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

[Tami]

Pro-Trump rallies are getting underway, though turnout is less than it was in Nov. when thousands of Trump loyalists packed the city. Already though, fights broke out overnight as Proud Boys roamed #DC streets. Five people were arrested.

Twitter Link

Even the anti-Trump protestors in 2017waited until after the inauguration to protest.

D.C. braces for clashes Saturday as pro-Trump demonstrators descend on Washington

[Tami]

Op-Ed: Forget compromise. The GOP isn’t likely to accept Biden — ever

Anyone who has been following the current Republican-led effort to undermine democracy and orchestrate a coup has probably asked themselves, “When are Republicans going to stand up to Trump and admit that Joe Biden won the election?”

I’m sorry to say, that’s the wrong question, because the answer is never.

Many people have said in recent weeks that it feels like Republicans and Democrats live on completely different planets. I wish it were that simple. In reality, what’s happening is that one side sees a planet where the other sees nothing because they don’t even care to look. Democrats believe in facts, while Republicans have learned to believe in a world they make up for themselves.

Whether or not you agree with them, Democrats are largely defined by positions on issues like education, environment, social justice, healthcare, etc. These are policies that can be debated, though reaching consensus within the party’s ranks is always a struggle. Even now, you see the Democrats squabbling over Biden’s Cabinet appointments.

The GOP isn’t built for debate — which is why you don’t see any reporting about the GOP being in disarray. But you can’t call this consensus, which would imply agreement achieved after rigorous discussion. At this point, if Trump were to tell his supporters that the Earth is flat and the elitist scientists have been lying all along, they would play along and raise questions about the scientists’ faulty instruments.

This is why, despite zero evidence, the majority of Republicans still believe Trump’s lie that the election was rigged and that he won. A Washington Post survey found that only 26 Republicans, out of 249 in both the House and Senate, would acknowledge Biden’s victory.

[Joker]

Oh, man, so sorry for your loss and yeah that's messed up. Earlier this year my husband and I attended a virtual funeral done through Zoom.

This also reminds me of the problems with people with chronic or other illnesses or injuries that can't get proper medical attention because everyone is tied up with COVID patients, hospitals are filled up, and even Family Medical practices are being overwhelmed.

The hospitals also have to shut down elective surgeries and are going broke because that's how they make their money. This isn't talked about much, in all the "hospitals are" conversations.

[zinderel]

Lawmakers Who Backed Texas Lawsuit Should Be Barred From House

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) has called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to bar 126 GOP representatives from the House, arguing that their support for the failed, baseless Texas lawsuit seeking to hijack the presidential election violated the Constitution.

Pascrell accused the House members who signed an amicus brief supporting the action — including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — of violating the Constitution by seeking to nullify Americans’ votes and instead choose a “dictator.” He cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, enacted after the Civil War and designed to keep traitors out of government.

The section prohibits anyone who had gone to war against the union or given aid and comfort to the nation’s enemies from running for federal or state office.

The Pennsylvania brief responding to the Texas lawsuit referred to its “seditious abuse of the judicial process.”

Of course, Democratic Party leadership won’t have the strength of character to actually do this, but they absolutely should. The Trump brigade and everyone who supported these lawsuits are goddamn traitors who tried a failed coup. If we can’t try them FOR treason, we should be able to deny them power, based on their behavior. Not ‘because they are Republican‘, or ‘because we are oppressing their religious freedom and expression of faith (*barf*)’, but because they supported and praised a man pissing all over the document and nation he was sworn to uphold...and actions should have consequences. ESPECIALLY for those in power.

Those who supported an attempted coup, and threw their lots in with a wannabe dictator with no respect for anything America was founded on (other than ‘white male landowners are all that matter’, anyway...) do not deserve to take part in a government they have tried so hard to undermine, delegitimize, and destroy. Nor should they be allowed to take positions of power over a nation whose will they attempted to subvert. That’s all there is to it.

“Comfort and succor to our enemies”, indeed...

[Malvolio]

Christine Scott
Welcome to what is the 941st original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Christine Scott, who was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, looking to knock off Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch. Without irony, she responded to Ballotpedia’s candidate survey with the question “Who do you look up to?” as follows:



Now, liking what Donald Trump does on Twitter might seem a bit over the top, echoing Trump’s attacks on journalists is a concern, but note that at the end of that rambling mess of a statement, she transitions into delving into the Hunter Biden conspiracy theory seamlessly with the sort of pathological fanaticism that’s a hallmark of Trump Republicans. It’s not the only conspiracy theory she was a fan of, either, as Christine Scott was yet another Republican running for Congress in 2020 who was a Qanon supporter. It was pretty evident given she put the Qanon slogan out in the open on her campaign webpage.

Christine Scott was disqualified from the ballot prior to the Republican Primary for apparently failing to complete the proper paperwork or pay for fees necessary to register as a candidate. and has responded to that exactly as a sane person would, filing a lawsuit against everyone within the Florida state government.Those lawsuits will likely be as fruitful as her hero Trump’s challenges to the election. We hope she doesn’t make a second attempt at politics, and gets the help she clearly needs.

