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

[worstblogever]

Apparently, Caputo's mental state was literally caused by brain cancer.

Michael Caputo receives 'metastatic head and neck cancer' diagnosis


And in similar news: Right wing blogger and frequent FoxNews guest Dan Bongino, who likes to state that "liberalism is a cancer" is battling throat cancer.

I'm sure he blames liberals for "cramming things down his throat" that caused said cancer.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, Steve King, the sitting U.S. House Representative from Iowa's 4th Congressional District, a guy who is perhaps the most unapologetically racist member of the GOP (and that's saying something). Steve King is a man who seems hell bent on being the most venomous xenophobe in the entire Republican Party, showing his contempt for illegal immigrants by often comparing them to animals (considering he’s also proudly defended dog-fighting, it’s not surprising to see him hold as much concern for these human beings as he does animals), and making ludicrous, paranoid claims about how much of a threat they are to the general safety of the average American citizen. He literally has described the process of immigration in the United States as “a slow motion terrorist attack”. Years before Donald Trump ever wanted to build a border wall, Steve King was pitching a giant electrified fence that would keep out illegal immigrants because "it works on cattle". King’s also a huge war hawk, and has defended any action by the United States in the Middle East for the past 15 years, not even taking issue with the atrocities committed in the Abu Ghraib prison by American troops. He’s equally insane on the home front, having once argued that girls are frequently kidnapped out of playgrounds, raped, then taken over state lines to get an abortion, and returned back to the park before anybody knows they’re missing. (Really. I mean, those would be some really oblivious parents, to have the kid missing long enough for a predator to pull all that off before they notice.) In 2015, Steve King chastised President Obama for "apologizing for slavery" because he feels "there's nothing to apologize about". He has complained about undocumented immigrants "bringing in Ebola and beheadings", and defended Donald Trump's comments about Mexican rapists, saying that "Central Americans were doing the raping", in addition. Steve King gave everyone a waft of bigotry strong enough that is was like a blast of smelling salts on the first day of the 2016 Republican National Convention when in the midst of participating in a panel on MSNBC moderated by Chris Hayes, Rep. King gave his thoughts that no "non-white sub-groups" had ever contributed to civilization. The panel erupted in protest at King's ignorant, near-white-supremacist statement, and Hayes had to dump to commercial to avoid it devolving even further than that. Also in 2016, Rep. King compared Syrian refugees to “poisoned grapes”, ranted about the Obama administration’s LGBTQ protections showed they wouldn’t "be satisfied until all students are “transgendered [sic] vegans”, that the country was going "downhill" because women had contraceptive rights, argued it was racist and sexist for people to put Harriet Tubman instead of President Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill, responded to Colin Kaepernick's protests against racial inequality at NFL games by kneeling during the national anthem by accusing him of being in league with ISIS, and while the featured guest of anti-immigrant hate group FAIR, talked about how "no one would have been shot" if everyone in the Orlando Pulse nightclub had a gun (they had an armed off-duty police officer on the premises) and that the GOP shouldn't try and win over Hispanic voters because "we are all God's children". Steve King's own office at the Capitol now proudly has the Confederate flag on display on his desk, even though the last time anybody checked, Iowa wasn't in the Confederacy in the Civil War.

[worstblogever]

Rep. King has become even more of an unflinching, white nationalist bigot over the past few years, which is something we didn’t think was possible:

• March 12th, 2017: Rep. King already has a pretty well-established rapport with European white nationalists like Marine LePen of France and Geert Wilders of Belgium, and over this weekend, on his Twitter account, he posted an Islamophobic cartoon, then quoted Wilders and said he was right about refugees because “We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies”. After wide criticism in the following days, Steve King not only refused to apologize, but doubled down, saying, “I meant exactly what I said” and that he wanted the United States to be “so homogenous”.
• September 5th, 2017: King is practically gleeful upon hearing the news that Donald Trump had announced he was going to allow the delayed deportation of Dreamers, or DACA, to expire, and went on Breitbart News to mockingly say that the action would effectively “create a Peace Corps-like force” that would allow deported Dreamers to teach their home countries “how a civilized people interact with each other.”
• September 14th, 2017: Rep. King, outraged that Donald Trump was rumored to have caved and cut a deal with the Democratic leadership in Congress, raged in impotent fury about it to Fox News’ Todd Starnes on his radio programming, making the insane demand that any deal should feature revoking birthright citizenship as it is granted in the 16th Amendment of the Constitution.
• December 1st, 2017: After a jury finds the killer of Katie Steinle not guilty of murder, Rep. King reacts by accusing several of his black and Latino House colleagues of having “deified criminal illegal aliens” and fostered “an anti-white, anti-Western civilization culture.” Because that’s a healthy response.
• July 17th, 2018: Rep. King is one of many Republican Congressmen who during a Judiciary Committee hearing, pushes the false narrative that conservatives are “censored” by social media engines online, citing his disappointment at how many articles from the garbage website Gateway Pundit he can find online.
• September 12th, 2018: Steve King quotes White Supremacist Lana Lokteff in a Twitter post where he accuses “Leftists” of being the “real Nazis”.
• September 23rd, 2018: Only hours before reports emerge of MORE accusers coming forward to report sexual assaults they had committed against them by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Steve King decides to join the chorus of Republicans defending him by saying, the charges amounted to “character assassination” and normalized sexual assault by saying “If that’s the new standard, no man will ever qualify for the Supreme Court again”.
• January 11th, 2019: Rep. King wonders out loud, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
  
