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

[mogwen]

No worries. Just don't take engagement as a measure of what you contribute. You're not screaming into the void, so to speak, if that's any consolation.

Thanks a lot, you don't know how comforting it is to "hear" it. I had such an impression of loneliness yesterday, I felt that my involvement on this thread was for nothing because no one cared what I had to say. But I shouldn't expect people to be as curious as I am about other cultures and other systems. Sad but true. That's what I learned from the last messages I read.
And Tendrin, what a depressing thought!

[Tendrin]

This is the person trying to primary Kevin McCarthy from the right.

*sigh*

https://twitter.com/BishForCongress/...10563905724416

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Mike Turner, a hyper-conservative spoiled rich kid who funded his campaign to join the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2012, and then in 2014, tried to make a jump to run for U.S. Congress in Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District. Of course, it was kind of hard to sell the voters on a fresh-faced neophyte who already made waves by supporting laws to nullify both federal firearms laws and the Affordable Care Act, prevent the dread threat of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 Treaty, close all the abortion clinics in Oklahoma, and prevent any municipality from raising its own minimum wage. Worse yet, was Turner making major headlines by having the reaction to rulings on same sex marriage to try to pass legislation to outlaw ALL marriages in his state, a move most realized reeked of the bigoted attempts by segregationists in the 1960s to close down schools rather than have to see races intermingle at them. We can only hope he stays out of politics now that he's spent almost his whole trust fund for what little of a career that he had.

In both 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as in 2020, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published its profiles of Todd Russ, a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives who has been allowed to remain in office unopposed now for three full elections, and is perhaps most famous for getting furiously angry that the Supreme Court ruled on gay marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, and as Russ put it, “stuck it down our throats” and then writing HB 1125, a bill to take marriage out of the hands of clerks and judges and make the only recognizable marriages in Oklahoma to be performed by churches, who could refuse. He defended his bill, claiming gays, “They don’t have a spiritual basis for a marriage and don’t want to have a clergy member or a priest or someone involved in the spiritual aspect, then they can file an affidavit of common-law marriage.” That would be an easy compromise perhaps if Oklahoma also didn’t recognize common law marriages. Or if in how the bill was worded, it wouldn’t ask for a preacher, minister, priest, rabbi or ecclesiastical dignitary to sign off on the marriage license, which limits the right to marry only to Christians and Jews. For all intents and purposes, Todd Russ was calling for a Christian theocracy, at least on the issue of marriage. Critics immediately noted how poorly that it was written, clearly a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment of our Constitution, and about as unconstitutional as all get out. Todd Russ then went back to the drawing board, and amended his own bill, reinstating the clause that allowed judges to officiate weddings… and other lawmakers pointed out that by doing so, Russ’ bill would require the government to simply file marriage certificates, and remove the state’s ability to prevent instances bigamy or polygamy. I mean, social conservatives like to make the “slippery slope” argument that gay marriage would lead to polygamy… but the idea that it would just potentially come to pass because Republicans are terrible at writing laws was never considered a factor in pushing people down that slope. The rest of Todd Russ’ legislative record since he took office back in 2009 is as ridiculously conservative as you might expect, as he voted for the Oklahoma GOP's unnecessary prohibition on Sharia Law, their attempt to put a stop to the implementation of climate standards from the United Nations’ Agenda 21 Treaty’s climate change guidelines, their attempt to nullify the Affordable Care Act , their attempt to allow students in school to express their religious viewpoints in school, and their attempt to pass “trap laws” that place strict regulations on abortion clinics so strict that they are forced to close. In April of 2016, he angered many by making racist assertations that Native Americans and African Americans are "predisposed to alcoholism", yet was still re-elected. His current mission in the legislature seems to be trying to find ways to punish any teacher or educator who attempts to walk out to protest insufficient wagers after the successful teachers’ strike in Oklahoma in 2018, even submitting a bill to threaten to withhold their wages and strip them of their credentials if they do so again (neither punishment sounds like it would hold up in court). Effectively, the times are shifting left, and Todd Russ is a Neanderthal shaking his club impotently at progress, truly a fine example of what the GOP is today. Further indicating that Russ isn’t going anywhere further were how in the past year, while the Oklahoma House of Representatives were discussing legislation to teach teenagers in sex education about “healthy relationships” including discussions about how consent works, and Russ responded to the bill by sarcastically asking, “IS THAT A SNOWFLAKE THING?” (What an ***hole.) Russ was just elected to a sixth term in 2020, and as he will be term-limited in 2022 expect him to be desperate to seek out higher office somehow. As we don’t have much of an update on him and the CSGOPOTD queue is WAAAAYYY too full to not move on… we’re going to set aside his profile to take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 971-45, since this was established in July 2014.


Darren Aquino

Welcome to what is the 971st profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Darren Aquino, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 19th Congressional District, and is a former actor turned advocate for disabled veterans. Which is admirable, but a bit odd considering the Republican Party is the one that against the word of former Senator Bob Dole repealed the majority of the Americans with Disabilities Act only recently.

Our main reason for writing a profile Darren Aquino was his support of the Qanon conspiracy theory, but we’ll note he also repeatedly called one of his potential Democratic opponents a Communist, called a fellow GOP challenger a “snake” because he was an immigrant (and called for all immigrants to be banned from running for Congress), called a local news station “fake news”, wanted NASCAR to fire Bubba Wallace, its only black driver after his pit crew was feared he was the victim of a death threat that Wallace wasn’t even the one who reported it, and oh yeah, predicted the country is headed for a civil war. He is not well, frankly.

Darren Aquino finished eighth out of a possible nine candidates for Florida’s 19th Congressional District in the GOP Primary, getting 1466 out of the 103,915 votes cast. He then demanded a recount and started to question the integrity of the election in his entire county and that disabled veterans were not sent mail-in ballots. Wow, a GOP loser claiming voter fraud, which is on brand for Republican candidates these days.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Georgia House Approves New Restrictions As GOP War On Voting Rights Intensifies

Since Trump’s loss, Republicans “have made opposing voting rights the central tenet of their party,” one lawyer said. Like I said previously, since Qpublicans have no ideas and no policies to hang their hats on, they'll resort to outright theft instead. This **** is dangerous as hell to democracy and MUST be stopped! Meanwhile....

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U.S. Supreme Court Leans Toward Upholding Voter Restrictions

The case comes as Republicans in some states are pursuing new restrictions after Trump made false claims of widespread voter fraud. This is both troubling, and predictable.

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Biden Says U.S. Will Have Enough Vaccine Supply For All Adults By End Of May

The president, who previously expected the U.S. to have enough coronavirus vaccines for all adults by the end of July, urged people to continue to wear masks. I certainly hope that will be the case. Meanwhile, on the negative end of the spectrum....

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CDC Begs States Lifting COVID-19 Restrictions To Not Risk Another Deadly Wave

Michigan, Mississippi and Louisiana and San Francisco join Texas in easing mask mandates and other coronavirus restrictions. And....

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Washington Post Warns What Easing Texas COVID-19 Rules May Do To Rest Of The Country

GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is “gambling with the health of his state and beyond,” the newspaper’s editorial board warned in a scathing column.

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Leaked Video Shows Alex Jones Ranting That He’s So ‘F**king’ Sick Of Trump

The Infowars host, who profits from pandering to Trump’s base, was filmed in an expletive-laden tirade against him in 2019. I'm guessing that means Jones won't get a Christmas card from Trump.

[Zauriel]

If the Capitol rioters insist they are peacefully protesting, then why did they bring weapons to a peaceful protest? It is like bringing a nuclear warhead to a peace summit.

[worstblogever]

Thanks a lot, you don't know how comforting it is to "hear" it. I had such an impression of loneliness yesterday, I felt that my involvement on this thread was for nothing because no one cared what I had to say. But I shouldn't expect people to be as curious as I am about other cultures and other systems. Sad but true. That's what I learned from the last messages I read.
And Tendrin, what a depressing thought!

If nothing else, I can say I know about French politics enough to say, "F*** Marine LePen's xenophobic *** with her racist father's tombstone."

Apologies if that's too kind to her.

