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

[worstblogever]

OKlahoma looks set to pass Medicaid expansion. Whoa!

https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/1278146807378382849

Annnnd....

Oh WBE-Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.....

https://twitter.com/fawfulfan/status...45752712097792

There are now potentially two Qanon supporters who will end up on the November ballot for Congress, giving the GOP a bit of a brand issue...

Whether or not either of these two ladies win, holy f***, the crazy they would be unleashing in DC.

[Tendrin]

There are now potentially two Qanon supporters who will end up on the November ballot for Congress, giving the GOP a bit of a brand issue...

Whether or not either of these two ladies win, holy f***, the crazy they would be unleashing in DC.

Just think of the fun you'll be having for YEARS, WBE!

[WestPhillyPunisher]

There are now potentially two Qanon supporters who will end up on the November ballot for Congress, giving the GOP a bit of a brand issue...

Whether or not either of these two ladies win, holy f***, the crazy they would be unleashing in DC.

QAnon followers make Tea Partiers look perfectly sane and rational, and Boebert in particular sounds like she's only a step removed from a straitjacket. Yeah, the GOP certainly will have an image problem if those loons make it to Washington.

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As COVID-19 Cases Surge, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Says He Won’t Reinstate Restrictions

The Republican governor said “social interactions” among younger Floridians — and not the state’s reopening — was driving the spike in coronavirus cases. Uh-huh. Keep on deluding yourself, Ron!

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Republicans Pushed To Reopen The Economy. Now Coronavirus Cases Are Spiking Again.

GOP lawmakers say the U.S. shouldn’t reimpose broad restrictions despite the recent surge in coronavirus cases across the country. More proof Republicans want us to die for the economy.

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Most Americans Favor Mask Requirements, Poll Finds

There’s widespread support for both government regulation and policies set by individual businesses.

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In non-coronavirus news:

Judge Temporarily Blocks Release Of Tell-All Book By Trump’s Niece

Mary Trump’s book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” was set to hit bookstores in July.

**********

Kayleigh McEnany Mocked After Insisting Trump Is ‘Most Informed Person’

“The president does read and he also consumes intelligence verbally,” the White House press secretary insisted. BWA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Baghdad Barbie missed her calling, she should've gone into stand-up comedy.

**********

Joe Biden Gives Trump’s ‘Wartime President’ Claim A Savage Reality Check

Trump has described himself as a “wartime president” in the fight against the coronavirus.

[worstblogever]

QAnon followers make Tea Partiers look perfectly sane and rational, and Boebert in particular sounds like she's only a step removed from a straitjacket. Yeah, the GOP certainly will have an image problem if those loons make it to Washington.

====================

As COVID-19 Cases Surge, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Says He Won’t Reinstate Restrictions

The Republican governor said “social interactions” among younger Floridians — and not the state’s reopening — was driving the spike in coronavirus cases. Uh-huh. Keep on deluding yourself, Ron!

This motherf***er... DeSantis barely won in 2018 with the help of voter suppression tactics. I'm already thinking it's a safe bet he's going to be a one-term Governor and he gets smoked like a ham in 2022.

[maninthemacintosh1606]

Well he is de facto a white nationalist, which is pretty evil. It was a Freudian slip of the tongue, I meant to say cult leader, but I find him so creepy I unintentionally wrote occult.

You seem like a bit of a fan boy of his. I suggest you read his twitter account more closely, and read why he is banned. I myself am ashamed he's Canadian.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattper.../#1a5a86665ff1

I seem like a fanboy of his, even though I previously wrote that it is easy to mistake him for Satan? Eh, ok... I'm a socialist and I'm not white. I find the guy to be reprehensible.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

This motherf***er... DeSantis barely won in 2018 with the help of voter suppression tactics. I'm already thinking it's a safe bet he's going to be a one-term Governor and he gets smoked like a ham in 2022.

I have friends in Florida, and I worry for them as it's clear the situation down there has gone full blown FUBAR.