• March 21st, 2019: King disaparages survivors of Hurricane Katrina, saying, “I saw that from the air and from the ground and went back and did what we could to help those folks down there. But here’s what FEMA tells me: ‘We go to a place like New Orleans and everybody’s looking around saying, who’s gonna help me, who’s gonna help me?’ They’re just always gratified when they come and see Iowans take care of each other, so that’s a point of pride that spreads across the country.”
• August 14th, 2019: Steve King, unprompted, starts discussing what he feels are the merits of rape and incest:
  
  

  "What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled those people out that were products of rape and incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that? Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages taken place and whatever happened to culture after society? I know I can't certify that I'm not a part of a product of that."

• August 27th, 2019: King laughs when talking about how he heard the Chinese government forces detained Muslims to break the tenets of their religion and feed them only pork.

Now, here’s the best news we’ve had to report in some time… Steve King is going to be G-O-N-E from Washington, D.C. as of January. He lost in the Republican Primary for his seat, and can head back home and go back to gathering wood for cross burnings. We normally say “Good Riddance” when we report on Republicans we’ve profiled leaving office, but this man is so outright evil that we would like to make an exception to say, “Good Riddance, F*** Off, Don’t Stop F***ing Off Until You Arrive at the Bottom of the Ocean.”

We don’t feel like that’s an overstatement, at all.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Does anyone think he'll follow through if re elected? I think he'll act like it's a bill from one of his contractors and pay out nothing.

DING DING! That's been Trump's modus operandi for the longest time, promise the world, then deliver jack ****. Just look at Trump University as a prime example. Once he has those votes in hand, he'll drop that Platinum Plan or whatever the **** he calls it like a live grenade and basically say "Psych!" Anyone who believes this nonsense deserves to get fleeced.

[worstblogever]

DING DING! That's been Trump's modus operandi for the longest time, promise the world, then deliver jack ****. Just look at Trump University as a prime example. Once he has those votes in hand, he'll drop that Platinum Plan or whatever the **** he calls it like a live grenade and basically say "Psych!" Anyone who believes this nonsense deserves to get fleeced.

Note: Mexico didn't pay for the wall (which isn't built) and Hillary hasn't been locked up. The opioid crisis has not been solved. They did not repeal and replace Obamacare.

I could go on, but Trump not only didn't fulfill any of his 2016 promises, no matter how you felt about them... but he has only created far more, and far worse problems for future presidents to deal with.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Why would trump prosecute klansmen? They aren't the white supremacists that have been causing domestic terrorism during his presidency. And he supports Rittenhouse murdering protesters. I hope the black community realizes he's just spouting more empty promises.

[Mister Mets]

Part of me hopes a place like Minneapolis does abolish the police force, just to see the train wreck we get out of it.

Once the inevitable emergency occurs, the Minnesotans can call on the city council members who voted the police out to save the day. That should be fun.

They are walking this back.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/u...nd-police.html

How a Pledge to Dismantle the Minneapolis Police Collapsed

When a majority of City Council members promised to “end policing as we know it” after George Floyd’s killing, they became a case study in how idealistic calls for structural change can falter.

Over three months ago, a majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged to defund the city’s police department, making a powerful statement that reverberated across the country. It shook up Capitol Hill and the presidential race, shocked residents, delighted activists and changed the trajectory of efforts to overhaul the police during a crucial window of tumult and political opportunity.

Now some council members would like a do-over.

