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

[numberthirty]

Got to wonder if goes for a hat trick...

[Revolutionary_Jack]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/video-show...ry?id=75206495

We also have a Navy SEAL who goes from badass to crybaby quite fast.

[Jeremi]

[WestPhillyPunisher]

https://abcnews.go.com/US/video-show...ry?id=75206495

We also have a Navy SEAL who goes from badass to crybaby quite fast.

"I would like to express to you just a cry for clemency, as you understand that my life now has been absolutely turned upside-down," Newbold told ABC News. "I am not a terrorist. I am not a traitor."

Yes, you are. As a retired sailor, it infuriates me that this shitstain was part of last week's madness.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Anthony Culler, who was the Republican candidate for South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District in 2014, who believes that we are all granted a right to bear arms from CONCEPTION, so that American zygotes can pack heat inside their mothers’ wombs if they choose. He not surprisingly also warned voters of a nameless “they” who were “coming for our guns”, and said Barack Obama and Joe Biden were “using dead schoolchildren” to push for legislation to do so. While his stance on gun rights was pretty extreme, it was nothing compared to Culler’s stance on LGBTQ rights, where he described same sex marriage as “a pestilence upon society” and compared gay people to “for those of you old enough to remember the movie, Gremlins”. I am still unaware of the large gay community in San Francisco being due to a gay person getting wet and being fed after midnight, but anyway, when people told Culler he was a bigot after saying that, he instead went with the classic “I’m rubber and you’re glue” defense and claimed anyone who thought HE was the bigot, was the actual bigot. Jim Clyburn crushed Anthony Culler by almost fifty points in the election, and it seems unlikely the Republican Party will want to put him on a ticket to embarrass them again.

On this date in 2016, and 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien, a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who has a longer history of being a kook, by far, than her overall political career. After switching party affiliation in the late nineties to Republican because she was outraged over Bill Clinton having an affair, she’s become most famous for heckling presidential candidates campaigning in New Hampshire once every four years, going all the way back to 1999, when there are tales of her haranguing Al Gore about Bill Clinton’s infidelities (as if Al Gore was watching from behind a curtain like a voyeur the whole time). Anyway, no reports emerged of her during the 2004 election cycle, however in 2007, she popped up three times to bust the chops of Mitt Romney about supposed double standards on taxation and college residency and harassed Rudy Giuliani on the Republican side of the ticket, for his past infidelities, and to ask him why his children didn’t support his candidacy, leading Giuliani to tell her to “leave his family alone”. By the time Prudhomme-O’Brien went after a Democrat, though, she managed to end up being threatened with arrest for showing up at Hillary Clinton appearances in both 2008 and 2016 and demanding to know everything she knew about her husband Bill’s encounter with Juanita Broaddrick from three decades earlier. (The one Hillary wasn’t at, can’t speak to, and shouldn’t really have to.) The New Hampshire Union-Leader actually gave her the moniker of “New Hampshire’s Most Annoying Voter”, after all of these revolting and obnoxious exploits. And apparently, people weren’t paying attention when the name Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien appeared on the ballot in the 2014 elections as a candidate for office as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives on the Republican side of the ticket. She finished tenth in the Republican Primary, barely qualifying for the general election where she finished sixth. Somehow, that still meant she won a seat in the state legislature. In the year she’s been in office, she’s turned up as part of the New Hampshire GOP’s voting block, attempting to pass some extreme legislation, like an attempt to repeal Common Core Standards (which Gov. Maggie Hassan repealed), an attempt to repeal the need for licensing for people who wanted to practice concealed carry of firearms (also vetoed by Gov. Hassan), and most heinously, an attempt to repeal the “buffer zone” for protesters around abortion clinics. (Which never even made it to Maggie Hassan’s desk, but after what happened in Colorado Springs not long after, it’s probably something that needs to be there.) Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien’s time in office mercifully came to an end in the 2016 GOP Primary, where she failed to qualify in a field where she only needed to finish tenth or better, coming in seventeenth of seventeen candidates.

