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

[Conn Seanery]

Good thing you posted that request in a long, miserable political thread. That's the easiest way to get our attention.

Whatever word that is it was likely added to the censor because it was a part of some spam. If you can let me know what it is I can see about fixing it.

EDIT: It's okay, figured it out. Fixed.

[worstblogever]

I'm trying to decide if House and Senate Republicans being unable to determine when they've lost in 2020 because they're trying to avoid getting their asses kicked in 2022 more looks more like:



or



Probably the latter. Because the former wasn't actually done just quite yet.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of Mike Pompeo, the former U.S. House Representative for Kansas’ 4th District and a man who we noted at the time was first elected to office in the Tea Party Wave on the strength of the largest single campaign contribution from the Koch Brothers, at $80,000, and using racist dog-whistles (and in some instances, air raid sirens) against his Indian-American opponent who his campaign floated theories about on social media saying he was a secret Muslim or a "turban topper" while telling people to "Vote American". His Islamophobia continued at the capitol, where he declared all Muslim clerics "complicit" in terror attacks for not criticizing them vociferously Pompeo also has also been one of the loudest warmongers in the GOP the past few years, calling not just for boots on the ground against ISIS, but insisting the United States should start bombing Iran with tens of thousands of sorties to curtail their nuclear program instead of trying to negotiate a treaty to do so. Hell, he’s even gone on conservative talk radio and said he feels President Obama has an "kind of an affinity for, if not the violent beheading and crucifixions and slaying of Christians and all that", before beginning to speculate that Muslim Congressman Andre Carson could be part of an "Islamic fifth column" with "deep ties to the Muslim Brotherhood". Pompeo is far enough to the right on abortion that he didn’t just vote to defund Planned Parenthood, but he classified that vote as a move to “defund the selling of baby parts". He was also particularly paranoid about Benghazi, declaring on an episode of Meet the Press with Chuck Todd that "Benghazi was worse than Watergate", and later at the Benghazi hearings themselves, insinuating that the consulate in Benghazi was being used by Sec. of State Clinton to run guns illegally to Syria. Lastly, we will reiterate that Mike Pompeo often makes conservative arguments while claiming "history" backs up his statements, when he's completely talking out of his hind end, like the time he gave a lesson on gun control around the world by claiming the United Kingdom doesn't have their own Bill of Rights (they do, and it predates our own by a century), or the time he argued against gay adoption by saying that same-sex couples don't have the same ability to properly rear children that traditional couples do (statistics show that might be completely false). Mike Pompeo left Congress upon being given a position in Donald Trump’s “Cabinet of Horrors” as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mind you, because Trump is a tragically f***ed up misanthrope, his administration has a revolving door for firings, resignations, and indictments. As such, you’ll see news stories about how Rex Tillerson wants to quit as Secretary of State and Pompeo is going to end up replacing him. Until folks within the White House start trying to get rich by writing tell-all books, we’ll never know how close those moments are to being true. This also applies to rumors that there are high-ranking people within the CIA withholding information from Trump (because he’s a moron and blurts out top secret information to whatever Russians he meets face-to-face). We do know that once the election was over, at some point he went from giving a thumbs-up to Wikileaks, to calling it a hostile intelligence service (maybe he should have checked to see all the colluding the president’s son did with them during the campaign. All we know is… Mike Pompeo is still a war hawk, and a moron, and is currently hoping he doesn’t go to jail after being implicated in Donald Trump’s attempted bribery of Ukraine. We should all celebrate if his tenure ends in 17 days without us in a war with Iran.


On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Illinois House of Representatives member John Cavaletto, who served Illinois’ District 107 from 2008-2018. Cavaletto came to our attention here back in 2016, when he decided to take his “smaller government/family values” ideals to quite the extreme by filing legislation that would ensure that any mother who did not put a father’s name on their child’s birth certificate, that the certificate would be denied, not issued, and the mother would be ineligible to get any government assistance to raise that child. Now, there are some definite examples of why a mother would omit a biological father’s name from a birth certificate, like in cases of rape. After national outcry, he dropped his bill without attempting to advance it. This is not, to say, that John Cavaletto’s legislative record showing disdain for women was limited to that one bill. For he also voted against ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment in Illinois, and voted against a law that would require businesses to pay for the birth control of employees on their insurance plans. On other issues, Cavaletto was becoming even more extreme as well, voting against an increase in the minimum wage during the greatest period of income inequality in our country in almost a century, and on LGBTQ issues, voting against a ban on gay conversion therapy on minors and voting against a bill to allow transgender citizens to change their gender on their birth certificates. On firearms, while Chicago is afflicted with one of the worst runs of gun violence in decades, Cavaletto has voted against age limits on assault weapon ownership, and against even simple ideas like a ban on bump stocks, or to put a 72 hour waiting limit on firearms purchases. Cavaletto opted to retire in 2018.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled David Bates, a former member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives for four non-consecutive terms from 2008-2018. Bates’ signature issue was, by most accounts, the “sanctity of marriage” and denying gay people the ability to get legally married, sponsoring attempts to repeal legalized same sex marriages in New Hampshire. Although, it didn’t seem like Bates was content to stop there, because he was arguing against marriage equality on the grounds that being gay was “a preferential choice”, and therefore LGBTQ rights should not be treated as a protected civil right. As revolting of an opinion as that might be, it still is not the worst thing David Bates ever did during his tenure on the issue of marriage. Back in 2017, a New Hampshire Girl Scout named Cassie Levesque lobbied the state legislature to try and raise the minimum age that someone could be married in New Hampshire to 16 from a disturbingly low 13. And Bates, specifically, was the legislator who blocked the bill, because it was “from a minor doing a Girl Scout project, and he cited that the bill should be kept on the books because of “when there’s an unplanned pregnancy”.Because the best thing to do with a 13 year old girl who gets pregnant by accident is to force her into a marriage she isn’t ready for, either. Outside of having backwards-ass views from the 19th Century, Bates also supported Voter ID laws aimed at voter suppression, attempting to repeal the buffer zone around abortion clinics in the state, voting against both a ban on gay conversion therapy on minors, as well as voting against a bill to prevent discrimination based on gender identity, and finally a vote against repealing the death penalty in the state. David Bates was already annoying the mainstream GOP in New Hampshire by starting a knockoff “Freedom Caucus” similar to the one in Washington D.C. and the Texas state legislature in his final term, and perhaps with the disgust he created over the child marriage ban combined with the Democratic Blue Wave approaching in 2018, he opted to not run for re-election. We will set aside his profile and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 949-45, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Ben Gibson
Welcome to what is the 949th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Ben Gibson, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Louisiana’s 4th Congressional District, who is yet the latest Republican we’re going to profile who campaigned for office while pushing the deranged Qanon Conspiracy Theory, tagging posts with the Qanon hashtag. Gibson also had a white nationalist bent, pushing Donald Trump’s “America First” policy while deriding both “radical Islam” and railing against China (while speaking not at all of Russia). So if our geopolitical foes were white, he forgot all about them, you see. He also bragged about his experience as a firefighter in Bossier City, although, for whatever reason (he’s a liar), the fire chief at that station said not only has Gibson never worked there, he hasn’t worked for Bossier City in any position, whatsoever.

