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

[Gray Lensman]

I can't decide if the Georgia GOP's theme song should be Yakety Sax or Linkin Park's "Lies, Greed and Misery". Leaning more towards the latter with all the insider trading, though.

"Jesus He Knows Me" by Genesis is also worthy of consideration.

[InformationGeek]

In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who in our first profile, we discussed his three terms as Texas Attorney General where he worked with Gov. Rick Perry, serving as one of the front line soldiers in the sorts of Fundamentalist conservative culture wars the state of Texas has fought against equality, and frankly, facts over the past decade and a half, including filing 27 separate lawsuits against the federal government in the first five years of the Obama presidency alone, once joking that his daily routine is "I go into the office in the morning. I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home.” The great majority of those legal challenges were obviously doomed to fail upon review by judges at some level, but that didn't stop Abbott from filing them anyway to prolong a constitutional battle at of partisan spite at a cost of millions of dollars to Texas taxpayers. No ridiculous legal statute passed in Texas is beneath him, including his obsessive quest to make sure that dildos cannot be sold in the Lone Star State, but fighting tooth and nail to make sure that firearms can be purchased without a background check. In 2007, The Washington Post reported Attorney General Abbott declined to pursue charges against employees of a Texas youth prison who were sexually abusing underage inmates after a Texas ranger had sent e-mails to him with evidence and asking him to put a stop to the abuses for TWO YEARS. Greg Abbott is a man who violated the tenets of our very democracy to suit partisan ends by gerrymandering in his own state, and then sued when the Department of Justice tried blocking the racist policy by arguing it wasn’t racist, by pointing out it was just wholly partisan based on party affiliation, writing, ”DOJ’s accusations of racial discrimination are baseless. In 2011, both houses of the Texas Legislature were controlled by large Republican majorities, and their redistricting decisions were designed to increase the Republican Party’s electoral prospects at the expense of the Democrats.” Prior to the 2012 elections, Abbott threatened to arrest poll watchers from Europe, who were monitoring the ethics of American elections, and claiming there were “closely affiliated with ACORN” which was amazing because ACORN ceased to exist three years prior to the election. In 2016, he sued the federal government (and lost) because he didn’t want Texas to resettle any refugees fleeing Syria, and threatened to sue any Christian organizations that would, y’know, follow the Bible and take in refugees like it preaches.

Greg Abbott is also an opponent of all kinds of immigration, be it legal or otherwise, fights back against equal pay for women, is a gay conversion therapy supporter, and a climate change denier who is beyond “hands off” with giants of industry, arguing that the government should not regulate chemical giants and that if citizens wanted to be aware of what chemical agents were being used by them, they should just “drive around and ask”, and the companies would simply acquiesce. Gov. Abbott is hyper-partisan enough that he has been quoted saying that “Democrats are a more dangerous threat than North Korea” and has thanked supporters for referring to his opponent in the 2014 elections, Wendy Davis, as “Retard Barbie”.

Perhaps the most egregious example of Greg Abbott being a paranoid lunatic, though, was over the summer of 2014, when several radical conspiracy theorists, the kind who are avid fans of Alex Jones and InfoWars, were frothing at the mouth in fear of routine military exercises known as Jade Helm 15 that they, as kooks are wont to do, imagined to be a government invasion coming to take their guns away, ship them off to work as slave labor in WalMarts (as if WalMart needed any help with that) and impose Sharia Law upon the imprisoned populace. Abbott actually sent the Texas State Guard to “monitor” the activities of the joint exercise between the Green Berets and Navy Seals, our own armed forces, just in case they really were going to swoop in when no one was looking and conquer poor Texas (which is still already a part of our country). Unbelievably, Gov. Abbott decided to waste taxpayer money to keep a watchful eye on American troops to make sure they didn’t come for us all in the night, rather than just dismiss an insane conspiracy theory, that he seemingly also fell for (or exploited). Fast forward a few weeks, though, and after Texas had a series of storms that left the state flooded, Greg Abbott’s mistrust of the federal government was gone when he started asking for relief aid funding to be sent to his state. Because apparently, he also has the memory of a goldfish.

Gov. Abbott won re-election in 2018, and he’s already hitting the fear-mongering hits by sending out fund-raising letters to drum up fears of an “immigration coup” and disingenuously warning about how gun control will just lead to Hitler, when people asked about maybe changing Texas gun laws after a lunatic murdered a couple dozen people in a Sutherland Springs church, which maybe shows you his priorities are a bit f***ed up. It was only after another mass shooting at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, that Abbott finally started to make noise about doing something about mass shootings in his state, all that he really accomplished was postponing his campaign giving away a shotgun at a campaign rally. That brief flirtation with even moving in any way towards a stance of being a human being ended pretty quick, though, as Abbott shortly thereafter made news by trying to insert himself into a custody hearing about a transgender youth to grant custody to the father who wants to deny hormone blocking treatments and prevent his son from having a sex change. Classic Republican hypocrisy… they’re “smaller government” unless it involves someone’s genitals.

