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

[Tami]

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson seriously says on Fox — against all the evidence from the FBI — that Speaker Pelosi was somehow responsible for the Capitol attack and might have impeached Trump to deflect blame.

Ron Johnson absurdly floats that Nancy Pelosi is somehow responsible for a MAGA mob descending on the Capitol for a deadly insurrection

[Iron Maiden]

Of course they will only go on Faux News to say this. If he went on any of the other Sunday morning shows he'd have a fight on his hands defending that. Maybe people have to start playing hardball and Nancy Pelosi should file a defamation lawsuit too.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Of course they will only go on Faux News to say this. If he went on any of the other Sunday morning shows he'd have a fight on his hands defending that. Maybe people have to start playing hardball and Nancy Pelosi should file a defamation lawsuit too.

Seems that lawsuits have been the perfect weapon to fight misinformation.

[PwrdOn]

That's... trickle down. You're describing trickle down economy.

It's actually more of what the illustrious Hillary Clinton termed "middle out economics." The reason that most policy makers don't usually advocate for large transfers to the poor and working class is because the lion's share of their income is already claimed by landlords, banks, and the like, and what disposable income they do have is largely spent at stores that siphon money away rather than re-circulating it within their communities. With the current pandemic, the necessity of immediate relief takes priority over longer term concerns, but it still holds true that the best way to help the poor is through structural reforms like strengthening the safety net and investing in more infrastructure rather than direct payments.

Now if your gripe is with the fact that our economy can't function properly unless well-off folks are given money to buy junk that they probably don't need or even want, with no regard paid to the environmental consequences of such activity, then that's another conversation. But if you want to fix the problem within the structure of the economic model that we're dead set on adhering to, then this is the only way out.

[Godzilla2099]

Missouri state GOP lawmaker facing charges for selling fake COVID-19 'cure'

Prosecutors have hit a Republican state lawmaker in Missouri with more than a dozen charges after saying she administered what she claimed to be a cure for the coronavirus that turned out to be fake

[Jack Dracula]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...hecks-n1252805

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbre...h=63f30a7d744d

https://tjcinstitute.com/research/**...ulus-payments/

Let's be very clear. The Democrats would not have the Senate if GA's system did not have a runoff. The Democrats lost their races in November. Democrats went all in on the relief checks and data shows that polls shifted in the Democrats favor as that became more and more a part of the discussion, and it was consisently an important issue in polls to them.

If you want to play coy do your thing.

When someone makes their whole campaign that they are going to do something and then they don't do it, that's not "looking for reasons to complain". That's very disengenous.

Good. Thanks for posting the links.

The first link does indeed describe Biden campaigning for Ossoff and Warnock in Georgia and mentioning the $2000 relief payments. However, whether Democrats won Georgia specifically because of those comments is still unclear. I understand that polling indicates a link for a certain percentage of voters but correlation doesn't equal causation. They didn't "make their whole campaign" about it so it seems unreasonable to assume that's what won the whole campaign.

The second link doesn't pertain to Georgia but does contain a link to a story about Bidens' plans for $3000 stimulus checks to the hardest hit lower, middle and upper-middle-class families who can demonstrate hardship according to the current program guidelines. That being at the expense of the middle and upper-middle class who don't require assistance.
In my opinion, anyone who can look at that situation and honestly complain is either a Republican or an asshole looking for excuses to justify their preconceived negative ideas about Bidens administration. Neither should be heeded.

The third link doesn't go anywhere.

[shooshoomanjoe]

It's sad that racism is still so popular in this country.

Morgan Wallen's sales quadruple after getting caught using racial slur on camera

Reminding us all of the dispiriting (but also dispiritingly true) fact that white people have rarely gone broke on account of doing or saying racist things in America, Billboard reports today that, while country music artist Morgan Wallen’s radio airplay recently dropped considerably after TMZ posted a video of him shouting a racial slur that was recorded by his neighbors, sales of his music have apparently more than quadrupled.

