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

[numberthirty]

So now you have sworn testimony by a woman who puts herself at risk from doing it, who saw the actual emotions of the people after it happened, and you have stories that stories about the incident circulated for years. And some anonymous claims that it did not happen, and your belief that Trump is a sweet teddy bear.

Sounds legit.

Since this has already come up...

What's in blue is more what folks seem to want to make this about than what is actually going on.

Past that...

Never mind that anyone tossing around "Anonymous..." needs to take a minute to process the reality that the folks "Confirming..." her testimony(which, again is all second hand...) are every bit as "Anonymous..." as the folks who have said it never took place.

Long story short, it's still testimony that is almost entirely second hand about a story told by a person who is known to lie with no really clear cut reason why this is the one time we should believe he was not lying.

Again, it's might thin.

[numberthirty]

(CNN)Then-President Donald Trump angrily demanded to go to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and berated his protective detail when he didn't get his way, according to two Secret Service sources who say they heard about the incident from multiple agents, including the driver of the presidential SUV where it occurred.
The sources tell CNN that stories circulated about the incident -- including details that are similar to how former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described it to the House select committee investigating January 6 -- in the months immediately afterward the US Capitol attack and before she testified this week.
While the details from those who heard the accounts differ, the Secret Service sources say they were told an angry confrontation did occur. And their accounts align with significant parts of Hutchinson's testimony, which has been attacked as hearsay by Trump and his allies who also have tried to discredit her overall testimony.

Lungegate.

Lemme get this straight...

The details from the "Telephone Game..." that's passing for "Confirmation..." don't really add up, but it's "Confirmed..."

[CaptainEurope]

Lemme get this straight...

The details from the "Telephone Game..." that's passing for "Confirmation..." don't really add up, but it's "Confirmed..."

The truth will come out. And currently, it looks like you fell for the coverup.

[numberthirty]

The truth will come out. And currently, it looks like you fell for the coverup.

Again...

It's not "Well, here is the way that even though the details in the versions that are 'Confirming...' this don't line up there is still a plausible version of things where they are actually confirming what truly took place..."

It's basically The X-Files, and folks fell for a coverup.

Never mind that there is still no good reason to buy that the guy's story we are getting second hand is finally the rare instance where he is actually telling the truth.

While it's not exactly impossible that this known liar was actually telling the truth? Anyone who is actually being straight with themselves is going to realize that there are eight, maybe nine, times out of ten where this was just a known liar spinning one more lie.

[CaptainEurope]

What is wrong with Americans?

[Tendrin]

*bone weary sigh*

[worstblogever]

The truth will come out. And currently, it looks like you fell for the coverup.

Never underestimate how far someone can bury their head in the sand with Trump. Especially someone with a track record of digging in and spending hours if not days digging in and posting and posting rather than admit they were wrong. The Washington Post interviewed 15 people who acknowledged they have also heard a version of the story Hutchinson told from other sources. Two of those 15 were members of the Secret Service.

That probably won't be enough to get them to pull said head out of the sand, or wherever else it might be placed.

[worstblogever]

What is wrong with Americans?

Let's start with just "not taught critical thinking skills in school".

[worstblogever]

In 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of Frank Artiles, a member of the Florida House of Representatives who first turned up in the Tea Party Wave of 2010, has a voting record featuring support for drug testing welfare recipients, unnecessary bans on Sharia Law, trying to prevent gays and lesbian couples from adopting children and find ways to deny them their legal right to be married, as well as sponsor pro-life legislation that included a measure to try and change the definition of fetal viability. At the time we gave Artiles the spotlight, he was one of the first Republicans around the country to also support transphobic bathroom legislation, wanting to fine transgendered citizens $1000 for using the “incorrect” bathroom. In our profiles of Artiles, we’ve taken great pains to be as accurate as we can in our discussion of him because he tends to threaten people who report on anything he does with libel and/or slander lawsuits, considering unflattering discussion of him or his interests “bullying”. When we factored in that, along with Artiles being investigated for assault for attacking a man in a night club a few years back, we thought we had more than enough to begin keeping tabs on him.

