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

[worstblogever]

I think as long as the internet exists there will always be some conjecture as to who and what caused the explosion.

I think I'm most surprised here is that I don't think WBE has actually covered this guy before. I checked his tumblr archive but nothing was coming up. Well, time to shoot him up the list.

The queue goes on for a year in advance, and I did have him on the list coming before election day 2024. I had mostly been looking at his relationship with the anti-gay Alliance for Defending Freedom as a former spokesman, not just lawyer for the group, and wasn't aware he was as intimately involved in Trump's coup attempt as he was.

Seeing these ***holes call a press conference to celebrate their new shiny MAGA trinket only to scream at reporters for daring to ask salient questions tells you exactly what you need to know...

The GOP belong to Donald Trump, and will scream down everyone that notes they tried to, and still want to overturn American democracy.



That's "HIDE YO' BISCUITS" Virginia Foxx, a very sensible family values Republican yelling "Shut Up" next to Lauren Boebert, who gives handjobs at plays for children, Steve "David Duke without the Baggage" Scalise booing to the left. I don't know who shouted, "GO AWAY!" yet, but good lord, this truly is a vile bunch of fascists.

[babyblob]

Well, I guess they finally found someone who could get the job. That was a silly display of idiocy if ever I saw one. Do they even know what sort of image they're projecting with that behavior?

Do they even know what kind of image they are projecting with their choice?

Do they even care? It is not like this hurt them with the cult. They wont lose one vote because of this nonsense. And they voted in a hardcore Trumper and election denier, and Anti LTGBQ+ guy. So it is a major win for them. The cult is loving it.

[Tami]

Do they even care? It is not like this hurt them with the cult. They wont lose one vote because of this nonsense. And they voted in a hardcore Trumper and election denier, and Anti LTGBQ+ guy. So it is a major win for them. The cult is loving it.

Well, let's just see how long he lasts.

[seismic-2]

Will the rule stay in place that just one person is enough to call for a vote to vacate the Speaker? That could happen as soon as Republicans fracture on passing another funding resolution to keep the Government open beyond November 14.

[thwhtGuardian]

Do they even care? It is not like this hurt them with the cult. They wont lose one vote because of this nonsense. And they voted in a hardcore Trumper and election denier, and Anti LTGBQ+ guy. So it is a major win for them. The cult is loving it.

That's what makes it so weird...why were people holding their votes on other nominees but not with this guy? He seems far more extreme than the others.

[Panfoot]

That's what makes it so weird...why were people holding their votes on other nominees but not with this guy? He seems far more extreme than the others.

I think it's partially the actual issue with Jordan wasn't his far right views, but the fact that he covered for pedophiles, it's just got to much press at this point that they don't want that specific controversy, especially given the current Republican attempts to equate all LGBTQ+ people with pedophiles. Otherwise I think the """moderates""" were fine with this guy because while he's just as batshit as Jordan was, he's more "presentable".

[numberthirty]

If this is the primary evidence that Israel is using to say that their ordinance didn't hit the hospital, then it should be questioned. We can easily question the word of Hamas considering their motives (Again: Terrorists) but if the only counterargument is using faulty data to support it, it leaves us with a "He Said-She Said" situation until more evidence comes to light. If no more comes to light this is going to make things worse than evidence that Israel did it outright because in that situation there might have been some sort of recognition of how the attacks are affecting the civilians and maybe things would be stepped down a notch. Instead we will continue to have tribalistic responses claiming their side is right and the other wrong as Chad described, leading to more negative feelings all around.


...

Meanwhile, out in actual reality...

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/202...-blast-vpx.cnn

Video shows rocket fired from Gaza make sharp turn back before blast seen at hospital

Video from Al Jazeera appears to show a rocket fired from Gaza make a sudden turn moments before a deadly blast was seen at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza.

So...

There is more evidence.

Past that...