It was on this date in 2018 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Richard Snow, a former candidate for the Maine House of Representatives back in 2012 was talking about running for Congress, but failed to fire his paperwork on time, and ran for a seat in the Maine House of Representatives to represent District 47 in 2014, losing with 43% of the vote. His qualifications? Snow runs an indoor kart racing track. He’s so good at business that he managed to get himself hacked and had his business’ bank accounts cleaned out, however. Snow was asked for his thoughts on raising the minimum wage (which should be a no-brainer since America is in it’s greatest period of income inequality in perhaps its entire history), he explained that a minimum wage increase would likely lead to workers just spending the money on opiates. Keep in mind, though, that Snow also openly griped about having to pay his workers overtime, so maybe it’s a safe bet that he isn’t a champion of workers’ rights. Or that he likes spreading supposed “news stories” about supposed widespread voter fraud on his Facebook page. Big surprise, Snow’s insult towards the working class led to him losing again to Democrat Janice Cooper in 2016 with only 38% of the vote. Snow won the GOP Primary for the same seat in 2018, and for unknown reasons to us, withdrew from the race prior to the general election.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Katie Arrington, a failed candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District in the 2018 elections[/URL], after serving a single term in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Arrington was decidedly a candidate to watch, since from the point she announced she was running for Congress, she made it clear she was doing so to “support Donald Trump’s bold, conservative agenda”, which was evident in her lack of understanding about border security and desire to build a wall along the U.S./Mexico border. The incumbent Republican that Arrington was challenging was CSGOPOTD Alumni Mark Sanford, who may have several bizarre incidents that we’ve documented against him, but still was willing to criticize Donald Trump for some of his s***tier moments in the spotlight. Trump endorsed Arrington over Sanford, and why he thought it would help her cause by calling out Sanford for “hiking the Tallahassee Trail”,which isn’t an actual thing, nor is it the correct reference to the extramarital affair that Sanford had back in 2009. And with a traditionally conservative district filled with Republicans who had grown tired of Sanford after years and were starting to buy into Arrington and Trump’s white nationalist rhetoric… Arrington managed to win the GOP Primary, and Trump was crowing about f***ing over Mark Sanford on Twitter. Arrington practically declared herself a member of Congress, promising that “There’s no Blue Wave crashing on the shores of South Carolina”. Only a few days after that, it wasn’t a Blue Wave that crashed into Katie Arrington (yet), it was an apparent drunk driver who veered into her own lane, and crashed into her head on. At her debate in October against Joe Cunningham, Arrington tried attacking him for not denouncing “memes” about her that said she “faked her breast cancer” or others that were overtly racist and depicted African Americans who supported her “being lynched”. These “memes” were either created online by conservatives who supported Mark Sanford in the primary and had barely been viewed on the internet, at all, let alone been viewed by Cunningham. But sixteen minutes into the debate, it was Arrington’s own campaign that used her Twitter account to complain about them for the first time. Cunningham denounced the images immediately after learning they existed when Arrington mentioned it for the first time, much like the rest of the public. So… Arrington made a botched attempt at creating a non-scandal. In the final weeks of the campaign in October, there were signs that Katie Arrington maybe didn’t have as comfortable of a lead as she was projecting in June, after she made veiled threats towards the mayor of the Isle of Palms, Jimmy Carroll, telling him he “lost his seat at the table” for endorsing Cunningham, and a real sign of trouble was that the NRCC had to dump almost a quarter of a million dollars into the race to aid her at the last minute in what was supposed to be a “safe” Republican district. Mark Sanford refused to endorse her, at all, and outright talked about her willingness to brazenly lie just a week before the election. And so it was that as Donald Trump’s fortunes turned worse and worse, and Katie Arrington’s campaign techniques got more and more stupid, that Joe Cunningham upset her by seeming rather sane and moderate. Arrington took the loss well in her concession sp- HA! Gotcha. Arrington flipped out during her concession speech and went on a tirade against Mark Sanford, while promising she’d be back to run for the seat again in 2020 a promise that she has broken.

[worstblogever]

Henry McMaster

On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, who ascended to that position after former Gov. Nikki Haley accepted the nomination to be the Trump administration’s original Ambassador to the United Nations in 2017. At the time, he became the oldest person to ever serve as South Carolina Governor. He then won re-election with only 52% of the vote in the GOP Primary, and only 54% in the general election in the 2018 elections.

But it’s the long-term political history of Henry McMaster that concerns us. When he was fresh out of law school, McMaster was hired as a Legislative Assistant to none other than legendary segregationalist U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond in the capitol. An interesting influence. Other than that, McMaster was appointed U.S. Attorney to South Carolina by Ronald Reagan in 1981, and then kicked around South Carolina politics for almost thirty years. Losing elections for everything from U.S. Senate in ’86, Lieutenant Governor in ’90, and then chairing the South Carolina GOP for a decade from ’93 to ’02. He finally won an election in 2002 as Attorney General in 2002, and 2006, and unsuccessfully ran for Governor in 2010, losing to Nikki Haley. Haley kept McMaster relevant by putting him in charge of the Ports Authority of the state until the 2014 elections, when he made a second successful bid to become Lieutenant Governor. Then, he just waited for Haley to step aside, and he could finally be governor.

