1. #31051

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    Quote Originally Posted by babyblob View Post
    Yes. Very true. And that is what upsets me. I have heard too many people talking like we are about to be a one party system by the end of the commission and in 2022 and 2024 the GOP will be swept out of office and things will be 100 percent better. And the talking heads on the news stations who use rating grabbing story headlines that feed into this are part of the problem. Its the Dems own version of fake news.

    Its like being down by 7 with 1 minute on the clock and taking a knee at the 50.
    I mean, in that scenario, they're counting on Liz Cheney to supposedly deliver the deathblow to the political party her daddy has sworn the entire family allegiance to for like five decades.

    I... don't think we're going to see it play out quite so dramatically. She's there to lend credibility to the proceeding and look at national security concerns, but I don't expect her to douse her caucus with gasoline and throw a match, y'know?
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  2. #31052
    Ultimate Member Gray Lensman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by babyblob View Post
    Yes. Very true. And that is what upsets me. I have heard too many people talking like we are about to be a one party system by the end of the commission and in 2022 and 2024 the GOP will be swept out of office and things will be 100 percent better. And the talking heads on the news stations who use rating grabbing story headlines that feed into this are part of the problem. Its the Dems own version of fake news.

    Its like being down by 7 with 1 minute on the clock and taking a knee at the 50.
    Even if the Democrats could sweep the GQP into the dustbin of history I'd give them two presidential elections max before the party splits. The only way a one party system happens in this country is if the Republicans manage to make it happen via the legislation/court combo.
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  3. #31053
    Ultimate Member babyblob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gray Lensman View Post
    Even if the Democrats could sweep the GQP into the dustbin of history I'd give them two presidential elections max before the party splits. The only way a one party system happens in this country is if the Republicans manage to make it happen via the legislation/court combo.
    I would never want to see a one party system anyway.
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  4. #31054
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by worstblogever View Post
    I feel like calling on people from the Intelligence Community and Pentagon to come testify and reveal the things we don't know yet as the criminal investigation unfolds could tell us what we already pretty much know, but need confirmed. And once that happens and plausible deniability go out the window, it's going to be clear... there are multiple members of Congress that contributed to, if not outright aided domestic terrorists who tried to have their own vice-president killed. Seeing Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell talk a big game about how it was over and they couldn't support the Big Lie on 1/7 through like 1/8... and seeing them reverse course and block all investigations into it that they could...

    They know someone in the party f***ed up, and they don't want the guilt by association... if whoever it is gets caught, it hurts all of them. So now, they're complicit.

    I know this is speculative, but there's no reason why they tried to, albeit only for a moment, say the right things, and try to stop the investigation. It's findings are going to come right back to someone too close for comfort.
    If people from the intelligence community know stuff but haven't revealed it, wouldn't the likeliest reason be that it's part of another ongoing investigation?

    Quote Originally Posted by Hellion View Post
    Will there be panic though? The GQP politicians and the GQP media have already made up their minds to paint this select committee as a partisan witch hunt and they'll just write off any and all Republicans Pelosi allows to sit on the committee as RINOs and heretics of the Church of Trump. I have no faith that any decisive action or justice will be made in response to what will likely be a cascade of damning revelations.

    Most of the Republican Party and their supporters started downplaying 1/6 or insisting the rioters were "Antifa" before the human feces had even been scraped off the chamber floors. I just don't see what our side can even do once the truth finally gets out.
    It doesn't seem like there's any panic on the right.

    I'm trying to think of the last time a congressional commission actually changed minds, or resulted in major prosecutions.

    While looking up that question, I saw an analysis from Just Security, which covers analysis of national and international security issues based at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law, looking at the results of major commissions.

    https://www.justsecurity.org/75671/i...y-commissions/

    So there seems to be some wishful thinking on the left.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hellion View Post
    To answer your question, I suppose it would depend on the administration in charge. It's unlikely the Trump White House would have ever used 'KKK' and 'bad' in the same sentence. But if I'm remembering the Politics of Public Education seminar I sat in several years ago, ideological differences over how history is taught is the main reason why we can't have a national standard for everything across the board.
    It would be hard to have a national standard for everything. The more things that are mandated to be included, the less room for states, districts and individual schools to determine what they want to include.

