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

[sbo]

In the end, nothing will happen to Cruz, no Republican will call for him to resign. And remember, he had a hand in the January 6th attack on the Gapitol as well.

But in 4 years, the idiots in Texas will re-elect him after he loses his bid for the GOP nomination.

And speaking of the idiots in Texas, I see no repercussions on their State elected officials after this debacle with their grid. And I see the GOP State legislature passing MORE deregulation.

Of course, because it's all the fault of AOC with her Green New Deal that didn't allow global warming to reach it's full potential, thus causing all of this misery.

The GOP, as always, bears no responsibility for anything bad that happens.

[DrNewGod]

In the end, nothing will happen to Cruz, no Republican will call for him to resign. And remember, he had a hand in the January 6th attack on the Gapitol as well.

But in 4 years, the idiots in Texas will re-elect him after he loses his bid for the GOP nomination.

And speaking of the idiots in Texas, I see no repercussions on their State elected officials after this debacle with their grid. And I see the GOP State legislature passing MORE deregulation.

Could be interesting in a few years. Quite a few Californians with quite a lot of money have relocated to Texas. Now, I'm not saying these tech-aristocrats are bringing the word of Lenin with them, but...
Liking TX's taxes and real estate prices better than CA's though they do, they are bringing with them somewhat different ideas about the rights due every human being, and what government is supposed to provide to its people than those held by TX's native rich people. We'll see.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Sue Myrick, the former U.S. House Representative from North Carolina’s 9th District who served from 1995-2013. Myrick was delightfully self-righteously insane, believing that God once spoke to her husband through their coffee maker and predicted her rise to political office, and back in the 1980s, she tried to ban all concerts in Charlotte, because rock music is “Satanic” and “evil”. In 2003, still spooked by the 9/11 terror attacks, she spoke to the Heritage Foundation and warned of a threat of Islamic Jihad lurking in America’s convenience stores. That was far from her last Islamophobic moment, as she wrote the foreword to the d of the book “Muslim Mafia” that warned of followers of Islam looking to infiltrate the United State “Islamize” the whole country, endorsed Brigette Gabriel, the leaders of the anti-Muslim Hate Group, ACT! for America, and whipped up paranoid fears about terrorists even more when she said that Hezbollah had infiltrated Mexican drug cartels and were planning ways to sneak into the United States across the U.S./Mexico border. The fact that Myrick also frequently voted against the interests of women, not just on anti-choice legislation, but voting against equal pay laws, and that she voted against common sense legislation like the repeal of “Don”t Ask, Don’t Tell” or the Zadroga Bill are ironically, the least crazy things she did while in office. She’s off working as a lobbyist for overseas shoe companies in North Carolina, the last time we checked.

It was in both 2016, and in 2017, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles about Warren Groen, a four-term member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who grew exceedingly more extreme over the past few years in his rhetoric on anti-choice issues. The first petty remark came in May of 2014, when an outraged Groen watched as the New Hampshire state legislature voted to create a 25 foot buffer zone outside of abortion clinics to keep protestors back. During the debate on the bill, Groen sarcastically produced an amendment that also provided a 25 foot buffer zone around slaughterhouses and butcher shops, saying, ‘‘Any organization that butchers animals deserves the same rights as organizations that butcher babies.’’ Groen co-sponsored an attempted repeal of that legislation, only eight months later around the start of the new legislative session in January of 2015. Around this time, he also stated his belief that Planned Parenthood takes part in eugenics, and is "cutting children into small pieces". He's tried to defund Planned Parenthood on that logic from 2011-2016, growing more and more unhinged with each failed attempt. A month later in February 2015, Groen upped his game by comparing abortion to slavery. He still had yet to sink to his lowest levels. That probably happened in March of 2015, when a group of 4th graders were in the state capitol, trying to learn about good governance and push for the red-tailed hawk to be named the state raptor in a bill they submitted. Instead, Groen and his fellow Republicans actually voted down the measure, ridiculing the kids for their efforts. And, Groen stood out among his peers as being particularly insensitive to the nine and ten year olds, when he chose to segue out of the discussion about the red-tailed hawk to rail against Planned Parenthood and abortion, telling the wee lads and lasses, “With its talons and then uses its razor-sharp beak to rip its victims to shreds, to basically tear it apart limb by limb, and I guess the shame about making this a state bird is it would serve as a much better mascot for Planned Parenthood.’’ Groen was ridiculed nationally by late night comedians, and even the Republican Speaker of the New Hampshire House called for him to apologize. He didn't. Instead, he has continued to submit legislation to defund Planned Parenthood (in spite of all investigations into the organization finding no wrongdoing, whatsoever), and sponsoring bills to prohibit abortions based on genetic anomalies. Even outside of abortion, Groen’s voting record was extremely conservative, including efforts to try and repeal same sex marriage in New Hampshire, voting against a bill that would prevent employers from discriminating against a victim of domestic violence, and voting against the state's attempts to repeal the death penalty. This guy would not compromise his hard right credentials with 100% ratings from the NRA, and every pro-choice group out there. He is, hands down, the most unflinchingly conservative tosspot you will ever find in the Granite State, and here at CSGOPOTD, that says a lot.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, profiled Eric Schleien, a two-term member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives from Hillsborough 1 who was getting elected on the merits of being one of the least popular Republicans who would get eleven seats in that district, and Schleien’s best showing ever was ninth in 2016, but that was enough to see him seated in the state legislature. Now, there are two sides of the story about the incident that ended Schleien’s career. He claims he met a 16 year old girl in a coffee shop, saw that she had a Trump sticker on her laptop, she flirted with him, so he greeted her with a kiss on her hand, and began chatting her up to offer her a future in politics. The victim, as it was, alleges that she taken for a car ride where Schleien was grabbing her inner thigh, tapping her privates with his right pinky finger and telling her he wanted to "rape her mouth" and "*** on her face until she was covered in it," was actually Schleien running up and sucking on her fingers. (We believe accusers. And we do because we can interpret Schleien as figuring, “If she has a sticker that supports a guy who brags about grabbing women by their p****, she’s like, IMPOSSIBLE to sexually assault! JACKPOT!”) The authorities got called, and Schleien was ignored calls to resign from office, finishing out his second term in office. Schleien plead guilty to simple assault, avoiding a harsher sentence and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, and five months of home confinement. (We’re unable to confirm if he ended up on a sex offender’s list, but in our opinion, if he didn’t he should be given the age of his victim.) We’re hoping he never has a career in politics again, nor that he works in a KFC due to his unsettling history of finger-licking.


