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

[Robotman]

It's their mantra. Basically Republicans have so little confidence in their ability to attract voters based on policy and hard work, that they believe that the only way they can win is by commandeering elections, make it as close to impossible as possible to stop voters who won't vote for them from voting at all, and sabotaging and undermining and demonizing their opponents [Mostly Democrats, but some Republicans who refuse to follow the 'Party Line').

If they expended even a fraction of this energy on actually accomplishing something productive and beneficial to Americans, they might start wining elections on their own merits.

Democrats are playing chess, Republicans keep stealing the chess pieces and overturning the board.

It seems like their game plan right now is to continue the spread of COVID misinformation, restrict voting/stop minorities from voting, get Trump conspiracy theorists in positions to supervise elections, and as usual focus on redistricting. It's no surprise that Trump's aids and cult members in the House are saying that there is a 99 to 100% chance that he'll run in 2024.

Donald Trump is '99, 100 percent' likely to run for president in 2024

The GQP is trying to set the table for his illustrious return.

Biden will be 82 in 2024 and Harris hasn't been winning people over. Not surprising that they see the Dems as incredibly vulnerable.

[Mister Mets]

More like...

"I'm not about to entertain this garbage about that I am being asked a straightforward question when I can pretty easily see that actual reality says that it is pretty obviously a complicated question..."

To put it about as simply as I can think to put it...

You just had to put a slash in there to include "Asylum..." Once you are actually finally starting to address actual reality but you are still asking "What should our immigration policy be?..."

The position is roughly...

"You are only talking about, at best, half of the equation. When you are actually ready to talk about the entire equation? Let's talk. Until then? I'm going to have to keep pointing out that you seemingly can't even grasp what the entire problem is.

We can't even start having a discussion about solving problems if you are going to ignore half of a problem while acting like you are taking things seriously..."

"By what extent should the United States increase the amount of legal immigration?" is a straightforward question. The answers may be divisive, but someone can explain their position (IE- if they believe it should be as high as possible, they can explain so.

So you think Andrew Yang's party will be probably disbanded before it starts? Are you going to also say "I'd be surprised if his party lasts a whole month."?




Perhaps the one of the first things the Democrats need to do is kick Conservative members like Joe Manchin out of the party. Why are they bothering to keep him in the party membership ?

It seems hard to make a serious argument that Joe Manchin wouldn't be one of the five most valuable and irreplaceable Democrats in Congress.

That is why the party is not going to kick him out. This guy would be ready.

He is the face of the party in Theory. But it just doesnt feel like that. He more feels like a place holder to take us away from Trump. But there are Dems who just wont get behind, you have the ones that wont vote to get rid of the Fillbuster, the Infrastructure bill is having problems, there are Dems who have blasted him in public on his handling of Afghanistan and giving the GOP talking points right from their own lips. They are behind him on Covid and his response to that but they have always been strong on covid,

So he seems to be the face of the party but one that his own party does not support fully.

The President is the main face of a party. If Biden's not running for reelection, Kamala Harris would be the face of the party as the next nominee.

When a party is out of the White House, it's easier for a rising star to be the face of the party (Barack Obama, when he was a Senator.)

It could be possible for someone outside the White House to be a major face, although dynamics can be complicated. A major executive (Andrew Cuomo pre-disgrace, Arnold Schwarzenegger) can have an outsized influence, as might legislators willing to buck their party (McCain during the Bush administration.)

At the moment, there are few Democratic legislators going after Biden from the center. As for executives, Cuomo just resigned and Newsom's in a recall fight. The most likely figures in Washington (Pete Buttigieg, Jon Ossoff, Kamala Harris) are working with Biden, rather than getting their name out there. The emergence of new figures may also take time, as new priorities emerge, allowing someone a chance to do something impressive outside the Biden administration.

If Stacey Abrams manages to win election as Governor of Georgia, she might be the face of the party the way you're thinking.

That sounds like a half full kind of optimism that really shouldn't have a place in lawmaking. Is it not as likely that the iceberg is just below the surface? Local corruption and party domination go hand in hand as legal but not lawful use and abuse of power to slant elections.

It's now easier than ever to prove the types of coordination that would swing a state legislative race, to say nothing of a statewide race which requires fabricating/ altering/ erasing more votes.

This can change if we go with stupid laws (IE- if we ensure that there's less of a paper trail.)

