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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

If people want to back their guy thats fine. But for the love of god be smart about it. Dont change the story 13 times and then call it a plot and we are all blind when we dont believe one of the 13 stories. There are people out there that run with many versions. They will talk about how he never had them, Declassified them, FBI planted them, And about how this is his staffs fault because he never knew he had them.

I am half way more upset at the stupidity as much as the crime itself.

Just like Indiana Jones, Trump, the GQP and Faux News are making it up as they go, literally throwing **** against the wall to see what, if anything will stick. That tells me they’re desperate to change the narrative to make Dolt 45 look less like the criminal scumbag he was for taking all those top secret documents, but don’t know how to go about it.

[seismic-2]

The Trumpists keep changing the story but still fail to exonerate Trump. They claim that Trump declassified all these documents (which remained marked classified, which they shouldn't been) even though there's absolutely no evidence that he did so, which there ought to have been if in fact he did it, and even though some of those documents may have been classified instead under Atomic Energy regulations, which the president does not have the authority to declassify. However: (1) he still shouldn't have the documents, since they are official Government property, and keeping them at Mar-a-Lago rather than turning them over to the Archives violates regulations, and (2) he could have damaged national security by declassifying information whose release would be harmful to the USA. Suppose one of the documents contained the names of spies, or revealed codes, or described critical weapons systems. Making that information declassified would cause grave harm, and that's a violation of the espionage act (as I understand it). Revealing information that's seriously harmful to national security is illegal, whether that information is marked "classified" or not.

[babyblob]

They dont need proof he declassified the documents he didnt have/ He didnt know he had/ the FBI Planted/ he gave back

He said he did. He said so after he was busted with them. And that is good enough for those idiots.

[seismic-2]

If Trump can simply say that he declassified all those documents before leaving the White House, then Biden can simply say that he RE-classified them after taking office, so now they're classified again. Take that, Donald!

[Tendrin]

On the passports, it's Trump being awful again.

They actually contacted him and told him they had his passports and he could have them beck since they didn't know they had them until they had sorted through all the materials.

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/stat...24841681063936

He probably didn't even know they had them until they contacted him and said they had them, which he then used to further paint himself as a victim.

[Mister Mets]

I'd like to switch this up a bit, as you've voted against Trump as a die-hard GoPer.

Would it be better for your party if Trump is found guilty of a serious crime so he and his rhetoric can be abandoned for more rational people to step up, or for him to flee the country with his followers claiming he had to to prevent "the deep state" from "framing" him and him continuing to spout BS and enflame politics from Russia with Putin and Steven Seagal?

I wouldn’t say die-hard GOP-er, since the majority of you seem to vote more consistently for your party.

It would be much better for Republicans if Trump were prosecuted and found guilty. It would be toxic if he were in exile in a sketchy country complaining about Republican candidates for office (and praising others, which likely hurts general election chances.

I know I’m a bit late to this party, but, as others have already said, it WOULD be a bad thing if Trump fled. He absolutely CANNOT be allowed to get away with his crimes, he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, imprisoned even, if but for no other reason than to make Trump an example for the next ******* Qpublican who attempts the commit the same crimes Trump did while in office, or out.

If he’s in Saudi Arabia, will Republicans look at his reputation, and think that’s what the party needs.

That once out of the country, he will do a great deal less damage than if he stays. That prosecuting him will be expensive, that he might be found not guilty and become President again. That being seen to ruin would lose the Republicans a lot of votes.

If I was a US citizen think I'd be happy to see him vamoose.

In addition, his ability to run would be limited if he can’t physically go to the US. It would also hurt his reputation.

[Tendrin]

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status...64169243648000

This is the guy that Zauriel wants us to believe in.

[Tendrin]

rofl.

Didulo’s ideology is wide-ranging and at times esoteric. Alongside typical QAnon conspiracies, she claims to be an alien-adjacent being willing to share advanced medical technology with her followers. She also espouses the pseudo-legal sovereign citizen ideology, which convinces its adherents that the government has no control over them and became prominent during the COVID-conspiracy movement. Currently, she’s on a never-ending tour of Canada with her “staff” in a group of RVs, either rented, bought, or gifted by her fans.

