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

[mogwen]

Biden's campaign needs to stay clean and highlight what a real President can be. PACs like the Lincoln Group will get nasty.

That's a very pragmatic vision. I agree!

[godisawesome]

Biden's campaign needs to stay clean and highlight what a real President can be. PACs like the Lincoln Group will get nasty.

Considering the effectiveness and venom of both the Lincoln Project and Meidastouch, I’d say the smart move would be for Biden’s campaign to let them be the attack dogs, and focus on making themselves more positive and reassuring for the most, maintaining enough high ground to make more powerful and moral high-ground attack ads only towards November.

[numberthirty]

One other note about Chris Hayes getting tripped up on the Trump rally positivity rate seemingly sitting at one hundred percent...

There was some local press pointing out the issue -

https://twitter.com/KOCODillon/statu...78696328523777

hi I'm a reporter in Oklahoma City. Not only are these dates incorrect (this is referring to Sunday and Monday) ... Oklahoma generally doesn't report negative tests on Sundays and Mondays, so the rate always appears to be 100% when it really isn't.

[worstblogever]

Biden's campaign needs to get nasty. There's probably hundreds of examples of Trump's word salad out there they could use. Did anyone every figure out "cofefe".

Considering Biden is winning the 65 and up demographic now, an attack in kind for being senile isn't what he wants to do to hang onto that demographic.

Besides, in the sane world we want, such attacks are beneath a president. This one is a "high road" situation.

Biden can sit back and let the never-Trump Republicans who are at the Lincoln Project run those ads for him so he can keep that high road.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Considering the effectiveness and venom of both the Lincoln Project and Meidastouch, I’d say the smart move would be for Biden’s campaign to let them be the attack dogs, and focus on making themselves more positive and reassuring for the most, maintaining enough high ground to make more powerful and moral high-ground attack ads only towards November.

When you stop to think about it, that’s a sound strategy, one I agree with.

[Mister Mets]

Alabama students throwing 'COVID parties' to see who gets infected: Officials

Fortunately, this story seems to be bullshit.

https://www.wired.com/story/covid-pa...e-not-a-thing/

THE DREADED “COVID party” has come to Alabama. Even as the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in the state reached record highs, news came out this week that college students in Tuscaloosa have been throwing parties with infected guests, then betting on the contagion that ensues. “They put money in a pot and they try to get Covid,” said City Council member Sonya McKinstry. “Whoever gets Covid first gets the pot. It makes no sense.”

That much, at least, is true: This story makes no sense. Despite its implausibility and utter lack of valid sourcing, the fantasy of Alabama virus gamblers has nonetheless exploded across the internet, with slack-jawed coverage turning up in CNN, the New York Post, and the Associated Press, among many others. A representative headline declares, “Tuscaloosa students held parties, bet on who got coronavirus first.”

This is not the first reporting on the spread of Covid parties, which are, in fact, neither happening nor spreading. Back in March, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear announced during a daily public-health update that one case in the state had been tied to a “coronavirus party.” “We ought to be much better than that,” he said. “We should forgive that person, but no more of these—anywhere, statewide, ever, for any reason.” His one-sentence anecdote, presented without any further detail, was dutifully passed along as news by CNN, NPR, The Washington Post, and other outlets.

Then in April, The New York Times ran an op-ed from epidemiologist Greta Bauer, offering “seven reasons your ‘coronavirus party’ is a bad idea.” She’d heard “rumblings” that these events were going on, the piece explains, because some people think they would be better off with antibodies.

Rumblings had developed into rumors by the start of May, when a public health official in Walla Walla, Washington, claimed to have discovered, via careful contact tracing, that at least two patients had indeed attended “Covid parties” so as to “get it over with.” The local police chief told reporters that he wouldn’t rule out criminal charges for any other such events, but assured them that “we’re not going to overreact.” Two days later, the same public health official admitted she’d been wrong: “We have discovered that there were not intentional Covid parties,” she said. “Just innocent endeavors.”