    Standards for particular grades would be especially complicated, given the way states want to cover their own history. Massachusetts may cover the colonial era a lot. There are a handful of Americans alive today who were born before Arizona became a state, so their state curriculum may have different timing.

    Quote Originally Posted by babyblob View Post
    Yes. Very true. And that is what upsets me. I have heard too many people talking like we are about to be a one party system by the end of the commission and in 2022 and 2024 the GOP will be swept out of office and things will be 100 percent better. And the talking heads on the news stations who use rating grabbing story headlines that feed into this are part of the problem. Its the Dems own version of fake news.

    Its like being down by 7 with 1 minute on the clock and taking a knee at the 50.
    To go with your metaphor, it would be like that team thinking they've got in the bag next year.
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  5. #31055

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    No Democrats think anything's in the bag next year, because of all the goddamn subversion of democracy via voter suppression legislation and questioning election results becoming the literal "normal" response to losing by Republicans, and trying to rewrite the rules so they can just declare themselves the winner in some instances.

    The GOP are actively anti-democracy. Full stop.
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  6. #31056
    Once And Future BAMF Hellion's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tendrin View Post
    Wonder what other crazy this guy has going.



    https://www.google.com/search?q=Jaso...hrome&ie=UTF-8
    Well I'm sure he's crazier than a bag of ferrets, but a quick Google turned up this:https://ravallirepublic.com/news/loc...dcb06c3f4.html

    Probably gets off to the glory days when Montana highways had no speed limits. Ellsworth's a deplorable, but not nearly as entertaining as the legendary story of our former U.S. House Rep Denny Rehberg's boating accident.
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  7. #31057
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hellion View Post
    Well I'm sure he's crazier than a bag of ferrets, but a quick Google turned up this:https://ravallirepublic.com/news/loc...dcb06c3f4.html

    Probably gets off to the glory days when Montana highways had no speed limits. Ellsworth's a deplorable, but not nearly as entertaining as the legendary story of our former U.S. House Rep Denny Rehberg's boating accident.
    Oh WBE-Eeeeeee... :P

  8. #31058
    Ultimate Member Malvolio's Avatar
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    I think part of the problem is an unwillingness by some liberals to admit that they understand where conservative arguments come from. There's this notion from some on the left that understanding equals endorsement. So they send out e-mails screaming "You won't believe what <conservative mouthpiece> said today!" or "You'll be shocked by what <random Republican Congresswoman> did!" No, I do believe it and I'm not shocked. We don't have to time to waste being shocked. We know why they do it. We know why they say it. Getting inside their heads won't corrupt us. But it is the first step toward defeating them.
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  9. #31059

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    Quote Originally Posted by Malvolio View Post
    I think part of the problem is an unwillingness by some liberals to admit that they understand where conservative arguments come from. There's this notion from some on the left that understanding equals endorsement. So they send out e-mails screaming "You won't believe what <conservative mouthpiece> said today!" or "You'll be shocked by what <random Republican Congresswoman> did!" No, I do believe it and I'm not shocked. We don't have to time to waste being shocked. We know why they do it. We know why they say it. Getting inside their heads won't corrupt us. But it is the first step toward defeating them.
    I believe most of their arguments come from:

    1. What Fox News is peddling at the behest of Rupert Murdoch's outrage factory
    2. What ALEC has invented for "policy" that's aimed at cutting the social safety net or hurting marginalized groups
    3. Straight up bigotry
    4. Some combination of #1-3.
    Last edited by worstblogever; 07-25-2021 at 12:44 AM.
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  10. #31060

