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

[Mister Mets]

You are correct. Less than 1 in 5 Republicans identifies as non-white.

That's less impressive when you consider that over 7 out of 10 voters identify as white.

She's bought out by big corporations who want to puppet her.

As Sinema resists the budget bill, she is set to raise money from business groups that oppose it.

The idea that politicians are motivated by money is an easy answer, but I'm not sure it works in this case.

If it were about the money, wouldn't she be able to fundraise from progressive groups just as easily?

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from New York's 2nd Congressional District, Peter King, a repeated fear-monger of practitioners of Islam in America, who has insisted that amongst American Muslims there is a “looming threat”, in a manner that makes the late Sen. Joe McCarthy give a thumbs up from beyond the grave. In 2016, Rep. King called for 24/7 surveillance of all mosques in the United States, which would be a simultaneous violation of both the 1st and 4th Amendments. King is also one of the biggest defenders of the CIA torturing detainees at Guantanamo Bay Prison, and has tried defending it by lying and saying the intel that led to the United States locating and killing Osama bin Laden was acquired by waterboarding prisoners (it wasn’t). Rep. King contradicted the CIA’s torture report by saying, “no one was severely hurt” by the practices because no one was cut or stabbed. But the fact that Peter King is willing to fabricate stories to push his agenda should come as little surprise, when you consider he literally dismissed CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien for correcting him in an interview by yelling at her, “I DON’T CARE WHAT FACT-CHECK SAYS.” This also came into play in our second look at Congressman King, who blamed the death of Eric Garner not on police, but on Garner for being obese. He also once gave an interview where he referred to the Japanese as the racial slur "Japs", and refused to apologize for doing so. King was re-elected to a fourteenth term in Congress in 2018, squeaking by with only 52% of the vote. Since the Trump administration began, he's tackling the issues that really matter to Americans like... ah, we're just kidding... he dedicatED most of his energy towards attacking members of the intelligence community and the press for investigating and reporting on Donald Trump's presidential campaign colluding with Russia to win the presidency in the 2016 election. Back in December of 2016, he actually was suggesting that it was just "rogue" CIA officers claiming the Russians hacked the election. Which in hindsight, makes him look really stupid since every single agency in our intelligence community agree the Russians were influencing our election. They have the Trump campaign on tape talking about it in intercepts while they did it, there's been numerous confirmed meetings between Trump campaign officials and Russians, and of course now after the fact, there are people in the Russian government literally bragged about what they did on Russian television. So, hey, maybe we should get on preventing the Russians from interfering in future elections, like immediately, right? Maybe Peter King would like to do something about that? Well, apparently as long as he and members of his party win, he could give a s***, as he's been using hearings to discuss the matter to instead complain that information is reaching the media via "leaks". He has continued carrying water for Trump and his cronies at every opportunity to cast doubt on the investigators, including within the past week or so when he was justifying Donald Trump releasing all the information about the FBI’s investigation of Carter Page using a FISA warrant. This is a man who is supposedly the GOP's top guy on national security, incidentally. We’ll note that this is also the same man who tried hand-waving away outrage over the Trump administration’s family separation policy on immigration in June 2018, unfazed about children being locked in cages by ICE or the potential fallout from it, being quoted as saying, “Americans care more about Americans.” Again, if you aren’t American enough to Peter King, you’re not even really a human being. Now, Peter King has spent the past two decades portraying himself as the ultimate patriot and that anyone who disagrees with his extreme views on terrorism are just not committed to loving America as much as he does. That pattern held all the way into May 2018, where as the owner of the New York Jets announced he would not punish players who took a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence in our country, Peter King lost his goddamned mind, and compared players kneeling during the anthem to “giving Nazi salutes” in a response on Twitter that also declared it was “time to say goodbye to the Jets”. When Rep. King was criticized from many angles for his comments, he, of course, doubled down on them. Peter King was continuing to wilt as resistance towards his re-election in 2020 grew, as he just caved to a lawsuit after he was banning his own constituents from contacting him on Facebook. Now, for years, Peter King outperformed the Cook Partisan Voting Index lean for his district, which supposedly has a +3 Republican lean, and now, in 2020, Peter King has finally accepted no amount of playing to the xenophobic crowd would keep him afloat. He announced he would retire at the end of this term of Congress on November 12th, 2019 and left office only days before the Capitol Attack, oddly silent as a national security expert that Congress was about to be attacked by Trump supporters. As Peter King has shuffled off into retirement, we will set aside his profile at this time, however, to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1029-50, since this was established in July 2014.