[worstblogever]

In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the current U.S. House Representative from New York’s 27th Congressional District, Chris Collins, a man who while running for Governor of New York in 2010, compared the Speaker of the New York House of Representatives to the Anti-Christ and Hitler, which was super-awkward because he was Jewish. He also sexually harassed a colleague by telling her she should offer up a lap dance to get a seat at the State of the State address that year, and tried deriding the need for healthcare reform by saying that people nowadays "don't die from prostate cancer" (except for the tens of thousands of people a year who do). Upon being elected to office in 2012, he quickly made himself a laughing stock by accidentally attending a Democratic Caucus meeting, grabbing breakfast, and then bolting after he realized he was in the wrong room. not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but voting to keep the government closed when the vote came up to re-open it. Collins also has the dubious honor of being the first Congressional Republican to endorse Donald Trump for president, and tried squaring up Trump’s hardline conservative stance on immigration by claiming that his statements were only “rhetorical” and not actually policies.

Chris Collins may have done the worst job of handling the fallout from the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, where on the day of the shooting, Collins claimed that it was the “dangerous rhetoric” of Democrats that caused the shooter to act, and they need to “tone it down”. While he apologized for those comments in the heat of the moment, no one should take that apology too seriously, as later the same night, Collins went on a tirade against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, saying, “He’s a thug, he’s a bully, he’s a blackmailer, and an extortionist.” Seriously, that was the same day of his apology after he claimed the other side was using dangerous rhetoric. At least Collins waited a week before he promised to start carrying a gun.

In 2017, Chris Collins admitted voting for Trumpcare without even reading the bill in a live CNN interview. While Rep. Mark Sanford and Rep. Tom Garrett also admitted to doing the same, the difference is a provision in Trumpcare would have cost the state of New York $3 billion in funding, which, y’know, is where Collins is from.

But in a bizarre turn of events, it turns out that Chris Collins feels like maybe Donald Trump’s statements shouldn’t just be considered “rhetorical”, after he recently came out in defense of Trump, and saying that the American people should take his Twitter account seriously, only a short time after Trump’s infamous “covfefe” post. But really, Chris Collins was trying to defend Donald Trump’s artful choice to attack the mayor of London on social media on the day London had experienced a terror attack, saying that Mayor Sadiq Khan “had started it”. Because the GOP are currently all prepubescent children, in their political stances.

Honestly, Rep. Collins couldn’t waste time trying to play defense for Trump, he had got his own problems to deal with. Like say, for example, that he was under an ethics investigation for violating the Stock Act, after voting on bills that helped a company he’s a major shareholder in profit. Perhaps no one would have noticed that conflict of interests had Collins himself not bragged in the House Speakers' Lobby about “how many millionaires I’ve made in Buffalo the past few months.” And perhaps no one would have thought much of the accusations if Collins hadn’t drawn more attention to it by responding by claiming it was a “witch hunt” and calling fellow Congresswoman Louise Slaughter a “despicable human being” for putting him under ethics review for it. In fact, Collins’ actions outright led to his arrest and indictment for insider trading.

Chris Collins did not resign until September of 2019, and just six months ago, was sentenced to serve 26 months in prison. We wish him the finest of our “good riddance” salutes, and will now celebrate this crooked son-of-a-b**** no longer darkening the halls of the Capitol.

[Gray Lensman]

While it does nothing to mitigate the other stuff he did, Collins was right to call out Sheldon Silver (speaker of the NYS Assembly - they don't have a House of Representatives by name) for being a pretty bad example of an elected official - although going full Godwin is over the top.

The only thing that keeps Silver out of your April Fool's Day list is the fact that he is no longer an elected official, due to his conviction on multiple counts of corruption. He was known for his own legislative graveyard, holding up disaster aid, and removing over a thousand Hispanic families from their homes for redevelopment - and then holding up the replacement housing in order to keep his view of what the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood should be.

Basically, Sheldon Silver is a scumbag and the people of New York are better off without him. Although I can't excuse Collins for anything else, nor the terms he used to describe Silver (As comparing anyone to nazis without a really good reason is beyond the pale),

[Panfoot]

This motherf***er... DeSantis barely won in 2018 with the help of voter suppression tactics. I'm already thinking it's a safe bet he's going to be a one-term Governor and he gets smoked like a ham in 2022.

I wouldn't count on it, after all we did elect Rick Scott as our senator, and all that took was for him to not catastrophically screw up the response to the most recent hurricane to wash away all the bad from his governorship. The Florida Man meme isn't just because of how open our records are, we are also just that kinda stupid.

[InformationGeek]

Speaking of DeSantis, he here is destroying education.

With a stroke of his veto pen, Gov. Ron DeSantis wiped out the entire $29.4 million budget for a suite of online education services that have become critical to students and faculty during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The move, barring action before midnight Tuesday, will kill the Complete Florida Plus Program, an array of technology systems that faculty, staff and students throughout Florida rely on, never more so than now, in the midst of a pandemic that has amplified reliance on distance learning. The cuts include a database of online courses and an online library service that provides 17 million books to 1.3 million students, faculty and staff.

