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

[babyblob]

Damnit, your Aunt beat me to the joke! Even funnier that she doesn't realize it's a joke.

Nope she is going on about how real it is. She believes any thing the right wing papers have to say about that group. How they are trying to over throw Trump and the government to turn this into a socialist hell hole. They all work for Bernie and Niden. Its nuts.

[Malvolio]

The news isn't fake, but you're right about the bias in editing. Though I imagine most of these editors are thinking in terms of what type of headline would attract the most readers. Regional differences, cultural bias, and so on.

But that's my point. You might see several headlines as clickbait and only have time to click on one of them. So that one maybe you find out the real story, but the rest of them, if you remember them at all, you can only remember the misleading headline, regardless of the facts of the actual article.

[Tendrin]

But that's my point. You might see several headlines as clickbait and only have time to click on one of them. So that one maybe you find out the real story, but the rest of them, if you remember them at all, you can only remember the misleading headline, regardless of the facts of the actual article.

Wait, when did you join the Sentry avatar club?

[numberthirty]

Just to point this one out...

WGNAmerica's Newsnation is a part of the network's broadcast rotation now. It's not all "Hard News", but it is fairly solid.

[zinderel]

We Don’t Know How to Warn You Any Harder. America is Dying.
We Survivors of Authoritarianism Have a Message America Needs to Hear: This is Exactly How it Happens, and It’s Happening Here.

We survivors of authoritarianism have a terrible, terrible foreboding, because we are experiencing something we should never do: deja vu. Our parents fled from collapsing societies to America. And here, now, in a grim and eerie repeat of history, we see the scenes of our childhoods played out all over again. Only now, in the land that we came to. We see the stories our parents recounted to us happening before our eyes, only this time, in the place they brought us to, to escape from all those horrors, abuses, and depredations.
We survivors are experiencing this terrible feeling of deja vu right now as a group, as a class. We talk about it, how eerie and grim this sense of deja vu is. It’s happening all over again! Do you remember this part of your childhood? When the armed men roamed the streets? When the secret police disappeared opponents? When the fascist masses united — and that was enough to destroy democracy for good? We talk about it, believe me — but you don’t hear it because we have no real voice. America’s pundits are named Chris and Jake and Tucker. They are not named Eduardo and Ravi and Xiao and Umair. But Chris and Jake and Tucker can’t help you now. They don’t know what the hell they’re dealing with. They literally have no idea because they have no experience whatsoever.

[Robotman]

We Don’t Know How to Warn You Any Harder. America is Dying.
We Survivors of Authoritarianism Have a Message America Needs to Hear: This is Exactly How it Happens, and It’s Happening Here.

Scary but true.

[Joker]

And as much as that voice of experience is appreciated, this isn’t anything smart and aware people haven’t been saying is happening for the last three years, already.

It is sad that the ones screaming about America’s values, protecting them, and putting them first are the ones destroying them and those supporting that destruction. It’s the same dumb motherfuckers who screamed about Obama and Sharia Law while voting their religious beliefs into law. Just dumb dumb dumb fuckwits unable to comprehend the damage they’re doing.

[Tendrin]

It is sad that the ones screaming about America’s values, protecting them, and putting them first are the ones destroying them and those supporting that destruction. It’s the same dumb motherfuckers who screamed about Obama and Sharia Law while voting their religious beliefs into law. Just dumb dumb dumb fuckwits unable to comprehend the damage they’re doing.

The only thing they value about America is white supremacy.

[Joker]

To be clear, this is not just Trump. This is the republican party. These are conservative voters. This didn't happen in the last 3 years from nothing. Trump is a logical conclusion to the actions and attitudes of the Republican party over the last 20* years.



*It's more. It's a lot more. Conservatives have been racist forever. Sorry to people like Mets who might not themselves be racist, but you keep going to the house party where the skinheads are drinking because their chip budget was responsible.

Fiscal conservatives is another fairy tail, because every time Republicans are in charge this country's money goes right in the **** hole.

