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

[Gray Lensman]

The veepstakes is still on.

If Joe Biden is going to pick an unqualified running mate over a qualified one, he will probably choose Stacey Abrams who has very little political experience as a state legislator and a failed gubernatorial candidate.

To select an unqualified running mate is not without precedent. Chester A. Arthur' was a simple bureaucrat and never elected to any office before being elected vice-president. Prior to the vice-presidency, His only previous office was being Collector of the Port of New York which was an appointed office, not an elected one. He was no great president but a terrible one.

Arthur was considered a very successful president in his time, although he has picked up some tarnish as attitudes have progressed. However I doubt anyone else would have been better in that regard, considering what mainstream opinions were in the day.

[PaulBullion]

To nobody's surprise, "free speech" platform Parler is banning people all over the place.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of David Schultheis, a former Colorado State Senator who over the course of a decade, continuously proved himself to be an example of the GOP’s most cruel and heartless elected officials. In 2006, he responded to news of a fatal car accident that killed three Hispanic citizens by demanding that their citizenship should be checked (which, y’know, would have shown a lack of empathy even if they had survived). In 2009, during debate on a bill that would have provided HIV testing for all pregnant women, he cast the lone vote against it, arguing that “HIV stems from promiscuity” and he didn’t feel the legislature should “remove the negative consequences that take place from poor behavior and unacceptable behavior”. As if an issue position of hoping babies get AIDS to punish their mothers wasn’t revolting enough, later on in 2009 he compared President Obama’s economic policies to the terrorists who hijacked Flight 93 on 9/11, and declared “Let’s Roll” the last message of the people on board who stormed the cockpit rather than be aimed at another government building. Since leaving office in 2010, Schultheis remerged once in 2013 to say that the openly gay Speaker of the Colorado House adopting a child amounted to “deliberate child abuse”, so he’s a homophobic ***hole as well. Schultheis has been silent now going on six years consecutitvely, and it the time of this posting, is 76, so a political comeback seems unlikely.



In 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of the sitting U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 36th Congressional District, Brian Babin, a dentist by trade who made his first run for Congress two decades ago, failing to be elected in 1996, and making news for being caught in a campaign finance scandal, where he was found to have tried circumventing the rules for maximum donations from one donor by having intermediaries deliver the large sums in smaller pieces. He was caught, and fined $20,000 by the normally toothless FEC.

Two years later, in 1998, that scandal may not have been what stood in the way of a Babin victory, as much as the story of his campaign manager simultaneously coming out of the closet, and resigning, saying that Babin had said numerous disparaging things about homosexuals in private meetings. Babin denied this, but the tabloid-like nature of the story, combined with his earlier scandal was enough to sink his chances again.

Well, Texas' 36th District has never been shy about taking on controversial candidates, considering they elected Rep. Steve Stockman back in 2012, nearly two decades after he crazied his way out of office. By 2014, Rep. Stockman had shown he hadn't changed much, so the district elected Babin, another embarrassing throwback to two decades earlier. During the 2014 election season, Brian Babin revealed a variety of mind-numbingly stupid ideas, like his belief that the Affordable Care Act would bankrupt America, his desire to do away with the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Homeland Security, and of course, his desire to build a border wall along the U.S./Mexico border (beating Donald Trump to the punch on this stupid, stupid idea).

Since hitting Washington, D.C. in his late sixties, he has followed up on his campaign platform, showing outrage whenever possible. Perhaps the best example is his response to the Supreme Court's King vs. Burwell ruling, where he introduced legislation that would force all nine of the Supreme Court Justices to enroll in healthcare through the Affordable Care Act (rather than the insurance plans they already have) to show them what they were relegating the American people to. Seriously, this was his patronizing quote:

"As the Supreme Court continues to ignore the letter of the law, it’s important that these nine individuals understand the full impact of their decisions on the American people. By eliminating their exemption from Obamacare, they will see firsthand what the American people are forced to live with!”

