1. #38941

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    On this date in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” ran a profile of Ed Martin, a not-so-lovable loser in Missouri elections who has lost every election he’s run for any office since 2005. In fact, his political high water mark was still when he was appointed to be former Gov. Matt Blunt’s chief of staff, but was forced to resign for sending out anti-abortion e-mails from his government e-mail account, and when caught, violated Missouri’s Sunshine Laws by trying to delete any evidence of his wrongdoing and was forced to resign. During his 2010 campaign against Congressman Russ Carnahan, he spread as many lies as possible as he could about the Affordable Care Act, like that it funded abortions, and started launching attacks at both Carnahan’s wife, for working with Planned Parenthood, and Carnahan’s late father, while cheering on a crowd that burned a photo of Carnahan while chanting “death to the dictator”. He also said the 80% of the country who supported the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were “out of touch”, that “climate change science is garbage”, and on a local radio show, claimed that President Obama and Russ Carnahan wanted to “take away your chance to find the Lord,” in the ultimate example of a victimized Christian. While Martin didn’t win a trip to Washington, D.C., he did win the election to become the new leader of the Missouri Republican Party, in spite of all that for a stint, and currently is being surgically excised from Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum via lawsuit. When you’re too nutty for them, that says a lot.

    On this date in 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published its profiles of Kansas State Senator Steve Fitzgerald, who back in 2012, was a guest at a forum where he was introduced by a Ernest Evans, a political science professor at Kansas City Community College, who opened up the question and answer session with a joke, of sorts, sarcastically asking the famous loaded question of, “When did you stop beating your wife?” to get a laugh from the audience. Y’know, it’s the classic “the media is out to get you” reference. Well, what Evans probably wasn’t expecting was Steve Fitzgerald took the bait, and joked back, “Who said I stopped?” and then was surprised when nobody thought making light of abusing your spouse was hilarious. Fitzgerald also once told a group of Catholics that “one cannot support the Democratic platform and be a true follower of Christ” because Democrats support gay marriage. When you consider Jesus never said anything about gays, and was pretty specific about feeding the hungry and aiding the poor, the GOP platform seems a lot more out of synch with his teachings. Just to nitpick. Fitzgerald also has a staunchly conservative legislative record, including showing his Pro-Life credentials by sponsoring the “Kansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act”, his vote to drug test welfare recipients, his attempts to nullify federal firearms laws, his cooperation with insane Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on his tax breaks for the rich at the expense of the poor, and his sponsorship of a bill to legalize concealed carry without a permit in Kansas. In March of 2017, Fitzgerald added to his extremist anti-abortion statements by, upon learning that someone made a donation to Planned Parenthood in his name, comparing Planned Parenthood to the Nazi concentration camp at Dauchau. When asked if he sent the letter by the media, Fitzgerald admitted he did, called the letter he received “harassment” and “political theatre”, but thought that people should be confused over who should be offended, saying, “I think the Nazis ought to be incensed by the comparison.” He went on to then compare Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, while he was at it. In July of 2018, Steve Fitzgerald decided to go full-on white nationalist in his talking points, when during a meeting of the Leavenworth County GOP, he spoke about how “Christendom is under attack”, and that “outside of Western civilization, there is barbarism”. For whatever reason, he thought that meant he’d be a great U.S. Congressman, and in 2018, ran for the U.S. House seat for Kansas 2nd Congressional District, to replace the retiring Congresswoman, Lynn Jenkins. After finishing fourth in the primary, Fitzgerald announced he was retiring from politics.

