, he voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown and then voted to keep the government closed when the time came to end it. Inexplicably, he also tried fear-mongering to the fringe elements of the GOP prior to the 2014 elections during the outbreak of Ebola Virus in Africa, warning that ISIS might deliberately infect its own followers with the disease and send them to the United States to deliberately spread it (which is not a viable form of suicide attack, considering people afflicted with Ebola are far from mobile as their body starts getting wracked by the disease, and they have to get blood or feces on anyone they’re attacking without being noticed). Sen. Johnson was one of the “47 Traitors” in the GOP who tried to meddle in the State Department’s negotiations with Iran, presented a photo of President Obama and President Rouhani shaking hands as proof they were “chummy” that was actually photo-shopped, and wasted time in a Senate hearing asking Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz questions about an “EMP Bomb” that doesn’t actually exist outside of movies. And speaking of movies, Johnson even went on record to rail against, of all things, The Lego Movie, because he felt the villain, Lord Business, was a demonization of rich corporations. He has blamed a rise in mass shootings on the media for reporting them, paid tribute to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia after his death by stupidly posting a picture of actor Edward Gero, who starred in a play about Scalia and his court decisions called “The Originalist”, and whose solution to help combat the prescription opioid drug abuse epidemic… bring back those “War on Drugs” ads where your brain was compared to an egg in a frying pan that did nothing to curtail even ordinary drug abuse in the 1980s.

Johnson compared his own hard battle for re-election in 2016 to the choice of passengers on Flight 93 on 9/11 to storm the cockpit, and as outrageous and disgusting as that comparison might be (not just to the victims but to his opponent Russ Feingold), with a lot of help from the voter suppression tactics employed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his cronies in the Wisconsin state legislature, managed to actually win a second term in 2016. And that was even after how on the week of the election, unprompted, he decided to discuss impeaching Hillary Clinton. I mean, counting your impeachment chickens before they’re hatched much, Ron?

Now, since Sen. Johnson’s shocking re-election, he has done little to stand up to the Trump administration, voting for every unqualified member of his “Cabinet of Horrors”, as well as voting for the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. As frustrating as that is to see, there has only been one big vote on legislation since January in the U.S. Senate, and that would have been on healthcare repeal… Ron Johnson, in late July, was saying he would vote against any attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, because Sen. Mitch McConnell and leadership in the Senate were being too secretive about what was actually in the bill, and that he would vote to block it from coming to the floor.

Two days later, Johnson voted to repeal. Two days. That’s all it took to contradict himself. And how upset was Sen. Johnson that he couldn’t burn down the American healthcare system and whiz on the ashes? Enough so that he responded to the dramatic “no” vote by Senator John McCain by whining about how Sen. McCain’s “brain tumor may have factored in” to his vote.

Well, isn’t that sweet of you, Ron.

We’ve covered before that Ron Johnson is a moronic conspiracy theorist, so current events in our country mean he’s really reveling in the moment, what with a conspiracy theorist at the White House. And what with Donald Trump and a lot of conservative “media” sources rambling on with paranoid delusions about a “Deep State” within the government sabotaging the Trump administration, that Sen. Johnson would join in the chorus on Fox News:

"And that secret society — we have an informant talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off-site. There's so much smoke here, there's so much suspicion. I've heard from an individual that ... there was a group of managers within the FBI that were holding meetings off site. Wzhen Strzok and Page had described a secret society, that didn't surprise me because I had corroborating information."

And… that was stupid enough that fellow GOP Congressman Charlie Dent all but accused Johnson of having brain damage.

We’re honestly thinking that’s not hyperbole. In April of 2018, Johnson started whining about supposed “unprecedented obstruction” about Democrats, and then literally, a minute later, started praising Mitch McConnell for leading the Senate GOP to block the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

Just… f***. F***.

[Dalak]

Reading about Pence yesterday trying to tell his party to stop trashing the FBI and respect the process as they are "The party of Law and Order" is hilarious. Still trying to claim that after January 6th as their own people attacked cops and killed them. Then they spent everyday since then downplaying it all and lamenting the 'treatment' of their base.

And even know attacking the FBI cause they came to get the classified documents Trump wouldn't give up after being subpoenaed and practically begged to return as directed prior to having to go raid and get it all.


Even though I am not a fan of Liz Cheney, she was literally just fired by Wyoming GOP voters for being a part of a committee trying to bring justice to the officers killed on Jan 6th. Yet there are still some like Pence trying to claim a high ground on supporting law enforcement.

