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

[worstblogever]

As far as Biden's campaign...

Since he emerged from the primary, it's been run highly competently. We haven't seen any surrogates have any self-owns on cable news. The question was always going to be, "Is Joe Biden going to be a gaffe machine?" And he hasn't, for the most part. When he has had slips, they've been minor, and his people have spun them right away. Same goes for Kamala. They've also taken Trump and Pence to task in ads for multiple f*** ups by the administration, hitting them hard on pandemic response in particular (low-hanging fruit) but not letting them off the hook for his taxes in stories, or the Russian bounties, or... you get the idea.

I don't think they've run a GREAT campaign. But a highly competent one. Which is what you want to see from someone who you're going to need to also run a highly competent White House when there are 3-4 national crisis situations unfolding at once.

It hasn't been a question that's worth spending too much time. They don't have to be faster than the tiger, they have to be faster than the other guy. And if you look at the Trump campaign's complete disarray. Trump 2020 had their first campaign manager waste so much money they had to pull ads in swing states. They've relied on "October surprises" that are obvious smears and Russian disinformation campaigns that have fizzled. Their candidate has been off his rocker the whole time, and his own stupidity and need for self-congratulations had him giddy to celebrate making another Supreme Court pick. The first campaign manager has been arrested for domestic abuse on his lawn shirtless. The second one also caught Covid-19 and had to go into quarantine during the final run-up while early voting is starting. Their entire campaign has been constant lies and conspiracy theories while the country has been enduring a plague, and the west coast is literally on fire. They've got not a single legitimate achievement to tout after four years, and are running as if Trump is the challenger, and Joe Biden has been president. It's... just stupid.

And then, Biden... running a highly competent thing looks re-e-e-eal good.

[worstblogever]

‘My people fought for the right to vote’: With a surge of emotion, Black Americans rush to the polls

People still talking about Hunter Biden up in here while we waiting in line for 10 hours trying to vote and save the country.

I'll say it... thank you to everyone who's voting this f***out out, and doing so under extraordinary circumstances.

My entire social media feed in AZ has been people showing pictures of them with their ballot when it arrived, pictures of them going to drop it off, and reports when it was received and their signatures were verified.

Gonna have a lot of posts starting 10/20 when the state starts counting about people who check the county recorder website to report their vote has been counted. I'm sure of it.

And... I've never seen enthusiasm like this. Not even in '08.

[worstblogever]

On this date, in 2014, in 2015, and in 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of former Colorado House of Representatives member Gordon Klingenschmitt, a.k.a. “Dr. Chaps” who in 2014, actually managed to get enough support to be elected in spite of the fact that he is, for lack of a better term, a complete goddamned lunatic. How much of a loon is he? Well, in our first profile, we went in depth on Klingenschmitt, a former military chaplain reprimanded and discharged by the Navy in 2006 for disobeying orders and attending a political protest in uniform. He also apparently while once counseling a rape victim on his vessel, discovered she was a lesbian and immediately stopped helping her through her trauma to restrain her and try to exorcise the demons out of her that were making her gay (I’m serious, he’s bragged about this). Klingenschmitt then took to the airwaves on a cable access show, where he has tried performing long-distance exorcisms on all sorts of famous people to remove demons from them, from liberal celebrities like Madonna, to politicians like President Obama and Texas State Senator Wendy Davis. The latter makes sense when you consider he claims the Bible teaches us to defend ourselves against “left-wing crazies” (I don’t remember Jesus saying that, myself). He also thinks the FCC have loosened guidelines to help demons travel through televisions to “molest and visually rape your children”, that the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us to discriminate against gays, and repeatedly has claimed “Obamacare causes cancer”. Klingenschmitt, despite being pants-s***ingly insane (speaking of which, he has claimed the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has made gay soldiers have to start wearing diapers from all the gay sex they’ve been having making them lose bowel control, because he’s that charming)… despite being that barking mad, decided to make a run for the Colorado House of Representatives. And just prior to the election, he claimed openly gay Democratic Congressman Jared Polis was “going to join ISIS and start beheading Christians” because seriously, at this point, could he really do anything to come off as more deranged? Within three months of being sworn into office, Colorado House Republicans refused to allow Klingenschmitt to participate in any committees in state government, for fear of what he might say on them, and halfway through his term, he praised the Bundy family for seizing a federal building and called on the judges who tried the case to be executed. He’s called for the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, arguing that we should “push gay people back in the closet”, which doesn’t make any goddamned sense because the people who have come out of it can’t put that genie back in the bottle at this point, and also claimed that a female Muslim cadet at The Citadel would lead to an increase in female service members being raped because… well, he’s insane, so don’t try to make sense of that. Klingenschmitt’s still going on his cable access show daily, where he continues to insist President Obama is a secret Muslim, argues that God preached against gun-free zones in the Bible, compares same sex marriage to “the yoke of slavery”, said that executives from Planned Parenthood have “blood dripping from their fangs” and blames polling that shows Americans are starting to accept same sex marriage on what else? Massive demonic possession. Mercifully, Klingenschmitt was defeated in his efforts to be elected to the Colorado State Senate in 2016, and hopefully will never, ever even sniff anything close to elected office again so while we’ll peek in from time to time to see what Dr. Chaps is up to over at RightWingWatch.org (it's always bats***).