The latest version of the tale, from Alabama, follows the same pattern as the others. It appears to be the product of a weird game of telephone mixed with loose talk from public officials and disgracefully sloppy journalism. On Tuesday, Tuscaloosa fire chief Randy Smith told the city council that his department had heard about parties “where students or kids would come in with known positives.” It sounded like just a rumor, Smith said, but “not only did the doctors’ offices help confirm it, but the state also confirmed they had the same information.”

You’ll notice immediately that Smith didn’t say anything about people trying to get sick, let alone betting on who could do it first. So why is everyone saying that’s what happened? The notion seems to have originated with McKinstry, who shared it with ABC News after the meeting. It’s not clear whether McKinstry had a source for this idea, and she did not reply to WIRED’s request for comment. The Alabama Department of Health responded with a statement that it “has not been able to verify such parties have taken place.” It’s not even clear that the fire chief had it right about kids going to parties while knowing they were sick. (The Tuscaloosa Fire Department did not reply to a request for comment, either.) But that didn’t stop the dogpile of national media outlets repeating and amplifying the Covid betting-pot story as if it were fact.

[BeastieRunner]

Worth noting...

https://www.politicususa.com/2020/06...lsa-rally.html

One other note about Chris Hayes getting tripped up on the Trump rally positivity rate seemingly sitting at one hundred percent...

There was some local press pointing out the issue -

https://twitter.com/KOCODillon/statu...78696328523777

I dunno ... their health department, city officias, state officials, and mayor have gone into panic mode.

https://coronavirus.health.ok.gov/ar...id-19-07022020
https://www.koco.com/article/oklahom...rted/33084605#
https://kfor.com/news/local/mayor-ho...-proclamation/

They are drawing back, all citing the 100% results, and the mayor shortly after sharing the above draw down, is warning that if it doesn't stop by the 4th, they're going to have to do a total shutdown and 15 day shelter in place.

So the people in power seem to think the testing rate is ridiculous, too.

YMMV it seems.

[numberthirty]

I dunno ... their health department, city officias, state officials, and mayor have gone into panic mode.

https://coronavirus.health.ok.gov/ar...id-19-07022020
https://www.koco.com/article/oklahom...rted/33084605#
https://kfor.com/news/local/mayor-ho...-proclamation/

They are drawing back, all citing the 100% results, and the mayor shortly after sharing the above draw down, is warning that if it doesn't stop by the 4th, they're going to have to do a total shutdown and 15 day shelter in place.

So the people in power seem to think the testing rate is ridiculous, too.

YMMV it seems.

This woman -

https://twitter.com/KassieMcClung

Is a part of this outfit -

https://twitter.com/readfrontier

Based on this piece of reporting -

https://twitter.com/readfrontier/sta...61547271065603

Two police officers from Wilson, a small town near Ardmore, were charged with second-degree murder on Wednesday in connection with an in-custody death where they allegedly used a stun gun against a man more than 50 times.

It feels like they are pretty darn close to "On The Level..."

Here is her take on the rates...

https://twitter.com/KassieMcClung/st...30512059744261

[Tendrin]

Considering Biden is winning the 65 and up demographic now, an attack in kind for being senile isn't what he wants to do to hang onto that demographic.

Besides, in the sane world we want, such attacks are beneath a president. This one is a "high road" situation.

Biden can sit back and let the never-Trump Republicans who are at the Lincoln Project run those ads for him so he can keep that high road.

The only group Trump wins at this point, demographically, are white men without a college education. That seems to be it.

[The no face guy]

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and most of the other Asian states are still friendly to the United States and also friendly to the interests of the United States.

