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

[worstblogever]

Steve king lost his primary.
YESSSSSSS.

https://www.vox.com/2020/6/2/2127846...randy-feenstra

Someone send WBE some booze to celebrate this hopeful profile retirement.

I'm gonna have to break out the good stuff for this one.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I'm gonna have to break out the good stuff for this one.

One less cretin to profile. I'm happy for you, WBE. Hopefully, King will fade away into the irrelevance he so richly deserves.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for West Virginia’s’ 2nd District, Alex Mooney, who we noted had carpetbagged his way across the Maryland border after serving for years as a state legislator, and waiting in vain for former U.S. House Rep. Roscoe Bartlett to retire, eventually just getting annoyed enough to move to West Virginia and try to run for office there. During his time as a Maryland state legislator, though, Mooney became synonymous with the issue of LGBT rights, and his extreme opposition to them. At one point during a 1999 debate on hate crime legislation, Mooney sarcastically asked if people who commit beastiality should also be protected under the law, and in 2008, during a debate on same sex marriage, went as far as to claim its legalization would lead to the gay community "oppressing" religious figures and they would be "coming for the children". Mooney also has pushed for legislation to allow the display of religious monuments in public buildings (which is a violation of the Establishment clause of the First Amendment that guarantees a separation of church and state), considers any compromise on immigration to be amnesty, and speaks publicly about "gun-grabbers and pro-abortion zealots" (because that's totally the direction things have trended the past six years or so in our country). In September of 2015, Mooney also took to the floor of the House to give a speech where he accused Planned Parenthood of harvesting “baby parts” based on lies from the Center for Medical Progress, so there’s that, as well.

Now, we’re going to go ahead and lead our further discussion of Alex Mooney by pointing out that on March 28th, 2018, Alex Mooney recycled an idea from the Ron Paul school of thought regarding the American economy… he wanted to go back to the gold standard, and actually introduced legislation to try to make it a reality. Now, if that doesn’t mean anything to you, it’s because the United States hasn’t used the gold standard in 1971. That’s right, we’re approaching fifty years since we were on the gold standard. And guess what? Some folks in the 1980s were whispering in Ronald Reagan’s ear about doing this, and guess what they determined? Doing that would cripple not just the American economy, but the global economy. Yet every now and then, some hard right goofball from the Libertarian wing of the GOP starts flogging that dead horse to see if it will come back to life, even though almost 100% of economists oppose doing it, and it’s thought of as part of the reason it was so hard for the United States to recover from the Great Depression..

And, after he won re-election in 2018 with 54% of the vote, let’s just say Mooney has yet to dial back his extremism:

• January 27th, 2019: Alex Mooney voted against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attacking our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Mooney voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Alex Mooney votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Mooney votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Alex Mooney is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 17th, 2019: Mooney votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Mooney votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Alex Mooney votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• October 17th, 2019: Rep. Mooney is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
• October 23rd, 2019: Mooney is one of 41 Republicans who, while staring down the possibility of Donald Trump being impeached, stage a ridiculous publicity stunt in response by crashing a classified impeachment inquiry hearing for a “protest”.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Mooney ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.

Mooney continues to sit in the catbird’s seat in one of the reddest districts in the country, where Donald Trump makes regular visits to suck up to coal miners. While the state overall has been slow to realize how much of a con artist they elected to the White House, they have started to notice. Make no mistake, Mooney has tethered his own fortunes to Trump’s, defending his decision to crash the classified impeachment hearing in October of 2019, and doubling down on his decision to record a message inside the classified hearing to post faux-outrage onto Twitter.

Whether or not folks notice they have a carpetbagger representing them in West Virginia’s 2nd District… well… we’ll have to see if anyone figures it out in 2020.

[worstblogever]

One less cretin to profile. I'm happy for you, WBE. Hopefully, King will fade away into the irrelevance he so richly deserves.

While I started CSGOPOTD officially as its own blog in 2014, I had a dry run for it during the 2013 Government Shutdown, and just shared 50 Republicans at that time. Steve King was like #2 on the list of craziest at that time, with Gohmert #1 and Bachmann #3. Just for his unabashed racism. And it took the Republican Party 7 more years to find anyone who could even successfully primary him, let alone speak out against him.

I only wish John Stewart was still on the Daily Show to give him a send-off.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

While I started CSGOPOTD officially as its own blog in 2014, I had a dry run for it during the 2013 Government Shutdown, and just shared 50 Republicans at that time. Steve King was like #2 on the list of craziest at that time, with Gohmert #1 and Bachmann #3. Just for his unabashed racism. And it took the Republican Party 7 more years to find anyone who could even successfully primary him, let alone speak out against him.

I only wish John Stewart was still on the Daily Show to give him a send-off.

With King, Gohmert and Bachmann as three members of the GOP's Mount Rushmore of Batshit Crazy, who was number #4?

[worstblogever]

With King, Gohmert and Bachmann as three members of the GOP's Mount Rushmore of Batshit Crazy, who was number #4?

I had to go back and look... Ted Cruz (who was leading the protests at the time) and Rand Paul was right there behind him. Allen West was #6, and I believe #7 was Sarah Palin, #8 was Dana Rohrabacher. #9 Don Young. #10 Ben Carson (and he got weirder thereafter during his presidential run).

