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

[Catlady in training]

‘It’s a 100% mobilisation’: day one of Russia’s drive to build its army

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...war-army-drive

Summons delivered to eligible men at midnight. Schoolteachers pressed into handing out draft notices. Men given an hour to pack their things and appear at draft centres. Women sobbing as they sent their husbands and sons off to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The first full day of Russia’s first mobilisation since the second world war produced emotional showdowns at draft centres and even signs of protest, while it appears Russia could be considering far more than the 300,000 new conscripts claimed by the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.

One woman in a small village in the Zakamensky region of Buryatia, in eastern Siberia, said she first felt something was amiss when the dogs began barking about midnight.

In a community of 450 people, the village head was walking from house to house, seeking to hand out more than 20 draft notices. As men gathered before departing the next morning, she said, some drank vodka, while others hugged and told each other to stay safe. Women cried and made the sign of the cross over the small minibus that carried them away.

“It’s not a partial mobilisation, it’s a 100% mobilisation,” said Alexandra Garmazhapova, president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, an activist group that has reported on the draft in the region. In the past day, she said, she and her colleagues had received and identified more than 3,000 reports of povestka, or draft papers, being delivered in Buryatia within just 24 hours of Vladimir Putin announcing the draft.

Despite assurances that Russia would be seeking men who had recently served in the army and had combat experience, activists pointed to a number of cases of men in their 50s receiving draft notices.

One woman said a 52-year-old relative had been delivered a povestka shortly before the president announced the draft the previous day.

Yanina Nimayeva, a journalist from Ulan-Ude in Buryatia, complained that her 38-year-old husband had received a draft notice despite never having served in the army.

“‘Don’t you have five children?’ they asked him. My husband laughed and said ‘yes, five kids’. ‘Well, OK, expect your draft papers,’” she said.

“I understand that we have a quota. Our republic needs to gather 4,000 soldiers,” said Nimayeva in a video addressed to the regional governor. “But some parameters and principles of this partial mobilisation must be observed.”

During a televised interview on Wednesday, Shoigu said Russia would be targeting 300,000 draftees, mainly those with recent military experience. But the actual number in an order signed by Putin is secret.

Some think it could be far higher. The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe reported that a source in the presidential administration said Russia was seeking to draft more than 1 million people into the army. That reporting has not been confirmed by other news outlets.

But video and anecdotal evidence from around Russia has shown large drafts taking place even in small towns, suggesting that the numbers could be far higher.

Many are in Russia’s ethnic minority republics, reinforcing a sense that the country has been disproportionately relying on ethnic minorities to provide its main fighting force in Ukraine. Those regions have also suffered a disproportionate number of deaths and casualties from the war.

In Dagestan, a video appeared to show people angrily confronting an official arguing in favour of the draft at a recruitment centre.

The official said that her son had been fighting in Ukraine since February.

“You’re fighting for your children’s future,” shouted the woman, who was not identified, in front of a crowd outside a municipal building.

“We don’t have a present, what kind of future are you talking about?” a man in the crowd responded.

[Catlady in training]

They have started those shameful imitations of referendum today:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...joining-russia

President Vladimir Putin has indicated the Kremlin will use the referendums to recognise the territory as Russian, and even threatened this week that Russia would defend the new acquisitions using all available options, including nuclear weapons.

“Encroachment on to Russian territory is a crime which allows you to use all the forces of self-defence,” Dmitry Medvedev, formerly Russian president and now deputy chair of the security council, said in a post on Telegram on Thursday. “This is why these referendums are so feared in Kyiv and the west.”

[babyblob]

They have started those shameful imitations of referendum today:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...joining-russia

He throws out the nuclear threat so often I worry people are going to see it as saber rattling and ignore it when he says it. Which part of me thinks that is what he wants. Say it so often people dont take it seriously and that is when he will use them. While the world's guard is down.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I watch because I want to see first hand what they are saying. What Spin Fox News puts on things. I dont want to get information second hand.

If that’s your thing, fine. Me? I wouldn’t spend so much as ten seconds watching Faux News, and that’s a generous estimate. The bullshit, misinformation and flat out, baldfaced lies spewed on that channel helped to prop up Trump and widened the political gulf in this country to dangerously toxic levels. I got zero use for that channel and would dance naked in the street if it went away tomorrow.