Councilor Andrew Johnson, one of the nine members who supported the pledge in June, said in an interview that he meant the words “in spirit,” not by the letter. Another councilor, Phillipe Cunningham, said that the language in the pledge was “up for interpretation” and that even among council members soon after the promise was made, “it was very clear that most of us had interpreted that language differently.” Lisa Bender, the council president, paused for 16 seconds when asked if the council’s statement had led to uncertainty at a pivotal moment for the city.

“I think our pledge created confusion in the community and in our wards,” she said.

The regrets formalize a retreat that has quietly played out in Minneapolis in the months since George Floyd was killed by the police and the ensuing national uproar over the treatment of Black Americans by law enforcement and the country at large. After a summer that challenged society’s commitment to racial equality and raised the prospect of sweeping political change, a cool autumn reality is settling in.

National polls show decreasing support for Black Lives Matter since a sea change of good will in June. In Minneapolis, the most far-reaching policy efforts meant to address police violence have all but collapsed.

In interviews this month, about two dozen elected officials, protesters and community leaders described how the City Council members’ pledge to “end policing as we know it” — a mantra to meet the city’s pain — became a case study in how quickly political winds can shift, and what happens when idealistic efforts at structural change meet the legislative process and public opposition.

The pledge is now no closer to becoming policy, with fewer vocal champions than ever. It has been rejected by the city’s mayor, a plurality of residents in recent public opinion polls, and an increasing number of community groups. Taking its place have been the types of incremental reforms that the city’s progressive politicians had denounced.

In the meantime, “defunding the police” has become a talking point for state and national Republicans looking to paint liberals as anti-law-enforcement. It has been a thorn in the side of Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential nominee, even though he rejects the idea. And it has ignited a power struggle in Minneapolis that has, in some cases, pitted moderate against progressive, young against old, and white against Black.

Linea Palmisano, a relatively moderate City Council member who was one of three councilors who did not take the pledge, castigated her colleagues: They “have gotten used to these kinds of progressive purity tests,” she said.

In a sign of the intensity of the debate, multiple people on both sides who spoke to The New York Times described their opponents as having “blood on their hands.”

“What kind of violence are we going to experience over the next year?” said Miski Noor, an organizer with Black Visions Collective, a leading activist group in the city seeking to defund and abolish the police department. “When these decisions are made on a political level, they have human consequences.”

Though some activists said the pledge was to be taken literally — a commitment to working toward complete police abolition — elected officials said there was widespread disagreement about its meaning. Some believed that “defund the police” meant redirecting some money in the police budget to social programs. Others thought it was a vague endorsement of a police-free future.

“I think the initial announcement created a certain level of confusion from residents at a time when the city really needed that stability,” said Mayor Jacob Frey, who declined to support the pledge. “I also think that the declaration itself meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people — and that included a healthy share of activists that were anticipating abolition.”

In lieu of larger policing changes, Minneapolis has moved to ban chokeholds, put in place new de-escalation requirements, and changed reporting measures for the use of force since Mr. Floyd’s killing.

Hanging over the debate was a surge in gun violence in Minneapolis this summer, with some community groups in Black neighborhoods worried that urgent needs for change had been crowded out by the big-picture focus on police funding and oversight.

Cathy Spann, a community activist who works in North Minneapolis, which is home to many of the city’s Black residents, said those paying the price for the city’s political paralysis were the exact communities that leaders had pledged to help. She is in favor of more police officers.

“They didn’t engage Black and brown people,” Ms. Spann said, referring to the City Council members. “And something about that does not sit right with me. Something about saying to the community, ‘We need to make change together,’ but instead you leave this community and me unsafe.”

[SuperiorIronman]

The administration with such a hard on against Muslims and especially those of Mexican decent is not the administration to say they're supporting the black community when BLM and frankly the last 3 years and some change have happened. Especially this close to an election where only plans are in play and no actual movement on this.

[JCAll]

Why would trump prosecute klansmen? They aren't the white supremacists that have been causing domestic terrorism during his presidency. And he supports Rittenhouse murdering protesters. I hope the black community realizes he's just spouting more empty promises.

He's not, he just wants to twist the public discourse to tie Antifa with the Klan. This coming only days after the FBI Director had to explain to Congress that Antifa is not in fact an organization. Maybe Trump's being pissy about his messing up the narrative the White Houise wants pushed, so he'll push even harder.

[Iron Maiden]

Note: Mexico didn't pay for the wall (which isn't built) and Hillary hasn't been locked up. The opioid crisis has not been solved. They did not repeal and replace Obamacare.

I could go on, but Trump not only didn't fulfill any of his 2016 promises, no matter how you felt about them... but he has only created far more, and far worse problems for future presidents to deal with.

