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

[kidfresh512]

Stacey Plaskett goes after Grothman for his weird comments about Black Lives Matter supporters not supporting traditional families

I am so glad she came to drag him for those dumbass comments. Casual racist assholes

[Tami]

Ex-Missouri Governor Accused Of Sexual Sadism And Blackmail Mulling Race For Senate

Former Missouri governor Eric Greitens, a Republican who resigned in 2018 amid a deluge of controversy that included allegations of sexual sadism and blackmail, reportedly is considering a political comeback with a Senate run.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last week that Greitens “expressed interest in running for the U.S. Senate seat held by fellow Republican Roy Blunt and blasted the incumbent for failing to adequately back former President Donald Trump.”

CNN reported last year that the former governor might attempt to reenter politics, after the Missouri Ethics Commission “found no evidence of any wrongdoing” by Greitens upon concluding its investigation into alleged misconduct by his campaign.

Twitter Thread on the aligations

[Powerboy]

I don't really understand the whole cancel culture argument at all. And this guy saying its a left wing conspiracy doesnt make any sense to me. The right has tried to cancel things for as long as I have been alive, and before that. Read about what they did to comic books in the 1950s, or Eagles records in the 1970s and so on and so forth.

Yes that part I didn't get at all. The guy is usually pretty smart and insightful. He did a good analysis of what narcissism is clinically, breaking down the types and details of narcissism, and concluded that Trump is a classic narcissist in another video. In another, he analyzed the phenomenon of mass cognitive dissonance we see with Trump supporters.

The only thing I didn't get in this one was the claim that "cancel culture" is a Liberal conspiracy theory. But conspiracy theories are about things you believe someone else is doing while, in this context, it would be something you are doing. But he also said there is no such thing as cancel culture because what people are really talking about when they say "cancel culture" is suppression of free speech by the threat of losing one's job but only if the opinion is on one side of the political spectrum. He gave the example of Bill Burr using the same Nazi analogy in a vastly exaggerated way with no consequences from Disney because it was from a Liberal view and aimed at Conservatives.

I saw an interview with Carano where she made the interesting point that she's begun to realize some of her views were not supported by evidence (which, in my opinion, is a major leap for a Conservative Republican nowadays) but what she was hearing from almost every Republican leader was: the virus is a hoax; there was massive voter fraud, etc. You're a citizen and almost your entire party is telling you this. What are you likely to think? But it's a Catch-22 because many of the leadership wouldn't be supporting this nonsense if they didn't fear they would lose a lot of votes over it.

[Powerboy]

Carano getting herself fired is her own fault. All she had to do was not post anti-semitic memes, compare being conservative in Hollywood to being jewish during the Holocaust, and be a transphobe on a show where the star has a trans sister. It's good to know that you think a star mocking other people's support for trans women isn't a big deal, though.

Oops.

Meanwhile:

Oh WBE-Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Technically, it wasn't anti-Semitic. It was comparing the treatment of Jewish people in WWII to how Conservatives are treated today. Yes, it's a ridiculous comparison but it wasn't attacking Jewish people. Bill Burr compared "kids in cages" to the Nazis which is also a far-fetched comparison in terms of actual treatment. Yes, Carano's opinions range from stupid to detestable to both. Sadly, they are pretty much mainstream Republican opinions these days.

[Tami]

Twitter Link

[skyvolt2000]

I don't really understand the whole cancel culture argument at all. And this guy saying its a left wing conspiracy doesnt make any sense to me. The right has tried to cancel things for as long as I have been alive, and before that. Read about what they did to comic books in the 1950s, or Eagles records in the 1970s and so on and so forth.

Cancel culture has varied in usage for years.

The differences is how it starts and what research folks do. A little research goes a long way.

Right now we got too many LOOKING for ANYTHING to attack folks with and get rid of who they don't like. Or they only HEAR what they want to HEAR.


