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

[Mister Mets]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-dr...185354972.html



For those doubting the Palestinian death toll, it's 1) probably even higher than that and 2) the Palestinians have gotten very good at counting their dead. Each time this has happened, the same playbook has been trotted out to cast doubt on the number of Palestinian dead, only for investigations after the fact to find out that those numbers were accurate.



https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...us%20conflicts.

And that's before we talk about members of the IDF having a telegram channel called '72 Virgins' where they celebrate violence against Palestinians, comparing them to 'roaches' quite frequently, as revealed by the Israeli based Haaretz newspaper.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...c-febd01c30000

Unfortunately, it seems hard to access at the moment but here's their twitter thread.

https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/statu...60554046337301

Let's remember that as much as we can hate Hamas, we as a nation have done the very thing that they are doing right now, and it leads nowhere good.

The "72 Virgins" channel is explicitly about Hamas. It's part of an effort to mock terrorists and discourage people from joining. A way I like to think about the distinction between Gaza and Hamas is the difference between Germany and Nazis. Obviously, some Germans did not support the Nazis and fought against them, but there is still a level of gloating would be acceptable about dead Nazis?

Israel allowing Qatar to send money to Gaza which would inevitably reach Hamas is a step down from the view, stated earlier on this thread by multiple people, that Netanyahu wanted Hamas to attack in order to justify a violent reprisal from Israel.

I do wonder how critics of Israel would have responded if they prevented Qatari money from reaching Gaza. I think there'd be all sorts of arguments about blocking humanitarian aid.

I like how Benjy Sarlin of Semafor, incidentally a former high school classmate of mine, described the change in narrative.

For 15 years I heard the blockade and cutting off aid dollars was unjustifiable on national security grounds. All of a sudden everyone is laughing at how Israel foolishly propped up Hamas with aid dollars while they can still fire missiles at Tel Aviv 60+ days into a war.

[Username taken]

Just a reminder that Canada is not some post-racial paradise.

[kidfresh512]

Embattled Florida GOP chair demands buyout to quit, party members say

Republican leaders in Florida are expressing outrage over a reported proposal that party chairman Christian Ziegler be paid as much as $2 million before he’ll step down amid a sexual assault investigation.

Ziegler is battling to keep his powerful position despite dual scandals, one of which has also ensnared his wife, Bridget Ziegler, a Moms for Liberty co-founder who sits on the Sarasota County School Board.

The couple, whose political influence has grown along with the ascent of the Florida GOP, have been asked to quit their jobs, even by friends and allies as well as political opponents. Each has refused.

The 40-year-old chairman has refused despite the increasing pressure. In a statement to the party earlier this month, he denied the rape allegation against him and called the interaction in question consensual. It involves a woman with whom he and his wife have acknowledged having a three-way sexual encounter. The woman claims Christian Ziegler raped her after she tried to cancel another meeting with the couple when she learned Bridget would not be there.

On Tuesday, Bridget Ziegler sat through a heated meeting of the Sarasota County School Board as her colleagues, as well as many speakers from the community, pressed her to resign. A board member since 2014, she has spearheaded efforts to remove books and ban what she calls “woke ideology” from schools. She also helped influence the Parental Rights in Education law, called “don’t say gay” by opponents.

This skaink has some nerve. She out here having 3 ways and sitting back while her husband assaults people. And got the audacity to pose at school board meetings talking about woke ideology. Moms for Liberty and 3 -ways?

[The Cool Thatguy]

Just a reminder that Canada is not some post-racial paradise.

But it's not the US! It must be!

[Gray Lensman]

But it's not the US! It must be!

I merely thought Canada was better than the US when it came to race, but that is a low enough bar that there is still room for things to be pretty shitty at times.

[Tami]

Unguided ‘dumb bombs’ used in almost half of Israeli strikes on Gaza

Almost half of the munitions Israel has used in Gaza since the war began have been unguided bombs, a U.S. intelligence assessment has found, a ratio that some arms experts say helps explain the conflict’s enormous civilian death toll. The revelation comes as U.S. and Israeli officials engage in intensifying conversations about the sequencing of military operations in the two-month conflict.