But anyway, I said 20 years, because 9/11 kicked American Nationalism into high fucking gear.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

We Don’t Know How to Warn You Any Harder. America is Dying.
We Survivors of Authoritarianism Have a Message America Needs to Hear: This is Exactly How it Happens, and It’s Happening Here.

And yet, not only is half the country (Republicans) AREN'T listening, they're doing all they can to hasten the madness so they can enjoy racism, tax cuts, judge stacking and "owning the libs".

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

Absentee Ballot Rejections Could Triple In Battleground States

The number of rejected ballots in November is projected to be significantly higher than previous elections., according to an AP analysis. This is more than a little troubling. Meanwhile....

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Republicans In Swing States Were Fixing Vote-By-Mail Systems. Then Trump Tweeted.

GOP lawmakers were seriously preparing for a flood of absentee ballots until the president signaled that he prefers chaos. Which was exactly what Trump wanted because he fears an avalanche of Biden votes by mail.

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Trump Wishes Americans ‘Happy Labor Day’ With Angry Words, Calls Biden ‘Stupid’

The president held a meandering press conference to insult his opponents and claim the U.S. is having “tremendous success” against COVID-19. More bullshit from Caramel Caligula. Meanwhile....

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‘We’re Screwed’: Kevin McCarthy Gives Trump Some Tough Election Talk

The House minority leader said the president’s attacks on voting by mail could hurt Republicans in November. No D-UH, Kev! What was your first clue?

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North Carolina Republican Implores Trump To Wear Mask At Upcoming Visit

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in North Carolina, do as the governor says,” the GOP county chair said ahead of Trump’s Winston-Salem event. Fat chance of that happening.

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Trump Campaign Official Mocked Joe Biden For Visiting Graves Of Late Family Members

While the president was out golfing, one of his campaign advisers made fun of the Democratic nominee for paying his respects after church on Sunday. How low can Trump and his henchmen go? As low as they need, and then, they go lower.

[worstblogever]

To be clear, this is not just Trump. This is the republican party. These are conservative voters. This didn't happen in the last 3 years from nothing. Trump is a logical conclusion to the actions and attitudes of the Republican party over the last 20* years.



*It's more. It's a lot more. Conservatives have been racist forever. Sorry to people like Mets who might not themselves be racist, but you keep going to the house party where the skinheads are drinking because their chip budget was responsible.

Fiscal conservatives is another fairy tail, because every time Republicans are in charge this country's money goes right in the **** hole.

But anyway, I said 20 years, because 9/11 kicked American Nationalism into high fucking gear.

9/11 started the nationalism. Citizens United started the active plan by billionaires to execute Grand Theft America in term of our democracy around 2009, because they saw Democrats win in '06 and '08 and didn't want to pay taxes. They used Nationalism and fear of the "other" to motivate a dwindling voting base in 2010, gerrymander the House and state legislatures to hold power for a decade. They failed somewhat to execute their minority rule in 2012 (failing somewhat), made gains based on the non-representative democracy they were building in 2014, and in 2016 got control of all three branches of government for one big grift... by not just soliciting their domestic assets for funding a victory, but foreign financial and technological support.

Unfortunately, they elected a lot of incompetent people who have not been good at seizing power, and have run the country into the ground so much that in 2018, and 2020, things are about to slip out of their grasp. Some of the stupidest members of this plan weren't around to see it laid out and are "true believers" or are just too stupid to realize how utterly unconstitutional and fascist their vision for the country is. But they're desperate enough to try to do something terrible to cling to it. Especially those who realize the con job that's been executed for a decade involved criminal activity, and they're concerned that they might actually go to jail. The paranoia over that is having them literally sabotage government agencies from within, for fear of losing this election, and several over the next decade.

The responsible thing to do would be to let their corrupt house of cards fall and try and see if there are any Republicans willing to do the hard work of rebuilding it.

