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

[inisideguy]

Mitch attempted to save whats left of the republican parties honor yet keep the Trump voters. I don't think he did either.

[Tami]

Mitch attempted to save whats left of the republican parties honor yet keep the Trump voters. I don't think he did either.

I agree with this statement.

[Jack Dracula]

I'd love to know what's going through Mike Pence's mind after his party acquitted the man who sicced a rabble of psychotics on his ass, knowing if things turned out differently, he might've wound up joining the list of victims from that horrible day. I'm sure Pence is feeling like a man without a country after the GQP turned it's collective backs on him. Do I feel sorry for they guy? Nope!

Don't forget he had an opportunity to invoke the 25th amendment but chose not to. He's no better than McConnell and the rest of the GOP cowards.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Mitch attempted to save whats left of the republican parties honor yet keep the Trump voters. I don't think he did either.

Is there another politician that's despised by both parties as Mitch is?

[inisideguy]

Is there another politician that's despised by both parties as Mitch is?

I mean in some ways its useless to argue about because its so ridiculous. But if you watched him today he said trump is guilty but he can't be convicted in the senate because its not constitutional even if the rules say the senate can rule its constitutional which they did. So he ignored that because this isn't a real trial, so he can make up whatever he wants.

[worstblogever]

I'd love to know what's going through Mike Pence's mind after his party acquitted the man who sicced a rabble of psychotics on his ass, knowing if things turned out differently, he might've wound up joining the list of victims from that horrible day. I'm sure Pence is feeling like a man without a country after the GQP turned it's collective backs on him. Do I feel sorry for they guy? Nope!

Probably still something about being terrified of gays and women, because that's his first instinct.

He should have been scared of what Tea Partiers from 10 years ago have been radicalized and mutated into by Trump's violent rhetoric for the past five years. Because they were the ones coming for him.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I mean in some ways its useless to argue about because its so ridiculous. But if you watched him today he said trump is guilty but he can't be convicted in the senate because its not constitutional even if the rules say the senate can rule its constitutional which they did. So he ignored that because this isn't a real trial, so he can make up whatever he wants.

Moscow Mitch wanted his cake and eat it too, and for the most part, he got just that. McConnell knew Trump would've been dead meat if the impeachment trial were held before inauguration day, so he postponed it so he could use the mealy mouthed excuse that presidents can't be convicted once out of office. By using those slimy maneuvers, Mitch saved the party's ass while kicking the can down the road, leaving it up to SDNY, Georgia and other legal entities to nail Trump's ass to the wall while Qpublicans avoid the wrath of Trump's base who's support the GQP still needs.

Probably still something about being terrified of gays and women, because that's his first instinct.

He should have been scared of what Tea Partiers from 10 years ago have been radicalized and mutated into by Trump's violent rhetoric for the past five years. Because they were the ones coming for him.

For Pence, I can imagine it'll be like being in the Witness Protection Program because the psychos who stormed the Capitol won't forgive or forget his having not overturned the election results in Trump's favor. Welcome to hell, Mikey! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

====================

Found and read this article via Twitter. To some, it might be a welcome salve after yesterday:

It’ll Do

Impeachment did not prevail, but Trump still lost.

In 1955, a junior United States senator named John F. Kennedy published Profiles in Courage, a collection of short essays about eight of his predecessors who had risked their careers for their ideals over the previous 150 years.

In one single day in 2021, that many senators showed courage worth enduring historical honor. Seven were Republicans: Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey. The other was Joe Manchin, a Democrat from a state where nearly 69 percent of the voters chose Donald Trump for president in 2020.

Thanks to their integrity, a clear majority of the Senate voted to condemn the former president as an insurrectionist against the United States. The 57–43 margin wasn’t enough to convict under the Constitution. It wasn’t enough to formally disqualify Trump from ever again seeking office in the United States. But practically? It will do as a solemn and eternal public repudiation of Trump’s betrayal of his oath of office.

You say that you are disappointed? That a mere rebuke was not enough? That justice was not done? It wasn’t. But now see the world from the other side, through the eyes of those who defend Trump or even want him to run again. Their hope was to dismiss this impeachment as partisan, as founded on fake evidence, as hypocritical and anti-constitutional—to present this verdict as an act of oppression by one half the country against the other. That hope was banished today.