The Israel Defense Forces has fired more than 29,000 air-to-ground munitions into the Palestinian enclave since Oct. 7, and only 55 to 60 percent of them have been precision-guided, according to a new assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The rest were what are known as “dumb bombs,” said two people familiar with the assessment who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

The use of so many unguided bombs, first reported by CNN, is a concern among humanitarian groups and others amid growing calls inside and outside the United States for Washington to condition any further military aid to Israel on the immediate reduction of civilian deaths.

The Biden administration has thus far rejected such calls, fearing a backlash by Republicans and political attacks from powerful pro-Israel lobbying organizations. Instead, it has attempted to influence the Israeli government to sharpen the focus of its military campaign using high-level visits, including meetings in Tel Aviv on Thursday between national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The IDF did not respond to a request for comment.

[Gryphon]

The NY GOP has nominated Mazi Melesa Pilip to run to replace Santos.

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/...ction-iaxhw4an

[JackDaw]

Interesting EU development in regards to Ukraine….they have voted to allow Ukraine membership in the future and 26 of the 27 countries voted to give 50 billion euros of aid now.

(The funding is blocked for now by Hungary…who have “friendly” relationships with Russia…but may, I guess, be bribed by the other 26 to come into line.)

[CaptainEurope]

The NY GOP has nominated Mazi Melesa Pilip to run to replace Santos.

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/...ction-iaxhw4an

She has an interesting resume. Academic degrees, born in a village in Ethiopia, jewish faith.

She has also been a registered Democrat since 2012 but ran for the Nassau County Legislature on the Republican ballot line in 2021. Interesting choice for a highly educated Jewish Black woman to join a party that is becoming increasingly racist and extremist in 2021.

[CaptainEurope]

Militants from a separatist group attacked a police station in southeastern Iran, killing 11 officers and injuring several others

So the regime in Iran is dealing with young people wanting more freedom on one side, and Salafi extremists on the other side.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

She has an interesting resume. Academic degrees, born in a village in Ethiopia, jewish faith.

She has also been a registered Democrat since 2012 but ran for the Nassau County Legislature on the Republican ballot line in 2021. Interesting choice for a highly educated Jewish Black woman to join a party that is becoming increasingly racist and extremist in 2021.

Or maybe it's the GQP's baldfaced attempt to demonstrate it's NOT racist or extremist by propping up a black woman. I for one doubt this scheme will work. It rarely does.

[worstblogever]

Or maybe it's the GQP's baldfaced attempt to demonstrate it's NOT racist or extremist by propping up a black woman. I for one doubt this scheme will work. It rarely does.

She's their perfect Islamophobic candidate who's "Not racist because she's black" and "not sexist because she's a woman". They needed very specific conditions to get someone who they could have attack Rashaid Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. That's all this is, a search for who can beat up on those two with as little blowback as possible.

And the bar for her behavior is, "Just be less crazy than George Santos".

[worstblogever]

It was on this day in both 2014, as well as 2015, that we published our original "Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day" profiles of former Michigan Congressman Dan Benishek, a three term Congressman who has repeatedly come under investigation for FEC violations during his three campaigns for office. He caught plenty of heat in for trying to continue to accept his Congressional paychecks during the 2013 Government Shutdown, only caving after a week of complaints from his district, and is one of the many Republicans who voted against relief aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Benishek is also a prolific denier of climate change, trying to claim he was a climate change scientist, himself, because he had taken biology courses in college, and denying any peer-reviewed evidence of man-made climate change exists (in spite of 97% of peer reviews saying it does). Since Benishek reluctantly retired after promising to do so after serving three terms in Congress.

