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

[worstblogever]

Joyce Bentley

Welcome to what is the 961st profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be briefly profiling Joyce Bentley, who was a 2018 and a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Nevada’s 1st Congressional District and also the latest in Republican candidates for Congress we’ve profiled who openly supported the Qanon conspiracy. In October 2018, Bentley shared a link to a Qanon account and posted, “Q- We Are The Plan.” Among the conspiracy theories in the single video she shared:

• “Our world has been under the growing influence of a vast transgenerational criminal mafia that was able to rise up to the highest levels of power. … Through a system of threats, blackmail, and bribery, they would come to occupy the highest levels of power in government, corporations, and education. You may know them as the deep state, or cabal.”
• “Most dangerously of all," members of the deep state "achieved almost total influence over the media -- their primary means of controlling the good people of the world who were just trying to get on with living.”
• “There was no way to continue without a plan to eliminate all threats to their survival, even if it meant imposing a single world government under their jurisdiction -- where no national identity, police force, or military could stop them. They called it globalism.”
• “Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal funded [Barack] Obama’s Harvard education and took power by proxy, picking his entire cabinet while buying vast quantities of control in our largest media companies.“
• "The western faction of the cabal was different. It was another kind of sick all together: a dark and deeply sinister death cult with a strong reliance on symbolism and numerology with levels of cruelty unimaginable to all right-thinking people. The reach and scale this secret society had achieved would have sent destabilizing shockwaves across the world were it ever to be publicly exposed.”

Once the press started reporting on her support of Qanon, Bentley deleted the post, but screencaps are forever. That had a lot to do with why she only got 31% of the vote in 2018 and lost to Congresswoman Dina Titus. In 2020, she made fewer Qanon support posts, and went with the pitch of “President Trump can’t be everywhere, and do everything, so I want to help MAGA”. That’s kind of backed up by her support for the expensive, brain-addled boondoggle that was Trump’s idea for a border wall along the U.S./Mexico border.

None of that, of course, stopped Bentley from winning the Republican Primary for the seat, but she got wrecked in the general election again by Dina Titus, earning only 33% of the vote. We’re guessing this will be her only run for office.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Joe Biden Says Donald Trump Shouldn’t Receive Intelligence Briefings

The former president has a history of “erratic behavior,” Biden cautioned. Never mind the armchair psych profile, the REAL fear is that Trump would whisper sweet nothings in the ear of Vlad Putin.

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$2.8 Million In Trump Reelection Donations Went To The Trump Organization: Report

Trump once boasted he might be the first presidential candidate to “run and make money on it.” And, it's clear he had. Disgusting!

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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Releases Absurd Conspiracy Infomercial

Far-right network OAN aired the video on repeat. This crazy as **** idiot is driving a stake through the heart of his own business. If I'm one of Lindell's employees, I'm bailing with all due haste.

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Biden Tosses Out Trump’s Last-Minute Judicial Nominations

The newly installed president prefers to fill those lifetime federal judgeships with his own picks, thank you very much. Yeah, get rid of the Trump stooges.

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Woman Arrested Who Helped Coordinate Attack On Capitol, Smashed Window With Pipe

Rachel Marie Powell, a Pennsylvania mother of eight, used a bullhorn to give directions on storming the Capitol building. Find them all. Arrest them all. Charge them all. JAIL THEM ALL.

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GOP Sen. Ben Sasse Blasts ‘Weird Worship’ Of Trump As He Faces Party Censure

In a video, the Nebraskan condemned fellow Republicans for treating politics like “a religion.” And he reiterated his support for Trump’s impeachment.

[Tami]

Georgia police chief, officer ousted after video of racist remarks on slavery, Stacey Abrams

The police chief of a small Georgia city has resigned and a patrolman was fired last week after the two were caught on body cam video having a "horrifying" and racist conversation about slavery, Black people being shot by police and Stacey Abrams.

The June conversation caught on video between Hamilton Police Chief Gene Allmond and Officer John Brooks began with the two discussing the recent fatal shooting of a Black man by a police officer. The video was released by the city to local media and seen by NBC News. It is unclear what happened immediately before the video started recording.

Brooks begins by recounting what a commentator on Fox News had to say about the shooting, in which the Black man had grabbed an officer's stun gun and pointed it at him.

It gets worse from here.

[Tami]

John Fetterman files paperwork to run for U.S. Senate in 2022

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has officially filed the paperwork for a possible run for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2022.

The former mayor of Braddock whose blunt and unreserved brand of politics has built him a national profile unusually large for a state lieutenant governor, filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. It is the first step for a candidate seeking public office.

Mr. Fetterman said earlier this month that he was eyeing a run for the Senate seat now occupied by Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey, who announced in October that he was not seeking re-election

Experts and Democratic insiders have named Mr. Fetterman as one of the top contenders for the Senate seat, which will likely attract a variety of candidates.

I've seen him on MSNBC, and I hope he wins.