On this date in both 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Alabama State Senator Arthur Orr, who thrice has not faced a challenger for his seat representing Alabama’s District 3 since he originally won office back in 2006. Orr came to our attention back in March of 2016, when he submitted legislation to strip welfare benefits from anyone on government assistance if they own a car, because poor people can’t afford those in his mind… but they should also have jobs. We’re assuming he expected them to walk to work, or take a bus, but in any event, his bill failed to go forward because it seemed to contradict what is expected from the working poor.

While that bill may have ended up as kindling, Orr has earned a reputation for trying to sever as many cords of the social safety net as possible over the past few years, and on other issues, he’s voted just as conservative. Whether he’s pushing potential bans on abortion at 20 weeks or TRAP laws to close all the abortion clinics in the state, his attempts at passing nullification legislation to try and block federal firearms laws the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or voting to drug test welfare recipients (always overturned in courts as a violation of the 4th Amendment), or when he co-sponsored SB 63, an attempt to “reform” prisons by making work rehabilitation a main focus (and also providing businesses with an avenue to get labor as close to as the cost of slaves as possible from a prison population that is disproportionately African American). Even when Orr conveniently calls in sick on votes, it’s conspicuous, like he did on the day the Alabama State Senate is to vote to express regret over the practice of slavery.

Arthur Orr ran for re-election unopposed to his seat in the Alabama State Senate in 2018, meaning he is not up for re-election until 2022. However, we do have an update on him for this year… for whatever reason, in December of 2020, Orr thought it was necessary to draft anti-vaccine legislation to keep people from being “forced” to get a coronavirus vaccine. Which is paranoid lunacy and not what you would want the leader of a community to be projecting during a public health crisis like the one we are in the midst from. But at least it’s consistent with his pattern of supporting things detrimental to the public interest.

[Bruce Wayne]

Could be interesting in a few years. Quite a few Californians with quite a lot of money have relocated to Texas. Now, I'm not saying these tech-aristocrats are bringing the word of Lenin with them, but...
Liking TX's taxes and real estate prices better than CA's though they do, they are bringing with them somewhat different ideas about the rights due every human being, and what government is supposed to provide to its people than those held by TX's native rich people. We'll see.

I seriously doubt it'll change much. There's too much GOP voter suppression in Texas and the rich are generally of the same mind in supporting regressive economic policies that benefit only them at the expense of everyone else.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The only real impact is this really cost Ted Cruz any chance of the Presidency. Whoever is the challengers will paint Cruz as a scared weakling who abandoned his state and Cruz will really have no real chance to combat that. He sunk himself....Frank Burns style.

[Tami]

The only real impact is this really cost Ted Cruz any chance of the Presidency. Whoever is the challengers will paint Cruz as a scared weakling who abandoned his state and Cruz will really have no real chance to combat that. He sunk himself....Frank Burns style.