On this date in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Bill Nojay, a former member of the New York State Assembly who was first elected to office in 2012, and seemed to be well on his way to re-election until just a few weeks prior to the 2016 elections, he took his own life rather to go to jail on federal fraud and other white collar criminal charges he was facing (he actually won his primary days after he died). Months after his suicide, the FBI were still trying to sort out his criminal activities, which involved business dealings though out multiple countries across the globe, reached well into the seven-figure range, and were committed even years prior to his first run for office. In fact, it is believed that much of the money donated to a SuperPAC for Nojay’s first run for office was $91,000 looted from an escrow account on a construction project that was never completed for the King of Jordan. Perhaps not coincidentally given all the money the Trump Corporation and Paul Manafort are being investigated for grifting their way through in foreign real estate deals… Bill Nojay endorsed Donald Trump pretty early on in the 2016 elections, gave him advice on where his “lane” would have to be given he had no prior office or military service, urging him to run for Governor of New York instead, and eventually served as the Trump campaign’s New York Co-Chairman. Democrats were respectful following Nojay’s death, unlike their GOP counterparts who when placed in similar situations like with Seth Rich or Vince Foster, would start whipping up conspiracy theories about how the head of the ticket were responsible for his death.

On this date in both 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled the U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 22nd District, Pete Olson, who has been in office now since 2008, and prior to that he spent a decade serving as aide to Texas Senator Phil Gramm for four years, and then as Texas Senator John Cornyn’s chief of staff from 2002-2007. And yes, he’s a Republican Texas Congressman, so obviously Rep. Olson’s going to have a long voting record that shows he’s anti-immigrant, anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ (Olson was actually the sponsor of the anti-transgender “Civil Rights Uniformity Act” that would have defined citizens by the gender of their birth), pro-gun, and the whole myriad of extremist ideas that come with it. What sets him apart from the rest, though? Well, our hands-down greatest WTF from Pete Olson is easily that during the 2016 presidential campaign, Olson was chatting on the radio with conservative talk show host Sam Malone, and straight up started theorizing that when Bill Clinton met Attorney General Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac, the former president “must have threatened to kill her like the Clintons did to Vince Foster” to gain her loyalty and get FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating Hillary’s e-mails. Alright, so… first up, the Clintons didn’t kill Vince Foster, that was a suicide, and Foster’s family REPEATEDLY keep telling Republicans to stop spreading conspiracy theories about his death, because that’s just f***ed up. Second… that would be some brazen and stupid obstruction of justice attempts, and if there’s something Bill Clinton knows about, it’s having to endure bulls*** investigations without doing anything that gets you charged with obstruction of justice. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sat down with investigators during the Lewinsky debacle, or stopped the Starr investigation from looking into his taxes… etc. (Which seems to be quite the opposite of how the current occupant of the Oval Office handles things…) Anyway, Pete Olson is a conspiracy spreading moron. This wouldn’t be a one-off, as Olson also “misspoke” during a speech in August of 2018 in front of the India House in Houston, when he claimed that the 9/11 hijackers were Pakistani in origin. Because, y’know, there’s not enough tensions between India and Pakistan, so let’s just start telling Indians that the Pakistanis did 9/11. Nice