Unfortunately, the Untied States and the rest of the West became very friendly to the People's Republic of China. They saw bigger investment in China than in Taiwan, a much smaller country. They even kicked Taiwan out of the United Nations in favor of China.
The US and EU's relations with China were so close, that they were not suspicious of China's reports on coronavirus. Trump and some officials even thought it was a hoax.
By the time the Eu and US noticed how serious the virus is, it was too late. Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom were among the hardest hit countries until the end of Spring when the USA, Russia, Brazil, India and few South American nations took over the lead.

Only South Korea and Taiwan do not trust People's Republic of China.

South Korea had been an ally of the Republic of China. But in 1992 diplomatic ties between Seoul and Taipei were nevertheless severed. On August 24, 1992 formal diplomatic relations were established between Seoul and Beijing. By 2004 China had become South Korea's leading trading partner.

South Korea opened diplomatic relations with China. South Korea does business with China. But South Korea does not trust China. They never forgot the Chinese role in the Korean War. By the time the covid appeared in Wuhan, South Korea closed their borders to China. South Korea reported no more than 13,000 total covid cases.

Sadly this is true, greed rules the world, and companies will go where they see the biggest profit, and a country with over a billion consumers has a much larger market share than a small one like Taiwan. I am not a fan of the current President of the United States, but he has highlighted the geo political challenge China poses for the west, and American companies are now leaving China to invest more in India, a trend that has accelerated with the outbreak of COVID 19.

I worry about Taiwan in the long term though, as Beijing clearly believes your country belongs to China by historic birthright. I do not see a military invasion, but rather democracy being slowly corroded in Taiwan from the inside, as the Chinese government uses its money and power to influence elections in your country, by putting in power people who are favourable to them.

The west, the United States in particular, is in a lot of debt, so I do not forsee them having the economic power to ward off China in the long run alone, so India is going to have major role in the future as it grows in strength. The United States, Japan and India, and to lesser extent, Australia will be integral in supporting Taiwan, and helping to safeguard other democratic nations in the Pacific, so long as China continues to be ruled by an autocracy.

It is looking like Trump will lose the election, so I would like to see a renewal of the Trans Pacific Partnership of some form, that includes a defense pack between all the democratic nations in the Pacific and North America, so long as China remains a totalitarian state, but we will have to wait to see what happens in November.

[PwrdOn]

Sadly this is true, greed rules the world, and companies will go where they see the biggest profit, and a country with over a billion consumers has a much larger market share than a small one like Taiwan. I am not a fan of the current President of the United States, but he has highlighted the geo political challenge China poses for the west, and American companies are now leaving China to invest more in India, a trend that has accelerated with the outbreak of COVID 19.

I worry about Taiwan in the long term though, as Beijing clearly believes your country belongs to China by historic birthright. I do not see a military invasion, but rather democracy being slowly corroded in Taiwan from the inside, as the Chinese government uses its money and power to influence elections in your country, by putting in power people who are favourable to them.

The west, the United States in particular, is in a lot of debt, so I do not forsee them having the economic power to ward off China in the long run alone, so India is going to have major role in the future as it grows in strength. The United States, Japan and India, and to lesser extent, Australia will be integral in supporting Taiwan, and helping to safeguard other democratic nations in the Pacific, so long as China continues to be ruled by an autocracy.

It is looking like Trump will lose the election, so I would like to see a renewal of the Trans Pacific Partnership of some form, that includes a defense pack between all the democratic nations in the Pacific and North America, so long as China remains a totalitarian state, but we will have to wait to see what happens in November.

India would be a useful partner to help contain China, if America were ever capable of actually treating them as an equal partner worthy of respect and dignity rather than just another source of cheap labor to replace Chinese factories and, if it comes to war, cannon fodder to do most of the dying in the place of Americans. Frankly, this is why our foreign policy in Asia has always been and will always be such a disaster, because Americans will only ever be able to see Asians as incomprehensibly alien and thus we'll never have the same kind of mutual trust and cooperation we show toward our European allies. These countries are only ever going to pawns for us in a geopolitical game to contain the Big Red Menace, to be chewed up and spit out once they cease to be useful to us, and of course they are not so dumb as to not be able to recognize this, and will always be wary of aligning too closely to America and putting our strategic goals ahead of their own. India especially knows exactly what it's like to be under the thumb of Western imperialism, and while they might benefit from greater foreign investment now, what will happen once they have developed their economy to a point where they can rival the West technologically and militarily?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The only group Trump wins at this point, demographically, are white men without a college education. That seems to be it.