A right winger wants to claim Teacher Unions are screwing over black children. Really? Texas does not have a powerful Teacher Union. Our teachers can't walk out.
A school district in Texas has 15,000+ kids that need to be tested for Special Education and 504. Only a Diagnostician can do that. Said district has only 100.
Teacher Union did not make that a hard to fill job.
Most school district jobs are jobs that one can go ELSEWHERE by corporate, private practice or self business and make WAY MORE MONEY.
I can name 20 things to blame for Black kids struggling before teacher union is mentioned.

[GOLGO 13]

Technically, it wasn't anti-Semitic. It was comparing the treatment of Jewish people in WWII to how Conservatives are treated today. Yes, it's a ridiculous comparison but it wasn't attacking Jewish people. Bill Burr compared "kids in cages" to the Nazis which is also a far-fetched comparison in terms of actual treatment. Yes, Carano's opinions range from stupid to detestable to both. Sadly, they are pretty much mainstream Republican opinions these days.

It's amazing isn't it? What a spectacular way to sink a career by running your mouth & instantly making yourself radioactive/persona non grata to Hollywood.

What's that German word for enjoying someone else's misery?

[Powerboy]

It's amazing isn't it? What a spectacular way to sink a career by running your mouth & instantly making yourself radioactive/persona non grata to Hollywood.

What's that German word for enjoying someone else's misery?

Yeah, it was a number of remarks, not just one. It's almost too bad that was the one that finished her because it's being taken as meaning other than what she meant. The Trans remarks are probably the worst. And, yes, she had to know this was coming if she kept making such remarks. It wasn't like she was kicked out the door for one remark. I have no way of knowing but I would suspect she was advised to stop.

I know there's debate about what happened. Bill Burr says she took down the remark that caused the Trans backlash after he explained to her what those words actually mean. My nicer side wants to believe she didn't mean to hurt anyone but was just ignorant which, when talking about Conservatives, is often a possibility.

[Mister Mets]

Carano getting herself fired is her own fault. All she had to do was not post anti-semitic memes, compare being conservative in Hollywood to being jewish during the Holocaust, and be a transphobe on a show where the star has a trans sister. It's good to know that you think a star mocking other people's support for trans women isn't a big deal, though.

Oops.

Meanwhile:

Oh WBE-Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

There can be a fine line between thinking that something is not a big deal and thinking that it shouldn't be a reason to fire someone.

By the same token it should be seen as a reason to fire someone if they say anything as nasty about-for an example-Mormonism as Carano did about trans people.

That won't happen because right wing activism is seen as inherently suspicious by most people, conservatives already control most of the resources and power in our society. So when some supposedly principled right winger tries to protest some invariably contrived issue, it always just comes off as fake and astroturfed, because it often is. So if some "activist" really lost their job because they were adamant on addressing everyone by their biological gender or publicly harassing Starbucks employees to write "Merry Christmas" on their cups, then it's pretty hard to sympathize with them.

If conservatives have most of the resources and power it would stand to reason that people would be very afraid to say anything bad about them. And that's not the case.

As for the opinions of most people, I suspect a majority isn't going to be bothered by a celebrity writing "beep/bop/boop" in her twitter profile. This isn't about the opinions of ordinary Americans.

Yes that part I didn't get at all. The guy is usually pretty smart and insightful. He did a good analysis of what narcissism is clinically, breaking down the types and details of narcissism, and concluded that Trump is a classic narcissist in another video. In another, he analyzed the phenomenon of mass cognitive dissonance we see with Trump supporters.

The only thing I didn't get in this one was the claim that "cancel culture" is a Liberal conspiracy theory. But conspiracy theories are about things you believe someone else is doing while, in this context, it would be something you are doing. But he also said there is no such thing as cancel culture because what people are really talking about when they say "cancel culture" is suppression of free speech by the threat of losing one's job but only if the opinion is on one side of the political spectrum. He gave the example of Bill Burr using the same Nazi analogy in a vastly exaggerated way with no consequences from Disney because it was from a Liberal view and aimed at Conservatives.