[Malvolio]

I often get e-mails from groups like Media Matters, telling me what horrible thing someone on FOX News said or did this week. Usually, they're 100% accurate, but occasionally they're exaggerating what FOX News said or did, so I like to get the raw feed to get the full story.

[BeastieRunner]

Did the 18 yr old lie about it thus setting off a guy who had mental issues or did the guy lie outright, I don't understand. I'd also like a link if you have one.

Has the claim been solidified yet?

Not that it matters.

I watch because I want to see first hand what they are saying. What Spin Fox News puts on things. I dont want to get information second hand.

Way to hand them money and keep them in business.

People need to understand hate watching a show or channel keeps said media around.

Keep enabling stochastic terrorism.

[Jack Dracula]

‘It’s a 100% mobilisation’: day one of Russia’s drive to build its army

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...war-army-drive

It takes time to organize and employ that sort of operation. It’s very likely the Russian government had this plan in the works for the last 6 months. My hope is that dragging people from their homes to fight this war that very few actually wanted will prompt some large-scale protests.

If that’s your thing, fine. Me? I wouldn’t spend so much as ten seconds watching Faux News, and that’s a generous estimate. The bullshit, misinformation and flat out, baldfaced lies spewed on that channel helped to prop up Trump and widened the political gulf in this country to dangerously toxic levels. I got zero use for that channel and would dance naked in the street if it went away tomorrow.

Watching and listening to conservative media quickly angers me to the point where I have to shut it off. It's the degree of blatant lying and purposeful misinformation I can't stand. Having lived long enough to remember the days before Fox News and seeing how they've helped polarize the country and our government over the decades just disgusts me.

[CSTowle]

Has the claim been solidified yet?

Not that it matters.


Way to hand them money and keep them in business.

People need to understand hate watching a show or channel keeps said media around.

Keep enabling stochastic terrorism.

Again, not speaking for BB or anyone but myself. However. It's good to know what the other side is saying and how they're forming their arguments because it tells you where the fight is going to be, let's you see where their weaknesses are (and your own), and helps form arguments against them for use both speaking truth to stupid and because sometimes people can be misguided but then can also have things explained to them in greater detail and change their minds, and while it doesn't always work the big elections are usually won by a slim margin so every drop helps.

To use a few examples from the comic book world, the made-for-clickbait/outrage stories where "Superman is gay" and "Captain America is a Nazi, and always has been, and it'll never go back to normal (until it of course did)". Your set-in-his-ways granddad or uncle might hear that and think the worst, but a quick explanation and an invitation to look up the facts might (heavy emphasis on might, but still) help to negate those kind of stories.

Yelling about caravans of immigrants or "urban" crime rates might grab attention, but if you can point out the real statistics it again can blunt the impact of the nonsense.

More importantly, you're not always right. I don't mean you specifically, I mean one is not always right. Even in arguments with Republicans. So not having your head up your you-know by keeping only to sources and discussion partners that echo your own biases is important. Even if only to refresh/reestablish why you have the beliefs you do in the first place.

You're never going to eliminate arguments you don't agree with, you're never going to silence your opposition, you can only hope to make a better argument and hope that it matters enough to move the needle the slightest bit. To do that you're going to need to know what you're talking about, and what they are. Know what matters to them, know where they're mistaken, be willing to acknowledge you might be mistaken and that if you're checking every box in your Party's stock positions you might be stuck in that bubble and need to venture out. Even if it's to uncomfortable areas.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published a profile about Steve Lonegan, the former mayor of Bogota, New Jersey who twice lost in the GOP Primary while running to be the governor of the Garden State, and failed candidate for U.S. Senate in the 2013 special election to replace the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Lonegan gets offended by Spanish language advertising on billboards, and claimed he had handicap for running for office in New Jersey… he’s WHITE. He also touted himself as trustworthy on healthcare issues because he’s “callous and uncaring” and was opposed to the Affordable Care Act, saying, “I’d hate to see you get cancer, but that’s your problem, not mine.” He’s serious about his lack of concern for his fellow man… even going as far as to admit he wouldn’t request federal disaster aid for New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. Lonegan also referred to Social Security as “a Ponzi Scheme”, claimed Mitt Romney was right about his comments about the 47 percent, and claimed that his opponent, Corey Booker, who was serving as mayor of Newark at the time, had done a bad enough job as mayor that the Passaic River was overflowing from corpses from shootings in the city. This levelheaded individual has not run for office since.