[Jack Dracula]

It's now easier than ever to prove the types of coordination that would swing a state legislative race, to say nothing of a statewide race which requires fabricating/ altering/ erasing more votes.

This can change if we go with stupid laws (IE- if we ensure that there's less of a paper trail.)

In what states has this been going on? It must be a widespread problem if the GOP feels it necessary to distribute this legislation among state legislatures all over the country.

[numberthirty]

"By what extent should the United States increase the amount of legal immigration?" is a straightforward question. The answers may be divisive, but someone can explain their position (IE- if they believe it should be as high as possible, they can explain so.

...

Until folks are ready to actually answer the question "Well, how will we arrive at the actual number?..."?

It's really not.

I get that a lot of folks seem to want to steer way clear of the actual world that this policy would exist in, but doing so means that they are not even ready to start to discuss sensible policy(and exactly what it would look like...)

[Kirby101]

It's now easier than ever to prove the types of coordination that would swing a state legislative race, to say nothing of a statewide race which requires fabricating/ altering/ erasing more votes.

This can change if we go with stupid laws (IE- if we ensure that there's less of a paper trail.)

So why does your Party continually oppose laws that require paper trails?

[InformationGeek]

What the absolute f**k was this goddamn nonsense?

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Friday accused President Joe Biden of trying to make Americans forget about the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by pushing out new rules intended to get more Americans vaccinated against COVID-19.

While appearing on Fox News, Ernst accused the Biden administration of "leading by coercion" when it comes to vaccines, and she then added that "this is a diversion away from 9/11, away from the 20th anniversary, and away from the debacle that was his Afghanistan withdrawal."

[Tami]

What the absolute f**k was this goddamn nonsense?

The same nonsense as always, when you don't have a valid reason to go on the attack, just accuse them of the same dirty tactics you use.

[numberthirty]

That ain't even the most screwball theory. I thought someone had heard this and misunderstood what she said when I heard this described on local news radio earlier.

Actual borderline "Tin Foil Hat..." stuff...

[shooshoomanjoe]

What the absolute f**k was this goddamn nonsense?

The GOP always do this though. They claim dems are focusing on x thing to distract Americans from y thing, as if people aren't capable of following more than one story.

[worstblogever]

What the absolute f**k was this goddamn nonsense?

A reminder, Joni Ernst once claimed President Obama ordered flags lowered to half mast after a mass shooting in Chatanooga, TN because "he wanted to distract from the Iran deal".


