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

[babyblob]

I know this is a serious subject. But I 100 percent expect to see this walking into an NRA Meeting. And Notice how the Sea Captain and Skinner react just a half second before Moe fires for the first time?

[Mister Mets]

The thing is I dont think they would care if it came out. And some may even spin it. "Yes I have the stain of Trans in my family. But clearly I care more about American values by hurting my own family then my family does for trying to give in to this foolishness." They will paint them selves as a GOP hero and a warrior of god and Values because they are willing to hirt their own blood then give into any human kindness and do the right thing.

This assumes they can be convinced that a relative who comes out as trans isn't suffering some kind of mental health episode. Many virulently antitrans people don't think they're doing anything hurtful. They don't see it as picking some other priority (IE- the support of their local community of obnoxious right-wingers) over their kids. They see this as a way to protect their kids.

As we have seen with Roe. v. Wade, the answer is likely "roll over and die, but make sure to ask for as much fundraising donations beforehand".

I hate feeling like an embittered, cynical ******* but the fact that Democrats shy away from being tough and united on specific issues cause they want elusive voters has played a large role in the mess we are in.

The fight over abortion is messy. There is a lot Democrats are doing, and will do. The Supreme Court decision, if it matches the draft, will not ban abortion in the United States. It will leave it up to the states.

So blue-state Governors and legislatures will likely pass laws protecting their residents, and making it possible for visitors to obtain services. Some of them are already doing this.

There are some tactics that Democrats are using that aren't great. An effort at a federal bill that will guarantee abortion access at any stage in the pregnancy, a position shared by roughly 30% of the population, does not seem wise. That may highlight how they're going for making the base happy rather than trying to win, or at least demonstrating that they're standing up for something popular.

[Mister Mets]

Oh I agree with you. They have tried. Try harder. This is the most important issue domestically in my opinion. This cant not go on.

How hard will the Dems try though? Who will put their career or maybe even their life on the line? I don't know of many that will do that and I have been a democrat my whole life.

Yesterday was just like 9/11 in my opinion. If people just don't understand that well then we are not living in the same country.

How was the shooting just like a coordinated terrorist attack that killed thousands?

Did Republicans really believe they could undo the Affordable Care Act? No, but they voted for that 60 or so times. Why? So they could have something to show voters when they ran for re-election. Democrats should do the same with gun control.

What would you prefer Democrats do? Should they past popular measures that might not apply in this specific situation (background checks for private gun sales, ) or should they go for ambitious programs that will be more controversial (an Australia-style confiscation program)?

Sadly, mass shootings are actually good for gun and ammo manufacturers. Democrats talk about stricter gun laws or bans while Republicans stoke fears in the hearts of gun owners and sales go up.

There is a point when it can be troublesome for individual manufacturers. At some point, demand is so high due to a concern that Democrats will pass legislation that will make guns and ammunition harder to obtain that stores run out of popular brands, and customers have to get something for new companies. This is great for the new companies, but concerning for older companies. Colt is worried if shortages lead to loyal customers buying something from a new outfit, since they might like that item and go for new stuff from them in the future.

“Mass showings are rare”? Was Abbott in a coma two Saturdays ago when a supermarket was shot up in Buffalo? Judas H. Priest!

It is rare in a country of nearly 330,000,000 people.

Some of the discussion about gun violence suggests that this is a bigger concern than auto accidents, or bladder cancer, when this is not the case.

[babyblob]

It is rare in a country of nearly 330,000,000 people.

Some of the discussion about gun violence suggests that this is a bigger concern than auto accidents, or bladder cancer, when this is not the case.

How can anyone say Mass Shootings are rare. We hear every week some times twice a week or a couple weeks ago 3 times in one weekend. How in the Hell is that any kind of rare?

[thwhtGuardian]

How was the shooting just like a coordinated terrorist attack that killed thousands?

What would you prefer Democrats do? Should they past popular measures that might not apply in this specific situation (background checks for private gun sales, ) or should they go for ambitious programs that will be more controversial (an Australia-style confiscation program)?

There is a point when it can be troublesome for individual manufacturers. At some point, demand is so high due to a concern that Democrats will pass legislation that will make guns and ammunition harder to obtain that stores run out of popular brands, and customers have to get something for new companies. This is great for the new companies, but concerning for older companies. Colt is worried if shortages lead to loyal customers buying something from a new outfit, since they might like that item and go for new stuff from them in the future.