Early Saturday afternoon, Didulo’s convoy and other believers, many of them livestreaming, gathered near the Peterborough Police department. Chattering excitedly among themselves, they marched down to the police station and readied themselves to arrest some cops. Upon walking up to the entrance, however, the group encountered a problem that not even their queen could solve for them: a locked door.

https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/...n-arrest-qanon

In a press release, the Peterborough Police Service wrote that officers “arriving for their shift were blocked by protestors who also tried to gain access to a secured entrance of the police station.” Video from the event shows Curtain confronting an off-duty officer in a vehicle and telling him “we’re placing you under arrest” before immediately being arrested by police officers himself.

[Gray Lensman]

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status...64169243648000

This is the guy that Zauriel wants us to believe in.

On the subject of the recently passed environmental bill, the guys behind YouTube's SciShow did a dive into it, reading the bill and talking to environmental experts about it. They seem rather happy about the whole, if disappointed about the fossil fuel portions. They do point out that no politician who wants to stay a politician is going to vote to raise gas prices when they are just starting to come down from record highs. Also, that this is the biggest environmental bill passed since well, he isn't sure but I'd wager since Nixon. And likely the last environmental bill for some time since after November we might not have any more chances depending on how the House ends up.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

rofl.



https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/...n-arrest-qanon

And here I was thinking Canada was mostly bereft of the QAnon nutbags infesting the lower 48. My mistake.

[Tendrin]

On the subject of the recently passed environmental bill, the guys behind YouTube's SciShow did a dive into it, reading the bill and talking to environmental experts about it. They seem rather happy about the whole, if disappointed about the fossil fuel portions. They do point out that no politician who wants to stay a politician is going to vote to raise gas prices when they are just starting to come down from record highs. Also, that this is the biggest environmental bill passed since well, he isn't sure but I'd wager since Nixon. And likely the last environmental bill for some time since after November we might not have any more chances depending on how the House ends up.

It's true. While there's some odious sops to the fossil fuel industry in there, those sops are what is allowing the most ambitious climate legsilationin decades to pass a 50/50 senate.

[worstblogever]

Like the orange bag of bile fleeing the country would be the end of it.

He'd still be all over the internet, he'd still constantly call into Fox, he'd still be doing damage.
And I wouldn't put it past some of those pathetic loser GOP Governors letting him sneak back into their states whenever he wanted just to appeal to those bigger losers in the base.

Napoleon in exile.

They don't need to talk about abortion or gun control. Trump got them a super-majority on the Supreme Court to get what they want on those issues.

[thwhtGuardian]

On the passports, it's Trump being awful again.

They actually contacted him and told him they had his passports and he could have them beck since they didn't know they had them until they had sorted through all the materials.

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/stat...24841681063936

He probably didn't even know they had them until they contacted him and said they had them, which he then used to further paint himself as a victim.

This is why I didn't do the happy dance yesterday as I thought it very well could be something innocuous.

[Starter Set]

Damn, you guys would be pretty bored without Trump.

[worstblogever]

On this date, in both 2014, as well as in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled former New York Congressman Michael Grimm, who was sentenced to eight months in prison for 20 separate charges of fraud in running the New York health food restaurant Healthalicious, which was a decidedly sore subject considering when asked about it by a reporter in Washington, at one point, Rep. Grimm threatened to throw the guy off a balcony and “break him like a boy”. With those two factors alone (not that there weren't others), Grimm's political career seemed like it was over. But alas, Michael Grimm decided upon being released from prison to try and reclaim his old Congressional seat from Daniel Donovan. Grimm went right back to his old tricks, being slapped with an ethics complaint for having a former Trump campaign staffer working on his election campaign for free (that’s a no-no), trying to claim Dan Donovan offered to speak to Donald Trump and get him a presidential pardon if he dropped out of the race, and that baseless desperation meant he would go on to lose to Donovan by about a 2 to 1 margin. We think (and hope) this time he’s really gone for good, but he seems to keep coming back like a bad case of herpes.