He is walking the same path Chris Christie did as far as running for president goes. Neither will ever be taken seriously.

[MajorHoy]

He is walking the same path Chris Christie did as far as running for president goes. Neither will ever be taken seriously.

At least Christie seemed a little more likely as a Presidential candidate in 2016 than NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio did when he tried to enter the 2020 race.

[skyvolt2000]

I seriously doubt it'll change much. There's too much GOP voter suppression in Texas and the rich are generally of the same mind in supporting regressive economic policies that benefit only them at the expense of everyone else.

From someone who lives in Texas and had to be in an hour at NEGATIVE 5 degrees for 10 hours after less then 2 hours of heat and a PREVIOUS 10 hours of no power.

A lot of those rich folks moving are NOT of the same mind set as the bums we got here like Cruz. Because some of them froze as well (except for Highland Park crowd).

You have a growing number of pro athletes who are coming to Texas and staying even after they have been traded to another city.

You can be rich all you want but you still need EMPLOYEES.

A LOT of places lost business. Wal-Mart close stores.

Kroger had to THROW OUT food because of no power.

A lot of construction was stopped including the building of the new Red Bird mall.

Not to mention Dallas Stars and Dallas Maverick axing games.

The only fast food place open in Texas was Dominos.

The rich are just as ticked off as everyone else.

Folks want Ted Cruz's HEAD on a platter. Not to mention Abbott and Dan Patrick's. Folks were mad at them BEFORE Trump.

Because this could have been avoided. Instead they want to take shots at AOC.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Lets hope that they have a long memory, then...

[Revolutionary_Jack]

From someone who lives in Texas and had to be in an hour at NEGATIVE 5 degrees for 10 hours after less then 2 hours of heat and a PREVIOUS 10 hours of no power.

My god, please take care and be careful.

Folks want Ted Cruz's HEAD on a platter. Not to mention Abbott and Dan Patrick's. Folks were mad at them BEFORE Trump.

Because this could have been avoided. Instead they want to take shots at AOC.

There are no such things as blue states and red states. That's a cliche but it happens to be true. Texas is not Ted Cruz, nor Gov. Abbott, nor G. W. Bush.

[Tami]

At least Christie seemed a little more likely as a Presidential candidate in 2016 than NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio did when he tried to enter the 2020 race.

I'm from Jersey, and god only knows how Christie managed to get a 2nd term. Most in this state didn't take him seriously, after the first year or so.

I'll admit some bias, considering Christie cost me years of lost wage due to not allowing cost of living increases or any type of salary increases for State employees who weren't lucky enough to be unionized.

But that was years ago, and nothing can be done about the past.

[Powerboy]

Of course, because it's all the fault of AOC with her Green New Deal that didn't allow global warming to reach it's full potential, thus causing all of this misery.

The GOP, as always, bears no responsibility for anything bad that happens.

Yes, one of the things I see in conversations with conservatives I know in real life is that they perceive Biden as costing Americans jobs while Trump put America first.

Interestingly, some of them dislike Trump's personality and even know very well he was lying about the voter fraud and that he instigated the riot. But their attitude is that they hope we get another president in four years who has Trump's "Put America first" policy without the negatives.

It's hard to get people to accept the idea of long-term thinking. Referencing the damage to the environment just isn't real to them and triggers snide remarks about anecdotal evidence since they don't understand the science.

So, yes, protecting the environment is costing a few thousand jobs for the next couple of years in return for a massive savings in environmental damage and costs and probably new jobs in a fairly short time.

But, to most Conservatives, it's AOC and Biden with their radical fantasies and doom saying. In reality, there's more and more damage, costs and loss of life from ignoring our environmental problems. The situation we are in right this very day is probably partly due to ignoring our climate change problems.

[MajorHoy]

I'm from Jersey, and god only knows how Christie managed to get a 2nd term. Most in this state didn't take him seriously, after the first year or so.

But did his Democratic opponent in 2013 (Barbara Buono) really have much state-wide recognition?

NOTE: I was born and raised in New Jersey, but I moved out of the state in 1984 to Connecticut. My parents had moved from NJ to Connecticut the year before.

[Tami]

But did his Democratic opponent in 2013 (Barbara Buono) really have much state-wide recognition?

NOTE: I was born and raised in New Jersey, but I moved out of the state in 1984 to Connecticut. My parents had moved from NJ to Connecticut the year before.

Probably not, and that has been the problem with Democrats in NJ, up until recently. Better candidates, better campaigns, and better support systems are getting more Democrats elected. NJ is actually closer to purple that all out blue, and when the Democrats slack off we get people like Christ Christie in office.

[Malvolio]

My guess would be that the most prominent Democrat in New Jersey right now is Cory Booker. And I could definitely see him running for Governor.