    On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled the long-time U.S. Senator from Kansas, Pat Roberts, was in Congress since 1981, serving eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives for Kansas’ 1st District before winning a seat in the upper chamber in 1997 and sticking around until 2020. During his 1996 campaign for Senate, Roberts was the only major party candidate for Senate that year to not sign an agreement to honor term limits. He did, however, pledge that he would only serve two terms in the Senate. (Spoiler alert, his second term started in 2003, and he still ran for re-election for a third and fourth term in 2008 and 2014.) And that’s how there was an 84 year old Senator Pat Roberts. Well, that and you don’t pay attention to the fact that he hasn’t actually lived in Kansas since 2014, and lists a rental property he never actually visits as a golf course as his “home” back there. Seriously, he never went back to Kansas. If you needed that underlined any more for you, consider that Sen. Roberts’ personal website used a sunflower field that isn’t, in fact, in Kansas, but is actually a stock photo from Ukraine. While for some time, Pat Roberts has been thought of as one of the “more responsible” Republican Senators as the Tea Party wave gave way to the GOP becoming the “Party of Trump”, he has, in his old age, caved to the extremists within his own party repeatedly. In 2014, he actually followed Sen. Ted Cruz’s lead and voted against the Farm Bill… even though Roberts is from Kansas… and was the one who wrote the Farm Bill. He also allied himself with the loons when Bob Dole begged the Republican Party to vote for the United Nations’ treaty with people with disabilities, which is even sadder given Dole campaigned for Roberts’ 1996 Senate campaign back in Kansas while he was running for president. In 2016, Sen. Roberts may have put the cherry on top of his long, long history of anti-LGBTQ votes (including against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and for the Defense of Marriage Act) when he unilaterally blocked Eric Fanning as a nominee for Secretary of the Army because Fanning was openly gay. Roberts tried claiming it was because Fanning wanted to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, but critics noted, he was full of s***, because he’d voted for other nominees who also wanted Gitmo shut down. Pat Roberts was, like most Republicans, opposed to federal healthcare. After serving as one of the most staunch critics of the Affordable Care Act or any of the early versions of it that were up for votes in 2009, he supported every repeal of the bill that came forth in its wake from Republicans. In 2017, Sen. Roberts made some headlines during debate on the AHCA, aka Trumpcare, when he was arguing against funding for it also covering maternity and women’s health coverage. When asked about it by Alice Olstein, Roberts sarcastically quipped, “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms.” After facing widespread criticism for mocking breast cancer screenings, he reluctantly apologized on social media. Go figure, he also resents women’s rights so much that he stated in 2014 that calling Roe V. Wade “settled law” was “unconscionable”, and celebrating the ruling in the Supreme Court case that allowed employers to reject the contraceptive coverage of women on “religious grounds”. Oh, and he also shrugged when asked about investigations into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh being accused by multiple women of sexual assault, arguing against the FBI investigating the claims because, “What else could we learn?” As far as gun control discussions go, how typical is Pat Roberts, and his “A” rating from the NRA? Even in the wake of the Las Vegas Shooting, where more people were killed in a single mass shooting in American history by a madman with modified semi-automatic rifles who used bump stocks to effectively turn them into automatic weapons… even then, in the wake of the shooting when people thought gun stocks should be banned, Roberts insisted “I think it’s too early for that,” regarding ANY measures that could be taken. Roberts retired in 2020.
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  2. #38942

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    On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled John Green, who was elected in 2018 to represent District 2 of Idaho’s House of Representatives, and we’re starting to wonder if there’s some sort of curse on that seat. Because Green was preceded in office by one Eric Redman, who we covered a short time ago for having ties to Islamophobic hate groups who were writing bills for him to submit. After Green’s tenure, well, he got Tim Remington, who we’re going to have to profile for being a pastor and big Ted Cruz ally who railed against Covid-19 restrictions because he might have to close his church. John Green… his campaign for office was almost solely based on his die-hard belief in the 2nd Amendment, his further obsession with the 10th Amendment, and his loathing for the 14th Amendment, thinking that state legislatures should choose U.S. Senators for the state, and not allow the voters to do so themselves. On domestic issues, he was over-the-top kooky, supporting Personhood in regards to reproductive rights, and as a state legislator, far and away the most revolting thing you might notice would be that he voted against a ban on child marriage in Idaho. But we profile John Green not because of that extremism as a state legislator, but because a year into his term, he was convicted of tax fraud in a case in Texas where he worked as an attorney for a couple and helped them hide their wealth from the IRS. Once he was convicted, the Idaho House of Representatives had a vote to expel him from his elected position, and that vote was unanimous. He is the only person to have ever been granted this dishonor in the history of the Gem State. Bizarrely, John Green decided that being a convicted felon appealing his tax fraud case would make him a great candidate for sheriff and wanted to run for that in 2020. He was of course not regarded as a credible candidate given his legal woes. Green ended up getting a light six month sentence for fraud, and began serving time in June of 2021. As he seems unlikely to ever reach office after doing a turn in the joint, we’ll set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1064-50, since this was established in July 2014.