White men without a college education, just like Trump who bought his from the Wharton School. Coincidence? I think not!

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Only 14 States Are Seeing Coronavirus Declines

The map shows that 36 out of 50 states have experienced no “days of decrease in confirmed cases.” Only 14 states show such decreases according to the graphic.

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After ‘Very Disturbing Week,’ Dr. Anthony Fauci Says Country Heading In Wrong Direction

“We’re setting records, practically every day,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert warned.

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Neil Cavuto Shouts Down GOP Lawmaker Pushing To Disband Coronavirus Task Force

The Fox News host reminded Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona that the health experts aren’t “anti-the president’s agenda. They’re pro-keeping-people-alive agenda.”

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In non-coronavirus news:

America Spends Billions To Get The Best Intel In The World But Can’t Make Trump Read It

Trump had only 41 “daily” intelligence briefings on his schedule during the first half of 2020 — an average of just one and a half per week

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A National Guardsman Sent To LA Protests Is Under Investigation For Ties To Proud Boys

The guardsman posted a photo of himself standing in front of a military vehicle inscribed with one of the neo-fascist group’s slogans during a protest. Anyone who thinks he's an outlier is delusional.

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One Last Chance To Save This Country’: Powerful New Video Shows What’s At Stake

New video from Eleven Films shows what’s on the line in November’s election.

[worstblogever]

White men without a college education, just like Trump who bought his from the Wharton School. Coincidence? I think not!

====================

Only 14 States Are Seeing Coronavirus Declines

The map shows that 36 out of 50 states have experienced no “days of decrease in confirmed cases.” Only 14 states show such decreases according to the graphic.

**********

After ‘Very Disturbing Week,’ Dr. Anthony Fauci Says Country Heading In Wrong Direction

“We’re setting records, practically every day,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert warned.

**********

Neil Cavuto Shouts Down GOP Lawmaker Pushing To Disband Coronavirus Task Force

The Fox News host reminded Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona that the health experts aren’t “anti-the president’s agenda. They’re pro-keeping-people-alive agenda.”

At what point do we have to wonder if Donald Trump isn't trying to kill Americans, either just because he's spiteful that we don't love him enough, or because it saves Putin the work of doing it in a war later.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Dale Mensing, a Bob Jones University graduate and grocery clerk who, in his mid-fifties, dove into politics for a challenge to Rep. Jared Huffman for his seat to represent California’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014. His campaign ads were primarily YouTube videos of Mensing in the picturesque California redwoods, claiming the Affordable Care Act was created to start attacks on the freedom of religion, or was a violation of the Bill of Rights. In others he warned of Common Core education as “One World Order education concepts”. Not surprisingly, Mensing lost the election by 50 points, and will likely never perform better in any election, should he make another go of it.