one, Pete. Back in November of 2013, though, Pete Olson was also one of 19 Republicans in Congress who were calling for the impeachment of Eric Holder for not enforcing laws related to the Defense of Marriage Act. Now, it is the Attorney General’s duty to enforce the laws in our country, however, we’ve got to side with holder on this, because the Defense of Marriage Act was overturned by the Supreme Court about four or five months prior to Olson and company’s little tantrums. Rounding things out, yes, Pete Olson is a climate change denier, citing that it’s obviously not man made because “our climate has been changing since God created Earth”. Pete Olson was all too aware of what the portents are showing with Republicans having almost no chance to win back the House, and he has opted to retire rather than face a potential loss in 2020. As he is retiring, we will also retire his profile at this time, and take a look at another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 927-45, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Nick Moutos
Welcome to what is the 927th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Nick Moutos, who was a 2020 candidate who ran in Texas’ 35th Congressional District. His prior experience before running for office was working as an employee in the Texas Attorney General’s office from 2017, where he had the bad luck to Ken Paxton https://republicinsanity.tumblr.com/...on-2020-update as his boss (Paxton being already a corrupt dumbass himself). We’re profiling Nick Moutos as yet another Qanon conspiracy theory devotee who was running for office as a Republican in 2020.

How deep down the rabbit hole did Nick Moutos go? Well, it wasn’t just he would share content explicitly supporting QAnon, including other congressional candidates taking oaths supporting QAnon. When Twitter announced that it would take action against the spread of the QAnon conspiracy theory on the platform, Moutos responded angrily, posting:

“#Q must be getting close to #OutingYou as a #Pedophile or #ChildTrafficker or perhaps involved with #PizzaGate.”

So… yeah, I’m sure Jack Dorsey at Twitter liked being accused of being a pedophile for shutting down the insanity.

Moutos ended up finishing third in the GOP Primary for Texas’ 35th, finishing with 28% of the vote. But then the truly good news happened. Moutos’ Twitter account ended up undoing his career as a prosecutor, though, as he frequently started posting racist tweets-where he would threaten Black Lives Matter protesters and call the group’s leaders “terrorists”, calling Islam a “virus”, referring to First Lady Michelle Obama as President Obama’s “husband” and trans people an “abomination.”

Yes, he was racist enough that even Ken Paxton had him shown the door, getting fired in September of 2020.

Where Nick Moutos’ career goes from here, we’re not sure… but we’re awaiting a day soon where he insane rants get him banned from social media.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

‘My people fought for the right to vote’: With a surge of emotion, Black Americans rush to the polls



People still talking about Hunter Biden up in here while we waiting in line for 10 hours trying to vote and save the country.

Indeed. Black Americans like me read the writing on the wall about the unholy danger a second Trump term would be unleashed on minorities and collectively said, "No sir! Not today! We're not having it!" God bless all those people who endured all those hours of waiting to make their voices heard, right now, Blacks have to keep the pressure on, keep on voting and not stop until the polls close, there's too much at stake to falter.

[Username taken]

Indeed. Black Americans like me read the writing on the wall about the unholy danger a second Trump term would be unleashed on minorities and collectively said, "No sir! Not today! We're not having it!" God bless all those people who endured all those hours of waiting to make their voices heard, right now, Blacks have to keep the pressure on, keep on voting and not stop until the polls close, there's too much at stake to falter.

Exactly this.

