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

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of U.S. Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, who while first appointed to the Senate as a replacement for John Ensign after he resigned due to being embroiled in a sex scandal, Sen. Heller won election to a full term in 2012 winning with only 46% of the vote over Democrat Shelley Berkley, who pulled down 45% (the other 9% was independents and write-in candidates). Heller’s time in the spotlight has been marred by several extreme positions on issues like pay equality, women’s reproductive rights, gun control, and immigration reform. The man is spitefully partisan enough that he held a photo-op breakfast at an IHOP where a mass shooting had taken place on its one year anniversary to prove to the gun lobby that he didn’t care about people dying to keep him from voting the way he does on gun control. He was one of 18 senators who voted not just to have the 2013 Government Shutdown… but to keep the government closed in the vote to end it 16 days later. Most glaring, though, is how Sen. Heller decided to rally under the banner of racist rancher and tax scofflaw Cliven Bundy in 2013, calling him a “patriot” while criticizing the Bureau of Land Management for “overreach” and praising the “law-abiding Nevadans” on Bundy’s ranch who were pointing assault rifles at government employees doing their jobs and rounding up Bundy’s cattle off of government land. Up until the time that Cliven Bundy decided to teach America “something about the negro”, Dean Heller was proposing Congressional hearings to investigate the BLM and why they were at the Bundy Ranch. Because he clearly thought THEY were in the wrong. And that was just in our FIRST look at Sen. Heller. Our further follow-up looks at Sen. Heller have seen him voting to defund Planned Parenthood based on the fradulent "sting" video produced by the Center for Medical Progress, but yet, failing to vote for funding to prevent the Zika Virus, which certainly couldn’t be a hypocritical stance, no sir. Heller also participated in a filibuster of an attempt to create a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United, and signed onto a letter to make himself one of the #47Traitors who tried to sabotage ongoing negotiations between the State Department and Iran to forge a nuclear treaty and end decades of standoffs between our two nations. Sen. Heller caved to pressure from the president and people in his own party and voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and it looked like the law was as good as dead, with all the Democrats voting with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins, and Vice-President Mike Pence would be the tiebreaker... but then late John McCain came in and got all dramatic with a "thumbs down"... so Dean Heller was forced to heel by Donald Trump for exactly nothing but bad press. And his constituents sure noticed, as his approval ratings dipped into the low 20s in the wake of the vote. And then, for whatever reason, he decided to be a co-sponsor of the GOP’s last ditch effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act with Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Bill Cassidy, that throws an estimated 32 million (that’s THIRTY-TWO MILLION) people off their health insurance, by far the worst “healthcare reform” bill thought up Republicans yet this term. Could it get worse? Well, how about that in the days after the terror attack carried out by white nationalists on the march in Charlottesville, as people began to identify hate-fueled nitwits from that rally, that people noted one of the more iconic faces there, Peter Cvjetanovic, was traced back just not to being a University of Nevada-Reno student... but that he had met and been photographed with… Dean Heller. Almost a year after the 2016 election, Dean Heller finally admitted he voted for Donald Trump, as Trump's approval ratings also hit their lowest, falling into the 30s, after Charlottesville. Heller was flagging badly enough that even the Koch Brothers bailed on him, and decided not to contribute towards his campaign. Also factor in the ethical scandal of how Sen. Heller decided to pay $50,000 to his own son, who purports himself to be a “Social Media Influencer” for “quality content”. That has drawn the attention of the FEC, because it seems a lot more like Heller is just trying to funnel money to his progeny. All that was enough to ensure that Jacky Rosen became Senator Jacky Rosen, sending Dean Heller packing with only 45% of the vote. He was hoping he might land a nomination to serve in the Department of the Interior after that loss, but Donald Trump’s ego can’t stand the idea that anyone would be in any way critical of him, and as blamed Heller’s loss on “not supporting him enough”, and he’s currently in political limbo, where he deserves to be, but there are rumors he’s planning a 2022 run to be the next Governor of Nevada.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Danielle Stella, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Minnesota’s 5th District who was motivated to run for that seat because… frankly, she’s an Islamophobic bigot who was specifically targeting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. She was being promoted heavily by InfoWars and Alex Jones as a candidate (uh oh) and also had a few posts on social media where she seemed to have positive thoughts regarding the Qanon conspiracy theory. When asked about it, Stella’s campaign confirmed her dedication towards the group, saying she “stands 100% behind the principles of patriotism, unity/inclusiveness (WWG1WGA!) and love for country that Qanon promotes.” Stella had the bizarre idea to start demonizing the city of Minneapolis, the place she would be representing in Congress if elected, calling it, “the crime capitol of our country”, because if there’s one place we all think of when we think of violent crime, it’s the Land of 10,000 Lakes. However, this strategy proved extremely ironic when local authorities charged Danielle Stella with felony shoplifting, referring to an incident where she was caught by security at a Target store attempting to shoplift $2327.97 in merchandise on January 9th, 2019 after paying for $50 of merchandise in her cart and attempting to leave with the rest. She claimed to have no memory of the incident, claiming she suffered from PTSD and anxiety that… is not much of a legal defense. It must have been a bad case, because she was arrested for shoplifting from a different store on April 4th, 2019, and the police realized she had a warrant out for failing to show up to court for her first offense. Not for nothing, in 2009, she was also charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol and fleeing a police officer. Danielle Stella refused to drop out of the race of Minnesota’s 5th, which, at this point, she was a longer long shot than she already was… after all, Ilhan Omar won in 2018 by 50 points against her Republican opponent, who was not a conspiracy theorist/shoplifter combo. But then, Stella’s campaign stopped being about winning election and more about death threats. Stella called for Rep. Omar to be hanged in a post on Twitter, claiming that she was a secret Qatari agent working against the interests of the United States. Twitter, normally a slow-acting platform regarding issuing bans, actually deleted her account for it. Well, being Twitter they let her do it twice before they wielded the ban-hammer. Stella ended up sticking it out until the GOP Primary was held, and she lost, getting only 18.6% of the vote, which is approximately 18.6% more than she deserves. The 2119 people not named Danielle Stella who voted for her should all be ashamed. we will set aside her profile at this time, however, to cover another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1024-50, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Peter Yuan Liu