[Gray Lensman]

Mitch attempted to save whats left of the republican parties honor yet keep the Trump voters. I don't think he did either.

Those were mutually exclusive goals, by not choosing one, he chose neither.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Here's something that was potentially frightening:

Trump's actions during the Capitol riot put Pence in danger — and national security at risk

The nuclear "football" was nearly fumbled.

One of the key questions asked in former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is whether he knew that his vice president was in mortal peril on Jan. 6. There are only two possible answers: Either he knew and didn’t care or he was deliberately and cruelly incurious — knowing that he could have easily asked about former Vice President Mike Pence and did not — because Pence’s safety did not matter to him as much as the ambient excitement of the insurrection apparently did.

One of Trump’s lawyers, Michael T. van der Veen, told the Senate on Friday that the former president did not know about the danger Pence was in, which itself is so ludicrous a statement as to demand its own investigation. Trump clearly knew enough to be culpable of knowing. And if he did not, it only proves the House managers’ point that he was negligent in his duty as commander in chief that day.

Around 2:13 p.m. ET on Jan. 6, Pence’s Secret Service detail decided to remove him from the Senate floor and take him to a shelter-in-place location below-ground. That security camera footage shown by House managers is, in retrospect, some of the most chilling captured that day. Shortly after Pence makes his way down the stairwell, his military aide, carrying a large briefcase, follows. The briefcase is the nuclear "football" — an exact copy of the one the president’s military aide was guarding at the White House that day.

The prospect of the nuclear "football" in the hands of Trump's lunatics. If that isn't true nightmare fuel, I don't know what qualifies.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Greg Collett, a three-time losing candidate for the Idaho State Senate who has the chutzpah to campaign against the Affordable Care Act and government being involved with insurance while simultaneously having his ten children on Medicaid. He responded to criticism for this from both the right, and the left, by going online to cite Mormon doctrine to defend his stunning hypocrisy. Not to be limited to kooky on just one issue, Collett also claims that "public education is one of the planks of the Communist Manifesto". After quickly making himself the butt of many jokes, he faded from view in Idaho politics.



In 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as in 2020, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published its profiles of Missouri State Senator Andrew Koenig (who should still not be confused with the actor who played Boner on the TV show "Growing Pains" and then would eventually take his own life in 2010.) In his nine years in the Missouri state legislature, Koenig has been involved in some of the dumbest efforts that body has seen in that time frame, first as one of the co-sponsors of HB 283, Missouri's "Birther Bill" back in 2011, hanging out with Orly Taitz and later Koenig also supported a bill to prohibit compliance with the United Nations Agenda 21 environmental treaty a few years ago, apparently because he's another one of those conservatives who believe it's a secret plot for global domination. In May 2014, that Koenig sponsored HB 1587, a bill to prevent teachers from misinforming students about "scientific controversies," specifically citing "the theory of biological and hypotheses of chemical evolution" as controversial. That got him mentioned on the Colbert Report... but believe it or not, that's not the only time Koenig was raked over the coals by Colbert, as he also did in 2012 for trying to place a ban on school teachers from talking about being gay, at all.

Hell, Koenig's response to the civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri after the shooting death of Michael Brown was to vote for a bill to make it easier for police officers to declare their use of deadly force was justified. But don't worry, he doesn't want the police state to get to restrictive, as he also put out a nullification bill that would prohibit Missouri law enforcement from enforcing federal firearms laws. Speaking of nullification, Koenig is a huge fan, because he also co-sponsored and voted for legislation to try and have Missouri prohibit implementation of the Affordable Care Act, apparently showing he doesn't know how the Civil War started, but thinking fighting against socialized healthcare is worth that kind of conflict happening again. To this day, Andrew Koenig still continues to ignore basic facts to push forth partisan bills, like how after the Planned Parenthood videos were debunked was strategically edited, and widely misleading frauds by a pro-life group, he still insisted on trying to create legislation to assure that any fetal remains are destroyed in an incinerator, rather than be used for stem cell research, or any other scientific endeavor, or perhaps even allowing investigators to just perform surprise inspections of clinics whenever they want without a warrant, because the 4th Amendment shouldn't apply to them. And you think he would know Planned Parenthood was found innocent of any wrongdoing, considering he led the witch hunt by chairing the Missouri House Committee that was looking for any kind of evidence they could to justify that. He’s also co-sponsored legislation to create stricter Voter Identification laws and legislation to attempt to drug test people on welfare. Over the past year as a legislator, Koenig continued pushing for even more strict Voter ID legislation, and made another attempt at getting a ban on fetal tissue donation passed.