    Paul Romero

    Welcome to what is the 1064th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Paul Romero, who was a failed candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District in both 2016 and 2018, a failed candidate for U.S. Senate in Oregon in 2020, and is currently a candidate running for Governor of Oregon in 2022.

    Now, running for particularly progressive-leaning districts in a blue state twice might be a tall order for a political win, let alone state-wide office for a political outsider running as a Republican in that same blue state… but what’s really hurting Romero’s own chances is how casually he refers to any Democrats in office as “socialist. It’s not hard to see how the guy got radicalized if you look at his Twitter feed and see him sharing the thoughts of white nationalists like Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk or Jack Posobiec, dedicated Islamophobic hatemongers like Brigette Gabriel, Covid-19 truthers pushing anti-mask or anti-vaccination propaganda, or reliable “intelligence” from ancient former game show host Chuck Woolery about Joe and Hunter Biden in a secret corruption scandal with the Chinese government. Y’know, just normal boiler-plate policy for Republicans these days.

    But what really got everyone’s attention about Paul Romero in 2020 was when while state authorities were battling wildfires, he thought it would be a good idea to put out an outlandish claim on Twitter :
    And then Qanon idiots started sharing it, because of course. This caused several right-wing loons to show up at the Douglas County Sheriff’s office looking for details the police had about the “Antifa suspects” (that didn’t exist), and then there were other militia goons that believed Romero who went out and started pulling guns on reporters covering the fire to see if they were somehow “Antifa”. Proving again, conservatives for some reason only regard the word as a boogeyman but hey isn’t it also weird that these kinda-fascist acting people are really spooked that an anti-fascist group might come for them?

    Anyway, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department had to put out a press release to debunk Paul Romero’s dumb, dumb post before some idiots went and killed “Antifa”. Someone might want to let Dominion Voting Systems they also have another politician to sue for libel/slander, as Romero is spreading conspiracy theories about “election fraud” in the 2020 election as well.

    If elected, which absolutely should not happen, Romero wants to eliminate all income and property taxes in Oregon, restrict the ability of Child Protection Services to remove children from homes (we’re thinking there’s some Qanon “child trafficking by the government” motivation on that policy plank), among a slew of other really “out there” things he wants to shake up. We’re hoping he doesn’t make it out of the GOP Primary, but considering he finished second in the Senate Primary in 2020 to JoAnn Perkins, we’re a little unsettled by who Oregon Republicans are willing to choose as a favorite. We’re fine if he does, so long as Gov. Kate Brown pummels him at the polls.
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  3. #38943
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    It's a minor thing, but it bothers me. A judge in Michigan berated a 72 year old cancer patient from Bangladesh for not cleaning his alley to her satisfaction, and said she'd love to send him to jail if she could. Now I have quite a ways to go before I hit that age, but I have had cancer treatments, and it nearly killed me. The only thing I could do was wish I was dead. I imagine the elderly gentleman feels the same or worse.

    There is a petition on Change.org evidently to fire Judge Karen. Empathy, common sense, decency----things this judge is lacking.

  4. #38944
    Astonishing Member JackDaw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by achilles View Post
    Well, I'd sign on to stopping that, but I don't think it's a huge issue, as it only comes up once in a while, so it never seems urgent.
    Are there often examples where pardons are used wisely, or is it typically used to free friends, cronies, supporters?