Welcome to what is the 1024th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Peter Yuan Liu, who in 2014 and 2018, unsuccessfully ran as a mayoral candidate in Oakland, and in 2018 also had an unsuccessful campaign to be Governor of California (He failed to get 1% of the vote in any of those races). More relevantly, ran as a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 15th Congressional District, who was looking to stage an upset of Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell.

Peter Yuan Liu has been on the record in the past against raising the minimum wage, that homosexuality is a “grave and deadly sin”, and that he wants a militia of people with concealed carry permits ready in Oakland to be ready to combat an “all out terrorist invasion”, and seemed to have… a lot of contempt for bicyclists in the city (we’re just going to say there were many expletives). He also said that if any City Councilmember “obstructs me in a way that is unreasonable, I’ll intellectually bitchslap them so they go home crying”. So… that’s a good start to him being a bit “out there’.

Maybe it’s not a surprise then that he was also an adherent of the Qanon conspiracy theory during his 2020 Congressional bid.

Peter Yuan Liu ended up losing in the GOP Primary, finishing in fourth with 7.8% of the vote. He has already thrown his hat into the ring to be a 2022 candidate for U.S. Senate from California, hoping to take the seat currently held by Senator Alex Padilla. We’re wagering that he’s a long shot to pull that off.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Peter Yuan Liu

Welcome to what is the 1024th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Peter Yuan Liu, who in 2014 and 2018, unsuccessfully ran as a mayoral candidate in Oakland, and in 2018 also had an unsuccessful campaign to be Governor of California (He failed to get 1% of the vote in any of those races). More relevantly, ran as a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 15th Congressional District, who was looking to stage an upset of Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell.

Peter Yuan Liu has been on the record in the past against raising the minimum wage, that homosexuality is a “grave and deadly sin”, and that he wants a militia of people with concealed carry permits ready in Oakland to be ready to combat an “all out terrorist invasion”, and seemed to have… a lot of contempt for bicyclists in the city (we’re just going to say there were many expletives). He also said that if any City Councilmember “obstructs me in a way that is unreasonable, I’ll intellectually bitchslap them so they go home crying”. So… that’s a good start to him being a bit “out there’.

Maybe it’s not a surprise then that he was also an adherent of the Qanon conspiracy theory during his 2020 Congressional bid.

Peter Yuan Liu ended up losing in the GOP Primary, finishing in fourth with 7.8% of the vote. He has already thrown his hat into the ring to be a 2022 candidate for U.S. Senate from California, hoping to take the seat currently held by Senator Alex Padilla. We’re wagering that he’s a long shot to pull that off.

Oh, that guy is a one hundred and ten percent par-TAY! Yeah, a real batshit cray-cray Qpublican. And what in the hell is he wearing in that picture?

[The Cool Thatguy]

Eh, I had a rough week, need to vent somehow. Besides, earning them Xi bucks is a full time job you know.

In any event, these recent developments have nothing to do with what China has or hasn't done, and everything to do with America's incoherent strategy. Essentially, Trump stirred up this current cold war with China to whip up his base, which Biden has inherited and mostly continued, even though his heart clearly isn't in it, because foreign policy is the one thing that both parties always seem to agree on and it would be disastrous for him domestically to be seen as weak on China. But it's pretty hard to see him making any kind of solid commitment to Australia when he couldn't even remember their Prime Minister's name.