This needs to be a landslide.

[worstblogever]

Exactly this.

This needs to be a landslide.

I think the appeal of sending Trump packing and people being able to boast that they helped do it is enough that if it was any more of a Landslide, Steve Nicks would be on stage for it.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I think the appeal of sending Trump packing and people being able to boast that they helped do it is enough that if it was any more of a Landslide, Steve Nicks would be on stage for it.

I see what you did there, WBE! But yeah, Biden needs to completely curbstomp Trump to end this madness and send him packing, either to New York to face trial, or out of the country if he wants to avoid said trial.

[The Chou Lives]

Update: The Trump crew well. I basically stated what I have has to say, three times the other side did not come back with counter facts, rather just baseless insults.

Just like the guy they support I guess. I am praying as hard as I can and voting when I get the damn chance. Things have got to change.

[Kirby101]

Indeed. Black Americans like me read the writing on the wall about the unholy danger a second Trump term would be unleashed on minorities and collectively said, "No sir! Not today! We're not having it!" God bless all those people who endured all those hours of waiting to make their voices heard, right now, Blacks have to keep the pressure on, keep on voting and not stop until the polls close, there's too much at stake to falter.

Hey, come on WPP, what have you got to lose?

[The Chou Lives]

Hey, come on WPP, what have you got to lose?

“ Everything”

As far as everything decent is concerned anyway.

[Tami]

On call with campaign staff, President Trump says people are tired of hearing about coronavirus. "People are saying whatever. Just leave us alone. They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots...Fauci is a nice guy. He’s been here for 500 years."

500 years.....Twitter Link

[ed2962]

Exactly this.

It was something that Stormfront said in “The Boys”. She said people don’t like being called Nazis but they like what she’s saying. It’s the same with a number of Trump supporters and how the GOP as a whole has moved.

The thing with Ice Cube is black celebrities and a lot of young black men need to start reading up on just how poisonous Trump’s Presidency has been to minorities from education to economic policy. They need to understand just how much the GOP has made policies that deliberately hurt minorities and prevent attempts at wealth advancement. At the moment, there does to be a chasm opening up between the political views of black men and women which frankly for me is coming from a place of ignorance. As a black person myself, it’s telling just how decisive black women are and just how politically active they’ve been in the last few decades while some black men are still playing the “both sides argument” (which has been fueled by deliberate misinformation dissemination in the last few years).

The Republican Party today isn’t the party of Bush 1.0 anymore, it’s turned into something much uglier. There are a number of cranks, lunatics and flat out racists in the GOP today and they are running for elections on their platform. This is one of the most problematic things I’ve seen because some of these guys have built their entire philosophy on stuff that isn’t real. And looking ahead it’s only going to get worse because most of the “young and upcoming” GOP members are “camp Trump” and are simply repeating far right talking points.

That’s why it’s very confusing that some minorities vote Trump and the GOP as a whole. You can’t be supporting people that openly don’t give a **** about you or your concerns.

There's a 2 minute Trump ad featuring black delivery driver talking about how Trump offers a second chance. I'm not sure how many people realize that it's cut down from a 20 minute rant the guy made in response to a You Tube commentor named Tim Pool. Tim previously said he wasn't too sure about Trump ( he has since announced he's voting for him). The black dude rambles about how he used to have a couple of really shitty jobs, lost his last shitty job, but got a less shitty job in January. Somehow he gives Trump credit for this and says that the Democrats didn't do anything for him. And that he doesn't have time to worry about things like abortion. This is the thinking I believe of some people, they aren't aware of the actual policies Trump and the Republicans are enacting, they're just looking at how things are going for them.

[The Chou Lives]

Just been watching Daily Show clips of the guy interviewing Trump supporters and their actions.

My God, these people are not the cream of the crop.

[BeastieRunner]

Just been watching Daily Show clips of the guy interviewing Trump supporters and their actions.

My God, these people are not the cream of the crop.

Wrong turn of phrase.

Cream of the crap is what you mean.