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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Republicans do not recognize a democratic POTUS as well as Democrats do not recognize a a Republican POTUS.

Nonsense! I for one recognized Trump as easily THE worst president in the history of this country.

[Tendrin]

This won't happen but I agree with it.

PATERSON, NJ – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today called on House leaders to sanction Members and exclude from the 117th Congress any Members-elect who are supporting Donald Trump’s efforts to invalidate the 2020 presidential election. Pascrell cites the text of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment which disqualifies from service any individuals who seek to attack American democracy, as well as Congress’s power to exclude Members by majority vote as acknowledged by the U.S. Supreme Court in Powell v. McCormack.

It's way overdue that consequences were faced. The impunity with which Republicans have acted to undermine the democratic system needs to be ended.

https://pascrell.house.gov/uploadedf...d_version2.pdf

[worstblogever]

This won't happen but I agree with it.



It's way overdue that consequences were faced. The impunity with which Republicans have acted to undermine the democratic system needs to be ended.

https://pascrell.house.gov/uploadedf...d_version2.pdf

Nothing was done to the #47Traitors in 2014... nothing was done when they crashed a classified impeachment hearing in 2018... the GOP keep defying norms and breaking laws, and because they're in Congress... nothing happens. Individuals are insider trading in the Senate? Nothing.

Like, at some point, someone's got to hold these f***ers accountable to get them to cut the s***.

[Powerboy]

A Republican actor named John Wayne, upon learning of John F. Kennedy's pres. election victory, said "Well I didn't vote for him but he is our president."
He didn't just recognize the president he voted for. He recognized the president elected by the majority of American people.


Republicans do not recognize a democratic POTUS as well as Democrats do not recognize a a Republican POTUS.

No because, despite Trump not getting the majority of the votes in 2016, it never came to the point of actual court cases to try to stop him from being inaugurated or Obama considering declaring martial law and forcing a re-vote or asking states to ignore the votes and cast their electoral votes for Hillary.

Trump lost both the popular vote and the electoral vote and has no evidence of voter fraud but millions of people seriously want him to declare martial law, throw out the election by any means necessary and end this nation as we know it. Also, Republicans in office are going along with it for fear of losing votes.

There is no parity here at all. Democrats don't like a Republican POTUS but accept reality. Republicans have reached the point of delusion where they will believe any insane conspiracy theory (or go along with it) rather than accept that a Democrat will be president.

[numberthirty]

Nothing was done to the #47Traitors in 2014... nothing was done when they crashed a classified impeachment hearing in 2018... the GOP keep defying norms and breaking laws, and because they're in Congress... nothing happens. Individuals are insider trading in the Senate? Nothing.

Like, at some point, someone's got to hold these f***ers accountable to get them to cut the s***.

Do these people look like any of them are even remotely serious about being held to any degree of accountability?

[kidfresh512]

Nothing was done to the #47Traitors in 2014... nothing was done when they crashed a classified impeachment hearing in 2018... the GOP keep defying norms and breaking laws, and because they're in Congress... nothing happens. Individuals are insider trading in the Senate? Nothing.

Like, at some point, someone's got to hold these f***ers accountable to get them to cut the s***.

The people have that responsibility. They need to stop voting for them. That includes my idiot senator Ted Cruz.

Expecting Pelosi to not seat them because of their support of the grift is just not serious. It will make Biden’s job even harder and be shooting his presidency in the foot before it begins.

We already don't have the senate unless a Georgia miracle happens again. This will prove them "right" calling Democrats radicals. Look at how many Republicans support these lawsuits even to the point of cheering along Texas suing their own states.

Disenfranchising their own constituents. Those very constituents are the ones that need to handle it. You can't vote for more stimulus relief, but you can sign on to this bs to hand the election to a loser?

This is a pick your battles type deal. There will be Many in the next 4 years with a divided Congress this isn't where we start.

[Kirby101]

Do these people look like any of them are even remotely serious about being held to any degree of accountability?

[video=youtube;ReZ7DdT5ZoI]httpube.

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest...tock-purchases

[numberthirty]

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest...tock-purchases

"CSMonitor..." as in Christian Science Monitor?

Which is before you even get to that we found out that the people we are discussing were all staying mum on that a setup paying off sexual harassment victims was in place after that.

Just pointing out that you've got the wrong group of people if you are looking for folks to seriously police any real degree of accountability.