But no one wants to work and actually appeal to people. We're talking about old money folks. They don't believe in hard work, that's to sucker the populace into doing for you.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

God bless the snarkmasters of the Internet:



**********

[Kuro no Shinigami]

I wonder how many Black Americans who support Trump and Republican Party agendas, despite Trump not condemning the KKK and the Confederate flag?

The ones I know are:
Kanye West
Herman Cain
Vernon Jones
Thomas Sowell
Herschel Walker
Candace Owens
Terrence K. Williams
Ben Carson (HUD secretary)
David Clarke (sheriff)
Allen West; the Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas and friend to Herman Cain
John E. James; the one who ran for the 2018 US senate seat in Michigan, lost it and now is running in the 2020 United States Senate election in Michigan

Are there other Black supporters of Trump I haven't heard of yet?

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of former Arizona Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the man who has embodied a bigoted, corrupt, and aberrant image of "justice" for Maricopa County for decades. During his lengthy tenure, Arpaio oversaw a prolific amount of inmate deaths in Arizona’s prisons, looked the other way and not investigated hundreds of rapes and child molestations in the town of El Mirage, buddied up to xenophobic militia groups and illegal immigrant patrols (travelling down to the border and far outside his jurisdiction to do so) and has been investigated by the Department of Justice and been discovered to have pervasive racism throughout his department. The self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” prides himself on cruelty, bigotry, and ignorance, trying to overcome the $140 million in lawsuits (you read that right, $140 MILLION) that have been filed against him, including for letting actor Steven Seagal drive a SWAT tank into a residence on a reality TV show and killing the homeowners’ puppy, through publicity stunts to appease his more racist constituents, like an “investigation” into President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

His persona of being "tough on crime" is more important to him than actually serving and protecting the populace he is elected to, and he has vindictively battled against any political figure who has even dared to suggest that more oversight or transparency into his department is needed (he won't disclose what taxpayer dollars are actually spent on in the MCSO). Arpaio was found guilty of racial profiling after the Department of Justice investigation into his department, had deputies testify that he ordered them to defy the orders of federal judges and continue racist policies, and after being found guilty, was caught during the appeal process hiring private investigators to shadow the judge’s wife and try to find something he might be able to blackmail him with. He admitted doing this under oath, but Sheriff Joe had the audacity to try and declare that now the judge was “biased” and should be taken off the case a month later. Shortly after Donald Trump made his announcement for president and said that Mexicans coming across the U.S. border were “criminals and rapists”, Joe Arpaio came to his defense, and said that criticism of Trump amounted to “violating his First Amendment rights”… which isn't how freedom of speech works, Sheriff, but hey, what can you expect from a man who once arrested the publishers of the Phoenix New Times for writing stories about corruption in his department that he didn’t like?

Now, some people might have wondered why CSGOPOTD has focused on a county sheriff on a yearly basis. Well, let's put it this way... not only has Arpaio been a bane on civil rights, and embraced racial profiling as standard policy during his tenure... he's been hailed a conservative hero for it, primarily because his target is often non-whites. Is he influential in Arizona politics? Absolutely, every GOP candidate in the state seeks his endorsement to claim they're "Tough on immigration". And it's not just Arizona. This dithering xenophobic methuselah endorsed Donald Trump for president and was granted a speaking slot at the 2016 Republican National Convention while it was still being considered whether or not Sheriff Arpaio would face criminal charges for contempt of court. His remarks were delivered only a day after a federal judge stripped Arpaio of having oversight over his own Internal Affairs Department.

Furthermore, when people talk about Republicans who “keep bringing back the specter of racism”, Joe Arpaio has waved it like a battle flag for all of his 88 years on this earth. He’s the proof that it never really went away.

Somehow, nobody ever batted an eye about the fact that he's a county sheriff who can amass an election war chest of $11.3 MILLION dollars. Stop and think about that... being an octogenarian, openly racist, criminal, overtly fascist, taxpayer-paying lawsuit-magnet was not enough to have stopped Republicans from donating $11.3 million in money to his re-election in 2016. There was at least, good news that Democrats managed to have retired Phoenix police officer Paul Penzone elected as County Sheriff, looking to end a quarter-century of racial bigotry from law enforcement in Arizona’s most populous county.