Hypocrisy is one of my worst pet peeves (see George Carlin) and the GoP have embraced it like no other party regardless of how small in the US. From those they elect having their secret mistresses getting abortions to stuff like this I'm sick of it and wish they would be called out on it more regularly and openly by the Media and everyone else frankly.

[hyped78]

Reading about Pence yesterday trying to tell his party to stop trashing the FBI and respect the process as they are "The party of Law and Order" is hilarious. Still trying to claim that after January 6th as their own people attacked cops and killed them. Then they spent everyday since then downplaying it all and lamenting the 'treatment' of their base.

And even know attacking the FBI cause they came to get the classified documents Trump wouldn't give up after being subpoenaed and practically begged to return as directed prior to having to go raid and get it all.


Even though I am not a fan of Liz Cheney, she was literally just fired by Wyoming GOP voters for being a part of a committee trying to bring justice to the officers killed on Jan 6th. Yet there are still some like Pence trying to claim a high ground on supporting law enforcement.

I didn't know much about Liz Cheney (besides who her father is, haha) before all of this started, but I think her political career is over if she stays in the GOP. After the Wyoming loss, she's said that she's gonna fight to restore the GOP and may consider to run for President - in the GOP, in the next few years at least, that's not gonna happen for her (either of those things).

[worstblogever]

On the July 4th weekend in 2020, you may have seen a report about several Republican Senators and one member of the GOP House spending the celebration of American independence by going to Russia to meet with their foreign counterparts. Commentators and pundits thought that maybe the optics of going on a diplomatic visit to the country that meddled in the 2016 election on arguably its most patriotic holiday weren’t good. But, it was worse than that Three days later, Johnson suddenly was arguing against sanctions on Russia because “they aren’t working that well”. Three days. That’s all it took for Ron Johnson to flip on his on country. This… this ***hole really does telegraph how easily he’s bought, doesn’t he?

Speaking of, Sen. Johnson gave lukewarm criticism when Donald Trump told four Democratic Congresswomen of color to “go back to where they came from”, but defended him against accusations that the attack was racist, saying that telling people to “love America or leave it” wasn’t racist in the 1960s. (Which isn’t what Trump said, mind you, and it has had racist connotations… but what do you expect from the dumbest man in the Senate?)

Ron Johnson spent the 2020 election season apparently volunteering his services to be a proxy for Russian intelligence, issuing Senate subpoenas to the FBI to have them come down to discuss their investigation of Donald Trump colluding with the Russians in 2016, and also that he admitted he was bringing up Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine in the hopes it would to swing the outcome of the 2020 election.

Just… some of the timeline from the past year and a half or so:

• January 31st, 2020: Ron Johnson votes against witnesses being allowed in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, effectively making it a “trial”.
• February 5th, 2020: Johnson votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump, in spite of the mountain of evidence showing that he solicited foreign assistance in the 2020 elections.
• February 25th, 2020: Johnson votes for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, an insane piece of anti-choice legislation that would ask abortion providers to try to admit aborted fetuses to a hospital if they were “alive” after the procedure, which is medically impossible given the age that abortions can be performed at.
• March 17th, 2020: Ron Johnson opines that citizens receiving a Covid-19 stimulus would “incentivize people to not show up for work”. Which, during a pandemic, if they could be incentivized to stay at home for non-essential jobs, that’s THE POINT, RON.
• July 22nd, 2020: Senator Johnson single-handedly blocks the advancement of a bill to celebrate Juneteenth as a federal holiday, deeming it “too expensive”.
• September 16th, 2020: Johnson uses his seat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee to try and launch an investigation into Hunter Biden to sabotage his father’s presidential campaign, and it’s so blatantly stupid that even fellow Republican Senator Mitt Romney calls him out for it.
• September 17th, 2020: Ron Johnson, in an interview with Greta Van Susteren, declares that “Donald Trump is the most transparent president in American history”, which had fact checkers remind him Trump never released his tax records, his college transcripts, his medical records, his DNA to investigators looking to find out if he sexually assaulted women, he wouldn’t disclose the White House visitor logs, or that he actively would not reveal what was said in meetings with Vladimir Putin, and actively put recordings and transcripts of calls with foreign leaders on a highly classified server.
• November 10th, 2020: Johnson begins furthering “The Big Lie” that Joe Biden did not actually win the 2020 election, answering when asked if he congratulated Biden by saying, “There’s nothing to congratulate him about.”
• February 13th, 2021: Sen. Johnson votes to acquit Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial.
• February 16th, 2021: During a hearing on the January 6th attack, Ron Johnson claims that the Capitol Riot “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me” (He's been implicated in the false electors scheme, so take that with a big grain of salt).
• March 6th, 2021: Ron Johnson votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he can’t be bothered to care if people need financial assistance during a pandemic.

x

[kidfresh512]

I didn't know much about Liz Cheney (besides who her father is, haha) before all of this started, but I think her political career is over if she stays in the GOP. After the Wyoming loss, she's said that she's gonna fight to restore the GOP and may consider to run for President - in the GOP, in the next few years at least, that's not gonna happen for her (either of those things).

