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

[Mister Mets]

It wasn't that they talked about inflation or dysfunction in the cities too much. It's that those who voted for Democrats recognized that the Republicans' rhetoric was mostly bullshit. They have no intention of doing anything about inflation or dysfunction in the cities. They just want to reserve the right to continue blaming Democrats for those problems.

I'd buy this if Republicans consistently underperformed. But some Republicans met or beat expectations while others underperformed. There was a lot of ticket-splitting, as well as decent results in some states (Florida, New York) which suggests the problem isn't the overall message.

The "stop the steal" idiots did worse, and it also makes sense that voters wouldn't trust them to be in charge at a sensitive time.

For a while now I've been wondering if there was balancing out at all of an economy where inflation is a problem, but unemployment is not rising, and jobs are in fact still being gained. Polls indicated voters though the economy was bad overall but weren't willing to go to the alternative in order the punish the party in power, suggesting they don't necessarily blame Democrats for inflation, or at least understand Republicans won't do anything to fix it. If we were in a recession and had bad inflation too, like in the 1970's, it probably would have been different.

Politically, there's an argument that inflation is not that bad absent unemployment. There was also effective messaging on the idea that inflation is temporary, exacerbated by a combination of things beyond Biden's control (war in Ukraine, post-Covid supply chain hiccups) and some things that voters may believe to be worth the tradeoff (all the spending on them.)

Note that I also didn't prioritize ID and Capture with Republicans either. On both sides, it's about the cause. Blame gets its share, more so with Republicans than Democrats but both sides do it.

The problem with ID and Capture, along with prosecution and punishment, is that it is imperfect and easily biased.

Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it really, really wrong. This is something that needs to be addressed by the Nation as a whole, not just by individual pockets of society.

I kinda figured you would present the best argument for your side.

I get there are imperfections with focusing on law enforcement, but that's an important place to start. We can fine-tune afterwards when determining how many guilty people should be allowed to go free for the sake of one innocent person.

[kidfresh512]

About those folks, delusional at best, clueless at worst. As a black man, I would NEVER support a party that embraces greed, racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia and the destruction of the middle class while circling the wagons behind a former president who singlehandedly broke most of the Ten Commandments. If that’s their idea of conservative ideals, I live without that ****.

The issue is the media and GOP will take these little minority of demographic voters and make their voices oversized in reporting. I mean does it really matter that Hershel has any black voting support? The VAST majority of black voters know damn well the GOP has nothing but enmity and hatred for them. It is demonstrated time and time again when it really matters at the polls, when we vote against them. And is the MAIN reason that the GOP work so hard to suppress our votes or riot at the capital to get them thrown out.

Who cares if he has 6 black conservatives that can't be swayed?

[babyblob]

The issue is the media and GOP will take these little minority of demographic voters and make their voices oversized in reporting. I mean does it really matter that Hershel has any black voting support? The VAST majority of black voters know damn well the GOP has nothing but enmity and hatred for them. It is demonstrated time and time again when it really matters at the polls, when we vote against them. And is the MAIN reason that the GOP work so hard to suppress our votes or riot at the capital to get them thrown out.

Who cares if he has 6 black conservatives that can't be swayed?

Like you said those 6 will be oversized by the GOP talking heads. And already is. Fox News has been reporting for awhile about how Black people are flocking to Walker in droves. They have a black person on at least one a week going on about how Walker speaks for them.

[Tami]

Opinion After more than 600 mass shootings this year, let’s be honest about guns

The United States has averaged nearly two mass shootings a day this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks when four or more people are shot. To put that another way, it’s now unusual to have a day without a mass shooting. “We aren’t numb — we’re traumatized,” tweeted Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, which has been urging action to stop gun violence in America since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six staff a decade ago.

It can happen anywhere, to anyone. Fourteen Americans mowed down this month at the University of Virginia, Club Q in Colorado Springs and a Walmart in Chesapeake, Va., were doing normal activities of daily life — going to school, enjoying a performance, working. They leave behind grieving loved ones, who ask: Why?