And it’s when you achieve an office that prestigious that people start asking, “So who is this guy who’s running the state, anyway?”

And… it should come as little shock that the guy who got his first job out of college from Strom Thurmond is, in the 21st century, still a member of an All Whites Country Club. How such an establishment can still exist is one thing, but that a politician would be a member… and refuse to give up membership when people noticed… yeah. Yeah, that’s a bit disturbing.

In his first year in office in 2017, McMaster—along with the University of South Carolina, BlueCross BlueShield, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, and a number of prominent SC legislators—was connected to Richard Quinn and Associates, a firm he employed for political consulting purposes. Richard Quinn himself, is a known Neo-Confederate, and Associates was named as part of a larger corruption probe within the South Carolina General Assembly conducted by Special Prosecutor David Pascoe, which had already ended the careers of then-House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, who resigned and pleaded guilty to public corruption charges in 2014 Four South Carolina state legislators were indicted as part of Pascoe's corruption probe as of May 2017. In spite of all that… McMaster again refused to step away from Quinn... who any normal politician would distance themselves from for being a Neo-Confederate, let alone corrupt for two whole months. Under pressure and losing momentum in the GOP Primary for Governor in 2018, McMaster finally relented and cut ties with Quinn.

As a Governor, McMaster has stated he would sign legislation, if passed by the General Assembly, that "would allow anyone who is legally allowed to buy a gun to do so without a state permit and carry it openly or concealed.”, which isn’t strange for a Republican governor nowadays. What is strange is when students did a walkout to protest gun violence and to call for stricter gun control only a month after the Parkland shooting, McMaster described the student walkout as "shameful" and said that it was a "tricky move" orchestrated by "left wing groups" which were using the students as "tools" to further their left wing agenda. David Hogg, one of the most politically active survivors of the Parkland shooting, criticized McMaster, saying in a tweet that "future voters will not reelect you and outlive you too. " Adding to this racist old mummy’s disturbing extremism is his support of fetal heartbeat anti-choice bills.

He spent 2020 mismanaging South Carolina’s Covid-19 restrictions, which maybe if he had reduced the number of infections, he wouldn’t have set up an environment to get himself infected. McMaster is not up for re-election until 2022, but is already gearing up to run for another term in office, when he will already be 75. Should he win in that year, South Carolina will have a governor with a membership in a “Whites Only” club until 2026.

[Mister Mets]

Biden absolutely won off the strength of the African American vote in certain states. We absolutely can not take for granted that Bernie would have done the same when he clearly couldn't carry that vote in the primary and didn't do enough to try, and no, Nina Turner and Killer Mike, nor Brianna Joy Grey, are not really representative of that voting bloc.

This is one of the reasons why the left must more broadly be welcoming of, and support, black leadership in all areas.

This point is broadly argued here as well:
https://www.thenation.com/article/ac...es-white-left/

Biden did seem to hit an electoral sweet spot in 2020. As Barack Obama's Vice President he had high support among African Americans, which the other moderate Democrats would not have been able to match, while also doing fine with swing voters.

He did outperform candidates for House by about two percent, which really made the difference. The margin in the tipping point state of Wisconsin was 0.7 percent, so a small shift would be enough for Trump to win Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. Biden's roots in Pennsylvania likely helped in that state where the margin was 1.2%, so it wouldn't have taken a tremendous difference for Trump to narrowly win that state as well.

There doesn't seem to be much evidence of progressive candidates doing well in 2020. I'm unaware of any progressive candidates for Congress either outperforming Biden, or having unusual coattails that help him do better in a state.

[Agent Z]

The FBI Knew Ahead of Time and Did Nothing About the Capitol Insurrection: Report

When the insurrection at our nation’s Capitol happened Wednesday, most of America was caught off guard. I stress “most” because while the average person watched with horror as it unfolded on our televisions, there were people who did know what was going to happen, and they did absolutely nothing about it.

The Washington Post reports that the day before the insurrection took place, an FBI office in Virginia “issued an explicit internal warning that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and ‘war’,” directly contradicting the word of Steven D’Antuono, head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, who claimed there was no intelligence to indicate pro-Trump supporters planned to do harm.

From the Post:

A situational information report approved for release the day before the U.S. Capitol riot painted a dire portrait of dangerous plans, including individuals sharing a map of the complex’s tunnels, and possible rally points for would-be conspirators to meet up in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and South Carolina and head in groups to Washington.