And while we’d push back heartily on the old adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity—and would specifically categorize “being rightly chastised by most right-thinking people for shouting racial slurs” as a good example there, it does appear that there’s still no such thing as “ineffective” publicity. Wallen’s music was swiftly kicked off of iHeart stations and other radio venues shortly after the video was released on February 3, and his label, Big Loud Records, announced that he was “indefinitely suspended.” But Billboard reports that sales of all of Wallen’s songs jumped from 5,000 on Feb. 2 to 22,000 after the video was released, suggesting that the incident has done little more than raise his profile amongst certain parts of the country audience.

[AnakinFlair]

https://twitter.com/Complex/status/1...197046278?s=19

While I don't think ANY of the people who stormed the capital should have been released, it appears that this man was actually caught on camera beating cops with a metal baseball bat. Still, if he were white, I think we all know that he would have been released or, at worst, forced to wear an ankle monitor.

Reps. Louie Gohmert, Andrew Clyde Hit With $5,000 Fines For Dodging Metal Detectors

The GOP lawmakers were the first to be fined for refusing to cooperate with the new security policy, put in place after last month’s deadly Capitol insurrection.

Watch as they start fundraising on this. They won't pay a dime; their idiot constituents will.

[DrNewGod]

Watch as they start fundraising on this. They won't pay a dime; their idiot constituents will.

I really hate it when such depressing predictions are so likely correct.

[Tami]

I predict, in a years time, assuming that he hasn't been arrested by then, Trump would have gotten bored with the whole politics thing and dropped the Republicans like a hot potato even though some will still be crawling back to him, begging him to endorse them so that they can win the White Nationalist vote even though those people rarely vote.

If the Republican Party can't break free from their dependent relationship with Trump, Trump will drop them eventually and move on to his next shinny object.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

If the Republican Party can't break free from their dependent relationship with Trump, Trump will drop them eventually and move on to his next shinny object.

What object's shinier than the Presidency?

Trump's not a real billionaire but he's had the trappings of one, and the stuff of running a business and maximizing profits and so on was never enough for him.

The Presidency was the most valuable thing that ever came to him, it was the biggest high of his life, and he's now in withdrawal and going cold turkey is not an option for him.

[Tami]

What object's shinier than the Presidency?

Trump's not a real billionaire but he's had the trappings of one, and the stuff of running a business and maximizing profits and so on was never enough for him.

The Presidency was the most valuable thing that ever came to him, it was the biggest high of his life, and he's now in withdrawal and going cold turkey is not an option for him.

Didn't you see how upset Trump was that SAG was going to kick him out? Trump is an entertainer at heart, a performer, a failed actor. For him that is his shiunny object. If he can't do it on everyone elses terms, he will probably find a way to do it on his own. For example, buying his own Cable Network so that he could star in it whenever he wants to.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Didn't you see how upset Trump was that SAG was going to kick him out?

He hasn't led a storming of the SAG awards. He led one to storm the certification of the election.

Trump is an entertainer at heart, a performer, a failed actor.

You know the adage, "US politics is Hollywood for ugly people."

For example, buying his own Cable Network so that he could star in it whenever he wants to.

Having his very own twitter and Fox News would probably be his next move.

[Tendrin]

Having his very own twitter and Fox News would probably be his next move.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...rler-ownership

The Trump Organization negotiated on behalf of then-president Donald Trump to make Parler his primary social network, but it had a condition: an ownership stake in return for joining, according to documents and four people familiar with the conversations. The deal was never finalized, but legal experts said the discussions alone, which occurred while Trump was still in office, raise legal concerns with regards to anti-bribery laws.