She. Is. Full. Of. S***.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, a Christian theocrat who has somehow, in her mad quest to allow religion to be allowed in state schools and government buildings (including having a pastor brought in to anoint furniture in the state legislature with holy oil), opened a loophole that allowed a Satanic Temple to build a statue of Baphomet, just to prove a point to her about the separation of church and state. Fallin also oversaw a botched double-execution from the comforts of an Oklahoma City Thunder game, not wanting to answer her cell phone while a man died in agony on her watch. Her administration’s oversight, or more specifically its lack thereof on the oil and gas industries in Oklahoma has been so lax that a state whose only concern for natural disasters used to be tornadoes has allowed unregulated fracking so that they now are getting more frequently hit with earthquakes. That’s not hyperbole, either, at one point in August 2017, Oklahoma had 7 earthquakes within a 28 hour span and the strength of the quakes are intensifying, now reaching up into the high 5s on the Richter scale. That’s what happens after seven years of Fallin leadership. And taxing the wealthy and those energy companies? Ha! Oklahoma had up to $1.3 billion in annual budget shortfalls during her tenure. She’s also infamous for trying to shut down all the abortion clinics in her state, signing a ban on minimum wage increases during our greatest time of economic inequality in almost a century, and trying to do away with the entire state Supreme Court for not granting her absolute domain to do as she pleases (like not allowing her to put monuments of the Ten Commandments up on government property). Not that she understands the role of the courts as one of the three branches of government, of course, because she failed to be able to correctly list all three during a 2015 speech. In the meantime, Fallin continues to make Sarah Palin seem perhaps less like white trash by allowing her 28-year-old daughter to live on the grounds of the governor’s mansion in her very own trailer, rent-free and siphoning utilities. Mary Fallin is so utterly clueless that she went on CNN in July of 2016 and actually made the ludicrous claim that Donald Trump was “trying to campaign as a racial healer”. Yeah, the guy whose campaign began by saying Mexicans are murderers and rapists, and soon called for a ban on Muslims was trying to unify people of all colors and backgrounds, sure Mary. Only eight days later, she went back on CNN after the release of the 2016 Republican Party Platform, which people on both sides of the aisle recognized as the most anti-LGBT platform the GOP have ever produced (Republicans boasted of this like it was a good thing), but Fallin thought that simply just couldn’t be the case because, “there was a gay person on the committee”. She neglected to mention that the one person on that committee was vocally opposed to every one of those anti-gay measures, and was ignored by the majority. Because of course, that’s just a nagging little detail. In October 2016 she actually declared a “Oilfield Prayer Day”, where she no-s***, called for people in her state to ask God for his protection over the oil industry. She then quickly had to correct herself that the prayer was open to people of all faiths, because she didn’t want Satanists to assert their dominance over Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry. She would become even more of a pariah after a successful statewide teachers’ strike during her final year in 2018, Gov. Fallin officially became the least popular governor in the country as her approval ratings dropped to a staggering 19% as she left office. Based on that, it seems unlikely she’ll be worming her way into a Senate seat or anywhere else in office going forward.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing Christopher Barnett, a 2018 candidate to be the Governor of Oklahoma, seeking to be the first openly gay man to hold that office. That might not sound like a traditional Republican, and neither does the fact that Barnett was running a marijuana growing facility. Barnett exhibited some… shall we say… less-than-Christian ideas for government during his campaign when he posted the suggestion on his Facebook page that the poor and disabled should be euthanized, “The ones who are disabled and can’t work…why are we required to keep them?. Sorry but euthanasia is cheaper and doesn’t make everyone a slave to the Government.” Barnett tried claiming that his “”, and soon claimed to be receiving death threats for “comments he didn’t make”. Christopher Barnett ended up finishing eighth out of ten candidates in the GOP Primary to be the Governor of Oklahoma, with 1.2% of the vote, which only begs the question of “How terrible did the two people who finished behind him have to be to get less votes?” Like, did they want to execute the poor by having them choked to death by forcing puppies down their throats until they asphyxiate, or…? If it weren’t clear that maybe Christopher Barnett wasn’t a great example of modern Republicans, we’ll add that in August of 2019, he was arrested for shooting a process server, and threatening “large amounts of deaths”. Barnett intimated that he will use a “Stand Your Ground” defense because the process server was armed, and on his property, there is video of the shooting that shows the server never drew his weapon, and was walking away after serving Barnett when he was shot. Also, the audio has him literally saying, “Get off my property or you’ll be dead,” and the server was LEAVING. Barnett claims to be the victim of a vast conspiracy as his defense, and says the video and audio were “fabricated”. That is even less plausible because prior to the shooting, Barnett’s Google browser search history shows he Googled “can you shoot a process server”. Barnett was sentenced in May of 2020 to 32 years in prison, so we’re unlikely to see him running for office again anytime soon.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Dan Belcher, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives for Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District who was an unsuccessful candidate for Oklahoma State Senate in 2018. Belcher, who of course brandishes the nickname “Dan the Man”, is a real estate agent who’s on the long list of 2020 candidates for the GOP who love the Qanon conspiracy theory. Among the Qanon support Belcher showed on social media included repeating both the group’s slogan and hashtag, adding the Qanon logo under his campaign logo, and posting video where he said the Qanon motto. His Facebook page also ran ads with the Qanon slogan, and when he started to get flagged for promoting the conspiracy theory, he only got more paranoid and started ominously quoting, “The Storm is Upon Us”, referencing the part of the Qanon theory where Trump would arrest his enemies and place them in military tribunals. We cannon speak to much of his political beliefs outside of that, because other than a few posts on Facebook where Belcher showed support for term limits on members of Congress, interest in repealing existing gun control regulations, and spreading further conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein… he only presents as the sort of Republican who “supports Trump” like a blind follower. There’s no other conservative policies he even bothers to define. Dan Belcher dropped out of the race on February 7th, 2020. We hope this is the end of his political aspirations and we will set aside his profile at this time, however, to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1021-50, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Logan Cunningham

Welcome to what is the 1021st original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Logan Cunningham, who was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, hoping to unseat Democratic Congressman Joe Cunningham apparently just by hoping people would get confused about which one wasn’t the deranged MAGA fanatic on the ballot to win. But first, he would have to win the Republican primary by showing his brilliant fashion sense that’s half Colonel Sanders and half Tucker Carlson…

The problem with him winning was, of course, he’s also too nuts to win in a swing district, what with him being yet the latest person we’ve profiled who was an adherent of the Qanon conspiracy theory. In particular, he seemed focused on a forthcoming “Great Awakening” that has yet to, and will never come. We’ll add that he was also a supporter of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant vanity project and abject failure, a border wall on the U.S./Mexico border. Oh, and he’s been anti-mask and anti-vaxx, as well as railing against Critical Race Theory on social media.