After six years of being a toxic influence in the Florida House of Representatives Artiles did successfully win election to the Florida State Senate in 2016 after fundraising at a rate roughly four times that of his opponent, Dwight Bullard. However, his time in the upper chamber was much shorter than perhaps anyone anticipated. One would think that after Frank Artiles had that run-in at a night club a few years back, that he might rethink where he spends time after hours in the state legislature, or to not be so combative. Well, Frank Artiles is a special brand of hostile, as in April of 2017, only four months into his first term in the Florida State Senate, went out to the Governor’s Club, a members-only bar and restaurant in Tallahassee, and called several members of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus the n-word, as well as calling one female lawmaker a “bitch”, and a male lawmaker a “p***y”. Artiles actually tried defending his use of the racial slur, claiming it was the version of the word that ends in an –a, and not –er, so he felt like he was just using slang and not insulting any of them. After days of trying to justify why casual bigotry was not a big deal, Artiles made a few half-hearted apologies before resigning in disgrace.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Never underestimate how far someone can bury their head in the sand with Trump. Especially someone with a track record of digging in and spending hours if not days digging in and posting and posting rather than admit they were wrong. The Washington Post interviewed 15 people who acknowledged they have also heard a version of the story Hutchinson told from other sources. Two of those 15 were members of the Secret Service.

That probably won't be enough to get them to pull said head out of the sand, or wherever else it might be placed.

I would say that for most Trumpanzees, especially the hardcore lemmings, they refuse to bail on the guy because that would mean having to admit they were wrong about him, and that’s clearly a bridge too far for them.

[Tami]

I would say that for most Trumpanzees, especially the hardcore lemmings, they refuse to bail on the guy because that would mean having to admit they were wrong about him, and that’s clearly a bridge too far for them.

I did post the video earlier that showed him in the vehicle.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled former Florida Congressman and current Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, who was narrowly elected in 2018. Back in 2012, in his first Congressional run, DeSantis ran as a Tea Party candidate trying to get whatever momentum was left out of that toxic movement, and earned a second term by raving about Benghazi as much as possible in 2014.
By 2016, DeSantis was feeling cocky enough that he thought he would be able to fill the void left by Marco Rubio who was leaving his U.S. Senate seat open, and promised he wouldn’t run, so DeSantis made a run for U.S. Senate.

It wasn’t going so well, with polls showing not just that DeSantis would be crushed in the general election by any Democratic candidate, but that he would finish not just behind David Jolly, but even behind Carlos Beruff. When Rubio reneged on his promise to run for a second term for office, it made DeSantis’ decision to instead run for re-election for his House seat look far less craven.

In 2018, DeSantis sought the office being vacated by Voldemort-cosplayer Rick Scott due to term limits. This is troubling to us here at FRED because of various alliances that DeSantis has with… well, hatemongers. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted in April of 2017 that Ron DeSantis was teaming up with fellow Congressman Bill Johnson to form the Congressional Israel Victory Caucus, and in that endeavor, acting as its chairman, enlisted the help of Daniel Pipes, an anti-Islamic “activist” who has spent three decades demonizing Muslims in the political sphere, including proposing Muslim detention camps in the United States, and claiming that Muslims orchestrated the Oklahoma City bombing and not the anti-government militia lunatics who actually did it.

That relationship with a xenophobic bigot is not an outlier, by any stretch. Only a few weeks after the 2017 election, Ron DeSantis appeared at David Horowitz’s “Restoration Weekend”, a rather polite name for an event that is perhaps better classified as an Islamophobic hate rally, which that particular weekend, featured White Nationalist speakers like Steve Bannon, actual Neo-Nazi Sebastian Gorka, and Milo Yiannopoulos, who had already been revealed to have spoken several times in favor of pedophilia, as if his racist agenda wasn’t enough of a reason to be disgusted by him. And yet, there was DeSantis on stage, speaking alongside both Milo and Bannon, without any shame whatsoever. (We haven’t forgotten, Ron.)