Talks between members of Trump’s campaign and Parler about Trump’s potential involvement began last summer, and were revisited in November by the Trump Organization after Trump lost the 2020 election to the Democratic nominee and current president, Joe Biden. Documents seen by BuzzFeed News show that Parler offered the Trump Organization a 40% stake in the company. It is unclear as to what extent the former president was involved with the discussions.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Leo Berman, a former member of the Texas House of Representatives who in 2010 went on Glenn Beck to declare Barack Obama was "God's punishment on us" and needed to be a one-term president. He also was a Birther, once getting humiliated about the conspiracy on CNN by Anderson Cooper over it on air. Berman also was the driving force behind trying to pass anti-Sharia Law legislation in Texas, insisting that Dearborn, Michigan was being taken over by Muslims, and feuding with former Gov. Rick Perry at the time for the governor being perceived as "too lenient" about it.

On this date in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had its original profile of conservative political pundit and failed Congressional candidate Katrina Pierson, who you probably know as "that one Donald Trump surrogate who gave Kellyanne Conway a run for her money in being full of s***". Well, here's what you might not know... Katrina Pierson was actually a candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 2014 elections, challenging Congressman Pete Sessions in the GOP Primary for his seat representing Texas' 32nd Congressional District. Now, rest assured, that since she emerged as a Tea Party operative, Katrina Pierson has said some truly demented things, placing her in a category of “totally bananas” usually reserved for places owned by the Chiquita corporation. We note she was caught shoplifting $168 in clothes from a J.C. Penney in Dallas, Texas back in 1997, and as late as 2008 stated that her political hero was Malcolm X, because Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was "too moderate". She became disenchanted with President Obama, however, because she saw pictures of him where "he wasn't wearing a flag pin", enamored of Donald Trump as a candidate because of his anti-Islamic views, which Pierson agrees "preys on the weak and uses political correctness as cover". (She might want to read a little more about Malcolm X's religious background, frankly, if he's still her "idol".) In ]July of 2011, Pierson taught classes to the Waco Tea Party about the threat of the United Nations Agenda 21 Environmental Treaty being a secret plan for global conquest. By January 2012, Pierson began illegally collecting $11,400 in unemployment earnings while working for the U.S. Senate campaign of Ted Cruz. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Pierson referred to President Obama as “the Head Negro in Charge”, and gave key analysis on Twitter, like, "Perfect Obama's dad born in Africa, Mitt Romney's dad born in Mexico. Any pure breeds left?" (She actually doubled down and said “half-breed” isn’t a slur because she considers herself a "half-breed", too) and as the final days of the election approached, broke down the Romney vs. Obama choice as “#2012 Choice: Mormon or Jihadi #clear enough?" Pierson also has told the gay community that they hill never have “acceptance, but you could win coexistence”, and that ”Gay is not normal, accept that." She then had her ill-conceived attempt at a Congressional seat thwarted in 2014, only to emerge in 2015 working as an in-studio spokeswoman for the Donald Trump campaign, and in one of her first appearances on CNN, she argued in favor of an unconstitutional ban on all Muslims because, and we quote, "So what? They're Muslim!" In December of 2015, Pierson went on Fox News to defend a lackluster answer by Donald Trump about the nuclear triad while asking, without irony, "Why have nuclear weapons if you're afraid to use them?" After an appearance on cable news where Katrina Pierson was mocked for wearing a necklace made out of shotgun shells, she lashed out at her fashion critics in the less-than-sane demeanor on Twitter that she had already begun making herself infamous for, when she responded, "Maybe I'll wear a fetus next time& bring awareness to 50 million aborted people that will never ger to be on Twitter". As the GOP Primary continued, she began questioning the true citizenship of Sen. Marco Rubio on CNN, and later tried spinning the blame for Humayun Khan’s death in Iraq in 2004, while Obama was still just a state legislator in Illinois. After being used in a less high profile role for the campaign after that last spectacular gaffe, Pierson turned up in 2017 as part of a Pro-Trump advocacy group called "America First Strategies" (cleverly named after the American Nazi movement from 75 years ago), where she will fight against "biased media coverage" against Donald Trump by going on Fox News and well… being bats*** crazy like how only about a week after the violence in Charlottesville propagated by Neo-Nazis, she went on Fox News to join a debate about Confederate monuments and declare that slavery is “good history”. The odds of her ever reaching elected office seem null enough that we’re going to set her profile aside today, to get back to a previous CSGOPOTD from this date…