In both 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of Marty Knollenberg, a member of the Michigan State Senate since 2014, after he elevated himself from the Michigan House of Representatives after serving on that body from 2007 through 2013. Back in December of 2015, where a discussion was being held about educational disparities between different demographics in the state when it was noted that the date showed students who were struggling were students of color (whose predominantly minority school districts are coincidentally also provided less funding), Marty Knollenberg shrugged it off, saying "You mention why these schools districts fail, and you mention economically disadvantaged and non-white population are contributors to that. And we can’t fix that. We can’t make an African-American white. That’s just, it is what it is.” Knollenberg, after facing widespread criticism for saying something that racist, went with the typical and lazy response that his comments were taken out of context (even though there is video of his entire statement), and giving an even more pathetic defense against racism of the "I have a black friend" vein, noting that he had an African-American employee. Because, y'know, you just can't be racist if you actually pay a minority for work they actually do. Knollenberg then made headlines less than three months later when he was accused of assaulting an Oakland County clerk after a "State of the County" address, grabbing her arm and squeezing after she tried walking away from him. As a legislator, Knollenberg voted to begin drug testing welfare recipients, voted for law enforcement to conduct roadside saliva drug tests if they feel, in their judgment, a driver might be under the influence of drugs (Nevermind the Fourth Amendment implications), voted for stricter Voter ID laws in Michigan, to combat the statistically nonexistent problem of "in person voter fraud", for stricter regulations on abortion clinics that would shut down most, if not all of the abortion clinics in Michigan, and drafted legislation to handle the truly important issues, like trying to commission special license plates that say “Chose Life” on them. (Even Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed that stupid idea.) In 2018, the Blue Wave mercifully swept away the career of the younger Knollenberg, whose career seems to be over, at least for now.

On this date in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Austin Petersen, a 2018 Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri whose educational background is a degree in musical theater In politics. Petersen got his start working on the 2008 and 2012 political campaigns of Ron Paul and in 2016, Petersen was actually running for president on the Libertarian ticket, eventually losing to all-around weirdo Gary Johnson. Like many “Libertarian wing” Republicans, Petersen’s passion for “smaller government” delves into utter lunacy. When you look at what little he has spoken about issue positions, he managed to come out in support of a 15% flat tax plan (the kind of one economists think would tank the economy), and advocated for a completely isolationist foreign policy. But where Petersen really went off the rails was when he tried winning the nomination for U.S. Senate in 2018 by wooing Republican voters by showing how much he loved guns and hated any restriction on the 2nd amendment. Keep in mind, he was doing this as mass shootings were on the rise nationwide. For a brief time, Austin Peterson got banned from Facebook for using the platform to organize AR-15 giveaways to potential voters, but spun that ban into conservative martyrdom by having Fox News start whining about it until it got lifted. As criticism over his AR-15 giveaways continued, especially because they were the weapon used only months prior in the Parkland shooting, Petersen upped the ante by announcing he would be giving away a 3D printer that was specifically designed to print untraceable “ghost guns”. The entire stunt’s motivation was pretty clear, as Petersen acknowledged he was just trying to impress Republicans by “triggering liberals”, saying, “I think the new prize may trigger a few more liberals and mainstream media than it did last time. This technology has the potential to send gun control into the ash heap of history. The government’s ability to control or ban guns will be obsolete.” Petersen’s viral fame for being a libertarian gun-humper who “triggered liberals” managed to earn him 8.3% of the vote, enough to place him third in the GOP Primary.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Johnny Rice, a 2018 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland’s 5th Congressional District, thinking he could knock off Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. However, it was not in Maryland where we first saw Rice turn up in the news and garner our attention. It was at Donald Trump’s legendary Waterloo at his Tulsa Rally in Oklahoma back in June 2020. Amazingly, Rice was a Republican candidate ready to criticize Donald Trump. Sadly, it’s because he’s so bats*** crazy that he was launching conspiracy theories at everyone he could imagine regarding Covid-19. We quote: "I don't support him [Trump]... not exposing [Bill] Gates financing it with Soros. The money going to Wuhan Lab. Fauci, as the leader of the NIH, sending the money to the Wuhan Lab as a biological weapons scientist who has the patent to HIV & that HIV was in the COVID-19." And it didn’t stop there. Rice continued… "You don't need to wear the mask. It doesn't block the COVID-19... It's a nanotech bioweapon... It's all about shutting us up. 'Don't Talk. Put the mask on. Stay in your houses.'" If you need more evidence, just scan his Twitter feed and see his unfaltering affection for Alex Jones and InfoWars, conspiracy theorists and a “who’s who” of conservative nutjobs we’ve profiled in general, spiced in with some religious fanaticism. Unbelievably, this extremely disturbed loon got 42% of the vote in the GOP Primary, losing by less than 3,000 votes.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Elizabeth Bangert, a 2020 candidate for District 19 of the Minnesota State Senate who was noteworthy for being very deliberate about lobbying state legislators for years to make her day job as the head of a child care center easier, and after watching Republicans lose seats in the 2018 elections so that her hopes of less regulation on her personal business might happen, she filed to run as a Republican, herself. The main problems with her as a candidate were not just that her motivation for running for office was to alter the law for her own benefit, but her dedication towards spreading the Qanon conspiracy theory. Her campaign strategy was to post videos recorded from inside her own SUV to Facebook and to post as many links as she could to support of QAnon and “the great awakening”. Over a fifth of the accounts she followed on Twitter were QAnon accounts, and in many of her online videos she raved about unproven conspiracies around human trafficking. Specifically, she was one of the absolute loons that accused the furniture company Wayfair of enabling child trafficking, writing, “I’m going to go ahead and tell you that if you think that some form of T-R-A-F-F-I-C-K-I-N-G isn’t happening in America or hasn’t been concealed for decades if not longer, then you’ve been duped. ” Bangert, who again, is tasked with keeping track of other people’s children, is also an anti-vaxxer and against masks as a method of preventing the spread of Covid-19. In other videos she’s posted, she’s discussed the Operation Lockstep Theory , which claims that COVID-19 is a plot by global elites to control the population. And set up a police state after unleashing a manufactured virus. At another point, she responded to Congressman Tim Walz on Twitter on July 5th, telling him, “You will be removed from office for your treasonous acts, for our safety.” She never said what this treason was, of course.Elizabeth Bangert got far closer to reaching office than she ever should have had a chance to, getting 40% of the vote in 2020.