In each case, as usually happens, there were warning signs missed — or ignored. The chilling note the Walmart shooter left in his phone railing against his co-workers and claiming his phone was hacked suggests he was a deeply disturbed 31-year-old. And yet, he was able to buy a pistol just hours before he massacred six fellow employees in a break room. In Colorado Springs, a 22-year-old suspect who had been arrested last year for an alleged bomb threat, but never prosecuted, was not prevented from obtaining an AR-15-style weapon and a handgun. It’s eerily similar in the University of Virginia shooting: The 22-year-old suspect had multiple prior run-ins with the law, including a 2021 conviction for possessing a concealed firearm without a license.

Too often these tragedies are written off to individual cases of mental illness. That does not explain why the United States has had more than 600 mass shootings every year since 2020 and why no other country has anything close to this level of gun violence. We must confront the truth about guns in America and why it is so easy for practically anyone to get them — including some that are weapons of war.

The fact that no single action will stop all mass shootings is no excuse not to do things that could prevent some of them or lower the toll when they happen. President Biden is right to call for another nationwide assault weapons ban, which he helped enact for 10 years when he was a senator in 1994. Poll after poll show wide support for stricter gun laws. The House passed the ban in July, but the Senate has yet to act.

The U.S. Congress is not the only place where action is needed. When Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) was asked whether he would support tighter restrictions on guns after two mass shootings occurred in his state this month, he replied: “Today’s not the time.” So when is the right time?

Army veteran Richard M. Fierro is rightly being called a hero for tackling the gunman at Club Q in Colorado Springs and preventing the death count from climbing even higher. But it’s chilling to hear him describe how events that night looked similar to what he saw in Iraq and Afghanistan. How his combat training kicked in after he saw the shooter’s weapon and body armor. His daughter’s boyfriend was one of the victims. “Everybody in that building experienced combat that night,” Fierro said. It took only three days for another war-zone scene to arise, this time at a Walmart.

[skyvolt2000]

The issue is the media and GOP will take these little minority of demographic voters and make their voices oversized in reporting. I mean does it really matter that Hershel has any black voting support? The VAST majority of black voters know damn well the GOP has nothing but enmity and hatred for them. It is demonstrated time and time again when it really matters at the polls, when we vote against them. And is the MAIN reason that the GOP work so hard to suppress our votes or riot at the capital to get them thrown out.

Who cares if he has 6 black conservatives that can't be swayed?

How many go and VOTE?

How many listen to the faction of black folks who hate everything Democrat? EVERYTHING is Biden's fault according to them. They act like the GOP has done NOTHING.

[kidfresh512]

How many go and VOTE?

How many listen to the faction of black folks who hate everything Democrat? EVERYTHING is Biden's fault according to them. They act like the GOP has done NOTHING.

I am talking about voters only. People that don't vote don't matter here. The vast majority of black people that vote do not vote for the GOP and are not represented by the handful of people the media finds who calls themselves Walker supporters

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Opinion After more than 600 mass shootings this year, let’s be honest about guns

What’s frustrating is that for Qpublicans, it will NEVER be the right time to discuss gun restrictions, either because they’re in the back pocket of the NRA, or they fear being primaried for not blindly supporting the Second Amendment.

[scourge]

What’s frustrating is that for Qpublicans, it will NEVER be the right time to discuss gun restrictions, either because they’re in the back pocket of the NRA, or they fear being primaried for not blindly supporting the Second Amendment.

Oh I'm sure there's more than a few that are just that evil and insane to actually support guns over people without convincing from fear or money.

[Tami]

Did a search for Gun Worship, here is a sampling of what I found

Gun worship is idolatry

This Second Amendment statement in our U.S. Constitution is what gun advocates appeal to in opposing almost all attempts to regulate gun-ownership by civilians. The result has been a fast and ever-growing crisis of homicide-by-firearms in our country.

To value the unlimited right to own any and every kind of gun in the face of tragedies like the recent mass slaughtering of innocent citizens and children in Uvalde, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; and El Paso, Texas; and many other places almost seemingly daily, is a form of idolatry. It is making a personal right more important than the lives of innocent people, even children. It is wrong and way beyond the intention of the writers of the Constitution. At the time the Second Amendment was written in 1791 the federal government was weak. It needed something like we now have in our National Guard, citizen soldiers who could be called on short notice. It did not envision a one-man, unregulated militia with an arsenal of automatic weapons.

The Second Amendment ought not to prohibit our government from requiring gun owners to have a license to own a gun and to demand a background check before that license is granted. However, court rulings like that of the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals on March 7, 2007, have declared that a ban on owning a handgun without a license violated the Second Amendment. Yet, former President Trump did ban bump stocks by executive order. That and other measures to tighten loopholes in existing laws concerning gun ownership should be legislated.

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Worshiping guns: Conservatives are right that we have a cultural problem; they fail to acknowledge its inextricable link to firearm access - 2019

There’s a particular blindness in the conservative worldview here: Trump and others seem to be obsessed with the role of culture in creating the conditions for gun violence, but they wantonly ignore the singular and corrosive culture surrounding guns themselves: their marketing, their aura, their worship, especially by young men.

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School Shootings Confirm That Guns Are the Religion of the Right

There’s a reason we always hear calls for Christian nationalism rather than for common sense gun legislation from the right. As we have shown in our research, guns are practically an element of worship in the church of white Christian nationalism. Gun rights thus must be defended at all costs.

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Can America's worship of guns ever be changed? - 2018

At the symbolic level, guns are sacred to American culture independent of formal religion. Guns are special, set-apart totems of power and salvation in our collective history, myths and popular culture. Life presents hard challenges and guns present one of our presumed best hopes for redemption and salvation. The frontier, fascism, godless communism – all were defeated through the power of firearms. Our providential place in history is impossible to understand without them.

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Gun culture: the worship of a work tool

One could ponder the reasons for this devastation: mental illness, terrorist plots, internet radicalism, too many doors, or not enough Jesus. But the most practical is this: a man with a history of instability and violent urges was able to purchase a gun. He shot his grandmother, went to a school filled with children, and shot 21 people until they were dead, injuring another 17.

Despite this, it is unlikely that much will change. Thoughts and prayers, maybe. But nothing tangible that might possibly prevent another such occurrence. In fact, after these events, Republican states are 115% more likely to loosen gun laws.[1] There is a peculiarity to the American psyche when it comes to guns; they symbolize freedom. I have always pondered this. Why do guns have this particular chokehold on Americans?

Indeed, guns are mentioned in the American Constitution, but that is in the 2nd Amendment which states “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”[2] For context, that means that this was not even in the original Constitution. It was added in and could, in theory, be amended right out. The likelihood of that is near to nil, but I digress. In the end, there is only one reason to buy a gun: to destroy something. Be that a target, a deer, or a six year old.

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U.S. judge blocks New York from banning guns in church

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day" ran a profile of Scott Esk, a candidate running for Oklahoma’s House of Representatives who on his campaign website, stated his support for nullification (y’know, the idea that started the American Civil War) regarding both federal laws on firearms regulation and abortion rights. Esk also refused to support any budget that contained even a penny of taxation “not in the proper role of government” and specified that he had never seen a single Oklahoma state budget he would have voted for. Esk also was determined to revisit divorce law and make it impossible to list “incompatibility” as a valid reason to request a divorce from one’s spouse. But most glaring amongst his policy stances, was his desire to enact biblical law and stone gay people to death. Esk was too extreme, even for Oklahoma, to get elected and should remain that way.

It was in both 2015, and in 2016, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of Mike Christian, an Oklahoma state legislator who attempted to push forth a bill that created a higher paying job for State Senator Debbe Leftwich if she agreed to not run for re-election, and then Christian would be able to swoop in and nab her seat. But corruption scandals aren’t the only sort of black mark on the personal political history of Mike Christian. You see, in 2014, he and several Oklahoma Republicans were outraged when the Oklahoma Supreme Court granted a stay of execution to a man named Clayton Lockett, because the state intended to use an untested drug cocktail when they were going to execute Lockett by lethal injection, and until the source of those drugs could be determined, they would not proceed. Christian had the level-headed response to file articles of impeachment against the entire Oklahoma Supreme Court, who balked under pressure, and allowed Lockett’s execution to proceed. That execution was botched, and Lockett died slowly and in excruciating pain for roughly 43 minutes, and public outcry over his death grew. Mike Christian, however, seems to only have his surname ironically, as his support for capital punishment was dedicated enough that he told the media that he “doesn’t care if inmates are killed by lethal injection, electrocution, a firing squad, a hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions”. (At least he didn’t mention crucifixion as one of the methods, I suppose.) As you also might expect, Mike Christian’s legislative history in the Oklahoma House of Representatives is a road map that covers a good swath of the conservative extremism that has pervaded the Sooner State the past several years, including voting for a patently unconstitutional resolution to make English Oklahoma’s official language, a nullification bill meant to see Oklahoma exclude itself from federal firearm laws, an attempt to pass an unnecessary ban on Sharia Law in their state, another bill to allow students to express their religious viewpoints in public schools, and he also co-sponsored SB 1848, a law that amended abortion restrictions in the state of Oklahoma to force physicians at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges to be able to perform the procedure. This “Trap Law” was of course, meant to close down the majority of clinics in the state. Mike Christian is a former Oklahoma state trooper, and opted to not run for re-election to the Oklahoma House of Representatives, even though he was still four years away from being term-limited. Instead, he chose to try and run for Oklahoma County Sheriff. With current Sheriff John Whetsel mired in controversy regarding his office having an improper audit, it seemed like maybe Christian would be able to convince voters to boot him. That is, until Christian’s record as a police officer was released that included being disciplined for sneaking alcohol into the police academy, and immoral conduct with a female cadet who would become his future wife. Mike Christian was unable to spin this incident into being a good thing, as if he was Steve Guttenberg’s character from the Police Academy franchise and just a fun-lovin’ cop and lost the election.

On this date in 2017, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Bud Pierce, a Republican who sought to become Governor of Oregon in the 2016 special election, who pestered Gov. Kate Brown after she had to step in and take over for Gov. John Kitzhaber after he resigned due to ethics concerns. He had an 86% rating from the NRA, and felt that gun control didn’t have an effect on gun violence and going into the final stretch of the campaign, during a debate, the topic of domestic violence came up and Kate Brown mentioned she was a survivor of it. Bud Pierce done f***ed up, down, and sideways while commenting on that… said, “A woman that has a great education and training and a great job is not susceptible to this kind of abuse by men, women or anyone.” Brown visibly was hurt by that remark, and turned away briefly to gather herself as the crowd immediately started booing Pierce, because WTF. A woman’s education or job status has no bearing on her ability to avoid abuse, Bud. He at least did not double down on his comments, and repeatedly apologized, but his candidacy was dead in the water from there. Pierce lost to Kate Brown, managing a still surprisng 43.5% of the vote, even after his comments. He remained in Oregon politics, trying to get a ballot initiative passed to establish term limits for state legislators, because he doesn’t have as good of a chance of unseating one of them in a blue state, so getting time on his side to help him snag a seat in the legislature is his only option.)

On this date in 2018, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Jeb Hensarling, the former U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 5th Congressional District, who served in that capacity from 2003-2018. Now, obviously at several points during his sixteen years in Congress, Hensarling was a Texas GOP Congressman, so you know his voting record was as extreme as you might find. There are Republicans who have become so radical in their obsession with “smaller government” that they started voting against disaster relief in the past few years. Normally, they do so without comment. Well, after flooding from Hurricane Harvey in September of 2017, Jeb Hensarling went and voted against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey, made himself an even more known quantity by telling his fellow Texans that they should realize that the flooding was a sign from the Heavens above, telling them, “God is telling you to move.”Go figure, he’s also a climate change denier. Hensarling’s rise to the head of the House Financial Service Committee was perhaps the highlight of his career, where he could be the lapdog for the worst ideas that Wall Street bankers could float across his desk with a paper bag of campaign donations. No, we’re not going to be shy about how tight this guy was with Wall Street… he literally went on ski vacations with Wall Street executives. There’s corrupt, and then there’s just brazenly terrible. He retired to become what else? A K Street lobbyist.

[worstblogever]

On this date in both 2019, 2020, as well as 2021,“Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Tom Patton, who has bounced around the Ohio state legislature on and off since 2003. He spent his six years in the Ohio House of Representatives, and then jumped to the upper chamber in the 2008 election. The then spent eight years in the Ohio State Senate, representing that not at all pretentiously-named town of Strongsville, before making an ill-fated attempt at getting elected to Congress in 2017 in a special election to replace Jim Renacci as Ohio’s U.S. House Representative for Ohio’s 16th Congressional District. That left him out of office, but in 2018, he scrambled back into place into the Ohio House of Representatives to serve District 7.

Now, there have been two moments in the media that have brought Tom Patton to the attention FRED for a profile. The first was a corruption scandal, when back in 2012, during the trial of former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Joe Dimora, that J. Kevin Kelley, a distant cousin of Patton’s, who testified that Patton bribed him with $10,000 to lock in a contract for a copier firm to do business with the district during his tenure. Kelley had some strong motivations for telling the truth, given that he had to cut a deal with the FBI to turn state’s evidence and not end up in jail himself. While investigations have shown there are many ethically suspicious charges within Patton’s financials, he oddly has never been charged.

The second time we saw Tom Patton’s name to appear in the news that caused some consternation was in 2016, when after his opponent, Jennifer Herold, announced her challenge to him, he gave a radio interview that maybe showed he has some issues with the ladies in his attitude:

"The gal that's running against me is a 30-year-old, you know, mom, mother of two infants. And I don't know if anybody explained to her we've got to spend three nights a week in Columbus. So, how does that work out for you? I waited until I was 48 and my kids were raised, and at least adults, before we took the opportunity to try."

"I want to tell her, 'Hey Sweetie, I just got 27 percent of the pie in just my district, which is nine times what should have been done.’[/I]"

There might have been a way to challenge her on being politically inexperienced that didn’t sound that misogynistic and like he was practically telling her to get back in the kitchen, but Patton wasn’t about to use it. Though, why would anyone get the idea that Patton was sexist… oh just because he used his official Facebook account as a State Representative to “Like” posts from a 19 year old adult film actress and professional “party companion” in October of 2017. Interesting how he found himself looking at that account…

There’s been a link drawn between sexism and anti-choice support, and go figure, Tom Patton’s voting record fits that pattern, as well as mirroring other conservative idiocy:

• May 22nd, 2008: Patton votes for HB 477, a bill aimed at making all state business in Ohio required to be conducted in English, which would be, based on precedent set in a 1996 unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court, unconstitutional.
• June 16th, 2011: Tom Patton votes for SJR 1, an attempt by Ohio Republicans to nullify the Affordable Care Act.
• December 9th, 2014: Patton votes for HB 234, to legalize silencers on certain firearms.
• June 24th, 2015: Tom Patton votes for SB 127, an attempt to ban abortion at 20 weeks.
• January 28th, 2018: Patton votes for HB 428, a bill aimed at allowing students to make religious expressions in public school classrooms that is clearly a violation of the separation of church and state.
• December 27th, 2018: Tom Patton votes for HB 258, a fetal heartbeat bill that would effectively ban abortion at 6 weeks, a time when most women don’t even realize that they are pregnant yet.
• March 31st, 2021: Patton co-sponsors legislation trying to tell state public schools and universities they can’t make vaccine mandates (even though they’ve had them for almost a century for non-Covid-19 vaccines),
• June 24th, 2021: Tom Patton votes for SB 187, a bill aimed at banning transgender athletes from playing on sports teams that do not match the gender of their birth.

Thomas Patton, sadly, won re-election in 2022 with 55% of the vote. This man has somehow been in office now almost two decades, and frankly, we don’t know how he has managed to dodge the term limits laws in Ohio to have served 7 terms when the limit is supposed to be four, unless there’s some loophole about it not being consecutive terms…

[Malvolio]

Did a search for Gun Worship, here is a sampling of what I found

Gun worship is idolatry



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Worshiping guns: Conservatives are right that we have a cultural problem; they fail to acknowledge its inextricable link to firearm access - 2019



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School Shootings Confirm That Guns Are the Religion of the Right



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Can America's worship of guns ever be changed? - 2018



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Gun culture: the worship of a work tool



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U.S. judge blocks New York from banning guns in church

There's a popular bumper sticker among NRA members that reads: "What part of Shall Not Be Infringed don't you understand?" I think it's past time for us to have a corresponding bumper sticker reading: "What part of Well Regulated don't you understand?"

[kidfresh512]

Musk asks if Apple hates ‘free speech in America’ after Twitter advertising drop-off

Twitter owner Elon Musk publicly slammed Apple on Monday for suspending some of its advertising on the social media platform, asking if leaders of the tech company “hate free speech.”

“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter,” Musk announced.

“Do they hate free speech in America?”

Musk called out Apple CEO Tim Cook in a second tweet, writing: “What’s going on here @tim_cook?”

How in the world does this make sense as a business strategy? Tim Cook going to read that and be like oh you know what he is so right buy more twitter ads! Shaming corporations over and over again when it is your job to assure them that they can count on you and your business to protect their brands and image is so stupid.

[Tami]

Something else the US Government needs to work on

Antiwar Activists Who Flee Russia Find Detention, Not Freedom, in the U.S.

Everyone who touches American soil has the right to claim asylum, though it is granted only to those who can prove they were persecuted in their home country based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

Many asylum seekers are released and allowed to argue their cases later in court. But thousands are sent to detention centers, where it is difficult to secure lawyers and collect evidence, and the chances of winning asylum are extremely slim.

Olga Nikitina, who fled Russia with her husband after he was imprisoned there multiple times, spent five months in the same facility as Ms. Shemiatina. “The whole time I was there, they treated us like garbage,” said Ms. Nikitina, 33. “I called hotlines, but it did not help in any way”

Her husband, Aleksandr Balashov, 33, was detained for four months at a facility in Batavia, N.Y., where he says officers told him and others that they had no rights because they had entered the country illegally.

Ivan Sokolovski, 25, another activist, has been held at Pine Prairie for seven months. He recently lost his asylum case and said he fears that he will be deported to his death. “It would have been more humane to be shot dead at the border than to be held in prison so long,” he said.

Human rights groups have for years documented the prolonged confinement, medical negligence and mistreatment of immigrant detainees, especially those housed in for-profit contract facilities like those at Pine Prairie and Basile, 30 miles away, where Ms. Shemiatina was held.

Russian asylum-seekers interviewed said they have been at the mercy of guards who treat them with indifference and, not infrequently, hostility.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Musk asks if Apple hates ‘free speech in America’ after Twitter advertising drop-off





How in the world does this make sense as a business strategy? Tim Cook going to read that and be like oh you know what he is so right buy more twitter ads! Shaming corporations over and over again when it is your job to assure them that they can count on you and your business to protect their brands and image is so stupid.

Musk is under the illusion he can bully Cook who, by the way, is gay, so he’s not about to put up with hate speech on a social media platform he hardly needs to bolster Apple’s bottom line.