On this date in 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" had its original profile of Jonathan Stickland, a high school dropout and exterminator turned into a “pro-life” politician and Tea Party hero as a member of the Texas House of Representatives who has held office in District 92 since 2012. Stickland’s upward trajectory seemed remarkable, as he had co-sponsored a lot of successfully passed (albeit radically conservative) legislation at but 32 years old. That is, until in December 2015, when comments Stickland made online in a fantasy football forum under the moniker of “Stick” surfaced, where he “joked around” with a friend whose wife wouldn’t have sex with him in a particular sexual position by advising him that “Rape is non existent in marriage, take what you want my friend!” Stickland also was looking for some companionship from possible aficionados of marijuana on the forum, giving his e-mail if they wanted to be his “smoke-buddy” and also ranting about being called upon to undergo a random drug test at work (that he also tried to avoid getting a positive result on by drinking a detox drink). This was pretty hypocritical considering Stickland voted to drug test welfare recipients, because of course he did. After his comments were unearthed online, and the media began to circulate them, he got on Twitter to post a one word defense of his remarks… “LIBERTY!” Despite of being caught claiming that there is no such thing as spousal rape and admitting to illegal drug use, Stickland’s one word defense managed to be enough for Texans in his district to re-elect him in 2016. It wasn’t long before the upstart Tea Partier’s act had begun to wear thin with the more mainstream Republican Party of Texas, forming a Texas version of the House Freedom Caucus whose concept of “freedom” seems to be to spitefully sabotage any and all legislation from EITHER the GOP or Democrats because… well… he’s just an irritant, really. Still, Stickland did manage to co-sponsor legislation that got passed, although we’re reasonable certain that courts will overturn a law that allows adoption agencies to deny services based on the religion of the applicants for those adoptions. Past that, his creepy brand of misogyny reared its ugly head again in May 2017 when he asked the Texas Parliamentarian to “smile for him” during the daily session of the legislature, and that’s the sort of behavior you get when he isn’t calling for the complete abolition of abortion at the state capitol, or that labeled himself a “former fetus” on his office door at the capitol. The Texas Republican Party, however, chose not to have anyone primary Jonathan Stickland, the embarrassment that he’s been the past three years or so, and instead, Stickland only had to face off against Democrat Steve Ridell in the 2018 general election in November for Texas’ District 92. Which isn’t to say that Stickland let himself get bored. Instead, he inserted himself into the race for Euless, Texas City Council, where he attacked the Muslim religion of the Pakstani candidate for that office, Salman Bhojani, in social media posts, and blamed him for “the Koran being read in a Euless City Council meeting”, and described Bhojani’s representation of his religion as “sneaky”. This bigoted effort at least failed, with Bhojani winning the race by 37 votes. Stickland was enough of an incompetent hack that both sides of the aisle wanted to be rid of him, not hesitating to carry out an ethics investigation after he and his aides were caught forging witness affirmation forms for testimony they had no intention of ever giving at the capitol. They only narrowly avoided being criminally prosecuted for this endeavor. In June of 2019, Jonathan Stickland announced that he would not be running for re-election in 2020. He was honored in 2019 by Texas Monthly by not just being named the “Worst Legislator of the Year” again, but instead, being given the award of a new title on his way out… “Cockroach”.. In one of his last controversial Twitter posts as he left office, Stickland opined the extremely strange statement that “IF aliens are real, salvation through Jesus Christ is the only way they enter Heaven.” Which… is certainly an opinion. As he is now out of office, we’ll retire his profile and take a look at another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 963-45, since this was established in July 2014.