At least 2,000 adult learners could be cut off from their scholarships and school accreditation could even be at risk without the resources housed under Complete Florida, which are used by students at high schools, state colleges and universities. Some 150 employees in Tallahassee, Gainesville and Pensacola stand to lose their jobs.

DeSantis, whose office declined to comment on the cut, on Monday vetoed $1 billion from Florida’s 2020-21 budget as the state attempts to beat back a resurgence of the viral outbreak, which has sickened 152,434 people and killed 3,505 in one of the country's hottest Covid-19 zones.

I just remembered, DeSantis gets his profile update tomorrow, right? Phew, sooooo much to add in just the past few weeks!

[Tami]

COVID-19 helped this small syringe business boom. Then came the taxpayer-backed windfall.

A company caught double-dipping

WASHINGTON — The federal coronavirus response created a reversal of fortune for Retractable Technologies Inc., a small syringe manufacturing company overlooking Lewisville Lake on the northern edge of suburban Dallas.

In late March, the Department of Health and Human Services began drafting an $83.8 million order for RTI to produce the lion's share of roughly 330 million needles and syringes for a future COVID-19 mass vaccination campaign. That coincided with private business brisk enough for the company to report a 41.8 percent increase in first-quarter sales compared with the same period in 2019, according to one of its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But despite its good fortune, a few weeks later, on April 17, RTI secured a $1.4 million hardship loan under the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. That's the program Congress set up to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic by giving cash-strapped small businesses enough money to keep workers on the payroll while commerce slowed. On May 1, the nearly $84 million government contract came through.

RTI's taxpayer-backed windfall has raised eyebrows among industry insiders and lawmakers who questioned how the company could be both a struggling small business and a bustling manufacturer able to produce needles and syringes by the hundreds of millions. And the company's filings with the SEC portray the contract as both a boon for business and a burden it might not be able to carry.

"We simply can't afford to be unprepared when a vaccine is ready," said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., whose district includes Becton Dickinson and Co. of Franklin Lakes, the largest needle and syringe manufacturer in the country. "The administration gave a multimillion-dollar contract to a business who can't produce the necessary supplies — and who, simultaneously, received a PPP loan. It's left a lot of us scratching our heads."

RTI officials didn't respond to emailed questions or a voicemail message left for its spokesman, but its federal disclosures reveal ambivalence about the deal.

"[O]ur material $83.8 million delivery order from the United States government presents unusual challenges for our business," the company wrote in a filing for the quarter that ended March 31. "Our performance may not be realized if we cannot timely and adequately increase domestic and foreign production. Moreover, in light of such volume requirements, we may not be able to maintain our usual service levels to our existing customers."

[worstblogever]

Speaking of DeSantis, he here is destroying education.




I just remembered, DeSantis gets his profile update tomorrow, right? Phew, sooooo much to add in just the past few weeks!

I don't know why he's so against masks and other countermeasures... Oh, wait, he's a moron.

[PwrdOn]

I agree, it will be sad to see the light of freedom go out in Hong Kong, when they are taken over by an authoritarian government that harkens back to Mao Ze Dong (Often cited as the greatest mass murder in history) I believe the "west" is defined by culture not race, and Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and other Asian states are part of the west, and should be protectorates of the United States, so long as they desire to be so. Perhaps a more competent U.S President will strengthen ties with a Trans Pacific Partnership.

I also agree with you on the cleanliness of Asian people. I live in Vancouver British Columbia, and although we were the first Province in Canada to be hit with COVID 19, are numbers have been relatively low. We also happen to have one of the biggest Asian populations in North America per % of the population, and they are polite, respectful, and always wearing face masks.

Yeah that will never happen because white people can't tell the difference between the "good" Asians and the evil commies.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I don't know why he's so against masks and other countermeasures... Oh, wait, he's a moron.

Well, DeSantis is a Republican, therefore he's a Trump bootlicker, especially since it looks like Jacksonville might end up hosting the RNC, bringing thousands of people into the petri dish called Florida. Come for Orange Menace, stay for the COVID.

By the by, does that clown know how to wear a mask?

[worstblogever]

By the by, does that clown know how to wear a mask?

Photo evidence says he doesn't.