On this date in 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Tom Norton, a 2022 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District, and prior to that, he made a run for District 74 of the Michigan House of Representatives back in 2014. Norton’s reason for running was to avenge the impeachment vote Republican Congressman Peter Meijer made against Donald Trump in February of 2021, because how dare Meijer try and hold Trump accountable for attempting a violent coup upon the legislative branch of our government for certifying his loss in the 2020 election. Norton’s credentials were being admittedly terrible with his credit cards and an anti-government loon who actually managed to get fined $200 for refusing to file financial disclosure forms, insisting his finances were “none of the federal government’s business”, which we’re pretty sure the IRS would disagree with. Norton’s other big strategy was demonstrating absolute hypocrisy regarding “cancel culture”, posting twice on Twitter within 24 hours where he complained about “cancel culture”, and then upon finding out Target stores would still require customers to wear masks in their stores, calling for a boycott of the retail chain, which… y’know, is a call to cancel them. Thomas Norton only got 36% of the vote in the GOP Primary for the seat, losing to Tom Moolenaar, giving him the time to return to his hobbies, like dragging his knuckles, the misguided declaration of Ted Nugent as a “great Patriot”, when in reality he bragged in 1977 he dodged the draft to avoid Vietnam by defecating on himself (Nugent’s own admission), and falling for and spreading transphobic stories while ignoring the actual headline that they’re lies. We will set aside his profile at this time to profile another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1264-60, since this was established in July 2014.



Matthew DePerno
Welcome to what is the 1264th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Matthew DePerno, who was a 2022 candidate for Attorney General of Michigan. And boy, could the GOP have not picked a worse guy for the job.

You see, in the aftermath of the 2020 election, Matthew DePerno breached voting machines across the state while serving as part of Donald Trump’s coup attempt, trying “to find proof of voter fraud”. He was indicted for that alleged crime in August of 2023 by a federal grand jury. He is likely to find his defense to be a long shot, given he was caught with five voting machines in a hotel room he was staying in.

Matthew DePerno received 44.6% of the vote, in spite of his criminal record and opposition to democracy. But it is on-brand for the GOP at this point. Anyway, DePerno’s trial begins in March, and we’re hoping the 2024 election doesn’t see someone win who will just pardon him for attacking American democracy because he was helping their side.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

She's their perfect Islamophobic candidate who's "Not racist because she's black" and "not sexist because she's a woman". They needed very specific conditions to get someone who they could have attack Rashaid Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. That's all this is, a search for who can beat up on those two with as little blowback as possible.

And the bar for her behavior is, "Just be less crazy than George Santos".

Or, a little more honest than Santos. Hardly an impossible task.