In 2016, 2017, and 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward, who in 2016 was the latest in a long line of nut-jobs we’ve profiled who decided to challenge Senator John McCain for his seat to represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate, and she lost in 2018 as well running for the seat formerly held by Sen. Jeff Flake. For starters, Ward was running a osteopathic clinic in Lake Havasu City back in 2009, and not particularly well from a financial standpoint. She then sold her practice to a company named NorthCountry. That included the clinic, employees and all, and her buyout was paid for with… half a million dollars in Obama Stimulus Funds that came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But she tells all her prospective voters she HATES Obamacare, go figure, while she laughs all the way to the bank. In 2012, she even gave an interview to an osteopathic magazine to discuss the matter with no regrets. As a state legislator in Arizona, Kelli Ward hosted a town hall meeting with her constituents to discuss the threat of… CHEMTRAILS. That’s only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, though, as Ward has the nasty habit of supporting OTHER conspiracies, and appearing on the radio talk shows of every right-wing paranoid conspiracy theorist lunatic who will host her. Back in 2013, she co-sponsored Arizona’s attempts to reject the United Nations’ Agenda 21 Treaty, and spoke on the floor of the Arizona legislature about how she believes it’s not about better environmental standards, but tricking rural Americans into moving back into metropolitan centers and cities. Mother Jones Magazine also has reportied about how Ward has appeared on the radio show of a local Arizona conspiracy nut named Luca Zanna, where Ward chatted about mysterious helicopters that had been spotted in Arizona, finding agreement how Common Core standards were turning children into “slaves”, as well as the prospect of martial law, or the possibility of a foreign power sending troops to subdue American citizens. Mother Jones was also good enough to note how Kelli Ward made a trip up to the Cliven Bundy Ranch to hang out with him and the Oathkeepers in 2014, and she described the armed standoff where domestic terrorists had assault rifles pointed at federal agents from the Bureau of Land Management as a “family friendly” event. Just… yikes. After Cliven Bundy made his comments “about the negro”, Ward tried downplaying her visit to see the would-be hero turned racist domestic terrorist, but noting Bundy had a “1st Amendment right” to his remarks. She also actually did an interview in 2014 with self-described conspiracy theorist and fellow Bundy supporter Pete Santilli, who called John McCain “a domestic enemy”, and brought up both Chemtrails and 9/11 Trutherism during their talk. Funny side story thought? Remember when Donald Sterling still owned the Los Angeles Clippers, and after decades of racist remarks and lawsuits over racial discrimination against Sterling, he was caught on tape making racist remarks by his girlfriend about the company she was keeping with African Americans being something he didn’t approve of. The NBA voted to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, and most people felt it was because the league didn’t need anyone that racist as part of their day-to-day operations. Well, Kelli Ward, for whatever reason, came running to Donald Sterling’s defense, saying that forcing him to lose his team in such a manner created a “slippery slope”, and promised the public that she would “fight for free speech”. Kelli Ward also received a 2016 endorsement from Nohl Rosenthe leader of a group of racist protesters who are pro-police, taunting Black Lives Matter protesters with Confederate flags, or the time Rosen participated an armed protest with assault rifles of a Phoenix mosque (where they talked about the possibility of having a “Draw Muhammed” contest). While most assumed Ward would distance herself from a bigoted crank like Rosen… she re-Tweeted his endorsement. Then you do a little bit of checking and find out… Ward has spoken at some of Rosen’s “Back the Badge” rallies that defend police violence (especially the times against minorities). And that sort of mentality jibes with Mother Jones’ other reporting, that when asked about her position on birthright citizenship at a local GOP gathering in September 2014, she responded by making a thumbs-down gesture and blowing a raspberry, stating that it had been "misinterpreted for years" and that immigrants shouldn't be able to stay just because they "create a child." (Which isn’t how birthright citizenship works.) In radio interviews, Ward has fear-mongered in the worst possible ways, warning that "polio-like illnesses" are spreading "throughout the country as the federal government shipped all of these illegal immigrants all across the country without properly treating them for health and wellness, and they're exposing our kids, our families, to things that we should never have to be exposed to." (Remember, now, we’re talking about a woman with medical training…) Establishing that Ward is off her rocker seems like an open and shut at this point, but we’ll note she also was a co-sponsor of extremist Arizona Republicans attempts to make gold and silver legal tender as one of her first priorities as a legislator, as well as voted for both an attempt to nullify federal firearm laws, and voted for Arizona’s attempt at passing a “religious freedom” law to prevent same sex marriage back in 2013. So to sum up, she frequents the company of bigots, is supported by leaders of hate rallies, says unfounded things about immigrants, tries making conspiracy theories into actual policy, and only seems to mention the importance of the First Amendment when someone says something really racist. Perhaps then, it should come as little surprise that she has spoken at Trump events and praised Cheeto Jesus himself, Donald Trump. At this point, the GOP fighting to keep Ward out of state-wide elections isn’t a secret, and she’s been left desperate enough to tout “endorsements” from fake news sites that her own campaign manages. Fox News, of course, has decided to put their thumb on the scale for her where they can, since she’s a Trump loyalist, and allowed her to lie about asylum seekers at the border, and claim that criminals were “using children” to help get across the border, trying to defend the highly controversial “family separation” policy instituted by the Trump administration like you’d expect a woman palling around with paranoid white nationalists would.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Carl Nett, who lost in an attempt to get elected to the Kentucky state legislature in 2014, and in 2019, was a candidate to be the Secretary of State of Kentucky. Nett, however, decidedly crossed a line during the build-up to the 2018 elections, harming his own reputation by making a threat towards longtime Democratic Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth. Rep. Yarmuth posted a picture of himself wearing an “F” pin, which he revealed was his pride in knowing that “F” is the lifetime rating the NRA gave him. Nett, a former law enforcement officer and Secret Service agent, posted on Twitter that Yarmuth should, “move it over a bit, I was trained center mass”, indicating he wanted to shoot him square in the chest. Nett deleted the post, but not before it was seen, screen-captured, and sent to the FBI to investigate. He ended up apologizing, but his reputation was already damaged. Not that he seems to have a good idea of what a good reputation looks like, as Nett not only insisted that he has the nickname “Trump”, but he threatened to sue the state of Kentucky if they didn’t include that nickname for him on the ballot in 2019, only to have a judge laugh his frivolous lawsuit out of court. Nett finished fourth among four candidates for the GOP Primary, getting only 13% of the vote. As he seems unlikely to ever reach elected office now that he threatened to shoot a sitting politician (we hope, at least), we will retire his profile at this time and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 884-45, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Fern Shubert