On this date in both 2015, and 2016, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” featured a profiles of the former U.S. Senator from Illinois, Mark Kirk, who as a member of the House, voted for the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Bill, voted to fight in the “War on Christmas” by passing legislation to recognize the importance of Christianity, and voted against equal pay measures like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Kirk was widely criticized during his campaign for U.S. Senate, after being caught on more than one occasion exaggerating or misrepresenting his military service record to score more points with voters, including touting winning an award he never received, and that he was the only member of Congress to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom when he was never deployed outside the United States. Kirk made calls for the migrant children fleeing gang violence in Central America being held in the United States to be forced to undergo criminal background checks, sending out fund-raising letters warning that he needed help because First Lady Michelle Obama could be running against him in 2016 (she didn’t), and participated in the sabotage of nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran as one of the "47 traitors". In March of 2015, Sen. Kirk was discussing Congressional Democrats’ unwillingness to vote for an anti-human trafficking bill because it had harsh anti-abortion language in it and compared it to some members of Congress being unwilling to abolish slavery in the 1850s. He also was asked about fellow Senator Lindsay Graham’s presidential run, and said he was “a bro with no ho”. Mark Kirk had several thoughts on the Iran Nuclear Treaty, including that President Obama wanted “to get nukes to Iran” (quite the opposite, actually), while invoking Godwin’s Law by comparing the president to Neville Chamberlain, and Iran to Hitler’s Germany and that the Obama administration paid a $400 million “ransom” to Iran (which was actually the U.S.giving Iran access to bank assets they had in U.S. banks in 1979 that had been frozen for decades, and were returned without interest, thanks to shrewd negotiating), and in his hysterics, Sen. Kirk called President Obama the “drug dealer in chief”. Kirk ended up losing his Senate seat, Rep. Tammy Duckworth, who he stupidly accused of “not standing up for our veterans” even though her voting record actually shows that she stands up for our veterans more than most in Congress, if not one of the best supporters of veterans in the House and that she herself is a veteran who if she doesn’t “stand” for veterans it’s because she literally because she lost two legs during her service in the Iraq War (the one Mark Kirk voted for as a member of the House) in a helicopter crash. SHe lost, and has already faded from relevance.

It was on this date in 2017 that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Brian McDowell, a candidate for New Jersey State Assembly in 2016 who wanted to represent that state’s 1st District. His qualifications for office? He was a former contestant on Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice”. Less than a month after McDowell filed paperwork to run for office, video of him emerged shamelessly hitting on a woman, telling her, “Let me tell you right now. You should f*** me. It would really be good. Listen, you never know.” Republican Party officials in New Jersey were immediately looking to push back and get McDowell off the ballot before he embarrassed them any further (and this was without knowing that Donald Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape would be dropping in a few months). McDowell wasn’t about to just surrender, but he never exactly gave an apology, instead making a statement that could best be classified as “making things worse”, saying, “There are human errors and even Jesus dropped the cross three times. I’m not running to be the pope. I’m running to make New Jersey more affordable.” Without any support from the New Jersey GOP, Brian McDowell finished third in the GOP Primary for the seat in the state assembly, getting only 1750 votes for 16% of the vote and returned to working in real estate with Island Realty Group. It doesn’t seem like he’ll be getting into politics anywhere soon, seeing he’ll always be immediately linked to the insane presidency of Donald Trump no matter what he does.

