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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

But then again, with Trump's ego, and providing him with a public forum to talk, one never knows what he might have decided to do (no matter what more reasonable people may be advising him not to do).

More like a forum for Trump to tell lies, insult everyone under the sun and bleat about how the election was "stolen" from him. I doubt anyone wants to hear that rehash of his greatest hits.

[babyblob]

More like a forum for Trump to tell lies, insult everyone under the sun and bleat about how the election was "stolen" from him. I doubt anyone wants to hear that rehash of his greatest hits.

Are you kidding me? if Trump got on the stand it would be the most tuned in News event in years. it would crush any of the debates, the ignoration all of that in ratings.

People who believe what he says, people who want to see him lie under oath, and people who just want the entertainment of a **** show circus. Everyone would be watching.

[Malvolio]

I second that thought. It's not enough for Greene to be relieved of her Congressional duties, she needs to be kicked out altogether. Sadly, Qpublicans don't have the guts to do what needs to be done.

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Democratic Lawmakers Give Emotional Testimony On Experiences Of Capitol Attack

Democrats in Congress spoke passionately on the House floor, some in tears, about Jan. 6, the day of the armed insurrection by pro-Trump rioters.

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House Impeachment Managers Ask Trump To Testify Under Oath

In a response, a Trump adviser said the former president won’t testify. A good call, Trump would perjure himself inside of thirty seconds, and that's a generous estimate.

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Feds Drop The Hammer On The Capitol Insurrectionists

Recent grand jury indictments connected to the U.S. Capitol attack show the feds aren’t messing around. Find them all. Arrest them all. Charge them all. JAIL THEM ALL.

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Smartmatic Hits Fox News With $2.7 Billion Lawsuit Over Election Coverage

“Defendants’ story was a lie,” the suit alleges. “All of it. And they knew it. But, it was a story that sold.” GOOD! Sue the **** out of Faux News. Sue them the hell out of business.

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Rudy Giuliani In A Huff After His Own Radio Show Offers ‘Insulting’ Disclaimer

“They’ve got to warn you about me?” the former New York City mayor asked, complaining that nobody told him the message would play. Sounds like Rantin' Rudy wasn't too happy about that. Heh!

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Johnson & Johnson Files For Emergency Approval Of Its Single-Shot Vaccine

The COVID-19 vaccine is less effective than two others, but requires only one dose and can be stored in regular refrigerators.

What the hell is Rudy Giuliani going on about? That was a standard disclaimer. WABC has been in the conservative talk radio game for over thirty years. They know how it's done and they know how to cover themselves no matter who hosts the show. That's all that disclaimer was.

[AnakinFlair]

Rachel Maddow made an interesting point last night in regards to Trump and his upcoming trial. In the brief his lawyers filed, they repeatedly referred to him as the 45th President of the United States (or possible Untied States, knowing them). And Trump is still calling himself President, including sending out letters with a fake Presidential seal. That implies that, in his mind, he still believes he's still the President. So.... if he's still 'the President', then the Republican's defense of saying the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer President is no longer valid. So in a way, Trump is invalidating his own defense.

Ooops.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Rachel Maddow made an interesting point last night in regards to Trump and his upcoming trial. In the brief his lawyers filed, they repeatedly referred to him as the 45th President of the United States (or possible Untied States, knowing them). And Trump is still calling himself President, including sending out letters with a fake Presidential seal. That implies that, in his mind, he still believes he's still the President. So.... if he's still 'the President', then the Republican's defense of saying the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer President is no longer valid. So in a way, Trump is invalidating his own defense.

Ooops.

My thoughts were if there is anything illegal by trump declaring himself president. Like stolen valor or impersonating a cop is illegal.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Are you kidding me? if Trump got on the stand it would be the most tuned in News event in years. it would crush any of the debates, the ignoration all of that in ratings.

People who believe what he says, people who want to see him lie under oath, and people who just want the entertainment of a **** show circus. Everyone would be watching.

Not me. Four years of that bloated buffoon babbling on TV every chance he got was more than enough for me. The less seen of Trump, the better.

Rachel Maddow made an interesting point last night in regards to Trump and his upcoming trial. In the brief his lawyers filed, they repeatedly referred to him as the 45th President of the United States (or possible Untied States, knowing them). And Trump is still calling himself President, including sending out letters with a fake Presidential seal. That implies that, in his mind, he still believes he's still the President. So.... if he's still 'the President', then the Republican's defense of saying the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer President is no longer valid. So in a way, Trump is invalidating his own defense.

Ooops.

Oops indeed! I wonder if anyone brought that up to Trump?

[BeastieRunner]

Beastie's Cartoons of the Week





Mike Luckovich really tickled my funny bone this week.

[MajorHoy]

What the hell is Rudy Giuliani going on about? That was a standard disclaimer. WABC has been in the conservative talk radio game for over thirty years. . . .