I saw an interview with Carano where she made the interesting point that she's begun to realize some of her views were not supported by evidence (which, in my opinion, is a major leap for a Conservative Republican nowadays) but what she was hearing from almost every Republican leader was: the virus is a hoax; there was massive voter fraud, etc. You're a citizen and almost your entire party is telling you this. What are you likely to think? But it's a Catch-22 because many of the leadership wouldn't be supporting this nonsense if they didn't fear they would lose a lot of votes over it.

One argument is that Carano wasn't penalized for being conservative but for being ignorant. She was a political outsider who just isn't familiar with the issues and walked into some land mines.

This would suggest that when a progressive celebrity makes a mistake on a factual matter, they should suffer the same penalty, if the problem was one of ignorance.

Technically, it wasn't anti-Semitic. It was comparing the treatment of Jewish people in WWII to how Conservatives are treated today. Yes, it's a ridiculous comparison but it wasn't attacking Jewish people. Bill Burr compared "kids in cages" to the Nazis which is also a far-fetched comparison in terms of actual treatment. Yes, Carano's opinions range from stupid to detestable to both. Sadly, they are pretty much mainstream Republican opinions these days.

I agree that it was dumb, but not anti-Semitic. It can't be an attack on the Jewish people, if it builds on the people that the Jewish people suffered greatly and wrongly in World War II.

It is a bit odd to fire someone who is seen to be a conservative for suggesting that there's a willingness to fire conservatives.

[Tendrin]

Technically, it wasn't anti-Semitic. It was comparing the treatment of Jewish people in WWII to how Conservatives are treated today. Yes, it's a ridiculous comparison but it wasn't attacking Jewish people. Bill Burr compared "kids in cages" to the Nazis which is also a far-fetched comparison in terms of actual treatment. Yes, Carano's opinions range from stupid to detestable to both. Sadly, they are pretty much mainstream Republican opinions these days.

I listed those things as separate because they were separate. She did post anti-semitic memes.

https://www.heyalma.com/wp-content/u...ntisemitic.png

[worstblogever]

