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

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

A CIVIL WAR will only happen if elected officials across the party make plans to secede and create militas and so on. So far that's not going to happen. Mitch McConnell isn't going to leave Washington for *Checks notes* a Kentucky State Militia government or something equivalent to that.

This country is way too comfortable for a civil war. At least back in the 1860’s you could see how a group of men living on plantations were terrified of their economy being upended because you could literally fall from regal to being a desperate peasant without a pot to piss on. Like I get how that might make people freak out at changing a 200 year old oppressive practice that has been normalized over generations.

But you can’t tell me most people are going to leave their air conditioned houses and stop playing video games or screwing around on the internet to fight for the death over Donald Trump not getting his way. Donald Trump who would gain the most would be too lazy to ever go on a military camp for weeks to lead people.

Plus you know, our army is pretty good

[PaulBullion]

Or...

We could see it as Republicans, in general, not wanting to vote for "the enemy", regardless of how terrible their representative is. The Democratic Party is, for all intent and purposes, a moderate party, but it prominently features liberal and progressive members, yet excludes folks with extreme left-wing views (such as true Communists or "eat the rich" ideologues) from often getting involved in any discourse out of fears of alienation. Republicans, however, want to get as many voters as possible, so they want as many people on the political right as they can get, even as you wander deeper into conservatism and into reactionist rhetoric (which is where Trumpism lies). Or, to be blunt; Democrats want their radicals to stay in coffee shops, while Republicans want their radicals in office.

The fact that the Democratic Party opted for arguably the most traditional, moderate candidate from the field this year in spite of a relatively sizeable part of the base insisting the party go progressive or even socialist while most Republicans stuck behind a reactionist president despite his general lack of popularity nationally proved that Republicans will support Republicans at the end of the day.

And I think Biden, despite all of his failings during the campaign and what he has done in the past to make folks leery of choosing him, overcoming such obstinance should still be commended.

Biden doing better than some Democratic Congressional candidates indicates that SOME Republican voters went to him, so maybe the Lincoln Project had a bit of an effect in getting us Georgia, for example.

[SquirrelMan]

The meltdowns are hilarious today on social media.

Some of the bot accounts I monitor (sorry, that sounds so self-important) on twitter went completely silent 48 hours ago. Accounts that usually tweeted like 20 tweets per hour, easily, sometimes 20 hours a day.

Others are trying hard to amplify the "rigged election" myths, but twitter is deleting a lot.

And some accounts have finally been deleted by twitter.

[PaulBullion]

Now Trump is complaining about missing military ballots in Georgia. So which is it Twittler? Too many ballots or not enough?!?

I would love to have a silent feed of Trump and his team just having a meltdown. Obviously I don’t want to hear his awful voice but just seeing the chaos would be fine.

They will not do much for Trump.

Biden markedly improved with military voters.

According to NYT exit polls in 2016, Trump won them by +27.

In NYT 2020 exit polls, he won them by +7.

A 20 point shift toward Biden.

https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/...893071873?s=20

Maybe Trump's horrible attitude towards fallen soldiers and their families did some damage there.

[PaulBullion]

At the end of the day the core of Trump's cult is cowardice. They don't have the wherewithal for war.

Yup.

I had to laff at this:



They really think that twitter is real life.

[PaulBullion]

Best case scenario tonight:


Better get ready for 4 more years.

Biden is looking at being lucky to break 200 EC.

And the popular vote is looking like Trump, too. He has a 2M vote lead.

It's over.

Remember years ago, when Beastie was all pessimistic and tearing us down?

[ChangingStation]

Yup.

I had to laff at this:



They really think that twitter is real life.

The irony is they're just like the libs they despise. They're slacktivists.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” we looked at Bill Armistead, who has cranked up the Wayback Machine in Alabama to take political rhetoric back fifty years whenever possible. Armistead spent most of the first seven years of the Obama presidency campaigning hard for increased Voter ID laws, insisting that voter fraud was rampant, even offering a $1000 bounty to anyone in his state who came forward with an example of it. As you might guess, no one came forward with any. But that's really the tip of the iceberg, as Armistead has hosted various propagandists pushing the Birther Conspiracy around Barack Obama to speak to Alabama Republicans, from Allen West, to airing the "Dreams of My Father" Birther documentary and claiming it was "factual". Armistead also called President Obama a "sociopath", claimed Rev. Al Sharpton was "race-baiting" for campaigning against Alabama's new Voter ID laws, and criticized the Supreme Court for their rulings on gay marriage as an "affront to Christian principles". Armistead stepped down as the head of the party last year, but apparently found work on Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign committee in Alabama, so it remains to be seen if he has any influence on American politics.