But I remember the days when 770 WABC and 660 WNBC were both major music (Top 40) AM radio stations for New York City (and well beyond).

= sigh! =

[DrNewGod]

But then again, with Trump's ego, and providing him with a public forum to talk, one never knows what he might have decided to do (no matter what more reasonable people may be advising him not to do).

That's a fair point. That said, the last five years seem to have been a endless loop of everyone saying "there's no way that even he'd dare [fill in the blank]," and then standing around slackjawed when he does it.

[DrNewGod]

I'm not a Sasse fan, but he really drove a nail in the Nebraska GOP central committee's ass.

[DrNewGod]

Rachel Maddow made an interesting point last night in regards to Trump and his upcoming trial. In the brief his lawyers filed, they repeatedly referred to him as the 45th President of the United States (or possible Untied States, knowing them). And Trump is still calling himself President, including sending out letters with a fake Presidential seal. That implies that, in his mind, he still believes he's still the President. So.... if he's still 'the President', then the Republican's defense of saying the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer President is no longer valid. So in a way, Trump is invalidating his own defense.

Ooops.

I have to say, this made me smile a bit. I guess that's what happens when none of the competent counselors will touch you with a ten-foot pole.

[InformationGeek]

My god, these people are pathetic. What kind of nonsense is that?

ZEKE MILLER: Why is the president going to Delaware this weekend?

PSAKI: He's from there

MILLER: But the CDC says people should avoid travel

PSAKI: The key is ensuring that people don't take steps to make others vulnerable

I'm directing my frustration at the questions, not the person putting up with that nonsense.

[AnakinFlair]

But I remember the days when 770 WABC and 660 WNBC were both major music (Top 40) AM radio stations for New York City (and well beyond).

= sigh! =

I remember when our local oldies station played 50's and 60's music. Now it plays music from the early to mid 90's.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of John Johnston, who was a former Marine and member of the NSA who was a candidate for District 10 of the Indiana State Senate in 2014. At first, it seemed like he might be a good challenger to incumbent Democrat Chuck Mosely... until Johnston went on social media to rant about America's social safety net, and how he wanted to cut it, lamenting that in dealing with the poor, that "no one has the guts to just let them wither and die". The media asked him if he would like to retract that statement, and instead, Johnston doubled down, comparing the downtrodden on welfare to "like training a child". Predictably, he lost the election after that, and has not made a run for office since.

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Tim Donnelly, a former two terms member of California State Assembly from 2011-2015, in spite of the fact that Donnelly was featured as an anti-immigrant goon trying to "fix the fence" on the Colbert Report back in 2006. During his 2010 campaign, he was speaking at Cal State University at Fresno, and called for the resignation of the student body president because he was an undocumented immigrant on the school's dean list (which only made the crowd gathered heckle Donnelly) and made it a personal quest once in office to see them kicked out of the country. If nothing else, though, Tim Donnelly had great aspirations, and felt like his place in the California legislature wasn't enough, getting ballsy enough to run for Governor of California in the hopes that he could win the GOP nomination to challenge the legendary Jerry Brown in the 2014 elections. However, Los Angeles times uncovered a speech delivered by Donnelly in 2006 when he was running around with the Minutemen militia, and he compared illegal immigration to warfare, with some proud reflections on our ancestors killing Mexicans. Somehow, though, Donnelly got even more xenophobic in May, getting on social media to link to an article by radical anti-Muslim commentator Frank Gaffney, that claimed his primary opponent Neel Kashkari, a former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Financial Stability, who worked on helping the American economy recover from the 2007-2008 banking crisis, and a Hindu... was part of a secret plot to institute Sharia Law upon the American financial system. In spite of being a politician in California, Donnelly campaigned against the ban of the sale of the Confederate flag in state-owned souvenir shops. At this point, Donnelly only floats around the fringe of California politics from outside the legislature, trying to prevent people from being required to give their kids their vaccinations before they go to public school. Donnelly actually ran for U.S. House to represent California’s 8th Congressional District in 2016, but finished third in the primary with only 21% of the vote, far behind Rep. Paul Cook.