[Adam Allen]

I think different people on the left are responding to it in different ways. Some might be overly nervous, because people are primed to believe the worst about their political opponents, and some might know better, but exaggerate because there is some gain in it. To be clear, the Republicans have worse on this issue, as they're causing the problem, and they're in the wrong about most of the issues in contention regarding the validity of the election.

Progressives should hope that there are people in the country who secretly agree with them, but prefer not to share their views in conservative environments. This might have been instrumental in Biden winning Arizona and Georgia.

If I understand you then, you think the Republican leaders who are appearing to back Trump are wrong to do so, but ultimately that there is no real danger in their doing it?

Well, I guess I will just hope that you are right. But you know, any of our social and political institutions -- be that the local police or the federal government -- are only truly an authority, so long as people believe that they are. It is true, that at some point, it would be a question of who has the most weapons and people who are willing to kill or be killed ... but, that would be war, which obviously, we would hope to avoid.

[Jack Dracula]

At this point, the Republican party has put more time and effort into overturning the election than they ever did in fighting the pandemic.

[Kirby101]

"CSMonitor..." as in Christian Science Monitor?

Which is before you even get to that we found out that the people we are discussing were all staying mum on that a setup paying off sexual harassment victims was in place after that.

Just pointing out that you've got the wrong group of people if you are looking for folks to seriously police any real degree of accountability.

Showing once again you don't knoew what you are talking about.

But hey, in the middle of this, let's attack Pelosi again.

[Tendrin]

https://twitter.com/AgainstActivist/...03235423596544

A nice thread about conservatives finally accepting that Trump's done.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

At this point, the Republican party has put more time and effort into overturning the election than they ever did in fighting the pandemic.

No surprise there. Republicans are simply following the lead of Trump himself who washed his hands of the virus months ago.

[worstblogever]

One of the forgotten stories of the week is that the Trump administration is hosting in-person parties pretty much non-stop from now until Biden gets sworn in, ignoring social distancing and mask advice. One of them was last night at the White House, and guess what rained on the White House Christmas Party of 12/11 at around 9PM eastern? That Supreme Court ruling. While I find Maggie Haberman frequently dubious, in this instance...

"At the White House Christmas Party, guests were informed about 10 minutes ago that the president won't be joining them to make remarks."

"I don't WANNA come out. THEY ALL THINK I'm A LOSER!"

"Well, Donald, you ARE a loser."

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP"

"Also, the party was stupeeeed anyway. F*** CHREEESTMAS!"

[worstblogever]

On this date, in 2014, in 2015, and in 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Jim Hagedorn, who has twice failed to get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in Minnesota's 1st District. His credentials are being a former CEO for Miracle Gro and... well, the classic GOP nepotism of being the son of a former Congressman himself. The problem with Hagedorn was he had a habit of writing to the "Bluestern Prairie", where he offered a variety of politically incorrect thoughts about gays, minorities, and Democrats. Things like calling Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell "undeserving bimbos in tennis shoes", calling former Congressman Herb Kohl a "switch-hitter" and "packer", echoing John Wayne's sentiment that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian", and discussing an election between Mike Taylor and Max Baucus by using imagery about fisting and lubication. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Hagedorn was too controversial to get elected to the House in 2014 against Democrat Tim Walz, and in 2016, Hagedorn actually wanted a rematch, hoping people would just forget about all his controversial remarks if he kept his nose clean for two more years. Hagedorn was wrong, and still lost, this time at least in a much closer affair by only about 2500 votes. This had a lot to do with Hagedorn accusing Walz of “letting terrorists in”, because he supports refugees being settled in the United States who might just be Muslim. That takes some balls, given that Walz has served in National Guard for 25 years. But hey, we’re talking about Jim Hagedorn here, who took time to deride Black Lives Matter in the debate between the two for virtually no reason other than race-baiting.