“As of 5 January 2021, FBI Norfolk received information indicating calls for violence in response to ‘unlawful lockdowns’ to begin on 6 January 2021 in Washington. D.C.,” the document says. “An online thread discussed specific calls for violence to include stating ‘Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled. Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”

As the Post explains, “BLM” is a reference to the Black Lives Matter movement, “Pantifa” is a derogatory term for “antifa,” the “nefarious” and oft-involved boogeyman that the Post defines as “a far-left anti-fascist movement whose adherents sometimes engage in violent clashes with right-wing extremists.”

The author of the report also expressed concern “that the FBI might be encroaching on free speech rights,” according to the Post.

An FBI source told the Post that the report was written within 45 minutes of them becoming aware of the online thread and shared it within the bureau. It is unclear whether any law enforcement agencies outside the bureau were told, and if so how many, but FBI officials at the Washington Field Office were briefed the day before the insurrection.

And still, nothing was done.

https://www.theroot.com/the-fbi-knew...-ca-1846045571

[JackDaw]

Biden did seem to hit an electoral sweet spot in 2020. As Barack Obama's Vice President he had high support among African Americans, which the other moderate Democrats would not have been able to match, while also doing fine with swing voters.

He did outperform candidates for House by about two percent, which really made the difference. The margin in the tipping point state of Wisconsin was 0.7 percent, so a small shift would be enough for Trump to win Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. Biden's roots in Pennsylvania likely helped in that state where the margin was 1.2%, so it wouldn't have taken a tremendous difference for Trump to narrowly win that state as well.

There doesn't seem to be much evidence of progressive candidates doing well in 2020. I'm unaware of any progressive candidates for Congress either outperforming Biden, or having unusual coattails that help him do better in a state.

Surely apart from his age Joe was almost the perfect candidate? (Defining “perfect” in this case as most likely to win.)

I think scary thought is that the Donald might have won without COVID...certainly against other Democratic opponents.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Surely apart from his age Joe was almost the perfect candidate? (Defining “perfect” in this case as most likely to win.)

I think scary thought is that the Donald might have won without COVID...certainly against other Democratic opponents.

I think pretty much anyone competent wins that election. Pretty much all the data shows that the majority of people that jumped to Biden really didn’t care about him and were more just voting against Trump. That’s what essentially won the election. You had a ton of ticket splitters who voted to oust Trump but then voted Republican to win a House seat.

It will be interesting to see what happens if Trump isn’t on the ballot

[Zauriel]

Surely apart from his age Joe was almost the perfect candidate? (Defining “perfect” in this case as most likely to win.)

I think scary thought is that the Donald might have won without COVID...certainly against other Democratic opponents.

Despite Trump's disastrous response to the COVID, most of the red states except Arizona and Georgia still voted for him. The swing states of Ohio and Florida voted for him.
But anyways he still lost. Anyone could have beat Trump, given his poor performance on the record.


The last time Alaska, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in a presidential election was in 1964, when Barry Goldwater was portrayed as an insane lunatic like Donald Trump.

[TheDarman]

I think pretty much anyone competent wins that election. Pretty much all the data shows that the majority of people that jumped to Biden really didn’t care about him and were more just voting against Trump. That’s what essentially won the election. You had a ton of ticket splitters who voted to oust Trump but then voted Republican to win a House seat.

It will be interesting to see what happens if Trump isn’t on the ballot

He wasn’t on the ballot in 2018 and Democrats did really well.

He wasn’t on the ballot in this Georgia Senate Race and Democrats saw a three point swing from November in their direction.

Trump didn’t do as well as down-ballot Republicans, but that is because he turned out his folks and had them vote for down-ballot Republicans as well as him. Other Republicans, fed up with Trump, split ticket. I may not be thrilled with the GOP for making it, but they made this unholy bargain for a reason. Trump drives up turnout for him and only him that the GOP has been unable to get since H.W. Bush (mostly off the strength of the old Reagan coalition). It will indeed be interesting, but I wouldn’t draw conclusions that the Republican Party will necessarily be stronger. Coalitions are weird and there are variables that make it easy to draw conclusions that you want over conclusions that are probably right.

[Surf]

AOC gives a moving first-person account of her time during the Putsch. Her description of a personal encounter (which she doesn't go into detail) during the riots really drives home the real terror of these attacks.

Talk about it AOC.

[Amadeus Arkham]

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I hope this video is legit (although it seems) because it's freaking unbelievable.

These guys are both morons and imbeciles as well as Danny Ocean type plotters who come up with plans and schematics.