It is rare in a country of nearly 330,000,000 people.

Some of the discussion about gun violence suggests that this is a bigger concern than auto accidents, or bladder cancer, when this is not the case.

That last part is just lazy Mets. For one, it's possible to be concerned about more than one thing at a time and two we do all kinds of things to mitigate deaths from car accidents. We bar people from operating them until they reach a certain age, make people take classes, get licensed, wear seat belts,demand air bags, and there are laws against driving impaired...we don't have nearly that many mitigating factors for guns.

And guess what? Even all that aside your concern about focusing on gun deaths versus auto accidents is misplaced as firearm-related injuries became the leading cause of death in adolescents in 2020. And it's not suicides or accidents bringing that mortality issue up above car accidents as it was driven largely by firearm homicides.

And bladder cancer? C'mon! Are you even trying? That's only a rate of 4.2 per 100K while gun deaths were 13.6. And again there are all kinds of health screening programs and funding for cancer research so we're doing a whole lot more to stop people from dying of bladder cancer(and cancer in general) than we are gun deaths.

So kindly stop it with the right wing talking points.

[babyblob]

This assumes they can be convinced that a relative who comes out as trans isn't suffering some kind of mental health episode. Many virulently antitrans people don't think they're doing anything hurtful. They don't see it as picking some other priority (IE- the support of their local community of obnoxious right-wingers) over their kids. They see this as a way to protect their kids.

The thing is I dont think the GOP does see Trans as a mental health disorder. Remember when Homsexuals were thought to have a mental health disorder?

That is the old stand by that the GOP and bible thumpers use. It is something that they are against and something they hate so they want to stop it. So they use Gods will (Remember all those gay conversion camps. There are still a few around I think) or they say Its a mental health disorder. We will help them and cure them dont worry. All the while passing laws to restrict them, and threaten them, and dismiss when people do real harm to them.

I dont see them handle other mental health disorders this way. "This person is Bipolar? They are Schizo? Well damnit lets keep them from playing sports, lets start an investigation of parents who want to get them help, lets encourage and over look when people beat the Hell out of them and commit hate crimes on them."

They dont see it as a mental health disorder. They see it as something to hate and know they will get votes because of how many other people also hate them.

[Mister Mets]

Kemp booed and Raffensperger censured at Georgia GOP convention

As an update, both won primaries for reelection against major opponents.

Kemp stomped a former Senator by about 50 points.

Raffensperger defeated a current congressman by 19 points, and avoided any runoff.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-b...?entry=1416496

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/brad-r...ed-opponent/#x

This was pleasant news to wake up to (when I went to bed, Raffensperger was clearly leading but it seemed he might be under the majority necessary to avoid a runoff.)

In meh news, Sarah Huckabee Sanders comfortably won the primary for Governor of Arkansas. So she's very likely to hold major office by next year.

How can anyone say Mass Shootings are rare. We hear every week some times twice a week or a couple weeks ago 3 times in one weekend. How in the Hell is that any kind of rare?

It depends on the context. The odds that an individual will be affected are pretty low. It's still going to happen every now and then in a big country with lots of guns and violent maniacs.

[babyblob]

It depends on the context. The odds that an individual will be affected are pretty low. It's still going to happen every now and then in a big country with lots of guns and violent maniacs.

Go tell that to 19 sets of parents its about context. Give me a break. And its going to happen every now and then? Yet America is the only country it seems to happen in. So no I do not class something that happens once or twice a week as rare. Get out of here with that nonsense. We know you are a GOP Backer. Fine. You want to over look and ignore your parties roll in this mess. But to just disregard something like the murder of 19 children, something that damn sure could and should have been prevented as

"Oh well. its just one of those things." That is sick.

[Kevinroc]

It depends on the context. The odds that an individual will be affected are pretty low. It's still going to happen every now and then in a big country with lots of guns and violent maniacs.

This is a terrible response. This is an unacceptable response.

[thwhtGuardian]

This is a terrible response. This is an unacceptable response.