In both 2016, 2017, 2018, and in 2019, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” presented our original profile of the U.S. House Representative for New York’s 11th Congressional District, Dan Donovan, which is pretty remarkable considering Dan Donovan ditched out on the debates for the election in 2014, and was the district attorney who dragged his feet when tasked with bringing charges against the police officers who were caught on camera using a banned chokehold to attempt to subdue Eric Garner for the crime of selling loose cigarettes, and managed to choke him to death. In spite of digging in for police brutality, and going with the cowardly choice to let the death of Garner stand uncharged, Donovan earned the right to fulfill the role of being Staten Island's newest douchebag in Congress. Of course, looking the other way is something Donovan developed a bit of a reputation for, what with discussions as far back as 2010 in the Village Voice documented how he often failed to act against members of the Genovese crime family, when they operated illegal enterprises virtually right under his nose. And wouldn't you know it? Once he got to Washington, D.C., Donovan racked up a completely partisan record, spending two years doing things like trying to defund Planned Parenthood, pass 20-week abortion bans, restrict the relocation of refugees fleeing Syria, and a few attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act. Then he had Michael Grimm, fresh out of prison, challenging him in the GOP Primary for his seat in the U.S. Congress in 2018, because he wasn’t “Trump enough” because he didn’t vote for the GOP’s final attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act.. Grimm went with a strategy you won’t see used in many political races, because people who went to prison usually don’t mount comebacks. Grimm started put by pointing out that Donovan got his domestic partner’s son out of going to jail on heroin charges, and then when that still didn’t help him enough in the polls, started trying to claim Dan Donovan offered to speak to Donald Trump and get him a presidential pardon if he dropped out of the race. That baseless desperation meant he would go on to lose to Donovan by about a 2 to 1 margin. However, any primary challenge still means that an incumbent has to spend effort, energy, and campaign cash in a primary… That softened Dan Donovan up enough that Max Rose, a veteran of Afghanistan who during his service earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, upset him and flipped a Republican-leaning district blue in 2018, as Donovan only got 46.6% of the vote, and left office without accomplishing much of anything. As such, we’ll set aside his profile at this time, and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 902-45, since this was established in July 2014.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Antoine Tucker, a 2020 candidate who was running to be the next U.S. House Representative from New York’s 14th Congressional District, hoping he could be the guy to upset Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (he definitely wasn’t). Antoine Tucker is, by most accounts, a write-in candidate in NY-14 who promotes himself as “the first ex-felon that’s Black and Hispanic to run for Congress in the history of the nation”, which boasting that you’re a convicted crack dealer might not be the best pitch to voters. Let alone when you have an alias like Tony Montaga, which… we’re not sure if that’s the MAGA version of Tony Montana, and he’s just awful at wordplay. Tucker generally seems to be doing this for publicity for… well, we don’t know his end game, just that Donald Trump Jr. supported his run for office because they have a mutual love of conspiracy theories and an unreasonable hatred of Democrats not based in reality that would make something like the Qanon conspiracy theory sound plausible. His “politics” amount to swearing about Democrats and the media. But bizarrely campaigning on the same issues that party supports. Outside of Qanon, Tucker also posted videos on Instagram where he has claimed Covid-19 is a “hoax” perpetuated by Bill Gates. So at least he hasn’t put all his crazy eggs in the same basket. Tucker also drew the attention of the FEC for failing to submit a Q4 report, meaning he’s going to be fined, and campaign finance experts have noted that his entire candidacy seems to be a money laundering scheme to direct money towards “Jeld Productions”, which lists itself as a “social media marketing” company. However, Jeld Productions has no social media presence, and its address is actually an apartment complex in New York City. The closest company that does exist to Jeld Productions that does exist is a “Jeld Electronics” listed on a DJ Directory. It seems… like he’s going to get fined by the FEC, which takes some level of brazen stupidity to actually have happen these days. Whatever scam he’s running, he’s going to try to keep it going through 2022, as his Twitter account claims he’s a 2022 challenger for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s seat. Antoine Tucker seems more likely to run afoul of the law again than win office at any point.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Andrew Meehan, the president of an investment firm and son of Philadelphia GOP party boss Austin Meehan, who ran for Congress to try to upset fellow Republican Brian Fitzpattrick and become the next U.S. House Representative from Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District. He also is yet the latest such person who we’re profiling who backed the Qanon conspiracy theory, identifying himself as a supporter on Twitter, and assuring the public, “I definitely follow the Q movement” in a video he posted on May 21st, 2020. Meehan’s Twitter feed is a fever dream of voter fraud conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxination and anti-mask Covid-19 misinformation sharing, and for a bonus, “Joe Biden has dementia” speculation. Andrew Meehan lost in the GOP Primary to Ryan Fitzpatrick, getting only 37% of the vote. We will set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1129-55, since this was established in July 2014.