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

[CaptainEurope]

Most people don't think of Turkey when they think earth quakes but it's a pretty active spot.

With a very corrupt construction industry. Every few years you have one of those quakes destroying buildings and then they find out that supporting walls were hollow and filled with garbage.

[AnakinFlair]

Man, that earthquake in Turkey and Syria looks nasty.

Word has it deaths are in the hundreds, perhaps a thousand.

Last I saw the death toll was 2300 and rising. Just horrifying.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, who while a challenger to Mitch McConnell's U.S. Senate seat back in 2014, came out in support of Personhood legislation to give zygotes the same rights as fully born adult citizens, and who attended a rally in support of cockfighting (and then unsuccessfully tried lying about it when the media reported on it). Matt Bevin then won the 2015 GOP Primary in the governor’s race in Kentucky by a whopping 83 votes, and went on to top the Democrat in the field even though he had spoken about the Medicaid Expansion in Kentucky, and expressed his desire to reverse the decision, which would take away healthcare from hundreds of thousands of people in Kentucky. Much like his previous gaffe with going to a dogfighting rally, Bevin tried denying he ever made remarks about stripping healthcare from so many... even though he was caught on tape doing so. Bevin was elected even though he professed in October that he wanted to execute the failed policy several states implemented of drug testing welfare recipients. Since taking office, Bevin immediately started using the power of his office to reverse any progress done by outgoing Governor Steve Beshear over the past couple years, including the reversal an executive order made by Beshear to restore the voting rights of some who had them taken away permanently for felony convictions, or doing whatever he could to help out bigoted county clerks like Kim Davis who were losing their minds about having to do their jobs and sign off on same sex marriages by changing the way marriage licenses are written so that the clerk's name not only doesn't need to be signed, but doesn't appear at all on the document.

In September of 2016 at the Voter Values Summit, Matt Bevin lost his goddamned mind when he was asked if the country could “survive a Clinton presidency”, and began rambling about revolution, saying, “The roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what?. The blood, of who? The tyrants to be sure, but who else? The patriots. Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren.” When asked for clarification about his remarks, he became even more paranoid, adding, “Today we have thousands of men and women in uniform fighting for us overseas and they need our full backing. We cannot be complacent about the determination of radical Islamic extremists to destroy our freedoms.” But a month later, Matt Bevin was urging preachers and clergy to ignore whatever warnings they might have received about politicking (which can jeopardize their tax-exempt status), and help the GOP campaign to win offices, and calling the existing law a “paper tiger”. Outside of rhetoric, we’re not fans of Gov. Bevin on policy, either, as he has spent the early part of 2017 trying to get “right to work” legislation passed in Kentucky, and do whatever he can within his power to harm workers’ unions in his state.

2017 was a particularly insane year for Matt Bevin, starting in January of that year when he released a Facebook live video where he trashed the name of his state Attorney General, Andy Beshear,because Beshear revealed that he wouldn’t challenge a lawsuit against HB 2, an anti-abortion law Bevin signed even though it was patently unconstitutional based on all precedent. This would, of course, save the state from not just the cost of losing that lawsuit, but the time and effort involved. During his rant, Bevin called Beshear “dishonorable” and called out a newspaper from the Courier Journal of Louisville and calling her reporting “lies”. In March 2017, Gov. Bevin signed SB 17 into law, a “religious freedom” law that allows public school students to express religious and political views in homework and class projects “free from discrimination or penalty,” distribute political and religious literature, and wear religious items and symbols. Where it completely goes off the rails, is the law would allow for student organizations to openly discriminate against LGBTQ students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. In other words, it’s a violation of the separation of church and state, and just flat out discrimination, with lawsuits immediately getting filed that the state will inevitably lose. By the end of that month, Bevin’s administration began filing lawsuits against every abortion clinic in Kentucky, and nearly did so to the extent that they nearly closed the last one in the state. The move was blocked, however, by a judge’s ruling.