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    It was back in 2014 on this date that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published our profile of the former U.S. Senator from Kentucky, Jim Bunning, a retired Cy Young major league baseball pitcher, who in spite of obvious signs that he was suffering from dementia, was still backed by the Republican Party to not lose a Senate seat in the 2004 elections. Those signs were pretty clear, like leaving interviews to go charging after people supporting his opponent in an angry haze, saying his opponent "looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons”, warning of Al Qaeda attacks that Homeland Security even debunked, accusing his opponent of sending people to stalk his wife (refuted by local police), and only agree to debate his opponent via a satellite connection from an enclosed location where his staffers presumably helped him with answers. The GOP's reward for winning at all costs, even if it meant putting a senile man back in the capitol, was to be embarrassed by a combative and stubborn man for the next six years, who loved screwing with Sen. Mitch McConnell as much as any Democrat in the Senate. By 2007, Bunning was claiming his wife was being assaulted at political events, and "little green doctors were pounding on my back", which was probably the point where the rest of the Republican Party knew they weren't propping him up yet again in 2010. Sen. Bunning began to go missing from the Senate for periods of a month or more, refusing to return for votes, sometimes not explaining why other than vague "family matters" (we're assuming not the kind with Steve Urkel), and then, at other points, saying he would not be present because he would be watching very important college sports events. By the end, Bunning was cursing out fellow Senators, and growling at the press to get away from him as he entered elevators because they were "for Senators only". Bunning passed away on May 25th, 2017, after complications from a stroke he suffered in October 2016.



    In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Massachusetts State Senator Ryan Fattman, who after getting elected to the Massachusetts state legislature back in 2011, started talking about illegal immigration, saying he hoped if a female illegal immigrant that got raped, that she would be afraid of reporting it to police for fear of being deported. Like many Republicans after saying something clearly inhumane and disgusting, Fattman then tried claiming he was "being taken out of context". Fattman's voting record, meanwhile, is one of the most regressive in his state, as he voted against attempts by the legislature to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill, voted against measures to keep abortion clinic protesters a safe distance from a clinic so that employees and patients could safely get in and out of them, and in an era of our country’s greatest income inequality in almost a century, has voted against minimum wage increases. Not once, but twice. Fattman also took the bold stance with three other Republicans to vote against a prohibition in Massachusetts on discrimination, as relates to gender identity, in 2016.

    Fattman has continued to make his focus in government on demonizing immigrants, fighting to hold up the annual state budget over an amendment in it that would have funded sanctuary cities. Meanwhile, outside the state legislature, Fattman has been at anti-immigration rallies and palling around with Jessica Vaughn, whose Center for Immigration Studies just so happens to be classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Overall, he now can boast of having the most conservative voting record in the Massachusetts State Senate.

    For the past several months, Democratic legislators in Massachusetts have been working to pass a sweeping police reform bill, in response to the death of George Floyd, and to answer for systematic racism in law enforcement across the country. But you’ll never guess which little s*** single-handedly worked to delay the passage of a bill that would take steps to prevent minorities being killed… it’s Ryan Fattman, AGAIN, who was blocking not just a vote, but even debate on the measure.

    Our 2021 update on Ryan Fattman involves the fact that he and his wife are currently under investigation for campaign finance fraud in the 2020 elections, where Fattman exceeded the maximum donation limit to funnel money to his wife’s re-election campaign to be Worcester County Register of Probate, allegedly going over the $100 limit with a $30,000 contribution. Fattman filed a lawsuit to try and prevent this information about the case from being forwarded to the state attorney general, but couldn’t manage to sue his way out of being in legal jeopardy. The case apparently involves not just Fattman and his wife, but his brother, and others on the Republican state committee.

    We don’t know what the fallout from that might be in 2022, but we hope whatever it is, it ends Ryan Fattman’s political career at six terms in office.
    Last edited by worstblogever; 07-25-2021 at 01:14 AM.
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  11. #31061
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    ‘Complete, dysfunctional chaos’: Oklahoma reels after Supreme Court ruling on Indian tribes

    Kyle Willis hadn’t seen Kimberly Graham in years, since the day she was sentenced to 107 years in prison after she drunkenly plowed her truck into a group of motorcyclists in Tulsa, killing five people, including his mother and stepfather.

    So it was a shock when he saw her at a court hearing last month — tanned, dressed in a frilly purple top and jeans and laughing — a free woman. Graham, who is Native American, was let out of prison in April after a Supreme Court decision last year that found that a large part of eastern Oklahoma is still Indian country. Despite a century of state and local prosecutions, the court ruled that crimes there were the province of federal and tribal courts.

