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

[worstblogever]

Yeah but to their Q and Info Wars poisoned minds, the school shooting were “false flag operations” so it’s ok to mock the parents of murdered children.

And GOP state legislators weren't submitting legislation from 2016 on to make it legal to run over BlackLivesMatter protesters, either.

PARTY OF LIFE AND RESPONSIBILITY!

[Tendrin]

Whatever.... nevermind.

You okay, dude?

[BeastieRunner]

It has begun ... The revolving door of Trump lawyers ...

Trump’s top impeachment lawyers have left his team days before trial.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Well, that and the other crazy stuff she has been up to. Claims that the Camp Fire in California was started by a Secret Jewish Space Laser, 9/11 being an inside job, and bragging to a friendly interviewer (on camera!) about having a higher degree of involvement in the Trumpenputsch than she admits to more neutral media.

The woman belongs in an institution, not Congress.

What the hell. How can people be so detached from reality.

[Tami]

It has begun ... The revolving door of Trump lawyers ...

Trump’s top impeachment lawyers have left his team days before trial.

Trump's relationship with Lawyers: If they are performing mundane legal work, he always tries to stiff them and get out of paying. If they are doing something potentially criminal on his behalf, he pays them well to ensure that they keep their mouths shut. If they go off the deep end in public, he not only doesn't pay them but disavows any relationship with them to protect his image.

[worstblogever]

You okay, dude?

Ass cancer tests are still coming back negative, in any event. In spite of the queue for CSGOPOTD now stretching through like... the end of 2022? At least?

[worstblogever]

Well, that and the other crazy stuff she has been up to. Claims that the Camp Fire in California was started by a Secret Jewish Space Laser, 9/11 being an inside job, and bragging to a friendly interviewer (on camera!) about having a higher degree of involvement in the Trumpenputsch than she admits to more neutral media.

The woman belongs in an institution, not Congress.

[worstblogever]

Trump's relationship with Lawyers: If they are performing mundane legal work, he always tries to stiff them and get out of paying. If they are doing something potentially criminal on his behalf, he pays them well to ensure that they keep their mouths shut. If they go off the deep end in public, he not only doesn't pay them but disavows any relationship with them to protect his image.

I'm starting to wonder if the GOP are going to make the argument that this impeachment trial "won't count" somehow because they and Trump are just gonna boycott it. Like, only a handful of Republicans are going to take their responsibility seriously and show up. Trump and the GOP will pretend by not sending lawyers or himself to put up any defense, and by ignoring the proceedings, that it isn't a real impeachment trial.

Which isn't how court, or impeachment works... but they're not doing this for legality. They're doing it to convince their base that's how it works.

Which boils down to what the Republican Party has become. If you don't like the government because you aren't 100% in control of it, just ignore it until you overthrow it and replace it with one where you are.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of David Hedrick, who appeared as a Tea Party protester on the scene in the earliest incarnations of the group in 2009, showing up at a town hall hosted by Congressman Brian Baird to yell not just about healthcare, but demand that Baird "STAY AWAY FROM MY KIDS!" After being hyped up for that tirade even further by both Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, Hedrick decided to make a bid to run for Baird's seat in Washington's 3rd Congressional District. In interviews with the media after becoming a cult figure, Hedrick compared Democrats to Nazis, claiming that they were "indoctrinating our youth". He then proceeded to fundraise by writing a Christmas-themed children's book that was loaded with conservative ideology called, "The Liberal Clause", because he was that much of a hypocrite. During the GOP Primary in 2010, Hedrick got "swift-boated" by fellow Republican Jamie Herrera-Beutler over injuries he claimed he got while on a "classified mission" while a war hero the U.S military, that after some digging by the press, were revealed to have occurred while he was still a non-commissioned officer going through basic training. As his campaign started to crumble, things got worse when Hedrick was arrested for domestic violence, after which he filed a lawsuit against local law enforcement that was laughed out of court. Hedrick hasn't turned up on a ballot for over seven years now, and we’re pretty sure he won’t again at any point.