In February of 2017, Koenig made a fool of himself after he took to the floor of the Missouri House to speak in defense of a transphobic bathroom bill in the state legislature aimed at public school children, and argued:

"Kids say funny things."'Oh, when I grow up I want to be a dog,' or who knows what. But that doesn’t mean that I turn around and try to cultivate that and say, ‘Yes, you can be a dog. Kids, in play, they say different things. They say, 'I want to be a spaceship.' Does that mean that we should say something like that and affirm that?"

It was at that point that Dr. Sharon Dunski Vermont testified and handed Koenig his ass for not knowing the difference between a transgendered teen and a child playing pretend.

In the summer of 2017, Koenig sponsored SB 5, an anti-abortion TRAP law aimed at closing all of the abortion clinics in Missouri. He spent 2018 trying to pass whatever bills he can to cut the corporate tax rate in Missouri, as if the angry ghost of Grover Norquist was coming for him (which would really be strange, given Norquist isn’t dead), and because he works for only corporations and not actual people. Recently, he voted for a bill to ban abortion in Missouri “if Roe v. Wade is overturned”.

Andrew Koenig sadly won re-election in 2020 with 54% of the vote, and began railing against any and all Covid-19 restrictions. He then predictably contracted Covid-19, and we wish him a long, relaxing recovery where he can’t do any damage in government. He'll likely spend his time in quarantine posting on Twitter to whine about how there’s a “conspiracy” against the right, who he claims are supposedly being “unfairly censored” by social media companies.

[CaptainEurope]

Hopefully this inspires some great candidates in 2022. More grass roots organization in the vein of Stacey Abrams. To move and motivate new voters and disenfranchised voters to eject these cowards in the GOP.

Instead, I am seeing people with their feelings hurt on Twitter saying they will not vote ever again.

[babyblob]

Here's something that was potentially frightening:

Trump's actions during the Capitol riot put Pence in danger — and national security at risk

The nuclear "football" was nearly fumbled.



The prospect of the nuclear "football" in the hands of Trump's lunatics. If that isn't true nightmare fuel, I don't know what qualifies.

There wpould have been nothing they could have done with the Football even if they got it. Number one it is locked so they would have a hard time opening it. If they did get it open it is not like there is a button they could have pushed to launch nukes. From what I understand it just has the codes or something to authorize a lunch. Even if they did have the codes its not like they could just call a general and say "Hey I am some random guy with the codes so here they are go ahead and send a nuke off." They have a system in place to change the codes pretty quickly I am given to understand so that in the unlikely event the football is fumbled it would really be a non issue. At least if it was fumbled by idiot mob who would most likely not have any idea what they had to begin with. Would the average person even know what they would be looking at if they got the case open? I doubt it. Maybe some of the former military in the building would know the value of it.

Yea they could have posted pics or whatever of what was in the football. But I am pretty damn sure the secret service knew the risk of something like that and I am pretty sure they would never let that happen.


The Football being fumbled into the hand s of these idiots is something that did not even cross my mind as a worry that day.

[CaptainEurope]

Trump was guilty as hell of this. That mob was ready for GOP blood and wanted to hang Pence but those Republicans are so spineless.


If the roles were reversed and a Democrat President told a mob to attack the capitol, stalled the charges until after the election, and then said, "Well, let's forget about it," Republicans would be screaming traitors and wanting charges pressed.


So much for "Party that supports the Police." That officer and his family won't get justice.

Unless they are HUGE Trump supporters, I bet they will go for a civil suit. That is what OJ got.

[worstblogever]

The Football being fumbled into the hand s of these idiots is something that did not even cross my mind as a worry that day.

They would have needed the codes to do anything with it.

So... unless they tortured that intel out of Pence before hanging them, they couldn't make it a real asset. And if it was, they could have literally held the country hostage with it.

Jesus, isn't this similar to the plot of Escape from New York, or...?

[Kusanagi]

Is there another politician that's despised by both parties as Mitch is?

Ted Cruz has got to be in competition for this spot.