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

[Tami]

A man planted bombs hours after a Black Lives Matter protest in Pittsburgh. He was sentenced to probation.

No one could see the homemade bombs Matthew Michanowicz was carrying as he rode his bike in downtown Pittsburgh on May 31, 2020.

The city was a tinder box that afternoon. Six days earlier, a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, sparking protests around the country. The day before, one in Pittsburgh devolved into a riot. Dozens were arrested. City leaders imposed a curfew.

The next day, Michanowicz rode his bike to check out the aftermath. He wheeled himself to a plaza below a skyscraper in the heart of downtown, planted the backpack with the three bombs he’d made and left.

They never exploded, but prosecutors said they could have hurt or killed someone.

Police found the bombs the next morning, quickly homed in on Michanowicz as a suspect and arrested him, federal prosecutors said in court documents. He was indicted on charges of illegally possessing three destructive devices, to which he pleaded guilty in August. On Monday, facing a 10-year prison sentence, Michanowicz, 53, avoided more time behind bars, instead getting time served and three years’ probation. He has to serve the first six months under house arrest.

Michanowicz’s lawyer, Ken Haber, told The Post in a phone interview that the judge might have considered his client’s recent mental health issues and personal struggles. Within a year of placing the bombs, Michanowicz lost his job as a successful medical salesman who worked with neurosurgeons. His father and a good friend died. He got divorced.

“I think the judge was somewhat convinced that he had a breakdown,” Haber said, adding that his client has stressed that he never meant for the devices to go off.

[Xheight]

I think it's more that he wasn't sure if it's criticism (Biden should go further/ is being hypocritical) or praise (Biden is nuanced and measured) from the brief description of a policy decision some people will agree with and some people will disagree with.

Quite so - the OP not Tami quoted not the headline but a jarring fact in the story which called into question what was what. Part of the problem (Biden's image) is that he more and more replicates the Trumpian rhetoric for the Base, policy of Washington which plays into the GOP picture of him as both thereby alienating right to moderate voters as ineffectual leadership.

I think I see what the problem is. We're willing to criticize one of our own when we disagree with the policy. But criticizing someone on your own side doesn't compute for someone like Xheight.

For one there is little room for critique on the right because the Trump revolution has ended debate (the role and kinds of elites in the party) on the course of the GOP whereas the the Left/Liberal divide is still unresolved and plays out in the media all the time with its struggle with empirical and ideological ordering.

Two, the post is about Biden enviro policy so it should be about Biden not Trump. Trump only comes up as a point of comparison.

[Xheight]

A man planted bombs hours after a Black Lives Matter protest in Pittsburgh. He was sentenced to probation.

Which narrative are you hitching this to? https://youtu.be/bMU4icrOauE this meta narrative of 'Privilege fights back' is just confirmation bias. Rittenhouse redux.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

A man planted bombs hours after a Black Lives Matter protest in Pittsburgh. He was sentenced to probation.

I couldn't open the link from my computer at work to read the article, so, I'll pose the more prevalent question: was this shitstain white? Because that's the only reason he avoided prison time.

[JackDaw]

I couldn't open the link from my computer at work to read the article, so, I'll pose the more prevalent question: was this shitstain white? Because that's the only reason he avoided prison time.

Don’t think the article itself had a photo..but checked elsewhere. Yes, he’s white.

(The official line is that judge went easy because the guy had a mental breakdown.)

[AnakinFlair]

Mark Meadows is no longer cooperating with the Jan. 6 Committee.

Guess he's angling for a job at Trump's new scam... er, business venture.

[Tami]

Mark Meadows is no longer cooperating with the Jan. 6 Committee.

Guess he's angling for a job at Trump's new scam... er, business venture.

After he gets out of jail.

[Zauriel]

Family of Emmett Till reacts to DOJ closing investigation into his murder

So The DOJ closes this cold case that has been cold for more than half a century? It is understandable that some members of Emmett Till's family are not happy about it, but his murderers are already dead. So is anyone who has been involved in the murder. So who are they going after? The descendants of Emmett Till's killers? Arrest them? Or Sue them?