Logan Cunningham dropped out of the race prior to the GOP Primary. South Carolina politics are better for it.

[JackDaw]

More like...

"I'm not about to entertain this garbage about that I am being asked a straightforward question when I can pretty easily see that actual reality says that it is pretty obviously a complicated question..."

To put it about as simply as I can think to put it...

You just had to put a slash in there to include "Asylum..." Once you are actually finally starting to address actual reality but you are still asking "What should our immigration policy be?..."

The position is roughly...

"You are only talking about, at best, half of the equation. When you are actually ready to talk about the entire equation? Let's talk. Until then? I'm going to have to keep pointing out that you seemingly can't even grasp what the entire problem is.

We can't even start having a discussion about solving problems if you are going to ignore half of a problem while acting like you are taking things seriously..."

In UK immigration has been a fairly big issue for years. I think it has been a factor in helping Conservatives help beat Labour in recent elections.

The public prefer the clearly stated Conservative policy, I think, to the more vague Labour intent. (To be honest I do not think there is actually that much difference between the two parties on the issue…it is just that Labour seem to find thought “we want to control immigration” harder to articulate with enthusiasm.)

One thing that provokes widespread scepticism in UK is idea that many asylum seekers end up here and make successful asylum claims. The (sceptical) line of argument is that to get to UK from a war torn country you need to pass through several safe countries before you get to UK (very few come on direct flights, large majority come via land and sea journeys).

Certainly there is something to that line. I have seen BBC interviews with people who first escape Syria to Italy who say that they intend to cross mainland Europe to get to UK for example. And we get regular attempted crossings from France…for all its faults a pretty safe country.

There are multiple reasons for that. (E.g. A strong belief UK welfare system and general support system is more generous. In some cases being more at ease speaking English than French. Some family or friends in UK already, etc.). But, deep down, I accept the sceptical line that in UK most migrants are to a large extent driven by perceived economic benefit rather than immediate release from physical danger.

In US, what is your view on asylum/ economic mix? Do you really believe that many of the people seeking entry from Mexico say are in imminent physical danger in their country?

[numberthirty]

To start with, I'm probably not really whatever the mainstream "US..." view on the whole thing is. Since the first thing I would do would be to essentially start completely rethinking US drug policy? I'd guess that I pretty squarely "Left.." on the whole thing.

(Obviously, there is the fact that Libertarians would likely do something similar, but I'm not sure it would be about the damage that America just being America does...)

As for "Many..."

https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/news/pre...l-america.html

Death threats and gang violence forcing more families to flee northern Central America – UNHCR and UNICEF survey

Death threats, gang recruitment, extortion and other forms of targeted violence are driving more families in northern Central America to flee their homes and seek safety in other countries, a new UNHCR and UNICEF survey reveals today.

Nearly 20 per cent of over 3,100 interviewees in family units identified violence – including death threats, extortion, gang recruitment and domestic – as the main reason behind their decision to leave their communities. More than 30 per cent of unaccompanied children surveyed identified some type of violence as the main driver of their movement, which in turn affected their ability to access essential services, including going to school.

If you have between one out of five and one out of three people saying it is the reason?

Yeah, I tend to believe it.

Another piece on the topic...

(Even points pretty clearly to who most likely is to blame for the current catastrophe...)

https://www.theatlantic.com/internat...ration/563744/

Today’s Migrant Flow Is Different

Previous U.S. policies contributed to the extreme insecurity in their home countries. In 1996, U.S. authorities approved the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act,” which led to the deportations of tens of thousands of convicted criminals to Central America in the early 2000s. This in turn led to the expansion of gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gang (Barrio 18)—originally born in the U.S.—across El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

What the absolute f**k was this goddamn nonsense?

The only thing that surprises me is that it wasn't one of the usual suspects like Fled Cruz or Craven Kevin McCarthy who spewed that garbage.