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

[numberthirty]

If life begins at 6 weeks, then everyone in Texas should start suing to collect on life insurance policies after a miscarriage.

That will stop the antics. When money gets involved ... then they'll care.

Forget about miscarriage/insurance.

The legitimate suits would be all of the potential miscarriage/malpractice suits.

[Kirby101]

It's like Mets never heard of The Southern Strategy which has been driving Republican policy since Nixon.

The denial is palpable.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Roy Ashburn, a former California State Senator with a long history of voting against LGBTQ rights legislation, as well as supporting Proposition 8 and voting against a Harvey Milk Holiday. Ashburn's career came undone when he got busted for DUI back in 2010... on his way out of a gay bar with an anonymous guy he picked up there that night. Ashburn has since vanished from the political scene.

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled North Dakota state legislator Randy Boehning, whose story hit the news wire, and caused us to sit in disbelief, and re-read the story several times to make sure it wasn’t a parody from The Onion. Randy Boehning, an anti-gay Republican state legislator, was outed as gay because he was using the Grindr App to find gay dudes to hook up with, and someone decided to expose him because he's leading a hypocritical double life by sharing his own submitted nude photos to whoever would listen. After he got outed, Randy Boehning did not made a significant vote in the North Dakota House of Representatives and opted to retire in 2018.



On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled the U.S. House Representative from Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District, Steve Womack, who was first elected back in… what else… the 2010 Tea Party Wave. And while we didn’t hear too much from Steve Womack during his first three terms in office save for the time when as a freshman rep that he literally tried defunding President Obama’s teleprompter, since Donald Trump went and had the Russians help him steal the 2016 election, Womack has decided his foot tastes delicious and has repeatedly shoved it in his mouth since 2017.

Let’s start with his first town hall after Trump got elected, when Womack declared that people on welfare “just stay on the couch and eat potato chips”

“We have got to a point where we are providing billions and billions and billions of dollars for people who won’t, not for people who can. We have made it really easy for people to stay on the couch, eat their potato chips, get their Section 8 housing, get their SNAP benefits, get all these other benefits. I’ve got two issues with hiring people ... first one is, they’re having a hard time finding people with the proper skillsets ... the second problem they have is, even if they can produce a skillset, they can’t pass a urine test!”

Ah yes. The classic myth that people on welfare are all just deadbeat drug addicts. Thanks for saying it out loud, Steve, so we know you’re full of s***.

So speaking of people who are full of s***, how far do you think Steve Womack is willing to go on behalf of Donald Trump? Other than trying to protect him from being impeached, we mean… well, in January of 2018, after Trump’s comments about Haiti and several other actions became public knowledge, Womack made his own bigotry a matter of public record, when he weighed in on the matter and said:

”If you’re only appealing to people from countries that are behind the times, depraved countries, if that’s the element you’re appealing to … we should make the same or a better appeal to people from other European countries that can come in here and actually fit into the society as we know it.”

Oh… appeal to people from EUROPEAN countries, not Haiti or the African ones, because they’re “depraved”. Sounds more like Trump or even Steve King, y’know?

Our third moment from Steve Womack that caused us concern came in August of 2019, when he told a town hall that the real cause of mass shootings is “too many single parents” and “Godless schools”. Not only is that not accurate, it seems as though Womack is also now showing us that he doesn’t really understand, or care that there’s a whole separation of church and state guaranteed in the Constitution.

[worstblogever]

Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District has a +19 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, If we weren’t already establishing that this man is an extremist, feel free to peek at his voting record:

• December 18th, 2019: Womack ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: Womack votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• December 10th, 2020: Womack signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Womack votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
• February 4th, 2021: Steve Womack votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
• February 25th, 2021: Womack votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Womack votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 3rd, 2021: Steve Womack votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Womack votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Womack votes 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 20th, 2021: Womack is one of 63 Republicans who vote against the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act.

We’ll note in closing that Steve Womack is one of only 33 Republicans who voted for a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol. And for DARING to find out all the details of how Trump supporters may have specifically organized one of the most flagrant and brazen domestic terror attacks in our nation’s history in plain sight… He’s getting a primary challenge from the right in 2022. Because having even a modicum of dedication to accountability makes you persona non grata in the GOP these days.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Not to mention almost all the GOP tried to get millions of black voters ballots disqualified and incited an insurrection when that wasn't working. And lets not even go to the GOP gerrymandering specifically targeting minorities with the express goal of limiting minority representation.

Sprinkle oh top of that the Voter suppression bills they raced to state houses all over the country specifically targeted to minimize and restrain minority voters based on the data and voting patterns from past elections.

And closing down voting stations in minority neighborhoods, another part of the GQP’s racist strategy.