It was the response I expected sadly. There isn't such a thing as a bad conservative take for Mets.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

How was the shooting just like a coordinated terrorist attack that killed thousands?

What would you prefer Democrats do? Should they past popular measures that might not apply in this specific situation (background checks for private gun sales, ) or should they go for ambitious programs that will be more controversial (an Australia-style confiscation program)?

There is a point when it can be troublesome for individual manufacturers. At some point, demand is so high due to a concern that Democrats will pass legislation that will make guns and ammunition harder to obtain that stores run out of popular brands, and customers have to get something for new companies. This is great for the new companies, but concerning for older companies. Colt is worried if shortages lead to loyal customers buying something from a new outfit, since they might like that item and go for new stuff from them in the future.

It is rare in a country of nearly 330,000,000 people.

Some of the discussion about gun violence suggests that this is a bigger concern than auto accidents, or bladder cancer, when this is not the case.

Sure, keep on spreading those tired as hell GQP talking points, Mets.

[babyblob]

Sure, keep on spreading those tired as hell GQP talking points, Mets.

When a person reaction to 19 children being murdered a a couple weeks after 10 people were gunned down for no reason is "Well it is just one of those things that happens." it goes beyond being a good Republican that parrots talking points to being a god awful human being. But at this point is there really any difference between the two?

[worstblogever]

The hypocrisy of the NRA not allowing guns at a convention featuring Trump also reminds me...

This is the same NRA who had a key member of the organization banging a Russian spy, and who helped Russian oligarchs funnel money into U.S. elections as a foreign asset in 2016.

F*** them and their "patriotism" that means allowing nothing to be done to stop psychopaths from murdering a score of elementary school kids.

It's almost like they've sold out any and all principles to get money without any thought for another living soul. Oh wait, that's exactly it.

[Kirby101]

Pretending we don't have a problem with gun deaths doesn’t make it go away.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”posted a profile of Matt Richardson, who was a candidate for the Washington State Senate back in 2010 trying to unseat the legendary FRED, Pam Roach. The main problem with his candidacy was that at the age of 16 he was charged with molesting two family relatives, aged 8 and 5 at the time. Richardson’s far lesser flaw that’s still pretty wild, was that his campaign website compared abortion to slavery, even using the phrase “Modern Emancipation” in his calls to prevent it. He’s not exactly suited for office, just given those two facts.

It was on this date in 2016, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”posted a profile of Molly White, whose background prior to being elected to office was as a radical anti-abortion advocate. She still proudly traveled with displays of plastic fetuses in her SUV ready to go, and blames the fact that she herself got two abortions and blames it on rampant substance abuse at that stage of her life. There’s also her fervent passion for the 2nd Amendment that saw her pander to fellow gun enthusiasts by posing with guns almost as big as she is. But then, the Texas GOP learned how off her rocker Molly White really is as she proceeded to then make headlines for all the worst reasons but weeks into being sworn into office. On January 29th, 2015, a group of Muslim constituents had planned to visit Austin for Texas Muslim Capitol Day, where they would seek out lawmakers to discuss policy, as part of an event hosted by the Council of American Islamic Relations. Molly White, however, had heard somewhere that CAIR was considered to be the 82nd top terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates, and that was good enough reason for her to make sure that no Muslim coming to the event had nefarious intent. So, she went on Facebook, where she made a post instructing her staff to confirm that these Muslims they were good, loyal Americans, by taking them to her office where an Israeil flag would be present on her desk, and where they would “ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws. We will see how long they stay in my office.” All right, there’s a lot to unpack here. First off, that’s bigoted as all get out. Second… why did she have an Israeli flag in her office? And why did she think that Muslims would turn away for it like a vampire seeing a cross? Not even two months went by, and Molly White was at it again, shaking her fist at the sky, and showing she probably flunked social studies, because she was under the impression that she could undermine a Supreme Court ruling, drafting Texas’ HB 2555, which was meant to overturn rulings to overturn bans on same sex marriage. She also filed HB 2553 around the same time, a bill meant to allow Texas businesses the right to refuse goods or services to anyone based on their own religious grounds. (Because that wasn’t something that Southern states didn’t argue to try and keep discriminating against African Americans after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, either.) Her love of denying LGBT rights really does mean something to her, as she was photographed with several Texas Republicans celebrating the state amending the Texas constitution to ban same sex marriage with delicious cake. It seemed like White might get through the rest of 2015 without making an arse of herself, but on December 9th, 2015, she decided to give her opinion about President Barack Obama (uh oh). She apparently thinks he’s in league with the Muslim Brotherhood and should be arrested and tried for treason against the United States. Mercifully, Molly White was defeated by Hugh Shine by 104 votes in the 2016 GOP Primary for her Texas House seat. As such, we'll move on and start profiling a different wacky Republican on this date instead.