A few months later, his xenophobia hit a fever pitch. While most Republicans freaked out about the Syrian refugee program AFTER the terror attacks in Paris by ISIS sympathizers from France and Belgium (i.e. not carried out by any Syrian refugees), On September 17th, 2015, Brian Babin went on Facebook to call for a complete suspension of the entire Refugee Resettlement Program, writing:

”We are crazy to be inviting the problems of the Middle East into the United States. It's time to suspend the refugee resettlement program until we are able to obtain factual information, assess the federal, state and local costs and determine the national security risks. It’s been on auto-pilot for far too long.”

Two months later in November of 2015, Babin took to Breitbart Radio to be interviewed by Steve Bannon himself, and talk about legislation he filed to defund the Refugee resettlement program. While Babin acknowledged that Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus were refugee, this was different because, “Jesus and Mary didn’t have suicide bomb vests strapped on them.”

Babin also has tried squaring his overall Islamophobic stance because he believes that "No-Go Zones" set up by Muslim communities are actually a thing happening in Michigan and Tennessee, and we should stop bringing in Muslims before more of them pop up. Hint for sane people: These “no-go zones” are not happening. All the way up into the last weeks of the Obama administration, Babin was fear-mongering about the refugee resettlement program, claiming it was a “Trojan Horse” to allow terrorists into the country. Once Donald Trump took office and instituted his unconstitutional Muslim ban, it was Rep. Babin who sent out an e-mail to his constituents, with a survey asking if they supported the measure or not, and within it, claimed several Muslim countries as “terrorism hot spots” that have not produced a terrorist attacker in Europe or the United States within this century.

Now, as you might expect with his hate of Muslim refugees, and a desire to build a border wall, Brian Babin ended up firmly in the corner of Donald Trump in the fall of 2016. So much so, in fact, that he defended Trump for calling Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” during one of the presidential debates as she handed Trump his ass. Babin’s logic? “I think sometimes a lady needs to be told when she's being nasty. I do.”

[worstblogever]

Now, Texas’ 36th is one of the reddest of red districts in all the country, with a +26 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, which in 2018, helped Babin to coast to a third term in office with 72% of the vote. Back in Washington, Brian Babin’s stupidity continues:

• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Babin voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• January 27th, 2019: Brian Babin 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.
• February 28th, 2019: Brian Babin 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. Babin 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.
• June 4th, 2019: Babin votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Brian Babin 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. Babin 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: Babin 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. Babin 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.

Brian Babin took the news of the GOP’s defeat in the 2018 elections about as well as most Republicans, which is not well. He’s still been hosted by the “alt right” (i.e. white nationalist) Breitbart News for interviews to claim that Democrats want “open borders” and otherwise fearmonger about immigrants in November of 2018, and only weeks into the new session of the House with Democrats in control, tried to block Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from leading a delegation to the West Bank, because of reasons that amount to trying to stir up Islamphobia. Even as recently as a few days ago, he was pandering to xenophobes by taking a visit down to the U.S/Mexico border in Arizona for photo-ops with border patrol agents, while claiming that the border wall was near completion and one of Trump’s “promises made, promises kept”. (Someone’s living in a fantasy world.)

Babin’s opponent in November is Rashad Lewis, a former Jasper, Texas City Councilman hoping for a big upset… especially given the extreme conservative lean of the District. We’re hoping there’s something unexpected to happen in this match-up between now and November, because Babin’s accomplished nothing but partisan d***ery over the past six years.

[Mister Mets]

Abraham Lincoln served only two years in the US Congress from 1847 to 1849 and he was out of office for 12 years prior to the presidency

Lincoln is even less qualified than Bush or Obama and he became the greatest president of the USA

I'll fully accept that there isn't a full correlation between experience and presidential quality..