In May of 2017, Bevin referred to the local press as “cicadas” in a Facebook Live broadcast in an attack on his local press, and within a week, this led an apparent Bevin supporter to shoot out the windows of the Lexington Herald-Leader. In August of 2017, after a Neo-Nazi drove his vehicle into counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, injuring a score of people and killing Heather Heyer, Matt Bevin echoed the remarks of Donald Trump, claiming that “both sides” were to blame. (It’s hard to get any lower than that…) By October of 2017 Bevin stated his desire to never legalize marijuana usage in Kentucky because of “people overdosing based on ingestion of products that are edibles and things,” adding “law enforcement people in emergency rooms being overrun by problems.” (HINT: There are not marijuana overdoses happening, from edibles or otherwise.)

In 2018, Matt Bevin threatened to take away Medicaid funding from half a million people in Kentucky “if they don’t work for it”, blamed an uptick in gun violence over the past several years, particularly in school shootings, has nothing to do with the easy availability of firearms, but it’s actually due to “violent video games, appeared in a about noted homophobic bigot Kim Davis, declaring her an “inspiration to the children of America”. He also responded to a teacher’s strike in Kentucky by making the ridiculous accusation that teachers not being in school led to a mass outbreak of child molestations in Kentucky, and went Louisville’s Phoenix Hill school district (which is demographically 86% black and 13% Hispanic)to makes the very tone deaf and insensitive statement, "I'm going to go in and meet the members of the West Louisville Chess Club -- not something you necessarily would have thought of when you think of this section of town”.

Matt Bevin was the least popular governor in the United States in December 2018, after the Lexington Courier-Journal and Pro-Publica begin investigations into his administration, Gov. Bevin went on a paranoid, conspiracy-theory-laden rant about how they are “biased” and claimed that they were funded by George Soros. Only days later, a Neo-Nazi mass shooter in Pittsburgh gunned down a synagogue, while ranting about George Soros. He wouldn’t get any less paranoid as the 2019 election approached.

On January 30th, 2019: After public schools close in Kentucky during minus-15 degree weather, Gov. Bevin complains about how “we’re getting soft” for not sending children out to get frostbite. By March 2019, Matt Bevin apparently was not yet done campaigning on his “cruelty to children” method to winning re-election, as he began boasting about deliberately exposing his 9 children to chickenpox rather than getting them vaccinated. He then followed by going on an anti-vaccination, small-government tirade. As his re-election approached, in 2019, Bevin became more and more desperate, and things look really bleak as Donald Trump, Jr. comes to stump for his re-election… and only about a hundred people showed up to the event. It didn’t even save him when Donald Trump came to host a rally on Matt Bevin’s behalf, where he makes everything about him, telling Bevin, “You’re sending that big message to the rest of the country. It’s so important, you got to get your friends, you got to vote. Because if you lose, it sends a really bad message. You can’t let that happen to me.” Democrat Andy Beshear ended up defeating Matt Bevin by about 5,400 votes to become the Governor of Kentucky, denying Bevin a second term. Eight days after the election, Bevin still had not conceded to Beshear, and continued to spread conspiracy theories about supposed “voter fraud”. Even fellow Republicans including U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell started to tell him to pack it in. In his last days in office, Matt Bevin makes 650 shocking and egregious pardons of Kentucky felons without first doing the proper review process, including a convicted murderer whose family donated money to Bevin’s campaign, a man who raped a 9-year old because Bevin believed he couldn’t have done anything because the victim’s “hymen was intact”, and a man who raped an unconscious teenage boy with a sex toy at a party, nearly killing the victim in the assault (Which the perpetrator FILMED. THERE IS VIDEO EVIDENCE.) The FBI has launched a formal investigation into the legality of Bevin’s lame duck pardons. Now, we’re revolted by the last acts of Governor Matt Bevin, and those pardons, but we arerelieved he’s no longer in office, and based on him giving some of the biggest monsters in Kentucky’s prisons their freedom to roam the streets (possibly because Bevin is just evil and wants children to suffer), we’re almost certain he will never win office, anywhere, again (We hope).