She is basically being lauded by everyone except the GOP for doing the bare minimum which is saying hey Trump is an obvious criminal, conman parasite even to the detriment of her own career. Her actual policy stances and voting record are in line with the GOP heavily and they are only against her because she goes after Trump.

Policy wise I would never support her or vote for her. She's getting oversized praise though in the media and by some liberals because she's one of the lone voices of reason on the issue of MAGA being lunatics, and Trump being a dangerous fraud.

All the talk of her maybe running for president has even less chance than Pence. She would be rejected by the GOP base because they are hardcore MAGA as she saw with her election this week. The liberals that are applauding her for doing her literal job investigating what caused Jan 6th and how to fix it and place the blame are not going to be here for her actual policy stances during an election campaign.

[hyped78]

On OAN, predictably, the splashy clickbait is "Democrats weaponize FBI against Americans". I don't know how news channels/ websites like these aren't regulated - "weaponize" and "against Americans" (it's not even against Trump, apparently!)

https://www.oann.com/democrats-weapo...nst-americans/

[hyped78]

She is basically being lauded by everyone except the GOP for doing the bare minimum which is saying hey Trump is an obvious criminal, conman parasite even to the detriment of her own career. Her actual policy stances and voting record are in line with the GOP heavily and they are only against her because she goes after Trump.

Policy wise I would never support her or vote for her. She's getting oversized praise though in the media and by some liberals because she's one of the lone voices of reason on the issue of MAGA being lunatics, and Trump being a dangerous fraud.

All the talk of her maybe running for president has even less chance than Pence. She would be rejected by the GOP base because they are hardcore MAGA as she saw with her election this week. The liberals that are applauding her for doing her literal job investigating what caused Jan 6th and how to fix it and place the blame are not going to be here for her actual policy stances during an election campaign.

In other words: her political career is over

[worstblogever]

z

• March 12th, 2021:Senator Johnson says that he in no way feared for his life on January 6th, but said that if there were Black Lives Matter protesters outside the Capitol, he would have feared for his safety.
• April 23rd, 2021: Johnson criticizes the Biden administration for their vaccination roll-out plan, not for its efficiency or lack thereof, just that it was happening, saying he sees “no reason” for the mass vaccinations to the public.
• May 8th, 2021: Ron Johnson disseminates misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine in an interview on right-wing radio in Madison, saying that 3,000 people died from the vaccine in the first 30 days it was being used.
• June 3rd, 2021: In one flurry of gaslighting, Johnson attacks Dr. Anthony Fauci, claims that the Capitol Riot was far more peaceful than was reported, claimed there were “irregularities” in the 2020 election, and chastised Black activists, saying they “need to read more MLK speeches” at their protests.
• June 12th, 2021: Ron Johnson is banned from Twitter for a week for spreading Covid-19 misinformation.
• June 19th, 2021: Senator Johnson single-handedly blocked the passage of a bill to celebrate Juneteenth as a federal holiday in 2020. After it passed, in 2021, he had the nerve to show up at a Juneteenth celebration like he’d helped pass it, and was booed until he left.
• July 19th, 2021: Johnson lies and says that the coup attempt at the Capitol was not that, and that the protesters were “peaceful”.
• August 10th, 2021: Ron Johnson votes against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• August 25th, 2021: Sen. Johnson gets a rebuke from the FDA because twenty months into the Covid-19 pandemic, and eight months after a vaccine is available, he is still touting the use of ivermectin, or horse dewormer, as a valid treatment (it isn’t).
• October 18th, 2021: Ten months after Covid-19 vaccines are available to the public, Johnson goes on Fox News Sunday and claims they are “experimental”, and that the only reason ivermectin is not being recommended is because “there’s no money in it”. Experts and smart people are baffled as to what he’s talking about.
• December 1st, 2021: On World AIDS Day, Ron Johnson claims that the Covid-19 pandemic is being “overhyped” just like the AIDS crisis was. (For those who don’t remember, theReagan administration did almost nothing about the pandemic for years until they started to realize that it wasn’t killing only gay men.)
• December 7th, 2021: Johnson goes on Charlie Kirk’s radio show and claims that unvaccinated people are being “basically put in internment camps abroad”.
• December 9th, 2021: Ron Johnson falsely claims that it has been “proven” that the Covid-19 virus can be killed by using mouthwash.
• December 14th, 2021: Johnson votes against raising the debt ceiling, jeopardizing the United States’ credit rating.
• January 27th, 2022: Sen. Johnson goes on Charlie Kirk’s radio show and falsely claims that healthy professional athletes are dropping dead in the middle of competitions because they have received the Covid-19 vaccine.
• February 28th, 2022: Ron Johnson votes against the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have established a right to physicians to perform abortions to save their patients’ lives.
• February 28th, 2022: Sen. Johnson tries to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which doesn’t make any sense, but given his track record of defending the Russians, is not out of character for him to lie on their behalf.
• March 30th, 2022: Johnson votes against putting the extremely qualified nominee, Judge Kentanji Brown-Jackson, onto the Supreme Court.
• May 26th, 2022: Sen. Johnson votes against the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022, because at this point, domestic terror is a policy plank of authoritarian Republicans.
• June 21st, 2022: Ron Johnson is revealed to have attempted to hand Vice President Mike Pence ballots full of fake electors in the midst of the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
• June 22nd, 2022: Facing scrutiny after having revealed in his own aides’ texts the prior day to have participated in a seditious conspiracy, Johnson is obviously confronted by reporters in Washington, DC looking for answers. He tries to pretend he’s taking a phone call, but the reporter calls him out on the fact that his phone is off, and he still tries to keep up the ruse for another 30 seconds before denying any involvement. The dumbest man in the Senate, ladies and gents.
• July 27th, 2022: Ron Johnson votes against the PACT Act, blocking additional funding towards veterans exposed to “burn pits” while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a vote conducted out of spite that Democrats passed the Act the prior day. Several Republicans are seening shaking hands and fist bumping to celebrate screwing over the vets, while releasing a series of photos of the Senate GOP Caucus filling USO boxes and claiming they “support the military”.