I wonder what would happen if one of these conspiracy theorists actually had a moment of clarity and seriously sought out psychiatric help. That would be a very interesting case study.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

Here's the thing, in a vacuum that's honestly a good angle to criticise Democrats on. However, it's being used as a justification to take the Democrats down at all costs, and make sure they don't have the slightest credit for doing things which make sense. You may not agree with them, but they're acting on logic and facts, not feelings. This is why when I bought up about the "Defund the police" was polling badly up it was ignored. Challenging is fine except that becomes worthless when it appears even if they did do what you asked its be dismissed and something else would be the problem which must define Democrats as evil incarnate. This isn't constructive criticism, this is lashing out that the politician who won the primaries wasn't a leftist - the man who failed to be at the anniversary of Bloody Sunday but that's ok since he marched with Martin Luther King once.



Nobody's asking you too. You're not asking questions, you attacking because Biden's not a leftist and pretending the Republicans aren't in the room.

You can’t defeat fascism without addressing policing head on & at some point, if liberals & moderates truly want to defeat Trumpism, they need to come to grips with the fact that they’ve been consistently wrong on this matter while leftists have been consistently correct. Biden wants to continue this “unity” message because the dems wants trump voters. That’s why they keep talking “defund the police killed dem campaigns” , they’re not too concerned about white supremacy.

[PaulBullion]

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

When I first heard about them about 30 years ago or so, I was VERY skeptical, too.

But their journalism is actually quite respectable.

[PaulBullion]

And, credit to Seth Meyers for pointing out they'll need to set up glue traps for Stephen Miller.

Can't laugh at a Jewish man being called a cockroach even if it is a Jewish nazi, sorry.

[PaulBullion]

Nancy Pelosi Calls on VA Secretary Wilkie to Resign

“The VA Inspector General report makes clear that Secretary Wilkie engaged in an extremely disturbing cover-up campaign of sexual assault against a veteran. Secretary Wilkie has not only been derelict in his duty to combat sexual harassment, but has been complicit in the continuation of a VA culture that tolerates this epidemic. He has lost the trust and confidence to serve, and he must immediately resign.

“This case and the misconduct that followed are part of a broader, well-documented crisis of violence against women who serve. It is a profound injustice that any patriot with the courage to defend our nation has had to experience having their voices silenced and their integrity questioned.

[JCAll]

Guys, just think, if our society and nation decided to permanently split in two, here's how that would look:

The Left and probably most moderates would get the West and East Coasts. The Right would get all the farmland in the middle. They could attempt to starve us out, but since we'd control the tech industry and, well, most industry in general, we could fuck with their ability to watch/listen to their brainwashers of choice and we'd shut down their internet. Who's going to cave first?

I don't think it could ever work like that. No state is really pure red or blue, most are more of a 60-40 mix. Conservatives in more left leaning states aren't going to want to leave, nobody is selling their homes in California and moving to Missouri; likewise, liberals in right leaning areas probably can't or don't want to pick up and move to NYC.

If the nation did split, I imagine the coasts would hold longer than the middle. Not just because they would have more money and better maintained infrastructure , but because they'd be stubbornly holding out expecting for the middle to want to rejoin eventually. The middle, I expect, would splinter further instead of holing together, as they would struggle to agree what form their new nation would take.

That being said, I have to say I'm completely against splitting the nation. It would be a disaster that would just end up hurting the most vulnerable people in our society.
Well, that, and there are a lot of nukes in Middle-America. I don't want the threat of nuclear civil war to ever even be remotely possible.

[Joker]

I am loving the pictures coming out of this Maga protest/rally/march whatever it is bullshit.

Just morons.

[JCAll]

I am loving the pictures coming out of this Maga protest/rally/march whatever it is bullshit.

Just morons.

"Morons! I have morons on my payroll!"

[Jack Dracula]

Yeah, that sounds like Trump having a one man pity party after his last chance to overturn the election by going to SCOTUS crashed and burned. I’m sure this has already been mentioned, but the Biden administration will need to have the White House fumigated and disinfected top to bottom before moving in.

The solution is fire.

Guys, just think, if our society and nation decided to permanently split in two, here's how that would look:

The Left and probably most moderates would get the West and East Coasts. The Right would get all the farmland in the middle. They could attempt to starve us out, but since we'd control the tech industry and, well, most industry in general, we could fuck with their ability to watch/listen to their brainwashers of choice and we'd shut down their internet. Who's going to cave first?

It might be better to simply abolish the multi-party system and enact campaign finance reform to reduce outside influence.
A sort of hard reboot of our government without the result being a civil war.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Op-Ed: Forget compromise. The GOP isn’t likely to accept Biden — ever

Of those 26 Republicans, how many of them have already been re-elected or are safe from being primaried? It’s like I’ve said numerous times, the GOP has to say all the right (read: stupid as hell) things to stay in the good graces of Trump and, by extension, his rabidly loyal base who’s support Republicans still need.

[AnakinFlair]

Yeah, that sounds like Trump having a one man pity party after his last chance to overturn the election by going to SCOTUS crashed and burned. I’m sure this has already been mentioned, but the Biden administration will need to have the White House fumigated and disinfected top to bottom before moving in.

"Morons! I have morons on my payroll!"

God, I haven't seen GI Joe since the 80's. This really makes me want to revisit it.

Meanwhile, Alex Jones waddled into the 1/10th of a million moron march, and said Biden would be removed 'one way or another'.