Too many people haven't caught on yet that Trump is just a modern day snake oil salesman. "Buy my miracle elixir! It cures baldness! Removes warts! Kills fleas on your dog!"

[Iron Maiden]

Agreed 100% with Maher here.

The “both sides are just as bad” and the “undecided” group are really a problem. I heard that nonsense a lot in 2016 and it’s pretty annoying because the stakes here are clear and Maher outlined it perfectly. That ridiculous both sides nonsense has gotten the country into a mess that’s going to have very,very far reaching consequences. Even today, I’m still debating some ex-Bernie supporters to vote Biden because of the stakes and thankfully a lot of them have come round to see reason.

What Republicans are doing is re-shaping the US for possibly generations and are determined to roll back a lot of progress that’s been made socially and economically. No matter what anyone says, they’re focused on this and because they have the power, nothing anyone says will stop them. It’s clear as day and that’s why anyone with a working brain should get out their vote for Biden. It’s no longer a case of just voting for the President, this is literally a vote for the future of the country. Trump supporters know this and that’s why the cruelty, scandal and general unseriousness of the President doesn’t bother them, they’re voting for what he represents.

Yeah, I think 30 missed the point entirely. This year, even more so than 2016 not voting for the Democratic ticket will have even more serious consequences now that we've seen how the GOP has completely morphed into the Trump party. Trump is getting more autocratic every day. People forget things like how he took money from projects that were legally funded by Congress and moved the money into "building the wall" or some other Trump promise. He circumvented constitutional law and the GOP was fine with that. He could be impeached on a number of things but they won't go down that path with the current Senate. the Democrats have no arrows left in their quiver no matter what Pelosi says.

[Tami]

If I was in Congress and in a positions to do so, if Trumo get's his nominee, and if the Democrats pull out a Trifecta of taking control of the House, Senate, and the WH, I woudl push to have the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and/or the House Judiciary Committee revist Brett Kavenaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court.

If they investigate the way it shoudl have been investigated, and if tjhey find that there is sufficent cause to prove that he committed acts that woudl have disqualified him, then they can potentially impeach him.

if so, then Biden can nominate someone to replace him and the Court goes back to 5-4.

[worstblogever]

If I was in Congress and in a positions to do so, if Trumo get's his nominee, and if the Democrats pull out a Trifecta of taking control of the House, Senate, and the WH, I woudl push to have the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and/or the House Judiciary Committee revist Brett Kavenaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court.

If they investigate the way it shoudl have been investigated, and if tjhey find that there is sufficent cause to prove that he committed acts that woudl have disqualified him, then they can potentially impeach him.

if so, then Biden can nominate someone to replace him and the Court goes back to 5-4.

They would need about a dozen or so Republicans vote to go along with it. And at this point, there could be a video of a drunken Kavanaugh raping a woman and they'd stand by him.

[Tami]

They would need about a dozen or so Republicans vote to go along with it. And at this point, there could be a video of a drunken Kavanaugh raping a woman and they'd stand by him.

Perhaps, but it still might be worth it. Worth giving it a try.

[Tami]

Why the Media and Democrats Should Reject the Christian Right’s Pearl-Clutching and Address Problematic Religious Views

To riff on the work of retired UC Berkeley cognitive scientist George Lakoff, who documented the ways in which Americans understand politics through family-related metaphors, if the United States is a dysfunctional family, then much of the media has taken on the role of the peacemaker.

In a dysfunctional family, the peacemaker “may become anger-phobic and attempt to smooth out differences before a healthy interchange can take place,” according to couples’ counselors Linda and Charlie Bloom. The flurry of discussion around Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the apparent frontrunner to be named Trump’s pick to fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat, neatly illustrates the dynamic in which the right gaslights the American public, and the media normalizes and perpetuates the gaslighting.

In the case of Barrett, context matters. Trump has been stacking the federal judiciary specifically with right-wing Catholics and members of the Federalist Society, which even The New York Times describes as “a legal group with views once considered on the ‘fringe.’” Barrett is a Catholic, a Federalist Society member, and a member of the high-control “covenant community” known as People of Praise, a Christian group with about 90% Catholic membership that emerged from the Catholic “charismatic renewal” that began in 1967.

People of Praise assigns its members spiritual leaders; men are assigned “heads” and women are assigned “woman leaders” (formerly “handmaids”). In the case of a married woman, this leader is automatically her husband. Meanwhile, Barrett’s far-right bona fides are not in question. She is an acolyte of the late arch-conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but influential right-wingers are already trying to make serious discussion of her politics off limits by crying loudly with faux outrage over legitimate public scrutiny of her religious commitments: