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

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” had a profile of Bobby Franklin, a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives who in 2008, he wrote an opinion editorial in the Georgia Journal where he said President George H.W. Bush was “worshipping pagan Gods”, and that we didn’t has much to fear from Obama bin Laden as we did “God’s coming wrath”. Over the course of a month in late 2010 and early 2011, Franklin was pushing for a law to require taxpayers in Georgia to pay their state taxes in gold or silver coins, only and then campaigned for Georgians’ rights to erect 40-foot-tall walls around their houses, and f attempting to resolve Georgia’s metaphysical issues, by proposed the “Freedom of Choice and Security Act” which sought to legally define the nature of evil within Georgia. He would still go on to argue against the issuing of Driver’s Licenses in Georgia, trying to use the Magna Carta as his justification, and used the Book of Corinthians as his argument to try to prevent the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” from being enacted. On women’s rights, Franklin sought to change the legal definition of the “victim” in a rape or sexual assault to the “accuser”, and to charge the accuser with the cost of the trial if the defendant was found not guilty (because that would TOTALLY encourage victims to come forward). Franklin also submitted a bill that would criminalize miscarriages if it could not be proven that the mother did nothing to be part of the cause, and the punishment for not carrying a child to term successfully would be… THE DEATH PENALTY. Which is pretty terrible when you consider one in four pregnancies result in a miscarriage, and now, 25% of pregnant women, already devastated that the baby they were hoping for was not to be, would also be the subject of a police investigation with their own life in the balance. For whatever reason in March 2011, he criticized the United States for establishing a “No Fly Zone” in Libya to aid its rebels in overthrowing Qaddafi in a bizarre way because he apparently sympathized with the dictator’s regime, and compared it to our own country’s tolerance of abortion. Bobby Franklin died of a heart attack suddenly in July of 2011.

In 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” presented profiles of Richard “Dickie” Bell, a Republican representing District 20 of the Virginia State Assembly since 2009, when he was appointed to his seat by disgraced former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. Bell, who not coincidentally is a church deacon, got everyone’s attention when he forgot about that whole separation of church and state and sponsored a creationist bill, HB 207. That might be putting it mildly, as Bell’s legislation looked a lot like it was cut-and-paste written based on the “Academic Freedom Act”, which would allow students to question scientific discussion based on their faith. Upon a lot of voices getting raised in caution at what Bell was pitching, he actually tried arguing that his bill was just “misunderstood”, which was hard to believe, when he started citing how the debate would center around discussions on evolution and climate change. The creationist effort failed, but maybe folks in Virginia should have been paying attention prior to that moment in 2014 (and since), because there’s a lot of “WTF?” in Dickie Bell’s legislative record, that contains some extreme policy stances on top of some support for downright insane bills, including the time he submitted HB 154, which would have placed everyone in Virginia on an organ donor list, unless they placed themselves on an “opt out” registry. And he was surprised… SURPRISED that people got online to complain about Dickie Bell trying to turn the state into a bad version of “Repo: The Genetic Opera”. A smattering of examples from the rest of his voting record includes votes for a ban on human microchip implantation, to prevent something that’s only happening in dystopian science fiction novels, that he voted for HB 505, which authorizes citizens to carry concealed firearms in establishments that serve alcohol (because booze does such wonders for impulse control, and gun added to the mix is a winning combination), voted to bring back the electric chair as a method of execution in Virginia, voted for HB 189, which would allow adoption agencies to refuse to allow people to adopt for “religious reasons”. Y’know, like if the adoptive parents are gay and voted for Virginia’s HB 1, which if passed, would have defined life at conception, and thus made not just abortion, but using most methods of contraception murder. After the mass shooting at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, their state legislature voted to remove the Confederate flag from being displayed at the state grounds. Going the opposite direction, Dickie Bell decided to co-sponsor and vote for HB 587, to make it HARDER to remove Confederate iconography from around Virginia. Nice priorities, Dickie. Dickie Bell did not have to face a Democrat in an election in 2011, 2013, or 2015 and the GOP hasn’t had anyone oppose him in a primary since he was appointed to office back in 2009. Bell finally retired prior to the 2019 elections at the age of 82.

[worstblogever]

On this date in both 2020, as well as 2021, Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled Brad Klippert, a member of the Washington House of Representatives who has served District 8 since first winning office back in the 2008 elections, after unsuccessful U.S. Senate runs in 2004 and 2006. Klippert has been nothing but an obstructionist as a legislator over the past decade:

• February 28th, 2011: Brad Klippert votes against HB 1267, to define parenthood in such a manner to allow for gay adoption and same sex couples to have legal domestic rights.
• February 8th, 2012: Klippert votes against SB 6239, which was the bill that legalized same sex marriage in Washington state.
• March 3rd, 2015: Brad Klippert votes against HB 1355, a minimum wage increase, during the greatest period of income inequality in our country in a century.
• February 23rd, 2018: Klippert votes against SB 5992, a ban on bump stocks that turn semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic weapons, after they were used by the Las Vegas shooter to murder fifty people in minutes.
• February 28th, 2018: Brad Klippert votes against SB 5722, a ban on gay conversion therapy on minors in the state of Washington.
• March 7th, 2018: Klippert votes against HB 2595, automatic voter registration.
• April 23rd, 2019: Brad Klippert votes against HB 1739, a ban on 3D printable “ghost guns” that would be impossible for law enforcement to trace, or restrict the sale of to criminals.
• April 25th, 2019: Klippert votes against SB 5258, a bill that would require isolated workers to undergo sexual assault and sexual harassment training.
• March 3rd, 2020: Brad Klippert votes against SB 5165, a bill aimed at prohibiting discrimination against people based on their citizenship or immigration status.

But it’s not Brad Klippert’s voting record that has brought him to our attention. It was during discussion of HB 1742, a bill that would establish a policy for the state’s criminal statutes for underage children sending sext messages to each other that he chose it as a great time to rant and rave about anal sex. Because that’s the logical next step that kids will do. Sext. BUTT STUFF. There’s no stopping them along the way from opening the back exit for deliveries.

If that wasn’t enough to cause us some concern that this guy might not be right in the head, in 2021, he joined a bunch of militia lunatics protesting Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s “stay at home” orders, ignoring the threat of Covid-19. Because why not legitimize an astroturf protest by conservatives trying to open the economy at the cost of thousands of lives? That’s the responsible thing for a legislator to do, right?

Klippert coasted to yet another term in office in the Washington state legislature in 2020, and in 2022, he’s already announced his intention to run for Congress in Washington’s 4th Congressional District, looking to replace GOP Congressman Dan Newhouse, and has approached potential GOP kingmaker, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, attending Lindell’s “election security conference” in summer of 2021, which might be the reason why Klippert sponsored a bill to try to end voting by mail in Washington state.

We’re hoping Brad Klippert does not get elected to Congress and fill up time on C-SPAN by screaming about anal sex, like he’s done back at home.

[Mister Mets]

Dave made a joke he knows is going to inflame people, because he's done it before. He has to know about the anti-trans stuff going on and thus is deliberately stirring things up.

BTW When you say "Let the Voters decide" you are letting breathtakingly stupid people decide.

Dave made a joke when he was attacked. I don't think he was able to put that much thought into it.

I don't think the typical median voter is breathtakingly stupid. The ones I was referring to were far-right.

Some voters will be breathtakingly stupid of course, but what's the workable alternative?

They don't stop people from getting sick (like they didn't stop me). Vaccines don't stop people from getting Long Covid or dying. You've been told this and continue spreading misinformation anyway because you don't agree - just like someone who won't take a vaccine.

I took the vaccine, and then got boosted a few months later. I generally recommend that everyone else do the same.

Vaccine skeptics will try to claim that vaccines don't make a difference, but they do. The vaccinated are less likely to get sick. If they get sick they're less likely to require serious medical intervention. And if they need intervention, they're less likely to die. So it's a very different situation post-vaccine.

You're arguing against points I've never made. I've never claimed that no one will die of Covid if they're vaccinated. But we do have to accept some level of risk.

No, that's your argument. The argument most widely spread is that they are teaching CRT at all levels of education. When asked how you could support it that's when you made this laughable argument.

I think you're going with a strawman here.

CRT does inform education. There are books about this.

Can't let misinformation flow on unimpeded nowadays though, or else the breathtakingly stupid out there will eat it up whole and start convincing 'otherwise reasonable' people.

And I know Mets is a bigot or he wouldn't have likened teaching kids to respect LGBT to deadly diseases and a politician cheating on his wife to get spanked by a prostitute.

My comparison was about sensitive topics.

There's nothing morally wrong with the people who have diseases, nor is it my place in the context to cast any aspersions on sex workers or their customers.

[Gray Lensman]

I will never understand the mentality of people who value a random person with a youtube channel higher than the free press.

Confirmation bias paired with the childlike need to feel special. Convince someone they are smarter than everyone else by listening to you rather than the biased media.....he's really spouting a version of Faux News' line isn't he?

[Mister Mets]

This. Usually the public won't have a clear picture of what has happened until after the dust settles. The Snake Island story had to be corrected (the soldiers were not killed as reported by the Guardian) and recently the Ukrainian air force posted that the "Ghost of Kyiv" was more a representation of hope, not an actual pilot.

The ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ was never alive, Ukrainian air force says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...iv-propaganda/

There's definitely propaganda here.

It is worth noting that one side is willing to admit mistakes.

In the case of Snake Island, my instinct is that it was an honest miscommunication during active military conflicts. Among other things it would have been politically useful for Russia to announce as soon as possible that people presumed dead were prisoners of war.

When you have a polarized issue, and both sides use propaganda and censorship, the Aristotelian middle doesn't necessarily give you the truth.

On a polarized issue, you should still be able to find articulate advocates on different sides. If it's difficult to find someone making a point about a major news story, the likeliest explanation is that particular argument is indefensible.