Once you've seen that evidence, the obvious question is "Are Folks Really Attempting To Sell The Idea That Al Jazeera Is In On Israel's Version Of Events?..."

[numberthirty]

Never mind that this is out there, and no one has even so much as attempted to debunk it.

[Jack Dracula]

Well, I guess they finally found someone who could get the job. That was a silly display of idiocy if ever I saw one. Do they even know what sort of image they're projecting with that behavior?

The thing is the Republican Party motivates its base by reinforcing the narrative that the US government is worthless and dysfunctional. This whole shitshow plays into that narrative.

[worstblogever]

The thing is the Republican Party motivates its base by reinforcing the narrative that the US government is worthless and dysfunctional. This whole shitshow plays into that narrative.

"We are the only solution to the problems we create in the first place. Elect us, and then watch us do nothing to prove how useless government is."


Yeah, that's an accurate summary all right.

[numberthirty]

On other thing about assessment/evidence...



That is a "Military..." analyst talking there. While I'm not saying that the Times piece is bunk? That guy is laying out a rather reasonable take on what is close to "Known..."

[Gryphon]

Jewish students at a university in New York were forced to hide in a library while anti-Israel protesters banged on the doors to intimidate them and harass them and attempted to get in to do who knows what.

https://twitter.com/jakejakeny/statu...89126502773240

Video of it here

https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1717297845592821933

[Deathstroke]

5 things to know about Mike Johnson, the GOP’s latest House speaker nominee

In other words, he's a complete shitshow masquerading as a human being. Not really a surprise.

[Deathstroke]

Got an alert that Rep. Mike Johnson got 220 votes to become the new Speaker of the House. Didn’t think the moderates in the GQP would get behind a known Trumper, but then, I guess party tribalism overrode common decency.

As it always does with the QOP.

[Mister Mets]

That's what makes it so weird...why were people holding their votes on other nominees but not with this guy? He seems far more extreme than the others.

There were different people holding their votes for different reasons.
Gaetz & his friends went after McCarthy for what seems to be animus. Gaetz thinks McCarthy should have pushed back against the reports of a lurid investigation that never led to him being prosecuted for sex-trafficking minors.
Scalise was next in line. He has health issues and rumors. McCarthy's friends were also upset at what they saw as disloyalty.
Jordan had supported from the right, but he's had a reputation as a bomb-thrower. There was also a sense that he screwed over McCarthy & Scalise which upset their friends. He's also outside of house leadership.
Emmer was seen as too moderate for the right-wingers, and it seems he didn't want to make policy concessions to Democrats in exchange for some of them voting present.

Mike Johnson (and I had to google the name) is a right-winger who hasn't made enemies among moderates. My impression is he's not the type to support primaries of swing district Republicans with different voting records and temperaments than Lauren Boevert. He was a member of house leadership. The far right likes him, and he has a reputation as a Trump loyalist, but he was able to do that without getting indicated or having a weird viral moment.

The next vote would have likely been part of a deal with Democrats, which the more right-wing elements want to avoid. And moderates just want the government to function. And the people who voted against Jim Jordan might not want to give more ammunition to primary challengers, while some of them would be against Jordan more because he's a raging ******* than anything else.

One unknown question is whether there's no skeletons because he didn't do things like cover up sex abuse at a college, get accused prominently of affairs with other members of Congress, or give a speech at the meeting of an organization by David Duke, or if it's just because he's so unknown that this stuff hasn't come out yet. He is a fourth term congressman. He's so obscure there are 39 references to Mike Johnson in this 73,000+ thread largely devoted to American politics in the period he's been a top House Republican. And some of those aren't about him, but posts in which people with the second most common male first name in America are mentioned along with people who have the second most common family name in America.

One final thing I'll note is that he does seem talented. He was elected to the US House after one term in the state house. He became chair of the Republican Study Committee (a right wing group) in his second term, and Vice Chair of the conference in his third term. That, and being on friendly terms with colleagues can be enough.