It was on this date in 2018, as well as 2019, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Leah Vukmir, who served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 2002 through 2010, taking over for Gov. Scott Walker’s seat in the Wisconsin House of Representatives, then using the momentum of the Tea Party Wave in 2010 to jump over to the Wisconsin State Senate where she remained until 2018. Over that time, Vukmir has also finagled her way onto the goddamn Board of Directors of ALEC itself, because why funnel money to legislators to push your garbage legislation around the country when you can just buy elections and put your own people in their place, right? And you can see the mindset of a die-hard from ALEC in her voting record, from trying in 2006 to pass a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman, consistently voting against bills aimed at providing access to emergency contraception to victims of rape and sexual assault, co-sponsoring SB 167, a bill aimed at reducing the legal age of those who can carry firearms to 10, as well as voting for all manner of voter suppression tactics that GOP legislators get behind. Over the course of her very partisan career in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Vukmir has actually been booed by the collective gallery at times, most famously back in 2009 when she tried accusing two colleagues who were proponents of medical marijuana of “using dying cancer patients to further a secret agenda of legalization”. More recently, however, Vukmir’s name has come up during the investigation into corruption by Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the Wisconsin State Assembly because she has tried reframing the investigation of potential bribery as something in which she is the victim. That’s right, Vukmir has handled the investigation into her own potential corruption by demanding the investigators be jailed. We’ll add that just this past Christmas, Vukmir posted an op-ed in the Wisconsin Capitol Times where she expressed her desire to win the non-existent “War on Christmas”, but also added that she “sincerely doubts those celebrating Hanukkah would take offense to being wished Merry Christmas.” in it, which is… kind of presumptuous to speak for a whole religious minority that you’re not a part of, y’know? Well, this brings us to Leah Vukmir’s campaign to challenge Sen. Tammy Baldwin for her seat in the U.S. Senate in 2018, and boy howdy, has she been f***-bonkers koo-koo in campaign ads from the jump. She opened up by airing a heartwarming ad portraying herself as supporting families… haha, just kidding, her first ad was Vukmir sitting in a poorly lit room with a gun sitting on the table, talking directly to the viewer as if she might shoot them if they didn’t vote for her. Why it was on the table… who knows? But okay, okay. Botching your first ad isn’t a sign you’re not ready for the big stage, she assuredly did better in take two, right? HA! No. Vukmir aired an ad where she portrayed herself on “Team America” (apologies to the film), and claimed that Sen. Tammy Baldwin was on “Team Terrorist”, showing an image of Baldwin superimposed to be standing next to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Seriously, that’s the sort of gutless campaign tactic you usually only see in movie parodies or on episodes of Family Guy. Mercifully, Vukmir lost to Tammy Baldwin in 2018, and with the recent announcement that Jim Sensebrenner would be retiring after four decades in office, she was very briefly rumored to be considering taking a shot at his seat, but she confirmed she is not running for Congress in 2020. She’s going to be instead, trying to influence conservative policy at the National Taxpayers Union… And we hope that she continues not running for any office and slowly fades from relevance.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled Lauren Witzke, a 2020 candidate for U.S. Senate from Delaware and former Trump campaign staffer who did her work for him in Iowa, and more importantly, she was yet another Qanon conspiracy theorist that the Republican Party have on the ballot trying to get to Washington, D.C. Of course, her belief in a conspiracy that Democrats kidnap children to be sacrificed in Satanic rituals where they are harvested for fear hormones that grant eternal youth to the cabal of leftists is somehow not the only crazy s*** she’s tied up in. Because, a little peek down Lauren Witzke’s social media feed shows she’s also furthered conspiracy theories rooted in anti-Semitism, has shared stories about how the Earth is flat (pretty easy to clown Flat Earthers since that’s been debunked since before the birth of Christ by astronomers), and wouldn’t you know it, she also is a 9/11 Truther. As Witzke celebrated her victory in the GOP Primary, she took the time out on Twitter to thank Nick Fuentes, one of the organizers of the “Unite the Right” hate rally in Charlottesville where Neo-Nazis terrorized the town and one drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters to kill Heather Heyer. She was known to frequently interact with white nationalists on social media, and sometimes in person, like when she met with Nick Wheeler. Her campaign manager, Michael Sisco, is also a self-described monarchist who would like to supplant American democracy with a monarchy, and run all the Jewish people out of the country, so… while it’s obvious that with all those white nationalist pals, you would guess that she would be an anti-immigrant xenophobe, right? Well, it’s a little bit weirder than that. Lauren Witzke has groused about Mexican cartels putting drugs across the border in the United States, which isn’t off brand… but she has an odd personal twist she brings to the discussion. Witzke has, by her own admission, volunteered that she used to work with the cartels and while being a heroin and amphetamine user herself, ran drugs across the border for them(!). Democratic Senator Chris Coons easily won re-election against her, but as far as we’re concerned, Lauren Witzke passed Christine O’Donnell for the craziest Republican to run for Congress in Delaware, and it wasn’t even close.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Kimberly Klacik, a two-time loser in attempts to get elected to Congress as the U.S. House Representative in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, failing to win office in both the April 2020 special election to replace Elijah Cummings, and then the November election seven months later. Klacik came to prominence by disparaging the city of Baltimore, the same city she wished to represent, saying it was “overrun with trash and dilapidation” to the glee of Donald Trump during his years-long racism-fueled rivalry with the late Congressman Cummings. Her campaign released a video entitled "Black Lives Don't Matter To Democrats" in August of 2020, and that finally earned her a spot speaking at the 2020 Republican National Convention that gave her two minutes to further the GOP’s paranoid fervor about “defunding the police”. Her campaign then began throwing a tantrum because the newly sworn-in Congressman Kweisi Mfume would not agree to debate her, and he simply responded that she wasn’t a serious candidate because she failed to even correctly spell the city of Baltimore in a campaign video (he referenced a shot where it was listed as “Balitimore”). When Election Day rolled around, Kimberly Klacik only got 28% of the vote. At first, she conceded, but then started to claim there were “irregularities” and “election fraud” in her 44 point loss. She had lost the in-person election day vote, the early in-person vote, and absentee votes all by a large margin. She only helped further Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” with her irrational claims. Kimberly then began a particularly bitter feud with conservative commentator/facetious troll Candace Owens, suing Owens in a $20 million defamation lawsuit after Owens released an Instragram video where she claimed Klacik had committed campaign fraud, money laundering, illegally used drugs and was a “madame” of a strip club that she also performed at. As this would seem to make her an incredibly unlikely candidate to win office anywhere, especially in MD-7, we’ll set aside her profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1139-55, since this was established in July 2014.