There are great Presidents who were qualified. Thomas Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, Secretary of State and Vice President before he became President.
There are great Presidents lacking conventional qualifications. Truman was a generic Senator, part of a relatively corrupt Missouri political machine before he became the running mate of a dying FDR.
There are mediocre Presidents who weren't that qualified. Franklin Pierce was a generic former Senator.
There are mediocre Presidents who had impressive resumes. Andrew Johnson served in pretty much every possible local and federal elected office, as state representative, state senator, Congressman, Governor, Senator, and Vice-President. He had also been a small-town mayor, as well as Military Governor of Tennessee during the Civil War. James Buchanan was as Chairman of the House Judiciary committee, Ambassador to Russia, a two-term Senator from the second most populated state in the country, Secretary of State, and Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

For whatever reason, we've been electing conventionally unqualified Presidents during my lifetime.

I'm guessing part of it is that after enough terms out of the White House, primary voters like political newcomers, while experienced candidates are likely to win primaries they are unlikely to win (when their party has been in the White House for two terms or out of the White House for one term.)

Arthur was considered a very successful president in his time, although he has picked up some tarnish as attitudes have progressed. However I doubt anyone else would have been better in that regard, considering what mainstream opinions were in the day.

He was a political hack who came into office under really bad circumstances (someone affiliated with his faction of the Republican party murdered the President) who pushed significant and necessary civil service reforms.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...16-1883-340488

To nobody's surprise, "free speech" platform Parler is banning people all over the place.

And the people who aren't banned are obligated to pay for Parler's legal defense, if anything they say on Parler results in a lawsuit.

[PwrdOn]

Guy goes away for a few days, to find out people are actually arguing that Communism is better than Capitalism and that they would rather live in China than the United States? Man there are some super duper fruit loops on this board.

I'm Canadian, and I would rather live in Canada than the US, and I'd rather live in France or Denmark over Canada, but China??? have you people lost your fricken minds!!!

I’m not sure if you know this, but the vast majority of people living on the planet can’t just pack up and move wherever the hell they want and expect to be treated with dignity and respect. Of course living standards are going to be higher in colonizer countries, that’s why they have laws to try and keep everyone else out so they don’t have to share it with their former subjects.

[A Small Talent For War]

I’m not sure if you know this, but the vast majority of people living on the planet can’t just pack up and move wherever the hell they want and expect to be treated with dignity and respect. Of course living standards are going to be higher in colonizer countries, that’s why they have laws to try and keep everyone else out so they don’t have to share it with their former subjects.

That's a bit complicated. The people who actually financed colonization are also those who enjoy the benefits of immigration while the domestic labor movement opposes illegal immigration because it can be used as leverage against the value of labor just as building a factory overseas (often in former colonial regions) takes advantage of cheap labor and can lead to loss of manufacturing domestically. So, increasingly powerful business conglomerates - even if they are overtly conservative - are the driving force for lax immigration policies or policies that put the increasing number of immigrant workers at a severe disadvantage - while increasingly weakening labor interests - even if apparently liberal - offer the primary resistance to lax immigration and better wages and protections for legal immigrants as well as all workers.

Of course, if a nation completely undercuts labor and drives down wages, then who will be able to afford the stuff you're making in your factory? Solution: credit cards to pump up demand with debt that will realistically never be paid off.

Another solution would be to provide public services to support unemployment, housing, medical needs and all the basic necessities of living so that wages can be as low as possible and still allow consumption of goods produced. However, then people wouldn't be so desperate with debt that they'll take any job offered.

[Kirby101]

Guy goes away for a few days, to find out people are actually arguing that Communism is better than Capitalism and that they would rather live in China than the United States? Man there are some super duper fruit loops on this board.

I'm Canadian, and I would rather live in Canada than the US, and I'd rather live in France or Denmark over Canada, but China??? have you people lost your fricken minds!!!

Not "people" just two. The rest see the absurdity.

[Gray Lensman]

In election news, Biden has supposedly narrowed his Veep search down to his final four. Val Demmings, Keisha Lance-Bottoms, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris.


On the other side, reality finally has sunk in for Trump about his polling numbers. The down side is that by making adjustments in accordance with fact based reality he might be able to start moving his numbers in a positive direction. Before the decisions were so bad Biden should have been forced to pay Trump with his campaign cash.