On this date in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published its profiles of Mike Pitts, a member of member of the South Carolina House of Representatives serving District 14 who is a former police officer first elected in 2002, usually because he is allowed to run unopposed. In 2010, Pitts started getting into that “Tea Party weirdo” category, when he suggested the Palmetto State should start its own currency made of gold and silver coins and ban federal currency, justifying it by comparing the United States federal government to the German government in the 1930s or of the Soviet Union before it collapsed. Over the past few years he’s also co-sponsored unnecessary Voter ID legislation in the hopes of disenfranchising voters based on the bogeyman of “in-person voter fraud” that doesn’t statistically exist, tried pushing for amendments to the state constitution to ban same sex marriage, sponsored legislation to try and nullify the Affordable Care Act (and South Carolinians would know a thing or two about nullification), and repeatedly pushed for unconstitutional bans on abortion at 20 weeks. But where things take a definite uncomfortable turn regarding Mike Pitts comes after the tragic mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina at the AME Emanuel Church in June 2015, by a shooter who revered Confederate iconography, by instead championing the Confederate flag at every opportunity with quotes like, “I associate that with scrubbing history I associate that as the first move of a much larger movement to eliminate all things Southern. They said, 'We’ve got to raise an army. The Yankees have invaded us.' The good ol’ boys, my ancestors, said, ‘Hell, yeah,’. They grabbed their squirrel rifles and off they went to fight a war. All they knew was that the Northern states were trying to dictate to the Southern states what to do.” In January of 2016, Mike Pitts also proposed legislation that would create criminal background checks not for firearms sales... oh no... but for journalists. They would have to be a part of a mandatory registry, and if caught violating rules set, would be hit with fines or even jail time. When the media reported this shocking attack on the freedom of the press, Pitts claimed he had “punked” them and wasn’t serious, which is in no way a funny prank that anyone at any level of government should be doing unless they want to create public panic. Pitts added to his long list of legislative idiocy in 2016 as well, sponsoring legislation to attempt to nullify federal firearms laws, and also voted for South Carolina Republicans’ attempts on creating an unnecessary ban on Sharia Law. Mike Pitts is so dedicated to the Confederacy that he chose to even squawk about it but days after the death of Heather Heyer and numerous others being injured by a Neo-Nazi who supported the same argument in Charlottesville in August of 2017, saying that the counter-protesters needed to “ find common ground” With the murderous white nationalists who staged a riot. Pitts left office in 2019, instead hoping to run the South Carolina Conservation Bank.



On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Keith Kempenich, a member of the North Dakota House of Representatives from District 39, and Ron White impersonator who first came to office back in 1992. Straight up, Kempenich is a man whose profile we have been a bit slow to get around to writing for a while, but is definitely deserved after what he tried pulling in 2017.

You see, after a few years where the United States saw an uptick in social activism from civil rights groups like Black Lives Matter, or in Kempenich’s part of the country, the protesters at Standing Rock who were voicing their opposition towards the Keystone Pipeline. And Kempenich, the owner of a trucking company, was talking to his mother-in-law about how the protesters allegedly jumped in front of her car, and he was moved to submit HB 1203, a bill that would exempt drivers from liability should they choose to hit a civil protester in the road. And sure, Kempenich insisted he didn’t want to legalize vehicular manslaughter, but he sure seemed intent on removing at least some penalties for anyone looking to plow through human beings in a civil protest.

If you might be wondering why this all sounds familiar, it’s because Kempenich was the first of several Republican state legislators around the country who tried backing up conservatives looking to just run over vocal opponents and face less consequences, which may have been sending the wrong message to say, the motherf***er who drove his car into counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, killed Heather Heyer and injured a score more people.

And even after that happened only months after Kempenich sponsored his bill, this merry little fascist hasn’t backed off of these sorts of ideas, still supporting a ban on protesters wearing masks, as well as voting for a bill to literally increase penalties for protesting oil pipelines, specifically (even after the Keystone pipeline leaked, as experts predicted it would).

As a legislator outside of his attacks upon the First Amendment, Keith Kempenich has sponsored bills to try and repeal the Affordable Care Act (because he’s a moron that doesn’t understand state governments can’t repeal federal laws), sponsored mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients (even though such bills are only temporary before a judge overturns them as violations of the 4th Amendment, and while they’re in place, they find statistically less drug use than the national average), has voted against bills to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation, support anti-choice legislation as extreme as fetal heartbeat bills, while being hypocritically being “pro-life” enough to vote for concealed firearms to be allowed in public schools.