[Tendrin]

If nothing else, I can say I know about French politics enough to say, "F*** Marine LePen's xenophobic *** with her racist father's tombstone."

Apologies if that's too kind to her.

...which makes Macron's attempt to flank her from right on Islamiphobic bigotry really concerning.

[worstblogever]

...which makes Macron's attempt to flank her from right on Islamiphobic bigotry really concerning.

[Tami]

UK Resort Chain Created An ‘Undesirable Guests’ List — Featuring All Irish Names

LONDON (AP) — A chain of holiday parks in Britain kept an “undesirable guests” list of Irish last names in an attempt to keep out members of the Irish Traveler community, the U.K. equalities watchdog said Tuesday.

The list kept by Pontins, which was displayed on a staff intranet site, contained about 40 largely Irish names, including Cash, Delaney, Gallagher, Murphy and O’Brien. News of the list was broken by the i newspaper.

Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission said Pontins was “directly discriminating on the basis of race” by refusing to serve guests of a particular ethnic group. It said staff refused or canceled bookings made by people with an Irish name or accent.

Irish Travelers are a traditionally nomadic group similar to, but ethnically distinct from, Gypsy or Roma people. They are a recognized ethnic minority in Britain, where many have lived for generations, and have long suffered discrimination.

Alastair Pringle, the equality commission’s executive director, said it was “hard not to draw comparisons” with “the signs displayed in hotel windows 50 years ago, explicitly barring Irish people and Black people.”

[CSTowle]

I vaguely remember a story a while back about a similar group here in the States, after something tragic happened. Wasn't aware that was a thing here. Tried to google, but while this article wasn't it gives a pretty good description of the group in general:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-35b24b07fd6e/

[TheDarman]

We all knew the Senate was going to be tough.

Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has been pushing to limit stimulus payments. Without a chance of getting Republican votes for a more robust measure (they wanted to slash the package to just $700 billion), every vote from a Democrat counts--and gives him a ton of power.

Now the bill will phase out payments to an individual making more than $75,000 and completely stop above $80,000. For couples, $150,000 is the cutoff for full checks, with the phase-out being for $160,000 instead of the prior number of $200,000.

Still, the expansion of the child tax credit (widely expected to cut child poverty in half) is a huge step. And the stimulus is about ensuring folks also get to keep their jobs and ensure budget shortfalls in states most impacted by the pandemic don't have to lay off teachers and police officers. The passage of this bill is still supremely important.

It is an incredible shame, though, to see Joe Manchin get his way on lowering income thresholds.

[Malvolio]

So is that a hard limit for couples, or would it be a sliding scale depending on how many kids they have?

[Bruce Wayne]

I'm seeing suggestions that the real reason for Texas' 'opening' is because of the hole blown in the budget by falling sales tax revenues.

More likely it's probably to divert attention to the Republican and their total bungling of the electric grid that left people freezing to death or with $10,000+ power bills.

[TheDarman]

So is that a hard limit for couples, or would it be a sliding scale depending on how many kids they have?

My understanding is that it would phase out child payments along with the income thresholds, but I'm not entirely sure.

Anyone under $150,000, jointly filed, would receive the full amount for each child.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

We all knew the Senate was going to be tough.

Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has been pushing to limit stimulus payments. Without a chance of getting Republican votes for a more robust measure (they wanted to slash the package to just $700 billion), every vote from a Democrat counts--and gives him a ton of power.

Now the bill will phase out payments to an individual making more than $75,000 and completely stop above $80,000. For couples, $150,000 is the cutoff for full checks, with the phase-out being for $160,000 instead of the prior number of $200,000.

Still, the expansion of the child tax credit (widely expected to cut child poverty in half) is a huge step. And the stimulus is about ensuring folks also get to keep their jobs and ensure budget shortfalls in states most impacted by the pandemic don't have to lay off teachers and police officers. The passage of this bill is still supremely important.

It is an incredible shame, though, to see Joe Manchin get his way on lowering income thresholds.

Manchin also helped kill the nomination of Neera Tanden for OMB, mainly as payback because she carped about his daughter, CEO of a pharma company.