It was on this date in 2017, as well as 2018, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”posted a profile of Bob Gannon, a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly who should not be confused with the pig-faced nemesis of Link in The Legend of Zelda series, but we could understand how people could get him mixed up with an evil warlord with a pig face. In his short one term and change in office, Gannon has already made an ass of himself on numerous occasions. It was in December of 2015 when Gannon reacted to a shooting in a Wisconsin mall by advising more citizens to practice concealed carry and “help clean society of these scumbags” in vigilante killings. On January 6th, 2016, Gannon put out a press release with false statistics blaming a higher murder rate on “the black population”, who he seemed to claim were also deliberately choosing crime over employment. Well, that story gets worse. When Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca began to criticize Gannon for his comments on the floor of the Wisconsin State Assembly, he didn’t exactly take it too well, with his rebuttal coming in the form of a middle finger flashed at Barca. And you know it’s bad when even fellow Republicans find your behavior distasteful. Bob Gannon tends to get called out for his rhetoric, or dishonesty, or d***ishness within the Wisconsin State Assembly, and likes to throw around the phrases “leftists” and “liberals” in response to Democrats, using the terms as epithets. The victimization complex in him is strong, nearly as strong as his desire to shoot black people in the street before they have a chance to commit a crime, apparently. Looking to Bob Gannon’s brief legislative record, and he’s already managed to support legislation as heinous as SB 533, which was designed to disenfranchise voters by prohibiting municipalities from carrying out the issue of identification cards (you can’t vote without the Voter ID the GOP require in Wisconsin, and guess what? They’re closing everywhere you can get one!) But he also co-sponsored AB 950, which would have blocked local police departments from preventing immigration status inquiries, had it passed. Add in his sponsorship of AB 192, to drug test welfare recipients (which never ceases to be overturned as unconstitutional, or a failed conservative policy prior to judges tossing it out as a violation of the Fourth Amendment), and his vote for a ban on abortion at 20 weeks. In October of 2017, Bob Gannon was found dead in his pickup truck, apparently of natural causes, at the age of 58.

On this date in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled former Alaska State Senator Pete Kelly, who originally served for six years in the Alaska state legislature from 1994-2000 before taking twelve years off and returning to office in 2012. In that first tenure, Kelly’s most noteworthy legislative victory was to pass legislation to allow for wolves to be hunted by helicopter. Because nothing is more charming than trying to side-step federal wildlife protections for douchebag hunters with their own personal choppers looking to trophy hunt. During Pete Kelly’s second term in office, though, he started to turn more heads, and not just because he advanced to be the President of the Alaska State Senate. Back in 2014, Alaska’s state legislators were debating an increase in cases of fetal alcohol syndrome being documented in newborns around the state, when Kelly threw his two cents in during the discussion on providing better access to birth control around the state, and instead submitted legislation that would use state funding to place pregnancy tests in vending machines in bars around the state. His colleagues were baffled. Anyway, Kelly had other embarrassing things that weren’t his own mouth to also help make him face a tougher road to re-election… like the fact that his 30-year-old son was arrested for sexually assaulting a 13-year old, as well as exposing his genitals and masturbating in public to another child under 16. That earned the younger Kelly. because of course he did) a six year prison sentence. Meanwhile, Pete Kelly and the ministry he founded, Humble Raven Ministries, would rather protect families from the dread threat of same sex couples getting married… If that wasn’t enough to sink his campaign, during his debate against his opponent, Democrat Scott Kawasaki, Kelly also denied the science proving the threat of Climate Change, which in Alaska, where they literally are watching the glaciers melt, was enough to topple Pete Kelly fom office, as he lost by 179 votes. We hope that he does not get a third chance at reaching office.