Winnie Heartstrong

Welcome to what is the 1029th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Winnie Heartstrong, a failed 2018 candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates who somehow found herself halfway across the country to be a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.

Heartstrong, was not JUST an adherent of the Qanon conspiracy theory sharing hashtags, but she went on a Qanon podcast in July of 2020, and when asked if she followed the conspiracy theory she answered by calling QAnon “very clever” and a “perfect way to deal with a very ... diffusive evil.” She went on to say that “If there's really a Q movement behind me, and I welcome that. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I salute you, I thank you, and I pray for your protection.” So… that’s pretty far into the cult mentality.

But no, that wasn’t all, Heartstrong decided to also promote her own brand new stupid conspiracy theory, that the murder of George Floyd was “faked”. Oh eah, you might want to sit down for this next bit. In her own warped reality, the fabricated video of Floyd being choked to death by Derek Chauvin was staged, and there is no such person as George Floyd… it’s a character made up and portrayed by former NBA player Stephen Jesse Jackson. But that’s not all… she added that the face is neither that of George Floyd nor Stephen Jesse Jackson, but a “deepfake” face of an unknown other individual. Heartstrong also wanted to know why nothing was ever heard from Floyd’s mother, who he called out for as he died (Mrs. Floyd died herself in 2018), and had nothing to say about the fact that his death was filmed by several people, and that a body of a George Floyd definitely arrived at the morgue. But she capped off her insensitive, ignorant-ass conspiracy theory by declaring that she had “taken her first breath in the same hospital George Floyd took his last breath” (Floyd took his last breath on the street until he was suffocated, not in a hospital).

This… was most of her campaign. This ugly, stupid trolling of a man’s death at the hands of a racist cop with a track record of brutality. We really don’t feel it’s necessary to discuss any of her other ludicrous political stances like supporting Personhood.

Winnie Heartstrong still got 38% of the vote in the Republican primary for this seat, and it bears watching if at some point the Missouri GOP backs her to get her into a debate with Congresswoman Cori Bush just to be petty ass trolls, or if she carpetbags off somewhere else to bay at the moon.

[skyvolt2000]

My point here is the neither party has a reliable history on race so why vote with that as a consideration.

Because one group seems to act like they have issues with POC doing ANYTHING that they don't approve of.

It's NOT by accident some of the toxic behavior that we saw towards Ms Marvel and 95% of Marvel Comics came from those of a certain party.

Same with the review bombing of Cap Marvel, Black Panther and Shang Chi.

Along with the attacks on John Boyega over Star Wars.


Trump wanted to be the Law & Order President-HOW did that work out???

Republicans make it WORST by fanning the flames of racism.

Lets take Defund Police. Instead of using that term to rile up the tiki torches-why could a Republican do this?

Lets look at STATS....
Who do cops shot more Blacks or Whites? WHITES. So wouldn't COMMON sense say lets make sure those incidents were done by the book and justified?
I mean black folks are asking for accountability. Why is that an issue for Republicans?
Even if you don't want to cut funding-how can the money that is there get used better and properly?

[Mister Mets]

Oh please. Everyone knows that Cuban immigrants and their offspring in Florida tend to vote Republican. But Florida Latinos from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, etc. tend to vote Democratic.

It's worth noting Obama won Cuban-Americans in Florida.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/...-paid-n1246226

Trump did also make gains among other Latino subgroups in 2020.

[PwrdOn]

It's worth noting Obama won Cuban-Americans in Florida.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/...-paid-n1246226

Trump did also make gains among other Latino subgroups in 2020.