  5. #38945
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by achilles View Post
    It's a minor thing, but it bothers me. A judge in Michigan berated a 72 year old cancer patient from Bangladesh for not cleaning his alley to her satisfaction, and said she'd love to send him to jail if she could. Now I have quite a ways to go before I hit that age, but I have had cancer treatments, and it nearly killed me. The only thing I could do was wish I was dead. I imagine the elderly gentleman feels the same or worse.

    There is a petition on Change.org evidently to fire Judge Karen. Empathy, common sense, decency----things this judge is lacking.
    Yeah, this judge was wrong.

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  6. #38946
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JackDaw View Post
    Are there often examples where pardons are used wisely, or is it typically used to free friends, cronies, supporters?
    There are a few examples of pardons being used well.

    It's one of the few corrections for excessive prison sentences. It can also be a way for the nation to apologize for a bad conviction from years earlier.

    Obama pardoned more people than previous Presidents, often with people serving lengthy sentences for non-violent drug offenses.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/u...-clemency.html
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    Quote Originally Posted by JackDaw View Post
    Are there often examples where pardons are used wisely, or is it typically used to free friends, cronies, supporters?
    I don't know; we mostly hear about it when it's a pardon for someone who shouldn't have one. So....yeah, I don't know.

  8. #38948
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    ... the research is conclusive
    Several studies over the past year have shown that widespread masking can significantly curb transmission from student to student.

    For example, one study in Wood County, Wisconsin, last fall found that schools that required masking had a whopping 37 percent lower incidence of COVID-19 than the surrounding community. Another study, conducted in Salt Lake County, Utah, last winter, found that high levels of mask wearing among students helped keep the rate of in-school spread of the coronavirus to under 1% — even as COVID-19 cases were surging in the wider community.
    https://www.npr.org/sections/back-to...-19-in-schools

    Meanwhile, DeSantis and now Youngkin continue their anti-mask crusader to appease anti-minor-inconvenience conservatives.

  9. #38949
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    https://www.npr.org/sections/back-to...-19-in-schools

    Meanwhile, DeSantis and now Youngkin continue their anti-mask crusader to appease anti-minor-inconvenience conservatives.
    Luckily, some of the counties are pushing back against Youngkin

  10. #38950
    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    https://www.npr.org/sections/back-to...-19-in-schools

    Meanwhile, DeSantis and now Youngkin continue their anti-mask crusader to appease anti-minor-inconvenience conservatives.
    And yet, at the same time, their beloved orange god appears to be pushing the vaccine. Boy, that sure must be confusing poorly educated conservatives.
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    Quote Originally Posted by WestPhillyPunisher View Post
    And yet, at the same time, their beloved orange god appears to be pushing the vaccine. Boy, that sure must be confusing poorly educated conservatives.
    How so?

    They've followed Trump mindlessly for a while now, logic won't stop them now.

  12. #38952
    Ultimate Member Malvolio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by worstblogever View Post
    On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled John Green, who was elected in 2018 to represent District 2 of Idaho’s House of Representatives, and we’re starting to wonder if there’s some sort of curse on that seat. Because Green was preceded in office by one Eric Redman, who we covered a short time ago for having ties to Islamophobic hate groups who were writing bills for him to submit. After Green’s tenure, well, he got Tim Remington, who we’re going to have to profile for being a pastor and big Ted Cruz ally who railed against Covid-19 restrictions because he might have to close his church. John Green… his campaign for office was almost solely based on his die-hard belief in the 2nd Amendment, his further obsession with the 10th Amendment, and his loathing for the 14th Amendment, thinking that state legislatures should choose U.S. Senators for the state, and not allow the voters to do so themselves. On domestic issues, he was over-the-top kooky, supporting Personhood in regards to reproductive rights, and as a state legislator, far and away the most revolting thing you might notice would be that he voted against a ban on child marriage in Idaho. But we profile John Green not because of that extremism as a state legislator, but because a year into his term, he was convicted of tax fraud in a case in Texas where he worked as an attorney for a couple and helped them hide their wealth from the IRS. Once he was convicted, the Idaho House of Representatives had a vote to expel him from his elected position, and that vote was unanimous. He is the only person to have ever been granted this dishonor in the history of the Gem State. Bizarrely, John Green decided that being a convicted felon appealing his tax fraud case would make him a great candidate for sheriff and wanted to run for that in 2020. He was of course not regarded as a credible candidate given his legal woes. Green ended up getting a light six month sentence for fraud, and began serving time in June of 2021. As he seems unlikely to ever reach office after doing a turn in the joint, we’ll set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1064-50, since this was established in July 2014.