It was on this date in 2017 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Dan Johnson, a church bishop who in 2016, won election to the Kentucky House of Representatives by 156 votes. This was in spite of the fact that Johnson is an extreme enough bigot that the head of the Kentucky GOP even condemned him. Over several Facebook posts, Johnson had the delightful habit of comparing the Obama family to apes. There also was the part where Johnson called for a ban of the religion of Islam in the United States (Heard of the First Amendment, Dan?), or the numerous times that he posted images of the Confederate flag. Johnson cites the fact that a sign hangs outside his church that says, “Jesus and this church are not politically correct,” while insisting he’s not racist because as he puts it, “I love America. I love people. I believe red, yellow, black and white, all are precious in God's sight. I'm not a racist. I'd like to know first off, what images that are being considered offensive. It wasn't meant to be racist. I can tell you that. My history's good there. I can see how people would be offended in that. I wasn't trying to offend anybody, but, I think Facebook's entertaining.” Considering Johnson also mixed a lot of pro-gun messaging into the Gospels of Jesus, maybe he wasn’t up to snuff on his scripture. However, Dan Johnson was accused of molesting a girl who attended his church in 2012, when she was only 16 years old. He of course, claimed that the accusation was “politically motivated”. But where there was smoke, there was a lot more fire coming, because before a local media expose broke detailing how rowdy and inappropriate the behavior around Johnson’s parish actually was, he committed suicide rather than face justice in court. His widow then tried running for his seat in the special election to replace him and lost.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be talking about Nick Sauer, a former member of the Illinois House of Representatives who served one term in office after winning election in 2016 through the benefit of getting to run for the state legislature unopposed. When you read Sauer’s biography, the entire thing reeks of entitlement and his being earmarked by senior Republicans for advancement. Whether it was working in Bush 43’s Department of Commerce, to him being elevated time and again in races for the Illinois Board of Education, then to the state legislature, and then his placement on both the State Toll Highway Authority, and a key position on a Illinois House of Representatives Committee aimed at curtailing sexual harassment at the state capitol. That last one comes with a big ol’ spoonful of hypocrisy because only weeks after his placement on a committee in the state legislature to combat sexual harassment, when Nick Sauer himself was accused of posting nude photos of his ex-girlfriend online, and catfish other men that she was looking for sex, so that those men would send her harassing messages asking for sexual favors. Or, as prosecutors in Illinois refer to it, Nick Sauer committed “a felony charge of revenge porn”. Once the news broke, a college roommate of Sauer’s came forward, and claimed he was a “predator of the highest order” who had victimized “dozens” of other people, detailing an incident that took place between himself and Sauer where the young Republican attacked him, unprovoked, with an electric razor, taking a chunk of his hair from his scalp and prompting a scuffle. Once Sauer started to realize he was about to get his *** kicked, he said, “it doesn’t look that bad”. Sauer waited a few days, then deleted the majority of his social media accounts, leaving only his Instagram up but on “private” and resigned in disgrace. We’ll set aside his profile at this time to go ahead and take a look at a different kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 806-40, since this was established in July 2014.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Mark Harris, a pastor who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2014, and in 2016, missed out on his shot to upset Congressman Robert Pittenger by all of 900 votes. Part of the reason that folks might not have been elevating Mark Harris to victory could have been that he would blurt out some pretty ludicrous Evangelical fever-dreams, like the time that he promised there wouldn’t be “peace in Israel until Jews and Muslims convert to Christianity”, In 2018, however, Harris was not messing around, recruiting some of the dirtiest players in North Carolina on his campaign staff to make sure he was going to beat Pittenger and any Democratic challenger that emerged in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, hiring a chap by the name of McRae Dowless who was known to do things that were decidedly not legal to help whatever campaign he worked on. As such, when Harris then beat Pittenger by about 900 votes, Pittenger and his campaign staff notified the authorities about exactly the sorts of shenanigans McRae Dowless was up to, specifically, that he and his staff would collect absentee ballots from people in the district, and fill those ballots out to “help” the voters, going down the line and voting for anyone who was paying Dowless. The evidence of chicanery is pretty obvious, considering that somehow Harris won 437 of a possible 456 votes in Bladen County, where Dowless worked his magic. During the general election, investigators became aware of Dowless’ scheme for Harris’ benefit, and even though Mark Harris “won” North Carolina’s 9th by 905 votes over Democrat Cal Cunningham, his victory was never certified by the North Carolina election board and he was never sworn in to serve in Congress. The press began to report on the scandal, and Harris tried dismissing the accusations as “slander” made up by the “liberal media”, who were just reporting on things that even North Carolina Republicans were acknowledging. He also pleaded with judges to just declare him the winner, despite all the blantant voter fraud committed. As investigations intensified, Harris fled from the press at every stop, including one prolific moment where he was believed to have pulled a fire alarm to cover his escape. At the trial in February of 2019, Harris own son confirmed his father was aware of McCrae Dowless’ scheme, and that he warned his father against committing election fraud. That probably had a lot to do with why Mark Harris did not join the field in the special “do-over” election for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. At least he has a career as a pastor to fall back on, but people might wonder about his honesty. As hiring a criminal to commit election fraud on his behalf seems to have ended his political aspirations, we’ll set aside and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 941-45, since this was established in July 2014.