Honestly, it's hard to quantify sometimes. People can have multiple WTF moments, and then there will be someone so deranged, so racist, or so extreme, they never get elected, but you're like, "that person it f***ing nuts. We don't know a lot, but what we do know says a hell of a lot." I mean, we don't know a ton about Christine O'Donnell ("I am not a witch.", if you've forgotten), but she was anti-masturbation, didn't know squat about the Constitution, and had her bizarre tale about attending a Black Mass. Just... weird.

[Tendrin]

I'm gonna have to break out the good stuff for this one.

I think we all are. Between him and Matt Shea BOTH getting the boot...

[worstblogever]

I think we all are. Between him and Matt Shea BOTH getting the boot...

Both have been around since the inaugural year.

By the time November comes around, I could see a scenario where I'm also free of updating on Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, Don Young, Mitch McConnell, and Scott Desjarlais. Oh man, I'd get all crunked up on Nov. 3rd if that came to pass.

[Tendrin]

Both have been around since the inaugural year.

By the time November comes around, I could see a scenario where I'm also free of updating on Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, Don Young, Mitch McConnell, and Scott Desjarlais. Oh man, I'd get all crunked up on Nov. 3rd if that came to pass.

Let us hope.

[worstblogever]

Let us hope.

Don't get me wrong, if Trump's beat, I'm raising a glass. But if all those folks go down, I'm finishing a bottle. Maybe two.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Both have been around since the inaugural year.

By the time November comes around, I could see a scenario where I'm also free of updating on Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, Don Young, Mitch McConnell, and Scott Desjarlais. Oh man, I'd get all crunked up on Nov. 3rd if that came to pass.

Lord have mercy, to see Moscow Mitch, Lapdog Lindsey AND Trump all go down come November would be better than Christmas Day!

[ed2962]

I would say that in addition to all of this we really need to work on relationships between minority run businesses and get a way to make it easier for them to start up and expand.

Also the whole thing with WGN is that they had local programs until the 24 hour news cycle cut into it in Various ways.

Ultimately it is up to leaders of the movement to deal with rabble rousers, but the police force needs to be changed by us and held accountable for their actions, period.

Well then time to promote Randy's opponent then, and get people out there to show that we need a Democratic in office there.

This is something that needs to be talked about more than it is. There are neighborhoods that either took decades to turn around or in fact never recovered from the '68 riots.

[Mister Mets]

George Floyd’s Death Is a Failure of Generations of Leadership
Policymakers in the 1960s had the answers — give political and economic power to the people — but walked away.

By Elizabeth Hinton - The New York Times

“The circumstances that led to the police killings of George Floyd — and thousands of other citizens over the years — could have been avoided if our elected officials in the 1960s had responded to protesters’ demands for socioeconomic inclusion. Instead, policymakers blamed black people for the instability, ignoring the buildup of centuries of racial oppression. They pursued a misguided policy path that has failed to keep communities of color safe for more than 50 years.

The police have long operated as guardians in white and middle-class communities, protecting property from outsiders. But in segregated urban neighborhoods, officials have deployed militarized police forces and expanded the prison system instead of working to address the root causes of the uprisings: mass unemployment, failing public schools, dilapidated housing and the deterioration of basic public goods like clean water.“

I don’t want to flog a dead horse but here it is - the failure of white Americans - Democrat and Republican - to invest in social programs and instead overfund law enforcement.

What’s the solution going forward? Obviously some aspect of the above mentioned, but if real power is to be taken and consolidated, then serious consideration needs to be given to expanding the Supreme Court. The next Democratic president with the Senate can appoint a swag of young, liberal justices that will preserve and protect American society for the next 50 years. Democrats need to stand and fight, for real this time.

Wouldn't the next Republican president be able to expand the court as well?

Hell, if it's obvious that Democrats intend to expand the court, why shouldn't Trump & McConnell start putting in new justices now from everyone who was on the short-list last time?

This is something that needs to be talked about more than it is. There are neighborhoods that either took decades to turn around or in fact never recovered from the '68 riots.

That's a great point. It wasn't just about businesses, as much as people with resources who were active in the community moving out.

With the pandemic and the riots, 2020 has been a hell of an advertisement for the suburbs.

[Tendrin]

Hell, if it's obvious that Democrats intend to expand the court, why shouldn't Trump & McConnell start putting in new justices now from everyone who was on the short-list last time?

Because they want to be able to whine that the filthy dems made them do it later.

[Mister Mets]

The noise of the protest isn't the problem... they can be as loud as they want as far as I'm concerned. It's the looting and the burning of buildings that I'm concerned with. That's what will draw Trump and the military onto the streets if it' not resolved.

But certainly it's important that the police get their act together. In an age where everyone has a cell phone, when they're crossing any lines they're hurting themselves.

I've said it a couple times, but there's plenty of stupid going around right now. A few people on both sides are ultimately making everyone look terrible.

Looting and burning makes for some nasty photos and video.

We are not supposed to chat about things unrelated to the survey, so I've had no conversations about it. BTW, what you said fits a decent percentage of folks in their 20's as well, since people are still having kids then and even in their teens.

As an aside, a few tips: Don't hang up on people who are calling you for surveys or whatever, they'll just keep calling back. Even if there are many more companies out there who have your number, saying 'Take Me Off Your List' works for that one, and it's better to be polite to someone who's just doing their job as opposed to doing this out of some sort of malice. I can guarantee we aren't in control of when we call any number and actively don't want to bother anyone.

When thinking about the concerns of parents, I was thinking about parents of children old enough to be a little bit more independent. These parents are more likely to be in their 30s, although there will still be some in their 20s.