The sad thing is that Republicans could easily sweep up a ton of minority voters if they would just stop openly antagonizing them, since most tend to be more socially conservative than whites, and many don't really have much faith or trust in the Democratic party anyway because it hasn't delivered them anything of consequence on the issues that they care about. The problem is that if they were to do this, they would completely alienate their base of white voters, since hostility toward minorities and anyone else that doesn't fit a narrow conception of America is the entire appeal of the GOP to that crowd. The party actually has to be careful that it doesn't pick up TOO many Latino voters lest it alienate the Bubba demographic by turning into the brown people party.

[Xheight]

I love how Republicans always act like they've uncovered some long buried secret when they point out that the Democrats were the party of Jim Crow, but that's pretty much common knowledge to anyone with a passing familiarity with US history. And even if you ignore the southern strategy entirely, the pre-Nixon Republican party was a bunch of fancy pants Ivy League types, whose policies largely favored entrenched business interests and wouldn't be very appealing to most minorities, or anyone these days really.

I love how when critique gets too close to home one gets labeled as being a hack for the other team, as if an argument only has two sides. Yes, I echo some Republican talking points here and there but that's as much a function of their being true and giving people a fuller picture of the rotten state of affairs that is governance is in our mega-state and it's co-equals in depredation. As to Republicans representing Rockefellers historically that's true right up to the Romney insurgency and McCain largess that is uncomfortable with populism shifting the party. Did you just realize that pwrd? Lincoln Project much.
Meanwhile -

A group tied to prominent Democratic strategists is posing as a conservative outfit to try to drive a wedge between the Republican candidate for Virginia governor and his core voters, Axios has learned.
What's happening: During the past week, Virginians have been targeted with ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google and Snapchat questioning Youngkin's commitment to the Second Amendment.
They're the work of a new political group called Accountability Virginia PAC. Its website says nothing about the individuals or organizations behind it.
"While the NRA backs Donald Trump, they REFUSED to endorse Glenn Youngkin. We can't trust Glenn Youngkin on guns," one of the ads says.

https://www.axios.com/democrats-youn...bdc570332.html

[Xheight]

It's worth noting Obama won Cuban-Americans in Florida.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/...-paid-n1246226

Trump did also make gains among other Latino subgroups in 2020.

Having to do with the much cited color blind optimism that the candidacy inspired.

[Xheight]

Because one group seems to act like they have issues with POC doing ANYTHING that they don't approve of.

It's NOT by accident some of the toxic behavior that we saw towards Ms Marvel and 95% of Marvel Comics came from those of a certain party.

Same with the review bombing of Cap Marvel, Black Panther and Shang Chi.

Along with the attacks on John Boyega over Star Wars.

?

Funny I don't recall the GOP funding Anti CaptMarvel surges or its PACs .

[PwrdOn]

I love how when critique gets too close to home one gets labeled as being a hack for the other team, as if an argument only has two sides. Yes, I echo some Republican talking points here and there but that's as much a function of their being true and giving people a fuller picture of the rotten state of affairs that is governance is in our mega-state and it's co-equals in depredation. As to Republicans representing Rockefellers historically that's true right up to the Romney insurgency and McCain largess that is uncomfortable with populism shifting the party. Did you just realize that pwrd? Lincoln Project much.
Meanwhile - https://www.axios.com/democrats-youn...bdc570332.html

You've kind of leaned too hard into defending the GOP and bashing the Democrats to try and pretend to be a neutral observer now, might as well just own it. And yeah, we've all heard of the Lincoln Project, it's just that nobody cares what they think, or else we'd be talking about Jeb Bush as a viable candidate for 2024.

And the rot in this country is not just in our government, its in our people and the whole of our society. This idea that there is a corrupt cabal of politicians creating all of the problems while the good and noble citizenry simply yearn to live free makes for a nice fantasy novel, but it's not the reality that we live in. Rotten officials get in office only because rotten voters put them there, it's not everyone and maybe not even a majority, but it's a significant percentage.

[4saken1]

"neither party has a reliable history on race"

is what is called a False Equivalence Fallacy. Today's Democratic Party, while woefully inadequate in terms of addressing the issues of minorities in this country, come nowhere near the willful disregard for and blatant subjugation of minorities in this country. Most liberals realize how badly we do on race relations in this country, even in blue states, and want to address the problems we have. Republicans, however, seem to prefer to pretend that racism no longer exists because slightly more than 50% of the country voted for a black President.