[AnakinFlair]

Got to love China (not really):


China accuses U.S. of using ‘indiscriminate’ force as military searches for balloon remnants

Love this little chestnut:

The United States “obviously overreacted and seriously violated the spirit of international law and international practice,” Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said in comments to the embassy posted on the Foreign Ministry website.

Never mind the fact that they violated our airspace first, and multiple times. Though I guess with how Trump didn't react, they probably expected the balloon the fly back home after it was done over the US.

[JCAll]

Got to love China (not really):


China accuses U.S. of using ‘indiscriminate’ force as military searches for balloon remnants

Love this little chestnut:



Never mind the fact that they violated our airspace first, and multiple times. Though I guess with how Trump didn't react, they probably expected the balloon the fly back home after it was done over the US.

I mean, we love blowing things up. Seems that would be completely in the spirit of the agreement to us.

[mogwen]

Trump Denies Pentagon’s Claim That China Flew Balloons Over U.S. During His Term

“China had too much respect for ‘TRUMP,’" the former president wrote, calling the Pentagon's claim of "at least three" incidents "fake disinformation." Well, of course Dolt45 denied the claim. The only surprise would've been if he admitted it was true.

Isn't fake disinformation well information?

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, profilied Joyce Bentley, a 2018 and a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Nevada’s 1st Congressional District another Republican running for Congress who openly supported the Qanon conspiracy. In October 2018, Bentley shared a link to a Qanon account and posted, “Q- We Are The Plan.” Among the conspiracy theories in the single video she shared included:

• “Our world has been under the growing influence of a vast transgenerational criminal mafia that was able to rise up to the highest levels of power. … Through a system of threats, blackmail, and bribery, they would come to occupy the highest levels of power in government, corporations, and education. You may know them as the deep state, or cabal.”
• “Most dangerously of all," members of the deep state "achieved almost total influence over the media -- their primary means of controlling the good people of the world who were just trying to get on with living.”
• “There was no way to continue without a plan to eliminate all threats to their survival, even if it meant imposing a single world government under their jurisdiction -- where no national identity, police force, or military could stop them. They called it globalism.”
• “Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal funded [Barack] Obama’s Harvard education and took power by proxy, picking his entire cabinet while buying vast quantities of control in our largest media companies.“
• "The western faction of the cabal was different. It was another kind of sick all together: a dark and deeply sinister death cult with a strong reliance on symbolism and numerology with levels of cruelty unimaginable to all right-thinking people. The reach and scale this secret society had achieved would have sent destabilizing shockwaves across the world were it ever to be publicly exposed.”

Once the press started reporting on her support of Qanon, Bentley deleted the post, but screencaps are forever. That had a lot to do with why she only got 31% of the vote in 2018 and lost to Congresswoman Dina Titus. In 2020, she made fewer Qanon support posts, and went with the pitch of “President Trump can’t be everywhere, and do everything, so I want to help MAGA”. That’s kind of backed up by her support for the expensive, brain-addled boondoggle that was Trump’s idea for a border wall along the U.S./Mexico border. None of that, of course, stopped Bentley from winning the Republican Primary for the seat, but she got wrecked in the general election again by Dina Titus, earning only 33% of the vote. Hopefully, two beatdowns at the polls is enough for her to take a hint and stop before she can get elected somewhere to damage whomever are misguided enough to put her in office.