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as in 2019, that we published our first two "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiles of the U.S. Senator from Georgia, Johnny Isakson, who for all his supposed "concessions", also has had some of the most anti-gay voting records in Congress during his tenure, has voted repeatedly against womens' issues from their right to choose to equal pay legislation, and has consistently voted against raising the debt ceiling. Isakson met with some controversy where he met with the candidate challenging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for his seat in Nevada, Sharron Angle, and described her speech to the Senate Republican Caucus as the kind of speech “she wouldn’t give to the unwashed back home”, but still won re-election in 2010 through having the luck to have been suddenly hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat and a blood infection. In his long Congressional career, Isakson has voted for displays of the Ten Commandments to be placed on government property, a Constitutional ban on same sex marriage, the Iraq War Resolution, and the 2013 Government Shutdown. Meanwhile, he has voted against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” being repealed , voted against the Franken Amendment (a dedicated assist to defense contractors who want to be able to sexually assault or help cover up the sexual assaults of female employees by Isakson) voted against various equal pay measures as well as Hurricane Sandy relief funding, and since President Obama took office in 2009, has voted against every debt ceiling increase, despite the fact that not doing so would be catastrophic to not just the U.S. economy, but the global economy. As early as August of 2015, Sen. Isakson was calling for investigations into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server, and admitting the end goal of those inquiries was to “end her presidential candidacy”. Sen. Isakson pledged to support votes on all judicial nominees back in 2005, but since Barack Obama was elected president reneged on that deal, and has blocked not just the nominations of District Court and Circuit Court judges, but now defending how the GOP have chosen to spend over 7 months avoiding hosting confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland as a ninth Supreme Court Justice. Isakson was, of course, re-elected in 2016, after announcing he had Parkinson’s in 2015, the second consecutive re-election campaign where he announced a chronic health problem prior to the vote, which we’re in no way cynical enough to think would be him trying to garner sympathy from the electorate. That sympathy did not last long after his re-election, in the current state of politics in the country. After how in this term of the Senate, Isakson voted to confirm every member of Donald Trump’s “Cabinet of Horrors” and voted for the “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act, he turned up at one town hall, and even though he’s a 73 year old man with Parkinson’s, the minute he uttered, “All Lives Matter”, the crowd booed and heckled him out of the building. Isakson announced his retirement in August of 2019, and hung around the Senate enough to bastardize the makeup of the Supreme Court before going to convalesce with a disease that if anyone else got it, would have their healthcare taken away as a pre-existing decision because of his confirmation of justices. He will not be missed. At this time, we will set aside his profile at this time and take a look at another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 934-45, since this was established in July 2014.


Kanda Calef
Welcome to what is the 934th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Kanda Calef, a 2018 candidate for District 2 of the Colorado House of Representatives. She already was infamous around the capitol as a pro-gun lunatic and unapologetic Trump supporter, to the extent on the latter that she pulled her endorsement of failed Senate candidate Daryl Glenn prior to the 2016 election and supported the Libertarian candidate… and her reason was that Glenn dared to criticize Donald Trump for talking about “grabbing women by the p***y” on the Access Hollywood tape.

The Colorado Republican Party took Glenn’s side at the time, and called for her to recant or resign and she did neither, seeking to elevate herself based on her Trump loyalty and love of guns. She aimed at upsetting the incumbent state legislator in her District, Shane Sandridge, in 2018 to further her rebellion against the mainstream GOP, but lost the election by double digits.

However, none of that saga is the reason we’re talking about Kanda Calef. She’s worth mentioning because she was arrested in June of 2019 after going full “road rage” and flashing her gun at another driver in traffic. Who just so happened to be an off-duty U.S. Marshall. When he pursued her to make an arrest, she fled going 90 MPH, only to finally get pulled over when the red and blues were flashing. She entered a guilty plea to avoid jail, and ironically is now a guns-rights advocate who due to a felony on her record, can’t have a concealed carry permit.

The last news item we saw on her was she was struggling to figure out how to file the proper paperwork to end her 2020 campaign for the Colorado state legislature, so it seems like for now and probably a while, we won’t be hearing from her running for office. And we’re relieved to say that.
 

[BeastieRunner]

Remember years ago, when Beastie was all pessimistic and tearing us down?

I love being wrong.

It means I learned something.

I think a lot of us learned a lot that night. The projections were not hopeful and the trends were mirroring 2016 amd prior.

Happy to be wrong.

It really does feel a long time ago.

[Bruce Wayne]

They really think that twitter is real life.

Sadly people on both sides have been deluded into thinking social media is real life.

[shooshoomanjoe]

This is the type of shit I'm concerned that the trump administration will do. I don't think Newt has any power to do this but who knows how far the trump administration will go to stay in power.

Citing zero evidence, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich asks Attorney General Bill Barr to send federal agents to arrest election workers in Pennsylvania

[PaulBullion]

Sadly people on both sides have been deluded into thinking social media is real life.

Still, there is no comparison to the sheer amount of right wing Twitter personalities who (to my surprise) are not ALL Russian trolls and bots, who seem to do nothing but tweet all day, every day.

[worstblogever]

This is the type of shit I'm concerned that the trump administration will do. I don't think Newt has any power to do this but who knows how far the trump administration will go to stay in power.

Citing zero evidence, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich asks Attorney General Bill Barr to send federal agents to arrest election workers in Pennsylvania

Newt definitely doesn't. Barr almost definitely doesn't, not that he wouldn't.

[InformationGeek]

Bad news WBE, a familiar face is returning. Looks like Darrell Isa is going to take over Duncan Hunter's old seat. :/

[babyblob]

Is anyone else as upset as I am at the Secret Service issuing a statement that said they would follow the results of the election and that that are willing and able to remove any and all trespassers that are in the White House on inauguration day?

I am not upset they made the statement. I am upset that the state of our politics made such a statement have to be made in the first place.