In 2020, the threat of Covid-19 saw the White House lead a disastrous response plan that led many governors around the country to take matters into their own hands. And while the governors in many blue states did all they could to take measures to attempt to set limits on public gatherings and close restaurants and bars to avoid the spread of the disease… Greg Abbott only wanted to close the abortion clinics, but keep everything else running. His irrational desire to reopen his state as early as April based on false statistics (lies) had the predictable result of Texas becoming one of the hottest hot-spots for coronavirus in the nation. Texas alone has one million positive cases. That’s not a typo. The state has 29 million people, and one million have already been infected in eight months.

Oh, and not for nothing, but Greg Abbott also made it clear what his feelings are about American democracy, as his October attempt at yanking all but one of the ballot collection sites per Texas county to make sure there would be no way Texas might turn blue reeked of desperation. There still are not term limits upon Texas governors… and we’re wondering if this hyper-conservative lunatic will run again when his current term is up in 2022. He might be happier if Democrats retake the White House in 2020 and he can resume just being a bitter obstructionist. He seems to thrive in that role.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the time Greg tried to remove the discrimination protections with social workers that would have hurt the LGBT community and people with disabilities (him included).

[Mister Mets]

Black on black crime is a deflection, you don't see white people worried about white on white crime. Also notice how different the white media treat the opioid crisis.

As for defund the police, it means realocating funds to underfunded social programs which police isn't trained to deal with anyway. Also Retraining don't do ****. Half the stuff the police do is already technically illegal lol.

There are different arguments here.

White people are less likely to die of homicide.

While the media treats the opioid crisis differently than they did the crack epidemic of the 80s, much of this is informed by new attitudes and understandings about addiction. The journalists have learned from the mistakes their predecessors made in the 80s and 90s.

There do seem to be multiple versions of "defund the police" as some protesters and intellectual leaders legitimately want an abolishment of the police.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/o...nd-police.html

Switching funding to different social services is going to have some drawbacks. Will social workers always be able to handle a wide-beater? In areas with low population densities, it makes sense to have the same officers dealing with crime and with driving violations.

I'm not sure what part of that wasn't meant to be taken literally, most of us aren't exactly coy about how we feel about the GOP.

If the statement is meant to be taken literally, anyone who agrees with the Republicans on any issue should dismiss everything several posters on the board say about current events because it comes from someone who is not well-informed.

Because the goalpost isn't whether Democrats are better than Republicans, or whether Republicans are doing anything wrong right now, but whether the party does anything at all reasonable people might agree with.

That's a very low bar, and if anyone means to be taken literally, it suggests a poor media diet, at the very least.

[Tendrin]

Crazy/stupid Alum Anthony Sabatini sinks to an ever newer low that WBE will need to consume an entire bottle of booze to deal with.

https://twitter.com/anthonysabatini/...771967489?s=21

KYLE RITTENHOUSE FOR CONGRESS

[Tami]

The publicly-stated position of President Trump's legal team is that the reason Trump lost Georgia is because Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has been bribed by a Venezuelan front company in cahoots with the CIA to throw elections to Communists.

What the.....can it get any crazier?

[CJStriker]

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The Democrat policy on Ireland, protecting the Good Friday Agreement and stopping Boris Johnson from doing anything to compromise on that, is genuinely quite good and worth commending. Biden's defense of the Agreement is a good thing and one thing he won't compromise on, for both personal, political, and moral reasons.

I used to be a NATO skeptic (and I am still pretty critical of the decisions it has made and is now forced to make) and some of Obama's policies towards Ukraine, but with Putin being a blatantly bad actor and a Russian Supremacist Neo-Tsar, NATO is pretty essential. Putin's terrible not only for Europe but also for Syria (as with the Kurds), Armenia (as the recent Azerbaijan thing) and if America pulls out of Afghanistan too quickly, Putin will swoop in. Putin's a journalist-murdering, poison-spreading, nihilist crimelord who doesn't believe in anything or cares about the betterment of people, nor does he have any compelling vision for a positive future that Russia and young Russian people can share. He's also incredibly cunning and smart. As is Xi Jinping. And India's Modi.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Crazy/stupid Alum Anthony Sabatini sinks to an ever newer low that WBE will need to consume an entire bottle of booze to deal with.

https://twitter.com/anthonysabatini/...771967489?s=21

What the.....can it get any crazier?