The case was closed in 2007 but reopened in 2018.

[AnakinFlair]

Family of Emmett Till reacts to DOJ closing investigation into his murder

So The DOJ closes this cold case that has been cold for more than half a century? It is understandable that some members of Emmett Till's family are not happy about it, but his murderers are already dead. So is anyone who has been involved in the murder. So who are they going after? The descendants of Emmett Till's killers? Arrest them? Or Sue them?

The case was closed in 2007 but reopened in 2018.

I think they were trying to prove that the woman who made the initial complaint about Emmett whistling at her had lied. There was talk that she admitted that she lied to an author, but they were unable to definitively prove if that was true or not.

[InformationGeek]

Oooooh WBE! Got another one from Wisconsin for you. Meet Chuck Wichgers and what he like to ban being taught in the classroom.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, as well as 2016, as well as 2017, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of former Congressman Ryan Zinke, from Montana's At-Large Congressional District. Zinke is a former Navy Seal (whose retirement was forced due to an undisclosed disciplinary matter, and who has been criticized by several former colleagues) who has blamed both President Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Benghazi attacks, suggesting impeachment for the former and calling the latter the Anti-Christ. Zinke is also a proud climate change denier, called for the militarization of the U.S./Mexico border, and bragged about having personally water-boarded people as a positive trait that made him a better candidate than a Democrat he was debating. As a Congressman, Zinke has voted for all anti-abortion legislation he could, and opposed LGBT rights at every turn. He voted against the nuclear treaty with Iran, tried to do what he could to block the acceptance of Syrian refugees, and voted to defund the Department of Homeland Security in a protest against President Obama's executive orders on immigration. Zinke once even hosted a reception for a former general, Paul Vallely, who offered himself as the leader for a military coup against the Obama administration to Tea Party Republicans. Zinke spoke on the opening night of the 2016 Republican National Convention, giving a fear-mongering speech about foreign threats, and that was enough to earn him a spot in Donald Trump’s “Cabinet of Horrors”, getting the nod to be his Interior Secretary. He’s always been a bit of a nut, and running his office at the Department of the Interior like it’s a military base, including raising and lowering a flag if he’s in or not on a given day. And, like so, so many members of Donald Trump’s cabinet, it’s not just that they’re unqualified, it’s that they’re so blatantly corrupt. Ryan Zinke fits the profile, as like former Health Secretary Tom Price, he was soon investigated by federal watchdogs for abusing his travel budget. Unlike Price, Zinke didn’t resign. And then came a second investigation, as an energy company from his home town that has only existed for 2 years was somehow awarded a $300 million contract to rebuild Puerto Rico’s damaged power grid by Zinke’s Department. Zinke insisted it was just all a coincidence, and attacks the media for investigating him. And then literally a dozen more “coincidences” happened, as the number of federal investigation’s into corruption at Zinke’s Department of the Interior kept growing, The deputy charged with being the watchdog at the Department of the Interior referred Zinke to the Department of Justice back on Halloween of 2018, and resigned from the Trump White House ON Dec. 15th, 2018.