On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Clayton Fiscus, a now former member of the Montana House of Representatives from 2013 through 2017, who prior to ever being elected, stated his desire to try and pass a bill to have intelligent design taught in public school classrooms, in spite of the fact that repeatedly, such legislation has always been overturned as a violation of the separation of church and state. Shortly after his re-election in 2014, Fiscus tried yet again to strike a blow for Creationists, with a bill to allow students to challenge the theories of evolutionary biology, under the guise of “critical thinking skills”, without any irony. But let’s not let that one issue be the only thing in Fiscus’ voting record we take exception to. The rest of it has some equally frustrating stances, like in February of 2013, when he voted for HB 384, a bill that would have made it legal for children to bring their guns to school. (Hell of a way to respond to the Newtown Massacre, only a few weeks earlier, right?) Or his vote against SB 107, which would repeal Montana’s law that any sexual contact between two individuals of the same sex should be considered “deviate sexual relations” (Yeah, effectively, he was standing for homosexuality still being a crime.) Fiscus introduced a bill to begin drug testing welfare recipients in Montana (that old failed conservative policy chestnut), and voted for HB 245, one of those bizarre Republican efforts to legalize the sale of raw milk. Fiscus abruptly decided to not run for re-election in 2016.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Alan Harper, a man who was first elected to office in the Alabama House of Representatives back in 2006 as a Democrat, but switched his party affiliation to Republican in 2012, partly to preserve his own career after the rest of the GOP redrew his district, but it’s not hard to understand why, when you hear some of the ideas he’s floated the past several years. Alan Harper earned his share of infamy on November 30th, 2015, when he got on Facebook, and posted a screed asking people to take care to only shop at American (Christian) businesses, claiming that non-Christian businesses send the money back to home countries to fund terrorism. After facing well-earned criticism for his nativist, ill-informed rant (which included not just an opinion editorial in his local newspaper, but a denouncement from the Alabama Republican Party), Alan Harper took what passes for the high road in Republican politics by choosing to not apologize and said he was, what else, double down on his claims and say he was “being taken out of context”. The Daily Beast, while filing report, took a look back only a few weeks early and noted that Harper also expressed support for a police officer in a news story where he dragged an African American girl student of their classroom in South Carolina. Harper’s voting record included support for a Constitutional amendment to Alabama’s state constitution to allow for a monument to the Ten Commandments to be placed on state property, for “fetal heartbeat” anti-abortion bills, support for legislation to begin drug testing welfare recipients in Alabama, a bill aimed at denying gay couples the ability to adopt by giving adoption agencies the “religious freedom” to decide to reject adoption applicants as they see fit, and supported a bill meant to preserve Confederate monuments in Alabama. We are glad to report, however, that after twelve years as a state legislator, and now that he’s started delving into bigotry unabashedly, Alan Harper did not run for re-election in 2018.

[worstblogever]

On this date in both 2019, as well as 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Heather Scott, a member of the Idaho House of Representatives first elected in 2014 based on her qualifications of owning a gun store, and who has quickly made a name for herself as a kook, even among the Idaho GOP. Her position stances on issues are, like you’d expect, hard to the right, including her support for fetal heartbeat abortion bills, the Castle Doctrine and “Stand Your Ground” laws, and how she has co-sponsored legislation to have the Bible taught in public schools. While that might seem like we’re off to a great start with this profile, if you’re thinking that isn’t quite “out there” enough, in 2015, she chose to wave a Confederate flag around in a local parade (because Idaho’s south of the Mason-Dixon, right?). But even that is only the tip of the iceberg with Scott.

In 2017, Scott was stripped of all of her committee assignments within the state legislature after taunting another female lawmaker that the only reason they could advance and be given leadership positions in the legislature as a woman was if they “spread their legs”. Other legislators, at the time, also reported on how Scott often complains about the building being bugged with listening devices, and one reported that they witnessed her once smash a fire sensor to disarm the “recording device” within. (Spoiler Alert: She’s imagining things like Michael Shannon in the movie Bug).

More so, she already has called for emergency sessions of the state legislature to put a stop to Sharia Law in the United States, (she voted for a bill to try and prevent it) and Scott made it a point to travel to Oregon to check up on the domestic terrorists who were occupying the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, where she collected a “petition of grievances” from them. Because that’s exactly the sort of thing you want your state representative doing… legitimizing militia lunatics a state away rather than making policies to help you at home.

About that last detail… We here at CSGOPOTD have often profiled Washington state legislator Matt Shea, who recently was in the national news when a report from federal investigators said that his activities associating with militia groups were actually tantamount to him participating in domestic terrorism in the United States. Fun detail a lot of folks missed about that story… Heather Scott is also named in that report twelve times, and has the codename “greenbean”, and was tasked with identifying “Patriot bail bondsmen”.

Even though Heather Scott has been linked to domestic terrorism, the Idaho GOP could not be bothered to try and find someone to give her a primary challenge in 2020, and thus, she coasted to re-election with 68% of the vote in the general election. You would think they might have considered trying to push her out the door not just for the whole “linked to terrorism” thing, but because she also started referring to Idaho Gov. Brad Little as “Little Hitler” after he wisely called for a “stay at home” order in April 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.


There are updates to profiles we write that leave us dumbfounded as to “how do these stupid motherf***ers keep getting re-elected”, and we’re going to have to say that Heather Scott certainly meets that standard of befuddlement. Please excuse us while we find a stiff drink.