We kinda see that with the claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen on behalf of Joe Biden. There's an obvious market for the strongest argument, but it's not popping up in the obvious places so you really have to go looking for it, because anyone who can hire the resources to hire an editor will recognize that it's bullshit. The main evidence ends up coming from people acting in bad faith, or someone who is ignorant and doesn't understand basic procedures.

I will never understand the mentality of people who value a random person with a youtube channel higher than the free press.

They're looking for someone who agrees with them, not with someone who is informed and able to consider the evidence.

[Scott Taylor]

Just as many Ukrainians left after 2014 as after the Special Operation.

And Ukrainians all look alike to you? Ok got it.

[Ozymandias]

I will never understand the mentality of people who value a random person with a youtube channel higher than the free press.

When the free press gives voice to fakes (old footage, video-game images, wrong side stories, imaginative translations...), while keeps silent about the wrongdoing of the "good guys", I have to look elsewhere, and I must be looking in the right places, because (at least) I haven't seen the fakes from the other side. There are some of those too, because they report them on MSM... unless that's a fake in itself.

[Ozymandias]

Confirmation bias paired with the childlike need to feel special. Convince someone they are smarter than everyone else by listening to you rather than the biased media.....he's really spouting a version of Faux News' line isn't he?

People who complain about others feeling smarter are usually on the low end of the IQ spectrum.

[Ozymandias]

On a polarized issue, you should still be able to find articulate advocates on different sides. If it's difficult to find someone making a point about a major news story, the likeliest explanation is that particular argument is indefensible.

Or that you don't really want the other point of view to be portrayed?

[Ozymandias]

And Ukrainians all look alike to you? Ok got it.

I don't, cryptic much?

[Mister Mets]

Or that you don't really want the other point of view to be portrayed?

I personally can't do anything about the portrayal of the other point of view.

The mainstream media might be able to prevent discussion of it in some circles, but there will be alternatives.

If there was a case to be made that Russia was on the right side of history, the truth would eventually come out. And this would make reputations for anyone taking that stand now. A minor New York Times reporter willing to put up with temporary backlash would be seen as a foreign policy visionary in a few years, if there was any truth to the Russian argument.

I'll also note that there are critics of the west during the war who have gotten coverage.

Peter Hitchens has op-eds about it in the Daily Mail. Noam Chomsky is interviewed on the Intercept. They're not pretending the war is about denazification, though.

When the free press gives voice to fakes (old footage, video-game images, wrong side stories, imaginative translations...), while keeps silent about the wrongdoing of the "good guys", I have to look elsewhere, and I must be looking in the right places, because (at least) I haven't seen the fakes from the other side. There are some of those too, because they report them on MSM... unless that's a fake in itself.

One of the sources you shared with us was the Russian Embassy in London. This is a source more reliable than the free press?

[Tami]

Conservatives: We’re All Trying to Find the Guy Who Leaked This

One thing to note in response is that this very thing has already happened. Several days before Politico received the draft of Samuel Alito’s ruling, The Wall Street Journal published an editorial cagily describing the court’s internal deliberations. It warned that Chief Justice John Roberts “may be trying to turn another Justice now” — naming Brett Kavanaugh or Amy Coney Barrett as his targets — away from the conservative bloc and toward a compromise ruling that would preserve some version of Roe. The editorial got quite specific about the internal breakdown of the vote:

This turned out to be a good guess!

The editorial proceeded to craft an argument for why Kavanaugh and Barrett should stick with Alito rather than defecting to Roberts. Leaking internal deliberations in order to lobby the justices seems to be fine when conservatives are doing it.

What’s more, all this conservative rhetoric simply assumes that the leaker is a liberal — even though absolutely no evidence exists to support this conclusion.

The Journal’s editorial on Tuesday denouncing the leak frames it like this: “The question to ask in a leak case is always, cui bono? Who benefits?” Nine paragraphs later, apparently having forgotten the question it raised, the editorial casually asserts the likely beneficiaries would be conservatives: “Our guess is that the leak is likely to backfire at the Court. A Justice who switched his or her vote now would be open to ridicule for wilting under pressure.”

That is a good argument. In fact, it is the all-but-explicit reason for the original leak to the Journal editorial page the week before. The conservatives were concerned Kavanaugh or Barrett might defect from Alito’s ruling and leaked these concerns to get the Journal to push them to stay strong.

The second leak, to Politico, is consistent with the same motive: It could have been designed to pressure Kavanaugh and Barrett to stay with their original positions. Now that it’s leaked, they will be “open to ridicule” if they change their minds. Indeed, the conservative movement is now insisting the very legitimacy of the Court rests on them not changing their vote — which would reward the (presumably liberal) leaker.

[Tami]

Jen Psaki might be replacing Chuck Todd on MSNBC. .

[captchuck]

Jen Psaki might be replacing Chuck Todd on MSNBC. .

I hope so. I think Jen Psaki is excellent. Chuck Todd is all over the place.

[Catlady in training]

I guess it might be time to recycle that image that wasn't needed for a while.