Also, opponents of the Trump administration constantly pushed the notion that he was doing the right thing by confronting China but going about it the wrong way by not forming a united front and going it alone. But as this submarine episode shows, making alliances isn't quite so easy, because all countries have their own national interests and getting everyone on the same page takes a bit more work than making trite appeals to "shared Western values" or whatever. Still though, the Chinese are right to be terrified of this AUKUS alliance, between them the UK, US, and Australia have exterminated enough peoples to fill many, many books.

And China has used those lessons to exterminate their own minorities. But we have to wait until we can call them into account for that, right?

How many years, just wondering? Ten, twenty?

[Kirby101]

I am wondering how much of France's outrage is for internal consumption. They know that they will not change anything, but they have to show their own people they won't take this lying down.

[PwrdOn]

And China has used those lessons to exterminate their own minorities. But we have to wait until we can call them into account for that, right?

How many years, just wondering? Ten, twenty?

Well first you're going to need to find some actual evidence that said "extermination" is actually happening. And because I know that white people have trouble with this, the official spelling is "Uyghur," so happy googling!

[Kirby101]

Christ. You were citing Chamberlain "ironically," implying that you thought he was WRONG and should have gone to war instead of appeasing the Nazis. And by extension, negotiating with China will produce the same result and is therefore useless, so the only solution is to do what?

Yes, you got it. I was not making a joke about your portrayal of China as the good actor in everything. I was making a deep statement with direct comparison to the Munich Accord and the invasion of Poland. Glad you so easily understand serious foreign policy can be said in one sentence that so clearly outlines all the facets of a subject.

[Tendrin]

Yes, you got it. I was not making a joke about your portrayal of China as the good actor in everything. I was making a deep statement with direct comparison to the Munich Accord and the invasion of Poland. Glad you so easily understand serious foreign policy can be said in one sentence that so clearly outlines all the facets of a subject.

Also, Pwrdon is showing some astounding ignorance about the nature of the Munich deal.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Well first you're going to need to find some actual evidence that said "extermination" is actually happening. And because I know that white people have trouble with this, the official spelling is "Uyghur," so happy googling!

Ah, so culturally wiping out Tibet doesn't count anymore? Just checking

[Tendrin]

Ah, so culturally wiping out Tibet doesn't count anymore? Just checking

He'll just deny that happened too.

[worstblogever]

Oh, that guy is a one hundred and ten percent par-TAY! Yeah, a real batshit cray-cray Qpublican. And what in the hell is he wearing in that picture?

I believe it's a graduation cap of some sort?

During his run for mayor back in 2018 he seemed to indicate it was an homage to the first Emperor of China.

[PwrdOn]

Yes, you got it. I was not making a joke about your portrayal of China as the good actor in everything. I was making a deep statement with direct comparison to the Munich Accord and the invasion of Poland. Glad you so easily understand serious foreign policy can be said in one sentence that so clearly outlines all the facets of a subject.

I mean, I was trying to have a serious discussion with someone else, and you made a stupid dig about China being like the Nazis that didn't really make any sense, and now I'm the one who's trying to oversimplify a deep and complex subject that we absolutely don't have time to get into right now. Honestly, it's really not that hard to just admit that you don't know anything about these topics, and stop responding to my posts if you don't want to discuss them. As the saying goes, a truly wise man knows that he knows nothing.

Ah, so culturally wiping out Tibet doesn't count anymore? Just checking

Again, Tibetan culture very much still exists, you can google it and get lots of results that clearly don't look Chinese, well unless you're some ignorant white dude who can't tell the difference between the two.

He'll just deny that happened too.

Thoughts and prayers for the victims of the Bowling Green massacre.

Also, Pwrdon is showing some astounding ignorance about the nature of the Munich deal.

Are you trying to defend the Munich agreement now?

[The Cool Thatguy]

Well first you're going to need to find some actual evidence that said "extermination" is actually happening. And because I know that white people have trouble with this, the official spelling is "Uyghur," so happy googling!

Genocide, only wrong when white people do it, amirite?

[Tendrin]

I mean, I was trying to have a serious discussion with someone else, and you made a stupid dig about China being like the Nazis that didn't really make any sense, and now I'm the one who's trying to oversimplify a deep and complex subject that we absolutely don't have time to get into right now. Honestly, it's really not that hard to just admit that you don't know anything about these topics, and stop responding to my posts if you don't want to discuss them. As the saying goes, a truly wise man knows that he knows nothing.

On the other hand, nothing is more poison to one's morals than a righteous certainty.

[PwrdOn]

On the other hand, nothing is more poison to one's morals than a righteous certainty.

Might want to look in the mirror with that one buddy.

Genocide, only wrong when white people do it, amirite?

Accuse the enemy of that which you yourself are guilty. I would joke that next they'll start accusing China of using slave labor to pick cotton and oppressing the rights of women, but of course they've already been doing that.