[JackDaw]

If life begins at 6 weeks, then everyone in Texas should start suing to collect on life insurance policies after a miscarriage.

That will stop the antics. When money gets involved ... then they'll care.

But to collect life insurance it has to be taken out in the first place for a specific named individual with a specific company, having paid an agreed premium.

None of those conditions would exist.

[numberthirty]

But to collect life insurance it has to be taken out in the first place for a specific named individual with a specific company, having paid an agreed premium.

None of those conditions would exist.

Never mind that there is probably not a company in existence that would ever create a product where they would potentially have to pay out on what could be six weeks...

[green_garnish]

But to collect life insurance it has to be taken out in the first place for a specific named individual with a specific company, having paid an agreed premium.

None of those conditions would exist.

True. It would be interesting to see at what point in gestation the GOP would support assigning a social security number.

[Tami]

True. It would be interesting to see at what point in gestation the GOP would support assigning a social security number.

I'm now imagining a world where every woman of childbearing age is required to take a pregnancy test automatically every week and send the results in to the state legislature or some other state agency.

Ugggg......

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It’s frustrating that a political party in this country is hellbent on controlling women’s bodies and stripping them of their right choose by forcing unwanted pregnancies on them. Meanwhile, the men who impregnate them get off scot free with no penalties, no punishment, no nothing.

[Tami]

It’s frustrating that a political party in this country is hellbent on controlling women’s bodies and stripping them of their right choose by forcing unwanted pregnancies on them. Meanwhile, the men who impregnate them get off scot free with no penalties, no punishment, no nothing.

Imagine how Matt Gaetz would react if there was a law requiring all men convicted of a sex offense to be immediately sterilized.

[numberthirty]

It’s frustrating that a political party in this country is hellbent on controlling women’s bodies and stripping them of their right choose by forcing unwanted pregnancies on them. Meanwhile, the men who impregnate them get off scot free with no penalties, no punishment, no nothing.

You realize that you are recognizing that the law is on solid footing if you start looking to put charges on those men, right?

Only way that they could be culpable in any of is if it was actually criminal.

[Tami]

You realize that you are recognizing that the law is on solid footing if you start looking to put charges on those men, right?

Only way that they could be culpable in any of is if it was actually criminal.

Yet it seems like these laws are automatically making women criminals, simply by being.

[Tami]

Trump Tower’s key tenants have fallen behind on rent and moved out. But Trump has one reliable customer: His own PAC.

NEW YORK — Inside Trump Tower, swank suit-maker Marcraft Clothes once rented the entire 18th floor, outfitting its offices with fireplaces, mahogany-lined closets and two bars for schmoozing customers.

But then Marcraft fell $664,000 behind on rent and went out of business last year — its assets having dwindled to $40.75 in a checking account and “1,200 damaged coats,” according to court filings.

One floor up, a business school once led by Kardashian family matriarch Kris Jenner was consumed by lawsuits, falling $198,000 behind on payments to Trump Tower by October 2020, according to court papers. And on the 21st and 22nd floors, the company that made Ivanka Trump shoes racked up $1.5 million in unpaid rent, according to a lawsuit that the Trump Organization filed this year.

But through all that — as Trump Tower has dealt with imploding tenants, political backlash and a broader, pandemic-related slump in Manhattan office leasing since last year — it has been able to count on one reliable, high-paying tenant: former president Donald Trump’s own political operation.

Starting in March, one of his committees, Make America Great Again PAC, paid $37,541.67 per month to rent office space on the 15th floor of Trump Tower — a space previously rented by his campaign — according to campaign-finance filings and a person familiar with the political action committee.

This may not be the most efficient use of donors’ money: The person familiar with Trump’s PAC said that its staffers do not regularly use the office space. Also, for several months, Trump’s PAC paid the Trump Organization $3,000 per month to rent a retail kiosk in the tower’s lobby — even though the lobby was closed.

Campaign-finance experts said the payments do not appear to be illegal. This kind of PAC has very few restrictions and no expiration date, so Trump is free to spend its money at his own properties as long as he wants.

But they said Trump is continuing a practice that was a hallmark of his presidency by exploiting loose regulations — and his own supporters’ trust — to convert political donations into private revenue for himself.

“He’s running a con,” said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign-finance expert at the watchdog group Common Cause. “Talking about political expenses — but, in reality, raising money for self-enrichment.”

[Ragged Maw]

Imagine how Matt Gaetz would react if there was a law requiring all men convicted of a sex offense to be immediately sterilized.

Not quite a 1-to-1 comparison (if I were to assume one's even possible), which is what makes "reaching" these "pro-lifers" quite challenging.