    Paul Romero

    Welcome to what is the 1064th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Paul Romero, who was a failed candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District in both 2016 and 2018, a failed candidate for U.S. Senate in Oregon in 2020, and is currently a candidate running for Governor of Oregon in 2022.

    Now, running for particularly progressive-leaning districts in a blue state twice might be a tall order for a political win, let alone state-wide office for a political outsider running as a Republican in that same blue state… but what’s really hurting Romero’s own chances is how casually he refers to any Democrats in office as “socialist. It’s not hard to see how the guy got radicalized if you look at his Twitter feed and see him sharing the thoughts of white nationalists like Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk or Jack Posobiec, dedicated Islamophobic hatemongers like Brigette Gabriel, Covid-19 truthers pushing anti-mask or anti-vaccination propaganda, or reliable “intelligence” from ancient former game show host Chuck Woolery about Joe and Hunter Biden in a secret corruption scandal with the Chinese government. Y’know, just normal boiler-plate policy for Republicans these days.

    But what really got everyone’s attention about Paul Romero in 2020 was when while state authorities were battling wildfires, he thought it would be a good idea to put out an outlandish claim on Twitter :


    And then Qanon idiots started sharing it, because of course. This caused several right-wing loons to show up at the Douglas County Sheriff’s office looking for details the police had about the “Antifa suspects” (that didn’t exist), and then there were other militia goons that believed Romero who went out and started pulling guns on reporters covering the fire to see if they were somehow “Antifa”. Proving again, conservatives for some reason only regard the word as a boogeyman but hey isn’t it also weird that these kinda-fascist acting people are really spooked that an anti-fascist group might come for them?

    Anyway, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department had to put out a press release to debunk Paul Romero’s dumb, dumb post before some idiots went and killed “Antifa”. Someone might want to let Dominion Voting Systems they also have another politician to sue for libel/slander, as Romero is spreading conspiracy theories about “election fraud” in the 2020 election as well.

    If elected, which absolutely should not happen, Romero wants to eliminate all income and property taxes in Oregon, restrict the ability of Child Protection Services to remove children from homes (we’re thinking there’s some Qanon “child trafficking by the government” motivation on that policy plank), among a slew of other really “out there” things he wants to shake up. We’re hoping he doesn’t make it out of the GOP Primary, but considering he finished second in the Senate Primary in 2020 to JoAnn Perkins, we’re a little unsettled by who Oregon Republicans are willing to choose as a favorite. We’re fine if he does, so long as Gov. Kate Brown pummels him at the polls.
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  13. #38953
    I am invenitable Jack Dracula's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JackDaw View Post
    From a UK perspective, allowing politicians stepping down to pardon random criminals seems beyond bizarre.

    Isn’t there any keenness in US to cease the practice?
    My opinion is it shouldn’t be available for Presidents to free their cronies who’ve been convicted of crimes perpetrated on their behalf. But what do I know?
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  14. #38954

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    Quote Originally Posted by Malvolio View Post
    Did he think he was auditioning for an action movie when he posed for that picture?
    He clearly does his own stunts.
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  15. #38955
    Invincible Member Kirby101's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JackDaw View Post
    From a UK perspective, allowing politicians stepping down to pardon random criminals seems beyond bizarre.

    Isn’t there any keenness in US to cease the practice?
    It's in the Constitution, so it can't be changed without a new Amendment. Close to impossible. And there is no real support for doing it.
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