Jeff Fortenberry
Welcome to what is the 1139th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where profiling Jeff Fortenberry, the former U.S. House Representative from Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District, who served in office from 2005-2022. If you’re noticing he didn’t make it all the way through this term, and wondering what could have happened, we’ll give you a hint… the law was broken.

So before we skip to the ending of his career, though, we’ll cover a few things that popped up along the way.

Back in fall of 2018, while much of the nation was horrified by several acts of anti-Semitism happening as white nationalists panicked over the thought of Democrats taking back control of Congress in the Blue Wave election, Jeff Fortenberry was focusing on the real political terrorism… that someone put a set of giant googly eyes over a campaign poster and added a white bar to the “o” in his name so it said “Fartenberry” instead of “Fortenberry”. And it was such a problem, he had his Congressional staffers make angry phone calls to a couple state employees who dared to hit “Like” on the image of that vandalism being shared on Facebook. In particularly, a college professor at the University of Nebraska was forced to explain over the phone that decision to hit a button to show his appreciation for a juvenile joke that Fortenberry and company deemed was “political violence”.

Whatever, Fartenberry.

Then again, we’re talking about the same putz who in April of 2021, only WEEKS after the battle on January 6th, made two emergency phone calls for help from Capitol Police inside Congress. After pushing the emergency button in his office, Fortenberry waited, claiming he was “testing” to see how long the Capitol Police would take to respond. When they were told en route that it was a test, they turned back, only to have the Congressman hit the button a second time, like a jackass who keeps hitting the button outside an elevator until the doors open.

[worstblogever]

He had no f***s left to give in Congress at that point, but when you review his voting record… did he ever?