[shooshoomanjoe]

And out of the country yet! Don't be surprised if they have to hire a bounty hunter to bring her back to the US.

Bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico.

[GindyPosts]

Bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico.

Frankly, bounty hunting should be made illegal in the United States, or at the very least be under legislation.

There's too much leeway they are given during the process of getting folks who avoid trials, not to mention how stupid easy it is to become a bounty hunter.

[Mister Mets]

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.

It's pretty common to refer to former Presidents as "President."

The etiquette rule had been that if only one person holds a title, you should not refer to them by that title, but by a prior honorific that applies to more than one person. So if you see Barack Obama anywhere, you should call him Senator Obama. If you see Bill Clinton, you should call him Governor Clinton.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-a6851bb893a5/

A more recent etiquette column does suggest it's expected to refer to former Presidents as President. So if you're at a social event with Jimmy Carter, you can refer to him as President Carter and not Mr. Carter or Governor Carter.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/forms...to-a_b_2390778

* Edit- The same rule of etiquette would have prevented anyone from referring to Biden as Vice President Biden from January 20 2017 until he became President-Elect.

Woman charged in US Capitol riot can take trip to Mexico, federal judge says

What the ****? This is some ol’ bullsh**. A literal terrorist is allowed to go on vocation.

Restrictions on travel are not meant to be punishment. She has not been convicted yet. Legally, there's a presumption of innocence.

The main point on restrictions on travel is if someone poses a threat to others, or if they might try to flee the country.

Speaking of, Kyle Rittenhouse jumped bail. Kid murdered two people, got to hang out with known felons, go to bars while underage, and now has just up and vanished.

Whatever bounty hunter brings him in, I'd tip even if I'm not the one paying the bounty.

Someone would jump bail if they fail to appear at trial. Has that happened yet?

He doesn't have to appear in court again until March 10, and the trial is scheduled to begin March 29.

https://www.cbs58.com/news/kyle-ritt...%20more%20time.

John Fetterman files paperwork to run for U.S. Senate in 2022



I've seen him on MSNBC, and I hope he wins.

I think everyone could see this coming, but he'll be an interesting force in politics.

It's an open election, and I suspect ambitious Republicans are going to run for Governor instead, so he probably has the best chance of flipping a Senate seat of anyone running.

[worstblogever]

Someone would jump bail if they fail to appear at trial. Has that happened yet?

He doesn't have to appear in court again until March 10, and the trial is scheduled to begin March 29.

You really need to break the habit you have where you nitpick statements in order to defend white nationalists. Especially when they're murderers.

[Mister Mets]

You really need to break the habit you have where you nitpick statements in order to defend white nationalists. Especially when they're murderers.

It doesn't help your argument to say things that are untrue, and to criticize people who are correct.

The idea that what matters isn't being accurate but being on the right side is one of the major defenses of Trump's lies.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

It doesn't help your argument to say things that are untrue, and to criticize people who are correct.

The idea that what matters isn't being accurate but being on the right side is one of the major defenses of Trump's lies.

Using pedantry to mask equivocation is a rhetorical flex old and familiar whether it's Pravda, Goebbels, McCarthy, or the John Birch Society.

[Mister Mets]

Using pedantry to mask equivocation is a rhetorical flex old and familiar whether it's Pravda, Goebbels, McCarthy, or the John Birch Society.

Pedantry is not on the top ten list of the worst things said or done by Pravda, Goebbels, McCarthy, or the John Birch Society. I do hope that you hold people you agree with to the same standard.

Given that WBE's comment was about how someone jumped bail and that he would tip the bounty hunter, it really isn't pedantic to point out that there hasn't been a missed trial date. It gets to his fundamental statement.

If Kyle Rittenhouse is this terrible, you shouldn't have to make up stuff about him. The truth is enough.

[MajorHoy]

Speaking of, Kyle Rittenhouse jumped bail. Kid murdered two people, got to hang out with known felons, go to bars while underage...

I thought I heard on the news that Rittenhouse in the bar (and even drinking beer) was not against the law where the bar was located since he was accompanied by a parent. (Some weird exception that would not be allowed in most other states.)

[Kirby101]

Black people often get bail rescinded and thrown back in jail before trial for much less than these two white privileged terrorists. I think that is the point.
Being allowed to hide from prosecutors and leave the country while indicted is not normal.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Pedantry is not on the top ten list of the worst things said or done by Pravda, Goebbels, McCarthy, or the John Birch Society.

Pedantry was how they said the worst things they said. That's why I called it a "rhetorical flex".

If Kyle Rittenhouse is this terrible...

There's no "if"...he is terrible.

He also happens to be white, so he gets a red carpet treatment for killing two people.

[Jack Dracula]

Woman charged in US Capitol riot can take trip to Mexico, federal judge says

What the ****? This is some ol’ bullsh**. A literal terrorist is allowed to go on vocation.

I thought this was debunked a couple of pages back.