On this date in 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Tina Forte, a 2022 Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in New York’s 14th Congressional District looking to be the one who improbably can upset Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for daring to be inspiring to liberals and to actually want to help people with the power she has, because empathy and effective governance are anathema to the GOP right now. Tina Forte has expressed her support for the Qanon conspiracy theory repeatedly, including promoting the “Save the Children” campaign that furthered talk of an evil cult of liberals trafficking children and posting multiple times with the Qanon hashtag, made posts where she discussed “The Great Awakening” or “The Deep State” or flat out took selfies of herself in Qanon gear. But of course when the media asks, she’ll like and claim she doesn’t support Qanon and never has. This is only the tip of the iceberg from a sordid extremist background she’s running from, considering she was also one of the twits who stormed the Capitol on January 6th where she and her cohorts that day had a side mission to break into the office of AOC, the woman she’s hoping to unseat. Forte was dumb enough to have live-streamed her activities during the insurrection, yet somehow has yet to face criminal charges even though she filmed herself entering restricted areas. She also was pretty clearly there for expected violence, as she chose to wear a bulletproof vest for the occasion under her MAGA gear. She’s also a big superfan of men in hate groups. While there’s only a few photos of her posing with Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, one is also on the same day he committed a hate crime at a historic black church in Washington, D.C., There are a TON of photos of her posing with multiple felon and Neo-Nazi (pretty comfortable calling that given his “Mein Kampf” tattoo) Carl Ulzheimer all over her social media feed, including the fact that both were together on January 6th when they raised all sorts of hell together on the Capitol grounds. As she is an insurrectionist who is pals with hate group leaders , we will set aside her profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1184-55, since this was established in July 2014.


Tina Peters
Welcome to what is the 1184th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Tina Peters, a former County Clerk for Mesa County in Colorado who ran in 2022 to be the Colorado Secretary of State and oversee the state’s elections.This was especially concerning because Peters had been removed from overseeing Mesa County’s elections in 2022, because in April of 2021, she started trying to prove “election fraud” in 2021, likely at the bidding of folks like Ron Watkins (who somehow was in possession of images of Mesa County’s elections systems) and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and much of it was criminal.

It wasn’t just spreading “The Big Lie” for Donald Trump, in her role as Mesa County Clerk, this stems from the fact that she allowed an outsider unauthorized to view election equipment and records to breach Mesa County’s election office, and she is facing a total of 10 total counts, including seven felony charges that include attempting to influence a public servant, identity theft, criminal impersonation and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. By damaging the election machines, they were thus compromised at that point, and had to be replaced to the tune of $1 million towards taxpayers.

What she was trying to prove happened in Mesa County seems silly, given Trump won that county by 28 points. It’s the rest of Colorado that’s more liberal that caused him to lose the state handily. She was officially charged in March of 2022, three months before the primary election for Secretary of State that would allow her to oversee Colorado’s next election in 2024. She has been investigated, and at points, arrested for not cooperating with that investigation (including being caught on video kicking arresting officers who came to get her) or for ignoring a judge’s order to not leave the state so she could appear at election conspiracy theory wankfests by CEO Mike Lindell. At different points she's also claimed Lauren Boebert encouraged her to attempt all of the crimes she's accused of.

Tina Peters finished third in the GOP Primary to be Colorado Secretary of State in June of 2022, but still got 27% of the vote. She immediately, of course, declared there was “election fraud”. But that she got 27% of the vote… that tells you a lot about modern Republicans, that they voted for someone accused of committing crimes and trying to steal an election for their party to oversee all elections for the state. She has plead not guilty to all charges, and will be in court in March of 2023 to face trial.

We hope she ends in up jail for a really, really long time.

[AnakinFlair]

Got to love China (not really):


China accuses U.S. of using ‘indiscriminate’ force as military searches for balloon remnants

Love this little chestnut:



Never mind the fact that they violated our airspace first, and multiple times. Though I guess with how Trump didn't react, they probably expected the balloon the fly back home after it was done over the US.

Current header on MSNBC as they talk over the Republican reaction to the balloon story:

"Biden WH offers to brief Trump officials on past Chinese spy balloon incidents."

[The Cool Thatguy]

Got to love China (not really):


China accuses U.S. of using ‘indiscriminate’ force as military searches for balloon remnants

Love this little chestnut:



Never mind the fact that they violated our airspace first, and multiple times. Though I guess with how Trump didn't react, they probably expected the balloon the fly back home after it was done over the US.