    “She’s enjoying life as if nothing ever happened,” said Willis, 34, of Broken Arrow, Okla., who said the sight of Graham left him numb. “It’s bizarre. It’s crazy.”
    The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma said prosecution of Native Americans for crimes in the expanded Indian country must be carried out in federal and tribal courts, rather than by state or local officials. It was celebrated across the country by Native Americans last July, who saw it as a historic affirmation of treaties signed with the U.S. government in the 1800s.

    But in the year since, the ruling has upended Oklahoma’s criminal justice system, imperiled convictions in thousands of cases, sowed confusion for police and emergency responders and led to the direct release of more than 50 criminals convicted on charges including second-degree murder and child abuse, state records show.

    And there may be wider impacts for the region, which covers 19 million acres in eastern Oklahoma, includes a portion of the state’s second-biggest city, Tulsa, and is home to 1.8 million people.
    “People see McGirt as this drastic change in the law, but the tribes don’t see it that way,” said Sara Hill, the attorney general of the Cherokee Nation. “They see it as affirming and restoring authority to the tribes.”

    The Oklahoma Department of Corrections says that courts have dismissed or vacated convictions in 129 cases because of McGirt. The total includes at least 57 people who were released after being earlier convicted of crimes including child abuse, robbery, manslaughter, second-degree murder, shooting with intent to kill, lewd acts with a child and burglary.
    With the state forced to step back, the tribes have expanded their legal operations, adding new prosecutors, marshals and victims services coordinators. The Cherokee Nation, for example, has added six prosecutors, two district court judges and 13 marshals in recent months, filing 1,300 cases this year
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  12. #31062
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Trump's introduction at the "Rally to Protect Our Elections" in Phoenix is beyond parody

    Follow the thread if you want to know just how insane things are.
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  13. #31063

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tami View Post
    Trump's introduction at the "Rally to Protect Our Elections" in Phoenix is beyond parody

    Follow the thread if you want to know just how insane things are.
    Hell it was insane BEFORE the rally.

    Setting the stage: It's been raining for two straight days in the Phoenix area, which is not typical of the weather. But... picture what happens when a bunch of entitled Trump supporters roll down out of the rich parts of Scottsdale, and the far ends of the hick parts of town to go to this rally (venue holds 5,000, but attendance didn't even fill it)... picture those people turning up with umbrellas, and their reaction when security tells them they're considered possible weapons that can be used against the ex-president, so they have to throw them away before entering the place to get in.

    So much entitled rage. And, sadly, wasted umbrellas. These people are dumb enough to risk dying of Covid-19 by going maskless at a Trump rally while unvaccinated, they're willing to sacrifice an umbrella for Dear Leader, but they're gonna bitch about it.
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  14. #31064
    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by worstblogever View Post
    Hell it was insane BEFORE the rally.

    Setting the stage: It's been raining for two straight days in the Phoenix area, which is not typical of the weather. But... picture what happens when a bunch of entitled Trump supporters roll down out of the rich parts of Scottsdale, and the far ends of the hick parts of town to go to this rally (venue holds 5,000, but attendance didn't even fill it)... picture those people turning up with umbrellas, and their reaction when security tells them they're considered possible weapons that can be used against the ex-president, so they have to throw them away before entering the place to get in.

    So much entitled rage. And, sadly, wasted umbrellas. These people are dumb enough to risk dying of Covid-19 by going maskless at a Trump rally while unvaccinated, they're willing to sacrifice an umbrella for Dear Leader, but they're gonna bitch about it.
    Seriously? Did those morons watch Kingsman too many times and thought Trumpanzees would waltz in with special bumbershoots like what Harry and Eggsy used? Oh. My. God. The stupidity....IT BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNS!!

    Last edited by WestPhillyPunisher; 07-25-2021 at 07:14 AM.
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  15. #31065

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    Quote Originally Posted by WestPhillyPunisher View Post
    Seriously? Did those morons watch Kingsman too many times and thought Trumpanzees would waltz in with special bumbershoots like what Harry and Eggsy used? Oh. My. God. The stupidity....IT BURRRRRRRRRRRRNS!

    See, not that I'm overly concerned about the Russians trying to attack Trump, but the Russkies back during the Cold War did use a spy umbrella gun, for realsies. Spy movies have CONSTANTLY used them as a trope since, but it was based on a very real assassination.
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