Welcome to what is the 884th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Fern Shubert, who was a GOP Primary candidate in the special election for U.S. House Representative for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional district in 2019, an unsuccessful campaign for North Carolina State Senate in 2010, and way back in 2004, she had an unsuccessful run for Governor of North Carolina.

And upon her announcing her intention to try and get into Congress, the media did some looking back at her 2004 campaign site, and discovered that Fern Shubert believes that support for same sex marriage leads to “rising crime rates”, which has precisely zero statistical correlation outside of Fern Shubert’s warped brain. Further inspection into that website showed that Shubert compared homosexuality to pedophilia, stated her opposition to gun control because she believes in the urban legend that “Hitler supported it”, and compared Democrats to the Taliban. A sample:

Homosexual rights – Love the sinner but hate the sin seems appropriate. Unfortunately, some believe sin is old fashioned and want everyone to condone a lifestyle that history shows is destructive. After what happened in the Catholic Church, it amazes me that anyone can keep a straight face when suggesting that the Boy Scouts should accept homosexual scoutmasters and parents should ignore homosexual recruitment. NAMBLA has made their interest in child abuse quite evident. If the press were not so supportive of “gay rights,” more people would recognize the hidden agenda. …
Same-Sex Marriage – North Carolina already bans same-sex marriage, and I was one of the co-sponsors of the House version of that bill. I’ve signed the defense of marriage pledge, as have all of the Republican gubernatorial candidates. I’ve also signed the request that the Senate be permitted to vote on the Defense of Marriage amendment to the NC Constitution. The government’s attack on traditional families is already reflected in rising crime rates. Anyone who cares about the future should seek to structure a society that provides the best environment for raising children, and that is the traditional two parent family.

Fern Shubert finished sixth out of ten candidates, having all of 433 people vote for her, for 1.5% of the vote. She… hopefully will fade back into irrelevance.