Given how China pretends that the borders of their country extend farther out to sea than international law allows, you'd think they'd just be silent or apologetic

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”posted profiles of Brian Greene, a member of the Utah House of Representatives serving District 57 who decided to ask in a committee meeting of the Utah state legislature why the law should always be that sex with an unconscious person should be rape. He even cited an example where he felt there should be an exception to this rule… if it’s your spouse. After the incident, Greene tried claiming he was taken out of context, showing he didn't understand how context works. We’ll add that Greene also voted to block the Medicaid expansion in Utah, voted to allow businesses to still be able to fire employees just for being gay or transgendered, voted after Sandy Hook to legalize concealed carry of firearms without a permit, and in one of the more specific pieces of legislation he’s submitted, was pushing to make sure that someone has to be fully clothed or covered with a sheet between themselves and a masseuse’s hands, only giving a massage therapist a green light to touch someone’s exposed hands, feet, or ears. In 2017, Greene voted against a bill that would require licensed lobbyists in the Utah state legislature to have to go through the Herculean labor of having to go through simple sexual harassment training, because, and we quote:
[QUOTE] "I think it's pretty clear what's appropriate and what isn't. I hate to get into the false sense of security that we can somehow educate people on what appropriate behavior is and inappropriate behavior is." To reiterate, the guy who had to ask if it’s rape if the person is unconscious, and doesn’t think you can rape your spouse now would like us to believe that he knows what’s clear and appropriate behavior for a lobbyist, and would like to do nothing to stop a toxic environment of harassment. We at least don’t have to continue to ask the voters in his district, “WHY DO YOU KEEP VOTING FOR THIS ****ING IDIOT?” anymore, because mercifully, Brian Greene did not run for re-election in 2018, and is now out of office.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, profiled David Byrd, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives who held office from 2014-2020, His voting record aligns himself with the craziest legislation in Tennessee from the past few years as well, including anti-LGBTQ votes like trying to allow adoption agencies to refuse to adopt to same sex couples, co-sponsoring fetal heart beat legislation, co-sponsoring the bill to have Tennessee build a “monument to the unborn”, trying to strip funding to the University of Tennessee’s diversity office, and of course, trying to establish the Bible as the state book. The guy’s not exactly playing with a full deck, but then again, we’re not profiling him because of his legislative record. Honestly, it’s kind of amazing that he’s still in office in 2020, given how his 2018 election season went. Because, in March of 2018, three women who were basketball players who played for Byrd when he was a girl’s basketball coach three decades earlier came forward to accuse him of sexually assaulting them, and of other improper behavior when they were as young as 15. And… we shouldn’t need to explain what’s wrong with that. Byrd denies it happened, but there’s a recording of a phone call he had with one of his accusers where he seems to acknowledge something happened, and his best defense is to say “he’s a Christian” and he can’t recall details from 30 years ago. His main defender in the state legislature is former Tennessee Speaker of the House Glen Casada, who has his own scandals to deal with. Because the GOP didn’t run a primary challenger against him in 2018, and his district is conservative enough that an accused pedophile can win by 55 points against a Democrat. At least the good news that we can end this profile with is that as of August 2019, David Byrd announced he would not be seeking re-election in 2020. The fact that this vile piece of garbage who preyed on girls and the Tennessee GOP are allowing him to serve in office for three full years after the allegations, however, is very telling about the state of current Republican politics.



On this date in 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Tennessee State Senator Kerry Roberts, who has represented District 25 of that body since 2011. Through the past seven years on this blog, we have acknowledged that the Tennessee state legislator is positively loaded with kooks, loons, and crooked snakes, so it makes it hard for one person to be as extreme enough to stand out. Roberts has managed to find a way the past few years. Sure, his voting record has a lot of red flags, including co-sponsoring fetal heart beat legislation, co-sponsoring the bill to have Tennessee build a “monument to the unborn”, including anti-LGBTQ votes like trying to allow adoption agencies to refuse to allow same sex couples to adopt children, voting to put guns in schools and college campuses, trying to strip funding to the University of Tennessee’s diversity office, and of course, trying to establish the Bible as the state book.

Here’s where the plot thickens… Roberts hosts his own right-wing talk-radio show, where he tends to say the quiet parts out loud. Back in September of 2019, he was discussing a recent legislative hearing on abortion, and mused that he supports getting rid of higher education because he argues it would cut off the "liberal breeding ground." Now, if calling for the shutdown of public colleges and universities isn’t literally advocating for ignorance and stupidity and a good stopping point, he continued on to lie and say that a woman's belief in her own bodily autonomy was a "product of higher education" and if the country got rid of higher education would "save America."

This, of course, led to a lot of criticism, because, for lack of a better term, whoa, that’s nuts. Upon this push back against his comments, Kerry Roberts pulled the classic move of Republican fascists these days who when they go too far, claiming they’re joking and didn’t really mean they wanted to do all the horrible things they just said they wished to do.

Our other reason for focusing on Roberts? Oh, just that he sponsored legislation to stop the removal of Confederate monuments in June of 2020. And by that, we mean he wanted to keep a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the KKK, in the state capitol. This as Confederate monuments were being removed all over the country during protests over the death of George Floyd. But you see, Kerry Roberts needed an object in his legislature to pass by to remind him of white supremacy, as one does.

Since our first profile of Roberts, he has further emphasized how f***ed up his political priorities are, as he wanted to call a special session of the Tennessee legislature to be able to place bans on mask mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to allow for the horse dewormer ivermectin to be discussed as a treatment for those infected with it (even though it provides no ascertainable benefit of any kind, and may actually put patients more at risk).

Kerry Roberts was re-elected in the 2022 elections, which went far too easily, as he got to run for re-election unopposed. He's got four more years to damage his state from within.

[CaptainEurope]

Current header on MSNBC as they talk over the Republican reaction to the balloon story:

"Biden WH offers to brief Trump officials on past Chinese spy balloon incidents."

The Biden White House knows how to throw shade.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

After banking on Charlie Kirk to deliver the youth vote the past couple of cycles and tanking miserably, the Republican Party brings out their new secret weapon to appeal to Gen Z and Millennials.

Well, Sad Sack Sarah will definitely reel in the Hew Haw/country bumpkin voters, especially if she dolls herself up like this:

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Let's be clear: Trump is threatening to take his MAGA base and walk if he's not the GOP nominee

When Donald Trump joined conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, he had news for the Republican Party: If he loses the '24 nomination, he might not back the Republican presidential candidate.

“It would depend,” Trump told Hewitt. “It would have to depend on who the nominee was.”

In case you missed it, that's a threat—and it's not exactly a new one. In 2016, Trump explicitly threatened to make a third-party run because, in his view, he wasn't "being treated the right way."

"being treated the right way.", Trumpspeak for...."The GOP wasn't kissing my ass enough to suit me." Even after all this time, Caramel Caligula is STILL holding the party hostage. Can't wait to see how Craven Kevin, Mitch the Turtle and other GQP bigwigs respond to that.

[CaptainEurope]

Let's be clear: Trump is threatening to take his MAGA base and walk if he's not the GOP nominee



"being treated the right way.", Trumpspeak for...."The GOP wasn't kissing my ass enough to suit me." Even after all this time, Caramel Caligula is STILL holding the party hostage. Can't wait to see how Craven Kevin, Mitch the Turtle and other GQP bigwigs respond to that.

The MAGA base does not seem to be behind Trump 100% anymore, though.

FoTQSo3WAA4HKWJ.jpg

[CaptainEurope]

President Joe Biden's approval rating has climbed to a five-month high, with Democrats appearing to rally around their leader as he prepares for battle with the GOP House, the February IBD/TIPP Poll finds.

The IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index rose 2.2 points to 50, the highest point since Oct. 2021. Readings above 50 are net positive, while below-50 readings are negative. The Presidential Leadership Index combines survey readings on how American adults feel about Biden's personal qualities, presidential performance, and leadership attributes. Biden's favorability (52.2) and job approval (51.5) both turned positive for the first time in more than a year, while the leadership index remained underwater (46.2).