• March 21st, 2005: Rep. Fortenberry votes for the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill. This despite the fact that a large majority of the country polled at the time felt that the government preventing a person's plan to die with dignity was an overreach.
• July 18th, 2006: Fortenberry co-sponsors and votes for a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
• December 6th, 2006: Rep. Fortenberry votes for the "Abortion Pain Bill", which would create an unconstitutional ban on abortion at 20 weeks.
• July 31st, 2007: Jeff Fortenberry votes against the Equal Pay Bill.
• November 7th, 2007: Jeff Fortenberry votes against ENDA, allowing the continued discrimination of LGBTQ citizens based on their sexual identity in the workplace.
• July 24th, 2008: Rep. Fortenberry votes against funding for the prevention of AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
• January 9th, 2009: Fortenberry votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
• April 29th, 2009: Jeff Fortenberry votes against the Hate Crimes Expansion that would provide protections to LGBTQ citizens.
• July 31st, 2009: Fortenberry votes against the widely successful "Cash for Clunkers" program that helped save the American auto industry.
• June 30th, 2010: After Wall Street bankers taking unnecessary risks nearly imploded the global economy in 2007, legislation finally comes forward to prevent the same behaviors from being permitted in the future. The signature piece of legislation to prevent another financial meltdown was Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, which Jeff Fortenberry voted against.
• July 30th, 2010: Months after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a bill comes to the floor to better regulate off-shore drilling. Fortenberry is apparently alright with ecological disasters continuing in the future, as he votes against it.
• December 8th, 2010: Rep. Fortenberry votes against the DREAM Act.
• December 15th, 2010: Fortenberry votes against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
• On January 5th, 2011, Rep. Fortenberry votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has voted for almost every attempt to do so thereafter.
• On February 18th, 2011, Jeff Fortenberry votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
• March 17th, 2011: Rep. Fortenberry votes to cut funding to National Public Radio.
• September 15th, 2012: Rep. Fortenberry votes for the "No More Solyndras Act".
• September 21st, 2012: Fortenberry votes for the "Stop the War on Coal Act".
• January 15th, 2013: Jeff Fortenberry votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
• February 28th, 2013: Fortenberry votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
• June 19th, 2013: Jeff Fortenberry votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Fortenberry votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Jeff Fortenberry goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
• July 10th, 2014: Fortenberry votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• January 22nd, 2015: Jeff Fortenberry votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
• February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Fortenberry votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• March 3rd, 2015: Fortenberry votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
• September 11th, 2015: Fortenberry votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• November 19th, 2015: Fortenberry votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
• February 2nd, 2016: Jeff Fortenberry votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
• February 16th, 2017: Fortenberry votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Jeff Fortenberry votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order. We feel safer already.
• May 4th, 2017: Fortenberry votes for the GOP's healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partum depression, and sexual assault as "pre-existing conditions". Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Fortenberry would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Jeff Fortenberry votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• October 3rd, 2017: Fortenberry votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Jeff Fortenberry votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.

x

[Mister Mets]

According to the Washington Post, Matt Gaetz is unlikely to be prosecuted for sex trafficking.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...location=alert

Career prosecutors have recommended against charging Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) in a long-running sex-trafficking investigation — telling Justice Department superiors that a conviction is unlikely in part because of credibility questions with the two central witnesses, according to people familiar with the matter.

Senior department officials have not made a final decision on whether to charge Gaetz, but it is rare for such advice to be rejected, these people told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the deliberations. They added that it is always possible additional evidence emerges that could alter prosecutors’ understanding of the case.

Nevertheless, it is unlikely that federal authorities will charge Gaetz with a crime in an investigation that started in late 2020 and focused on his alleged involvement with a 17-year-old girl several years earlier. Gaetz, 40, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying he has never paid for sex. He has also said the only time he had sex with a 17-year-old was when he was also 17.

Investigators set out to determine if the congressman paid for sex in violation of federal sex-trafficking laws and have examined his dealings with the then-17-year-old, people familiar with the matter have said. Earlier this year, a federal grand jury in Orlando heard testimony from associates of Gaetz, including an ex-girlfriend.

The ex-girlfriend was among several women on a trip Gaetz allegedly took to the Bahamas in 2018 that has been of particular interest to investigators. The 17-year-old at issue in the investigation was also on that trip, though by that time she was already 18 or older, people familiar with the matter have said. She has been a central witness in the investigation, but people familiar with the case said she is one of two people whose testimony has issues that veteran prosecutors feel would not pass muster with a jury.

Joel Greenberg, a former associate of Gaetz's who has pled guilty to trafficking and identity theft, has been willing to testify against Gaetz, but also seems to have credibility issues.

[worstblogever]

x

• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Fortenberry voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• January 27th, 2019: Jeff Fortenberry votes against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attack Fortenberry our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
• February 28th, 2019: Fortenberry 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. Fortenberry 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: Jeff Fortenberry 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: Fortenberry votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Fortenberry votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Jeff Fortenberry 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”.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Fortenberry 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: Fortenberry votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• December 10th, 2020: Fortenberry 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 she won re-election in.
• January 6th, 2021: Jeff Fortenberry votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Fortenberry 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: Jeff Fortenberry 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.
• February 25th, 2021: Fortenberry votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Fortenberry 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: Jeff Fortenberry votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Fortenberry votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because she feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Fortenberry is one of 172 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 19th, 2021: Rep. Fortenberry votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• November 5th, 2021: Jeff Fortenberry votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• March 31st, 2022: Fortenberry doesn’t even bother to show up to vote on HR 6833, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which would limit the cost that drug companies could list insulin at to $35 and make sure no diabetic was priced out of surviving their condition. Bill Jeffson would rather they be gouged by pharmaceutical giants and/or die.

So what was it that did in the career of Jeff Fortenberry? Even with how impossibly lenient and relaxed the rules are on campaign donations, even FOREIGN campaign donations, he got caught accepting illegal foreign campaign donations to the tune of $30,000. There still is the opportunity when politiicans get caught with their hands in this proverbial cookie jar to just cooperate with investigators and return the money from whence it came without much but a slap on the wrist… but what you shouldn’t do? LIE TO INVESTIGATORS.

Jeff Fortenberry still wanted to hang around, but five months after his indictment, he was convicted and finally pressured into resigning. We’ll give him one of our traditional “GOOD RIDDANCE” send-offs at this time.

[worstblogever]

According to the Washington Post, Matt Gaetz is unlikely to be prosecuted for sex trafficking.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...location=alert





Joel Greenberg, a former associate of Gaetz's who has pled guilty to trafficking and identity theft, has been willing to testify against Gaetz, but also seems to have credibility issues.

Nice of you to cast doubt on a GOP white nationalist, sex-trafficking pedophile's crimes, Mets. Especially given that we already KNOW Gaetz was self-aware enough of his guilt to seek a pardon.

New lows for your bottomless adventure.

Anyway, the Palmer Report, on Twitter, has cast doubt on the veracity of the "unnamed sources" within this article, and how strange this report is.

[BeastieRunner]

Did the 18 yr old lie about it thus setting off a guy who had mental issues or did the guy lie outright, I don't understand. I'd also like a link if you have one.

Again, not speaking for BB or anyone but myself. However. It's good to know what the other side is saying and how they're forming their arguments because it tells you where the fight is going to be, let's you see where their weaknesses are (and your own), and helps form arguments against them for use both speaking truth to stupid and because sometimes people can be misguided but then can also have things explained to them in greater detail and change their minds, and while it doesn't always work the big elections are usually won by a slim margin so every drop helps.

To use a few examples from the comic book world, the made-for-clickbait/outrage stories where "Superman is gay" and "Captain America is a Nazi, and always has been, and it'll never go back to normal (until it of course did)". Your set-in-his-ways granddad or uncle might hear that and think the worst, but a quick explanation and an invitation to look up the facts might (heavy emphasis on might, but still) help to negate those kind of stories.

Yelling about caravans of immigrants or "urban" crime rates might grab attention, but if you can point out the real statistics it again can blunt the impact of the nonsense.

More importantly, you're not always right. I don't mean you specifically, I mean one is not always right. Even in arguments with Republicans. So not having your head up your you-know by keeping only to sources and discussion partners that echo your own biases is important. Even if only to refresh/reestablish why you have the beliefs you do in the first place.

You're never going to eliminate arguments you don't agree with, you're never going to silence your opposition, you can only hope to make a better argument and hope that it matters enough to move the needle the slightest bit. To do that you're going to need to know what you're talking about, and what they are. Know what matters to them, know where they're mistaken, be willing to acknowledge you might be mistaken and that if you're checking every box in your Party's stock positions you might be stuck in that bubble and need to venture out. Even if it's to uncomfortable areas.

I fully understand seeking balanced opinions. Which is something I do.

Fox News is extreme in their views and is not a conservative voice but more of populism. Funding their voice further increases said voice. Populism hasn't worked out very well. FWIW I think MSNBC is just as bad at promoting extremism.

Occupational hazard before I left the bullpen, I had to have subs to NY Post, WA Examiner, as well as WaPo and NY Times.

If Fox News was more like their sister the WSJ, I wouldn't care, but the TV Fox News is all about sensationalism and taking advantage of people for money.

If they denounced Jan 6th, we wouldn't have this conversation but they didn't and here we are.