On this date in 2018, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Cynthia Dunbar, a member of the Republican National Committee from Virginia, and a 2018 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for both Virginia’s 5th, and 6th Congressional Districts, at different points. Dunbar was been a known quantity for over a decade, as a professor of law at Pat Robertson’s Liberty University (i.e. school for theocratic wingnut charlatans), and did significant damage to the youth of the Lone Star State as a member of the Texas Board of Education from 2007 to 2010, where she would try to alter the syllabus so it taught not just Creationism, but racist points of view like taking time to recognize the “positive contributions made by leaders of the Confederacy”, or just flat out altering texts to discuss how “Chicanos want to destroy this society”. It should come as little surprise, then, that on the campaign trail for Congress, Dunbar repeatedly was quoting the teachings of “Christian historian” David Barton, that have long since been debunked by actual historians as Fundamentalist propaganda. In a book Dunbar wrote In 2008, she also expressed her opinion that all candidates for office should be forced to take a “biblical litmus test” to qualify for office, which if that sounds like an obvious violation of a separation of church and state, congratulate yourself on basic civics, and how it’s easier to understand why Dunbar wanted details about Thomas Jefferson stricken from history classes in Texas. Dunbar is also an unapologetic Birther, who right around the time Barack Obama was president-elect, began positing conspiracy theories about how as president, he, as a “Secret Muslim” would start working with terrorists to aid them in attacks upon the United States. And, during the 2018 campaigns that Dunbar was in, she frequently talked to Trump-obsessed, insane far-right preacher Lance Wallnau about how “God doesn’t intend government to care of the needy”, because she’s into that twisted version of Republican Christianity that cares f***-all about the poor. Dunbar was not only not chosen to represent the 5th Congressional District in 2018 by Virginia Republicans, but rebuffed when she tried to run in the 6th district, when the Virginia GOP instead chose Denver Riggleman, because somehow, even they acknowledged she might be more off-putting to voters than someone who’s a Bigfoot erotica fan.

On this date in both 2019, as well as 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled Steve Negron, a former one-term member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 2016-2018 who ran for U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 for New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, only to get wrecked in the general election by Democrat Annie Kuster. We’re making it a point to profile him again, because… well, he’s a loon… and also he’s running for Congress again in 2020, announcing he was taking a second crack at it only four months after that loss…so we feel like it’s a good idea to remind folks of who they’re dealing with. We can’t talk much about Negron’s voting record, as he was frequently absent from votes, and during his two years in office, he did not sponsor a single bill in the Granite State. Getting an idea of where his position stances are… suffice to say that he describes himself as in “lockstep” with Donald Trump. Negron also thinks of any gun control measure as “chipping away at the Constitution”, and still was having Corey Lewandowski work for his 2018 campaign. But you see, where Steve Negron stands out to us is that he’s a staunch defender of gay conversion therapy, or as he thinks of it, the “gay cure”, which would indicate he views homosexuality as a disease. His take on Planned Parenthood is rather hyperbolic, “I oppose private dollars going to an organization that kills babies.” Ah yes. Nothing like the furthest right-wing rhetoric that claims women’s health centers are actually routinely committing infanticide and somehow profiting off of it. Steve Negron against took a shot at Annie Kuster in New Hampshire’s 2nd in 2020, and alas, only managed 43% of the vote in a second consecutive election loss. As he currently is not running for any office, we’re going to set aside his profile our to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1051-50, since this was established in July 2014.


James Dickens

Welcome to what is the 1051st original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling James Dickens, who was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District, and is also yet the latest in our far too long line of Republicans who ran for Congress in 2020 while flogging the Qanon conspiracy theory. Dickens went as far down the rabbit hole to have posted a video of himself swearing an oath to Qanon on his Twitter feed, and his social media accounts are a non-stop fever dream of conspiracy theories, just for example, this one where he was trying to scrutinize the number of Covid-19 deaths, or tout the treatment of the disease with the ineffective solution, hydroxychloroquine.

James Dickens ended up getting 21% of the vote in the GOP Primary for the seat to represent Hawaii’s 1st District, finishing second out of a possible five candidates. We sincerely hope this is the only time we have to mention him in a profile.

[numberthirty]

It's not "Slamming..." someone when you are pointing out that their position is pretty nonsensical...

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/07/jen...ests-_partner/

Jen Psaki slammed after White House press secretary dismisses idea of mailing out free COVID tests

[numberthirty]

Ruh Roh...

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/07/civ...s-in-congress/

GOP civil war heats up: Dan Crenshaw calls out GOP "grifters" and "performance artists" in Congress

[Mister Mets]

Ruh Roh...

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/07/civ...s-in-congress/

I mean he's right.

[numberthirty]

Not saying he isn't...

Just that he doesn't seem to have any problem kicking a hornet's nest.