Ron DeSantis allied himself with the Alt-Right/Neo-Nazi/White Nationalist wing of the GOP, and perhaps no greater evidence of that is the pathetic way he was trying to defend Donald Trump from the Mueller investigation. In August of 2017, he was actually trying to campaign within Congress to place a six-month timetable on the probe into any collusion between Trump and Russia. That continued until he left Congress, but he ended up being a frequent guest pundit on Fox News to try and taint the findings of the probe's investigators further, claiming that the investigation was “infected with bias” from the start. Now, why would anyone trying to win office in 2018, during a Blue Wave year, do something so stupid?

Maybe you’d get the idea that DeSantis being proud of being arm-to-arm with those intolerant jackasses means he has some courageous streak… HA! No. Because the day after yet another tragic mass shooting in Florida, this time in Parkland, Florida, a local television reporter that wasn’t satisfied with DeSantis posting “thoughts and prayers” on Twitter put a microphone in front of Rep. DeSantis to ask him if there would be any gun control measures he might support to prevent such a tragedy from happening in the future… and he cravenly ran away claiming he “had to go down” as if there was a vote about to happen. (There wasn't, he's a coward.)

His voting record as a Congressman showed him vote for Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy (but you know he would want disaster relief if a hurricane hit Florida, and he voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown and then the time came to vote to re-open the federal government, DeSantis voted to keep it closed, as well as a variety of anti-choice, pro-gun legislation through the years. DeSantis also voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act scores of times, and even voted to strip the protections granted by the Americans with Disabilities Act prior to leaving office in 2018.

Since becoming Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis has still been awful, releasing a statement to honor the victims of the Pulse shooting but neglecting to make any mention of it being a hate crime against the LGBTQ community, and then, blaming that omission on his own staff (you still signed it, Ron), Around the same time, DeSantis had a major purge where seven members of his staff quit on the same day (and no one is still sure if there’s a connection).

The initial approval ratings after his election mostly held steady for a few months, but DeSantis' honeymoon ended fast... and nothing made it clear what an incompetent, fascist boob he is like the past two years:

• April 15th, 2020: Gov. DeSantis declares WWE pro-wrestling an “essential” service to keep it open and airing during the pandemic without any pause or oversight.
• May 1st, 2020: As all public health experts are recommending social distancing guidelines and public venues remain closed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, Ron DeSantis orders all beaches to be reopened. Multiple critics compare his flippant rejection of their guidance and putting lives at risk to the Mayor of Amityville in Jaws, who refused to close the beaches for fears of angering local businesses even though a lethal threat would be present…
• June 16th, 2020: As DeSantis’s idiocy causes Florida to become one of the biggest Covid-19 hotspots in the nation and numbers skyrocket, he refuses to even consider to shut down his state again in any way.
• June 26th, 2020: Rebekah Jones, a whistleblower who worked within Florida’s Department of Health first reports that even the enormously high numbers being reported in Florida are manipulated by the DeSantis administration to hide the death toll his ignorance has wrought.
• July 20th, 2020: Gov. DeSantis is sued by the Florida Education Association, after he tries forcing Florida’s public school teachers to go back to in-person learning during the heart of the Covid-19 pandemic. (The infection rate, which was finally coming down over the summer, immediately begins spiking again in the fall as children return to classes and become vectors.)
• October 13th, 2020: There are levels of stupid, and then there’s Ron DeSantis. He hosts Donald Trump’s first political rally since he nearly died of coronavirus, and at the event, DeSantis is filmed maskless, high-fiving Trump supporters, and then immediately wiping his nose. Somehow, he avoids being added to his own abysmal Covid-19 statistics in spite of his dumbassery.

[babyblob]

Hey parents want a fun way to turn your kids into fascists? Get the Kids Guide to Trump!

https://trumpbundle.thekidsguide.com...xoCrMwQAvD_BwE

[worstblogever]

I did post the video earlier that showed him in the vehicle.

But who are they to believe Tami? Trump, or their lying eyes? LOL.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Hey parents want a fun way to turn your kids into fascists? Get the Kids Guide to Trump!

https://trumpbundle.thekidsguide.com...xoCrMwQAvD_BwE

But, right wingers accuse us godless liberals of being groomers. Yeah, right.