The news would get even better… On July 31st, 2017, Joe Arpaio was found guilty upon appeal. He was scheduled to be sentenced on October 5th, 2017, and while his sentence could have carried up to a six-month jail sentence, the most common belief was that he would get house arrest for his crimes, because… well, cops don’t do well in prison if they’re sent there. There’s no way an 85 year old man who spent decades tormenting his own constituents would manage to avoid harassment from fellow inmates, right?

Well, long story short, Donald Trump is an ***hole. After a poorly-attended rally in Phoenix, Arizona, where roughly 4,000 people came to see him speak, and 10,000 protesters showed up… Donald Trump followed up his heinous response to Charlottesville that White Nationalists interpreted as his blessing by talking about a pardon for a man who ignored the Constitutional rights of minorities for 24 years. His rabid supporters applauded, and that was enough for Trump to give a pardon to Arpaio as Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, because you have to prioritize helping out fellow racist fascists over saving people from flooding the likes of which the nation has never seen. And he did it before Arpaio was EVER SENTENCED.

Now, this was while Donald Trump was feuding with Arizona’s U.S. Senators. Not just John McCain, but in particular, Jeff Flake, who he promised in 2016 he would sponsor a primary challenger against. Most thought Trump was going to back former Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward, a former CSGOPOTD who once hosted a town hall on Chemtrails and pals around with people who talk about black helicopters doing all sorts of government conspiracies to the good people… but in January of 2018, Joe Arpaio announced he was running for U.S. Senate at the age of 86. The “specter of racism” will never leave Arizona as long as Joe Arpaio can soil its politics, as he seems insistent upon. Arpaio mercifully finished third in the GOP Primary for his seat in that race, getting just shy of 19% of the vote.

And… we were hoping that 2020 would be the first year on this date that we wouldn’t have to talk about Joe Arpaio, and Arizona might have removed a bigoted stain upon the tapestry of its long, sordid, state history for the last time… BUT NO, NOT YET. Joe Arpaio decided he would run for Maricopa County Sheriff again at the age of 88… yes EIGHTY-EIGHT, in an attempt to avenge his 2016 loss to Paul Penzone. He remained as racist as ever, because when he was asked what he might do court Hispanic voters back to his side, he responded that he would “go where the good Mexican restaurants are.”

Alas, Joe Arpaio’s comeback failed in a big way, and he narrowly lost to his own former subordinate, Jerry Sheridan, in the GOP Primary for sheriff.

There’s nothing good we’ll ever be able to say about this man until he’s dead in the ground, and at least serving as good fertilizer.

[worstblogever]

I wonder how many Black Americans who support Trump and Republican Party agendas, despite Trump not condemning the KKK and the Confederate flag?

The ones I know are:
Kanye West
Herman Cain
Vernon Jones
Thomas Sowell
Herschel Walker
Candace Owens
Terrence K. Williams
Ben Carson (HUD secretary)
David Clarke (sheriff)
Allen West; the Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas and friend to Herman Cain
John E. James; the one who ran for the 2018 US senate seat in Michigan, lost it and now is running in the 2020 United States Senate election in Michigan

Are there other Black supporters of Trump I haven't heard of yet?

You've probably heard of Diamond and Silk, but didn't mention them. Or South Carolina's U.S. Senator Tim Scott, who seems to be on board based on his speech at the RNC.

Don King is also way into him, but they go back through decades of shady business deals where Trump Hotels and Casinos would host King's prizefights. The GOP had to tell Trump King would not appear at the 2016 RNC because it's a bad look to claim you're the "law and order" president when you're proud to have hung out with a guy who did time for manslaughter.

Oh, there's also the former cultist/conspiracy theorist who keeps appearing behind Trump at MAGA rallies, Michael The Black Man. (Don't look at me, that's what he prefers to be called.)