Gibson ended up finishing 4th in the November election, earning 6% of the vote, or about 10% of what the winner, Mike Johnson got. But that is not the end of this tale.

Only a few weeks after the 2020 election, Ben Gibson was arrested and charged with four counts of possession of child pornography, with the victims being under the age of 13 (hence while his photo above is a mug shot). So the guy who is trying to spread the conspiracy theory that Democrats are running secret pedophile rings… was in possession of child pornography. The irony does not escape us, nor should it anyone else, as the tendency of the GOP is to accuse Democrats of that of which they are guilty. We are not only going to wish Ben Gibson “Good Riddance”, but “Do Not Pass Go, Go Directly To Hell”. And that’s all.

[SquirrelMan]

A question: If the election results were to be overturned (not that it will happen), would that mean the four senators-elect dragged into this nonsense be rendered null and void? Clearly Republicans aren’t much for thinking things out.

Their plan is to, with fascist precision, have Pence replace the Electors from states that Biden won with their own group of randomly picked "electors" so that the only thing changed would be Trump's landslide loss. The other races would not be effected by that steal.

[SquirrelMan]

Not really...

The two people in question are really, really well off.

While that would seem to not be much of an issue to the regulars in this thread?

(Barring The Pelosi Vandalism Being Work...) There are plenty of folks in the States who don't have a second of time for the really, really well off.

Pelosi and McConnell are the really, really well off.

Then it is odd that Jeff Bezo's home was not vandalized.

[SquirrelMan]

It’s a house. I’m not gonna get worked up over spray paint on hers when people are losing theirs because of government inaction.

Also, it’s because Pelosi sucks.

They left a pig's head outside her door, Joker.

[JCAll]

Wait, so******m is being censored? Lawl.

See, it's funny because "c i a l i s" is an erection medication.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It’s a house. I’m not gonna get worked up over spray paint on hers when people are losing theirs because of government inaction.

Also, it’s because Pelosi sucks.

It's not just a house, and it's not that simple. Vandalism outside a house one day could lead to breaking and entering the next, and there's too many nutbags out there who might be deranged enough to commit violence for the sake of their warped ideology. Just look at what happened with Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. An overreaction on my part? Perhaps, but things are too insane today to leave to chance.

Meanwhile, found this on Twitter:

Screenshot_2021-01-03 Brian Schatz on Twitter.jpg

[numberthirty]

Then it is odd that Jeff Bezo's home was not vandalized.

About That...

https://www.***************.com/acti...dc-home-2020-4

'PROTECT AMAZON WORKERS': Activists painted a giant mural outside Jeff Bezos' $23 million Washington, DC, home

[SquirrelMan]

About That...

https://www.***************.com/acti...dc-home-2020-4

Yes. Street art is the same thing as a bleeding, maggot infested pig's head on your doorstep. It's basically the male version of it.

[numberthirty]

They left a pig's head outside her door, Joker.

About That...

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/proteste...-bezos-dc-home

Protesters set up guillotine outside of Jeff Bezos’ DC home

[SquirrelMan]

About That...

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/proteste...-bezos-dc-home

You're at least getting warmer.

[numberthirty]

You're at least getting warmer.

There is no "Getting..."

Each of those thing happened in the past.

No one is wondering why something that has already happened isn't happening because they are probably aware protest/vandalism is already in the books.

[SquirrelMan]

There is no "Getting..."

Each of those thing happened in the past.

No one is wondering why something that has already happened isn't happening because they are probably aware protest/vandalism is already in the books.

So your reasoning is "attacks like that in the past (similar but not nearly identical) were against rich people, and Pelosi is rich, so the attack was because she was rich"?


That's not exactly Sherlockian.