[Kirby101]

In election news, Biden has supposedly narrowed his Veep search down to his final four. Val Demmings, Keisha Lance-Bottoms, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris.


On the other side, reality finally has sunk in for Trump about his polling numbers. The down side is that by making adjustments in accordance with fact based reality he might be able to start moving his numbers in a positive direction. Before the decisions were so bad Biden should have been forced to pay Trump with his campaign cash.

When has Trump ever made a decision based on fact based reality?

[Tami]

In election news, Biden has supposedly narrowed his Veep search down to his final four. Val Demmings, Keisha Lance-Bottoms, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris.


On the other side, reality finally has sunk in for Trump about his polling numbers. The down side is that by making adjustments in accordance with fact based reality he might be able to start moving his numbers in a positive direction. Before the decisions were so bad Biden should have been forced to pay Trump with his campaign cash.

Biden probably won't choose Warren, but I can understand why she's on the list. I would expect that Biden might offer her a Cabinet position. Either that, or he might endorse her to be the Next Senate Majority Leader once the Democrats take control of the Senate.

[worstblogever]

On the other side, reality finally has sunk in for Trump about his polling numbers. The down side is that by making adjustments in accordance with fact based reality he might be able to start moving his numbers in a positive direction. Before the decisions were so bad Biden should have been forced to pay Trump with his campaign cash.

So there's...

• His niece's book is still going to drop.
• Covid-19 deaths continuing to accelerate. Estimates are we'll be over 250K by Election Day.
• Trying to get the ACA cancelled by the Supreme Court in the middle of a pandemic and his "evidence" about why it should be done is reminding the public every Republican in Congress voted to do it (which will NOT help their chances down ballot, to remind the public of that)
• Civil Rights Protests against police violence continuing
• Outright corruption by his Attorney General from his first day on the job
• He's trying to do Putin favors and get them back into the G7 while he's putting bounties out on American troops.

I mean... that's what's known right now, and there's still more developing on top of that between now and the election. That's just the big stuff.

How the hell does someone make a comeback in the polls against that? That's riddled with more arrows that Boromir in FOTR bad. That's more arrows than the ending of Kurosawa's Throne of Blood bad.

People still feel 2016, and don't want to count Trump out, but for f***'s sake, how does the supposed "bed of nails" thing still apply? He's sandwiched between two beds of nails.

[Tami]

So there's...

• His niece's book is still going to drop.
• Covid-19 deaths continuing to accelerate. Estimates are we'll be over 250K by Election Day.
• Trying to get the ACA cancelled by the Supreme Court in the middle of a pandemic and his "evidence" about why it should be done is reminding the public every Republican in Congress voted to do it (which will NOT help their chances down ballot, to remind the public of that)
• Civil Rights Protests against police violence continuing
• Outright corruption by his Attorney General from his first day on the job
• He's trying to do Putin favors and get them back into the G7 while he's putting bounties out on American troops.

I mean... that's what's known right now, and there's still more developing on top of that between now and the election. That's just the big stuff.

How the hell does someone make a comeback in the polls against that? That's riddled with more arrows that Boromir in FOTR bad. That's more arrows than the ending of Kurosawa's Throne of Blood bad.

People still feel 2016, and don't want to count Trump out, but for f***'s sake, how does the supposed "bed of nails" thing still apply? He's sandwiched between two beds of nails.

And there are still people out there who will vote for Trump because ..... :shrug:

[Kirby101]

And there are still people out there who will vote for Trump because ..... :shrug:

According to polls about 40% at least. We are getting a very good indication of the level of racism and stupidity in this country.

In the end it will come down to who votes and who is ALLOWED to vote.

[Tami]

Speaking of trump voters

I don't think anything I've seen so perfectly captures why there's no way the US is going to be getting on top of COVID-19 pandemic anytime soon.



Maybe he saw the cover of this New Yorker issue once and thought it was a good idea.