Kempenich, in 2020, responded to calls to move to mail-in voting during a pandemic to try and force people to take their “mail-in” votes to a specific location, instead. Which defeats the entire purpose of mailing them in to any mailbox to avoid risk. It luckily never advanced out of committee. We’ll have to see how voters react to Kempenich or if he gets any real challengers for his office when he’s up for re-election in 2022.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Dodger Stadium Vaccine Site Shut Down In Los Angeles After Protesters Block Entrance

“Wow. Have fun being a byproduct of Bill Gates,” one protester told a frustrated driver hoping for a vaccine. Those shitstains SHOULD have been arrested. Meanwhile....

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Racial Disparities Apparent In U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Drive

AP: Black Americans are getting inoculated for coronavirus at levels far below their share of the general population. Big surprise, right?

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Capitol Rioters Blamed Antifa For The Insurrection. You’ll Never Guess What Happened Next.

They got arrested, not antifa. NO! Really? I'm shocked! I didn't see THAT coming!

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Georgia County To Replace Confederate Monument With John Lewis Statue

Lewis represented the Atlanta area, including much of Dekalb County, for more than three decades. Quite an honor indeed.

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Most Americans Blame Trump For Violence At Capitol Riot: Survey

White evangelicals are an exception, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. Well, of course holy rollers are still all in with Trump.

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Anderson Cooper Interviews Ex-QAnon Follower Who Believed CNN Anchor Ate Babies

“I apologize for thinking that you ate babies,” the former conspiracy theorist told the CNN host. Man, that's some crazy ass thinking there.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

It has begun ... The revolving door of Trump lawyers ...

Trump’s top impeachment lawyers have left his team days before trial.

Rumor is that his lawyers want to argue that Trump wasn't calling for violence and merely a peaceful protest (bs) and Trump is adament that they use the trial to claim that the election was stolen. I hope he does. I hope they argue for the biggest centralized lie in this entire thing and the GOP Senators have to disgrace themselves in history for voting to acquit him.

[babyblob]

Rumor is that his lawyers want to argue that Trump wasn't calling for violence and merely a peaceful protest (bs) and Trump is adament that they use the trial to claim that the election was stolen. I hope he does. I hope they argue for the biggest centralized lie in this entire thing and the GOP Senators have to disgrace themselves in history for voting to acquit him.

This is what a rational says and thinks. but a vote to acquit him will make them heroes with the GOP voters and the Dems will be the villains and bad guys trying to destroy America and the greatest president who ever lived.

We have reached a point in this country that no matter how much evidence you bring out, no matter what science says, hell no matter what The GOP says or does their base will not believe it. They are still GOP voters including my aunt who think Antifa caused the Riots at the capital. All the pictures of Trumpers being there including the guy in Pelosi's office were photoshopped. The bragging about it on social media was either hacked accounts or deep fake videos.

There is no reasoning with these people. There is no hoping they change their mind and get on board. I know Biden wants unity and that ios all good. But in this current climate in the country that is just not possible right now. I have no idea what the fix is.

[Hellion]

It has begun ... The revolving door of Trump lawyers ...

Trump’s top impeachment lawyers have left his team days before trial.

I don't know how much we should read into this. I mean, does Trump even need legal representation for the trial at this point? The Republicans in the Senate have pretty much *******phed their intentions to have Trump acquitted.

EDIT: Wow, t-e-l-e-g-r-a-p-h-e-d has become an unmentionable word now, huh?

[Gray Lensman]

I don't know how much we should read into this. I mean, does Trump even need legal representation for the trial at this point? The Republicans in the Senate have pretty much *******phed their intentions to have Trump acquitted.

EDIT: Wow, t-e-l-e-g-r-a-p-h-e-d has become an unmentionable word now, huh?

If Trump was directing his legal team to claim the election was stolen that could easily explain the departures. With 60+ court losses to one inconsequential victory (that ordered Pennsylvania to do what they were already doing anyways) most lawyers would consider that defense to be an open lie.

[Tami]

I don't know how much we should read into this. I mean, does Trump even need legal representation for the trial at this point? The Republicans in the Senate have pretty much *******phed their intentions to have Trump acquitted.

EDIT: Wow, t-e-l-e-g-r-a-p-h-e-d has become an unmentionable word now, huh?

I saw a head line that said that Trump might just represent himself.


Can you imagine what kind of farce that might become? Can you Imagine Trump being questioned by his loyal Republican followers in the Senate? Can you imagine how the Democrats would tear him apart?

I'm not saying it is going to happen, only wow if it did I don't know what kind of spectacle it might become.