[Xheight]

Exactly that. Or, to quote Lyndon Johnson: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

Like he knew anything except how to bully people politically. There is reason why Robert Caro wrote about him much the way he wrote about RMoses. This is the guy that thought we could win Vietnam.

[4saken1]

That's less impressive when you consider that over 7 out of 10 voters identify as white.

Non-Latino whites is more like 6 in 10.

[Tami]

That's less impressive when you consider that over 7 out of 10 voters identify as white.

The idea that politicians are motivated by money is an easy answer, but I'm not sure it works in this case.

If it were about the money, wouldn't she be able to fundraise from progressive groups just as easily?

For one thing, Sinema no longer sees herself as a progressive, and progressives no longer see her as a Democrat.

Aside from that, there is the eternal political question. If a politician was given the option of choosing the same amount of money from one of two sources, one source being grassroots and political support groups, the other being Big Business and the Wealthy, why would this politician choose the latter over the former?

What makes any politican go after the Big Donors instead trying to get it from the small donors?

I'd guess the answer is that, Big Donors make it easy.

You have to work hard to raise enough money from small donors and get the support of other groups.

With big business and the wealthy, you just have to dress up nice, go to a fancy swag party, make friends and make promises. Once, maybe twice, and you have all the money you need.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Like he knew anything except how to bully people politically. There is reason why Robert Caro wrote about him much the way he wrote about RMoses. This is the guy that thought we could win Vietnam.

Like Qpublicans thought we could win in Afghanistan?

[Mister Mets]

Non-Latino whites is more like 6 in 10.

Do you have any data for this?

An extensive survey by the Democratic polling firm Catalist suggests that 72% of voters are white, although I'm not sure how they covered the difference between White Hispanics.

https://catalist.us/wh-national/#pp-...d2225-anchor-8

Latinos are ten percent of voters in 2020, an increase from previous elections.

Typically surveys leave it up to an individual to describe their race, so the twenty percent of Hispanic Americans who primarily identify as white are counted as Latino/ Hispanic voters.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...o-is-hispanic/

I love how when critique gets too close to home one gets labeled as being a hack for the other team, as if an argument only has two sides. Yes, I echo some Republican talking points here and there but that's as much a function of their being true and giving people a fuller picture of the rotten state of affairs that is governance is in our mega-state and it's co-equals in depredation. As to Republicans representing Rockefellers historically that's true right up to the Romney insurgency and McCain largess that is uncomfortable with populism shifting the party. Did you just realize that pwrd? Lincoln Project much.
Meanwhile - https://www.axios.com/democrats-youn...bdc570332.html

The "talking points" argument is a bit silly since it doesn't address the substance of the argument. It pretends that because someone people disagree with said something, it must be tainted. Obvious and accurate criticisms become talking points because a lot of people on the other side will point something obvious and accurate.

Democrats will have no problem whatsoever mentioning that Donald Trump was recorded bragging about grabbing women by the pussy. It would be silly to dismiss it as a talking point, because it's true and showcases some reprehensible behavior, which is why Trump's detractors will point it out. The fact that they do so doesn't mean they're wrong.

For one thing, Sinema no longer sees herself as a progressive, and progressives no longer see her as a Democrat.

Aside from that, there is the eternal political question. If a politician was given the option of choosing the same amount of money from one of two sources, one source being grassroots and political support groups, the other being Big Business and the Wealthy, why would this politician choose the latter over the former?

What makes any politican go after the Big Donors instead trying to get it from the small donors?

I'd guess the answer is that, Big Donors make it easy.

You have to work hard to raise enough money from small donors and get the support of other groups.

With big business and the wealthy, you just have to dress up nice, go to a fancy swag party, make friends and make promises. Once, maybe twice, and you have all the money you need.

John Harrison broke records as a candidate in South Carolina.

https://apnews.com/article/senate-el...c73f4fd0a8b79c

Sara Gideon raised a total of $74,000,000.

https://www.opensecrets.org/races/su...e=2020&id=MES2

People progressives like seem to do okay in campaign spending.

Incidentally, Sinema won with $22,197,141 in 2018.

https://www.opensecrets.org/races/su...e=2018&id=AZS2