In 2015, in 2016, and in 2017, “Crazy Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of former Nevada Congressman Cresent Hardy, who in spite of having a mustache that makes you wonder if he ties fair maidens to railroad tracks, won office in the 2014 elections by about 3500 votes. But unsettling factors about Cresent Hardy are not limited to his facial hair, because he also advocates for a "flat" tax, is opposed to teaching any contraception during sex education, and thinks any and all background checks on firearms purchases are unconstitutional via the 2nd Amendment. Hardy also voted against ENDA, and explained that his motivation for doing so was because it was a new "segregation" law. His perplexing use of adjectives is not limited to only votes, though, as he has described the normally left-leaning district he represents as a "welfare district" or "minority district", as well. Many remember how politically disastrous it was for Mitt Romney to say that 47% of the country were "takers" in the 2012 elections, but believe it or not, Cresent Hardy has gone on record to say that Romney was only wrong because the real percentage is "bigger". And finally, we will end our summary of Rep. Hardy's original profile by reminding everyone that on two occasions, he vocally supported tax scofflaw and noted racist Cliven Bundy during his standoff with the Bureau of Land Management. In June 2015, while speaking before a town hall, Rep. Hardy bragged to the crowd that his kids would never be "a drain on society" like disabled people. After having a heart attack in August 2016 that limited his ability to campaign, Cresent Hardy was defeated in the 2016 elections by Ruben Kihuen, and upon learning Kihuen would be a one-and-done Congressman, Hardy has announced he will attempt to win back his seat representing Nevada’s 4th Congressional District in 2018. However, with Blue Wave momentum likely making it even more of a challenge for him to overcome his 4 point defeat in 2016, it seems unlikely he will find his way back to Washington.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Sean Donahue, a failed candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District. While you would think it would be harder for the GOP to get someone who’s more bigoted than Barletta on the ballot, somehow they managed. Because among Donahue’s writings online, you can read his musings about how he thinks that The U.S. was created for Americans who chose to worship God through Christianity. that freedom of religion is for all forms of Christianity but no other religion, certainly not Islam, voodoo or Satanic worship, that Black Lives Matter and Antifa are organizations that are looking to create an armed insurgency, that if we do not control immigration from South and Central America, whites will become a racial minority, that because there is a Congressional Black Caucus, there is a need for a Congressional White Caucus, that universities are supposedly opening “safe spaces” where no whites are allowed. He also expressed his desire to see the U.S. modify civil rights laws to take away “the American dream from Muslims, non-Christians and foreigners”, shared paranoid ramblings about how if the United States does not control immigration from South and Central America, Whites will ultimately become the racial minority in the United States, and predicting that they won’t be treated well, because minorities are never treated well. Oh, and he also made more anti-Semitic statements than you could even begin to count. Donahue was also previously convicted of making violent threats to the Luzerne County District Attorney, as well as several other county employees (and was on probation while running for Congress). Donahue obviously didn’t win in the midst of the Blue Wave, so we’ll go ahead and set aside his profile at this time to take a look at a different kooky Republican on this date instead.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we discussed Rick Saccone, a former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and two-time loser in attempts to run for Congress. Saccone’s background is almost immediately terrifying, as he was not just a consultant to those who worked at the Abu Ghraib prison when folks were tormenting and torturing Iraqi detainees, (and no, he had no regrets, as in his own book he defended waterboarding) but it’s also alarming that Saccone’s opinions are informed by known fraud and supposed historian David Barton. Which probably would explain why as a state legislator, Saccone continually would submit legislation to challenge the separation of church and state, including his need to force public schools to display “In God We Trust” inside, and that he sponsored legislation to declare 2012 “The Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania. Oh, and on gun rights? Saccone once criticized Chuck E. Cheese because the pizza chain placed restrictions on customers to not bring guns into their establishments. Because it’s important to pack heat to defend yourself from potential attackers and open fire if anyone should accost you among all the children playing skee ball. Rick Saccone originally won office back in the 2010 Tea Party Wave by only 151 votes, and was re-elected in 2012 by a whopping 0.4% of the vote. Once he made his attempt at getting elected to Congress in the 2018 special election for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District against Conor Lamb, he ended up on the opposite side of a narrow contest, losing to Lamb by 755 votes. Saccone then tried running for Pennsylvania’s 14th Congressional District a few months later, but lost to Guy Reschenthaler, getting only 44% of the vote there. Saccone is even more radioactive of a candidate after 1/6/21, when he was posting photos of himself at the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, DC that was the pretense for a coup attempt against Congress.

[worstblogever]

On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Aaron Bernstine, who has served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in District 10 since 2016, and in 2018, did not even face a Democratic challenger. He became infamous in his first year in office when about a week after the events in Charlottesville, he claimed he had someone sneak on his cattle ranch to vandalize it, and responded by posting a video of him receiving tactical firearms training in how to operate automatic firearms. Four weeks later, with Charlottesville still on everyone’s mind, Bernstine posted a screed on Twitter defending his supposed First Amendment right to run over civil protesters should they be in front of his car. Which, y’know, is how Heather Heyer died, when some white nationalist ***hole terrorist ran her over.

In subsequent tweets, Bernstine continued to call protesters “thugs” and “snowflakes” and vowed he “won’t be assaulted in the name of ‘free speech.'”

Why yes, his politics seem to be that he’s just an ***hole. But don’t just base that opinion on those two incidents, because his voting record already shows that as well, including how he co-sponsored a bill to require a funeral for aborted remains, his sponsorship of a bill to empower school security officers to arrest children, and his vote to allow domestic abusers to keep their firearms even after an order of protection is filed.

We ended Aaron Bernstine’s original file by saying, “we’re going to continue to monitor Aaron Bernstine’s activities going forward, because after only four years on the political scene in Pennsylvania, he seems determined to make headlines for all the worst reasons”, and goddamn did he prove us right. Only a month before the 2020 election, Bernstine posted a video of himself on Snapchat forcing his five-year old son to smoke a cigar, commanding him to “hit it harder”, and of him getting his son to say sexist things like they would find “Cadillac P*ssy” on a trip to Nashville. Another video included him goading a fifteen year old into playing the “F***, Marry, Kill” game, even though he wasn’t even of the age of consent. A bipartisan call for him to resign emerged, and of course, Bernstine didn’t.