Barring any sudden resignation or karmically developing brain tumor on his own end, Ron Johnson is now cemented in the Senate like the dumb bag of rocks he is until 2022. Just… goddamn. He pledged to not run for a third term, but of course, reneged on that promise to the people, and is trying to see if the people of Wisconsin are suckers enough to keep him around for as long as eighteen years, instead of just twelve.

Here's the good news… Democrats are running a truly inspiring candidate against him, Mandela Barnes, who served two terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 2013-2017, and after that has honorably worked as the Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin. He has shown himself to be everything that Ron Johnson isn’t, honest, loyal, hardworking, and not a bunch of dead skin in a suit to spread falsehoods across media outlets that will literally get people killed. If Barnes wins at age 35, he could prove to be a progressivef force in American politics for decades.

And it doesn’t feel like too much to ask the people of Wisconsin to do better than the low bar that Ron Johnson, the Russophilic man who has truly earned the title of “Dumbest Man in the Senate” to pick Mandela over him.

[babyblob]

She is basically being lauded by everyone except the GOP for doing the bare minimum which is saying hey Trump is an obvious criminal, conman parasite even to the detriment of her own career. Her actual policy stances and voting record are in line with the GOP heavily and they are only against her because she goes after Trump.

Policy wise I would never support her or vote for her. She's getting oversized praise though in the media and by some liberals because she's one of the lone voices of reason on the issue of MAGA being lunatics, and Trump being a dangerous fraud.

All the talk of her maybe running for president has even less chance than Pence. She would be rejected by the GOP base because they are hardcore MAGA as she saw with her election this week. The liberals that are applauding her for doing her literal job investigating what caused Jan 6th and how to fix it and place the blame are not going to be here for her actual policy stances during an election campaign.

This 1000 percent. She has voted lock step and key with the GOP on pretty much every thing. But everyone wants to make her a hero for voting to impeach Trump and being on the 6th. And yes I do admire her for standing up to her party att he cost of her seat. but she is not one of the greatest heroes in America. She is at Best Mole Man who sides with the FF on a bigger threat.

And I also get sick of the hero worship from the media and the Dems on Pence. "He is a brave man. He stood up Trump." Really in what way did he stand up to Trump when all he did was his job that he had to do. And it was a job that he was asking if he could get by not doing. Didnt he talk to more then one person on if he had the power to not cerifiy and if he should if he didnt have the power. So he basically did his job after he was told he has not choice. That is not standing up to anyone and that is not making you brave.

[hyped78]

This 1000 percent. She has voted lock step and key with the GOP on pretty much every thing. But everyone wants to make her a hero for voting to impeach Trump and being on the 6th. And yes I do admire her for standing up to her party att he cost of her seat. but she is not one of the greatest heroes in America. She is at Best Mole Man who sides with the FF on a bigger threat.