The crazy is strong in those loons.

[The Cool Thatguy]

What the.....can it get any crazier?

...provoke Murphy's Law at your own peril, not ours, damn it!

[Malvolio]

What the.....can it get any crazier?

So which Commies was the CIA working with, now? Putin? I thought he was Trump's BFF.

[Kirby101]

Because the goalpost isn't whether Democrats are better than Republicans, or whether Republicans are doing anything wrong right now, but whether the party does anything at all reasonable people might agree with.

So Mets, list all the good things the GOP has done the last four years under Trump. What have they done reasonable people here can agree with. Shouldn't be hard,

[zinderel]

There are different arguments here.

White people are less likely to die of homicide.

While the media treats the opioid crisis differently than they did the crack epidemic of the 80s, much of this is informed by new attitudes and understandings about addiction. The journalists have learned from the mistakes their predecessors made in the 80s and 90s.

There do seem to be multiple versions of "defund the police" as some protesters and intellectual leaders legitimately want an abolishment of the police.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/o...nd-police.html

Switching funding to different social services is going to have some drawbacks. Will social workers always be able to handle a wide-beater? In areas with low population densities, it makes sense to have the same officers dealing with crime and with driving violations.

I realize this is difficult, but think about it like this:

Just like how a few posters on the internet don’t believe in borders or one guy wearing a shirt that said ‘Open Borders’ on it didn’t mean that everyone in the left stands for open borders, a few people on the left saying ‘defund means dismantle’ can’t be taken as the policy of ALL on the left. Or even ‘most’. MOST defund discussions involve exactly what people are saying: reducing exorbitant payouts to cops, reducing the militarization of the force, redirecting funding to social services. And JUST like how actual border policy will very likely not abolish borders the moment Joe Biden becomes president (rather, his presidency will instead focus on working to make immigration easier than it was under a racist Presidency, anyhow), police are not likely to suddenly be out of work while social workers answer 911 calls...

See, despite your party demonstrably, historically, factually embracing and extolling the virtues of the most extreme possible interpretation of their policies, most people on the left aren’t fanatics who fall in line behind our leaders. We understand nuance and that the actions we take have an effect - both expected and unexpected effects - on others. We understand that ‘defund the police’ doesn’t mean ‘social workers take police calls from now on’ as you so...adequately...strawman. It means police don’t have the ‘freedom’ to put on military cosplay and barge into a house unannounced and murder someone in their sleep. It means police have better training and don’t shoot children as often. It means the police work WITH social services instead of dismissing them and relying on violence and intimidation to do their job. It means police answering calls ALONGSIDE trained medical/mental health professionals to deescalate situations without needless loss of life. It means purging racist, sexist, homophobic members from a police force that has to interact effectively with people of color, women, LGBT+ folks in ADDITION to the more preferable ‘good white folk’. It means addicts getting the help they need to heal, instead of giving police free reign to assault them and lock them away. It means the mentally ill getting the help THEY need when a break with reality requires intervention, instead of getting shot by untrained police ‘In fear for their life’. It means abuse victims getting both an officer to make them feel secure that their abuser isn’t going to appear AND getting someone who knows what to look for and how to address the underlying issues that keep abuse victims from reporting or getting out of their situation, rather than ONLY seeing a police officer who maybe doesn’t really care or who - statistically - is likely an abuser himself.

But, I know how much you like using the GOP talking point that the call to defund police means we want ‘social workers answering 911 calls alone’. It just proves my earlier point that the right relies on arguments that SEEM scary in order to sway undereducated people away from doing anything that might change the status quo (Which benefits Republican leadership above all else), rather than admit that it is a lazy, bad argument with zero basis in actual reality, which might threaten your standing with the party.

[Mister Mets]

So Mets, list all the good things the GOP has done the last four years under Trump. What have they done reasonable people here can agree with. Shouldn't be hard,

I'm not claiming that these are all the good things the GOP has done in the last four years, but these are the things some reasonable people could support.

- moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
- reshaping the federal judiciary with originalist/ textualist appointees
- The fist step act which marked the first major legislative win in decades to address mass incarceration at the federal level, overhauled certain federal sentencing laws, reducing mandatory minimum sentences for drug felonies and expanding early-release programs, made retroactive a 2010 federal sentencing law reducing the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses, and aimed to lower recidivism by offering more rehabilitation and job-training opportunities.
- defeating Isis.
- a decline in illegal immigration.
- The US becoming a net exporter of oil, which makes it less dependent on Russia and Saudi Arabia.
- Fast-tracking of vaccine research as part of Operation Warp Speed
- Greater role for due process in university Sexual Assault/ Harassment investigations
- A cap on SALT deductions for the wealthy who previously had the federal government subsidize their state and local taxes
- Space force

When it comes to state governments, we can also consider that even though there's a relatively even split in the number of Democratic and Republican Governors, the Republican Governors are the most popular, in red states (Wyoming, North Dakota, Arkansas) swing states (Florida, New Hampshire) and blue states (Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland)

https://morningconsult.com/governor-rankings/

[Mister Mets]

I realize this is difficult, but think about it like this:

Just like how one guy and a few posters on the internet don’t believe in borders or wore a shirt that said ‘Open Borders’ on it didn’t mean that everyone in the left stands for open borders, a few people on the left saying ‘defund means dismantle’ can’t be taken as the policy of ALL on the left. Or even ‘most’. MOST defund discussions involve exactly what people are saying: reducing exorbitant payouts to cops, reducing the militarization of the force, redirecting funding to social services. And JUST like how actual border policy will very likely not abolish borders the moment Joe Biden becomes president (rather, his presidency will instead focus on working to make immigration easier than it was under a racist Presidency, anyhow), police are not likely to suddenly be out of work while social workers answer 911 calls...

See, just because your party demonstrably goes to the most extreme possible interpretation of a policy every time, most people aren’t fanatics. We understand nuance and the consequences of our actions towards others. We understand that ‘defund the police’ doesn’t mean ‘social workers take police calls’ as you so...adequately...strawman. It means police don’t have the ‘freedom’ to put on military cosplay and barge into a house unannounced and murder someone in their sleep. It means the police work WITH social services instead of dismissing them and relying on violence and intimidation. It means police answering calls ALONGSIDE trained professionals to deescalate without needless loss of life. It means getting addicts the help they need instead of giving police free reign to assault and lock away. It means the mentally ill getting help instead of being shot by untrained police. It means abuse victims getting someone who knows what to look for, rather than a police officer who either doesn’t really care or who - statistically - is an abuser himself.

But, I suppose you’ll keep using the GOP talking point that the call to defund police means we want ‘social workers answering 911 calls alone’. It just proves my earlier point that the right relies on arguments that SEEM scary in order to sway undereducated people away from doing anything that might change the status quo (Which benefits Republican leadership above all else), rather than admit that it is a lazy, bad argument with zero basis in actual reality, which might threaten your standing with the party.

On a quick detour about the guy in the T-shirt, he (a member of congressional leadership at the time; a state attorney general now) had received the unanimous support of the DNC for a leadership position. Every member of the DNC was in agreement that this is a guy they want speaking on behalf of their party as Vice-Chairman of the DNC.

I don't believe that I've claimed that everyone who talks about defunding the police is saying they want to abolish the police.

I was responding to someone who thinks it never means that, so it's relevant to note that sometimes it does. Not all the time, but sometimes.

His exact words were that defund the police "means reallocating funds to underfunded social programs which police isn't trained to deal with anyway." A scenario where social workers go on ridealongs with police officers (a policy proposal that seems new to me) would be different from one where money is taken from the police and given to underfunded social programs, which is the policy suggestion I was responding to.

[JackDaw]

I'm not claiming that these are all the good things the GOP has done in the last four years, but these are the things some reasonable people could support.

- moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
- reshaping the federal judiciary with originalist/ textualist appointees
- The fist step act which marked the first major legislative win in decades to address mass incarceration at the federal level, overhauled certain federal sentencing laws, reducing mandatory minimum sentences for drug felonies and expanding early-release programs, made retroactive a 2010 federal sentencing law reducing the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses, and aimed to lower recidivism by offering more rehabilitation and job-training opportunities.
- defeating Isis.
- a decline in illegal immigration.
- The US becoming a net exporter of oil, which makes it less dependent on Russia and Saudi Arabia.
- Fast-tracking of vaccine research as part of Operation Warp Speed
- Greater role for due process in university Sexual Assault/ Harassment investigations
- A cap on SALT deductions for the wealthy who previously had the federal government subsidize their state and local taxes
- Space force

When it comes to state governments, we can also consider that even though there's a relatively even split in the number of Democratic and Republican Governors, the Republican Governors are the most popular, in red states (Wyoming, North Dakota, Arkansas) swing states (Florida, New Hampshire) and blue states (Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland)

https://morningconsult.com/governor-rankings/

From a non US perspective I’d argue that Trumps attempt to put pressure on other NATO members to actually meet the commitments they have signed up to were eminently reasonable.

And in general..I’ve always felt that there was no real chance of him starting a major conflict abroad.