He has spent the new session of the Pennsylvania State Assembly flailing about trying to defend Donald Trump from any accountability he might have for inciting the attack on the Capitol on 1/6, waiting all of two days to declare him innocent. He also was enough of a motherf***er to compare the domestic terrorists in DC to peaceful BlackLivesMatter protesters, because bigot’s gotta bigot.

Like we said, we’ll continue to monitor this dips***, because he’s going to draw headlines every year for all the wrong reasons.

[PwrdOn]

If conservatives have most of the resources and power it would stand to reason that people would be very afraid to say anything bad about them. And that's not the case.

As for the opinions of most people, I suspect a majority isn't going to be bothered by a celebrity writing "beep/bop/boop" in her twitter profile. This isn't about the opinions of ordinary Americans.

People aren't afraid to **** talk conservatives because the ruling class in this country has very astutely figured out that there's no harm in letting people rage and badmouth them them as much as they want, because at the end of the day that doesn't really accomplish anything. Sure people don't cower in fear of conservatives, but at the same time we also realize that nothing we say really affects their socioeconomic standing one bit.

Not sure what you mean by that second statement, are trans people not ordinary Americans?

[Powerboy]

I listed those things as separate because they were separate. She did post anti-semitic memes.

https://www.heyalma.com/wp-content/u...ntisemitic.png

I hate to admit it but I had to do a little research to understand the context of that painting.

https://www.heyalma.com/gina-caranos...rsy-explained/

Although she claims not to have known the context of the original painting, she had not taken it down as of the article above. Clearly, Shapiro and a few others think she isn't anti-semitic and, in her case, ignorance is a completely believable excuse. EXCEPT that, knowing the context, she has not taken it down. I don't know why Shapiro would ally with someone he thought believed there was a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, which is purely a literal Nazi creation, but then, why do Christians ally with Donald Trump?

It's definitely beyond just expressing Conservative opinions.

[Mister Mets]

People aren't afraid to **** talk conservatives because the ruling class in this country has very astutely figured out that there's no harm in letting people rage and badmouth them them as much as they want, because at the end of the day that doesn't really accomplish anything. Sure people don't cower in fear of conservatives, but at the same time we also realize that nothing we say really affects their socioeconomic standing one bit.

Not sure what you mean by that second statement, are trans people not ordinary Americans?

We may have different definitions of conservatives here. It's simplistic, but I was generally referring to political figures (and those who agree with them in cultural and business institutions) obviously to the right of Susan Collins, Larry Hogan and Lisa Murkowski.

I wasn't distinguishing ordinary people from trans people but ordinary people from those who hold a political position that I suspect to be shared by a small percentage of Americans (that we should be bothered by a celebrity writing "beep/bop/boop" in her twitter profile.)

I hate to admit it but I had to do a little research to understand the context of that painting.

https://www.heyalma.com/gina-caranos...rsy-explained/

Although she claims not to have known the context of the original painting, she had not taken it down as of the article above. Clearly, Shapiro and a few others think she isn't anti-semitic and, in her case, ignorance is a completely believable excuse. EXCEPT that, knowing the context, she has not taken it down. I don't know why Shapiro would ally with someone he thought believed there was a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, which is purely a literal Nazi creation, but then, why do Christians ally with Donald Trump?

It's definitely beyond just expressing Conservative opinions.

Is there any indication that someone who by all accounts wasn't interested in politics until recently knew the context of a painting that (correctly) upset people in England in 2012 enough to be familiar with a variation of it years later?

I also don't think everyone's in agreement that if they say something wrong the correct thing to do is to delete that post.

It is not the norm on this board, for example, for someone who is mistaken to delete their posts.