Not a hero - but certainly conducted herself better than the average GOP lawmaker. At this point, that's already something, regardless of whether we then agree with her wider political views or not.

Look at it this way - she would've won the Wyoming Primary if she had said all along that the election was rigged and supported Trump. Or, at least, if she had kept silent.

[hyped78]

Five Thirty Eight have just updated their model:

Democrats win the Senate 63, GOP 37
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...e/?cid=rrpromo

Nevada and Georgia are the only two toss-ups according to their model.


Republicans win the House 78, Democrats 22
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...e/?cid=rrpromo

[babyblob]

Not a hero - but certainly conducted herself better than the average GOP lawmaker. At this point, that's already something, regardless of whether we then agree with her wider political views or not.

Look at it this way - she would've won the Wyoming Primary if she had said all along that the election was rigged and supported Trump. Or, at least, if she had kept silent.

She for sure would have won had she did that. And I have more respect for her then the GOP nut jobs. But her voting record is pure everything the GOP wants. Other then on Trump.

So I respect her for standing up to Trump which her party refuses to do. I respect ehr for taking a stand that lost her her seat. But truth be told she is not a person I would vote for.

I can respect what she did but still understand she is not a hero and that she does not support things I support.

[kidfresh512]

She for sure would have won had she did that. And I have more respect for her then the GOP nut jobs. But her voting record is pure everything the GOP wants. Other then on Trump.

So I respect her for standing up to Trump which her party refuses to do. I respect ehr for taking a stand that lost her her seat. But truth be told she is not a person I would vote for.

I can respect what she did but still understand she is not a hero and that she does not support things I support.

Democrats enamored of Liz Cheney seem to have amnesia

But if you look at her record, it’s clear that Cheney is Trump without the lying, bullying and immorality. When Trump was president, Cheney’s votes in Congress aligned with his positions nearly 93% of the time.

The media was so fixated on Trump’s behavior as president that his policies often didn’t get the attention they deserved. He gave huge tax breaks to the wealthy, walked the U.S. away from confronting global warming, rolled back scores of environmental rules and did all he could to curb immigration.

Unfortunately, Cheney’s agreement with Trump’s positions has not broken through. And since the American public has short memory and even shorter attention span, the media adulation is a problem.

And there’s been a lot of it from smitten opinion writers. “Nonetheless Liz Cheney persisted,” a Daily Beast writer proclaimed, using a rallying cry for progressive Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. A Bloomberg article predicted that her “martyrdom” would ultimately reshape the Republican Party. A Washington Post columnist compared her to Obi-Wan Kenobi warring against Trump’s Darth Vader.

But what is her actual record? Her bio proclaims her staunch support for “pursuing conservative solutions to create jobs, cut taxes and regulation, and expand America’s energy, mining and agriculture industries.”

She’s anti-abortion, pro-gun and approves of waterboarding. She opposed the Violence Against Women Act, although 29 House Republicans broke with their party to support it. She’s been a longtime foe of the Affordable Care Act, voting for Trump’s plan to dismantle it. She is a hardliner on immigration.

Boston Globe columnist Renee Graham, an exception to the media cheerleaders, called out this so-called champion of democracy for failing to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would protect the rights of all Americans to cast their votes and have them counted.

And she remains close to her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. They even wrote a book together, marinated in militarism. Long after it was discredited, the two Cheneys continued to defend the Iraq War despite its huge cost in blood and treasure and the fact that the elder Cheney’s claims of weapons of mass destruction proved to be unfounded.

Let’s not forget that Cheney also came relatively late to the anti-Trump party. She supported Trump in 2016 and defended him after the revelation of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which he bragged about assaulting women. While calling Trump’s comments appalling, she insisted that “Hillary’s actions have been far worse.”

The perfect Liz Cheney reality check article imo

[GindyPosts]

I keep coming back to Aesop's Fables the way some staunch progressives talk. Specifically the one about the greedy child and the jar of nuts. Unwilling to let go of even a single nut, the child was unable to get their hand out of the jar, and had no nuts.

The US system is set up to require compromise, largely because there are millions of other people with ideas on How Things Should Be Done that are different than yours, and you either compromise, or resort to the only way for a minority to force it's ideas onto a majority - Tyranny.

The problem progressives have right now is conservatives are showing that they are offering no compromise whatsoever with what they want and they are essentially getting away with it, while establishment Democrats are telling left-wing Americans "No, you are bad for America because you're too extreme". When you have those kinds of mixed messages, you cannot blame progressive Americans from feeling like their voices are purposefully being ignored, which in turn will help the far right movement in turning the United States into a totalitarian state.