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

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of profiled the current U.S. House Representative from Arizona's 4th District, Paul Gosar, who every time we profile him, gets more hyper-conservative, partisan, and frankly, white nationalist-y. We noted in our original profile that he has consistently had one of the worst voting records on issues that impact women, and not just on abortion, because Gosar not only has voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, but also voted against legislation that would allow female victims of sexual assault within our military to decide who determines their case, a military trial or a civilian one. He also not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but when the time came to reopen the government, he voted to keep it closed. During the standoff between the Bureau of Land Management and Cliven Bundy in 2014, Gosar actually travelled to Nevada to show support for Bundy, stopping to take photos with him, his first but certainly not last flirtation with domestic terrorists. Gosar's also a conspiracy theorist, having called for the impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder over Benghazi, immigration, Fast & Furious, Guantanamo Bay and “violating criminal smuggling laws”. In September 2015, as the nation excitedly awaiting a visit from Pope Francis to come speak before the United States Congress, Paul Gosar, a Catholic in a district full of them, announced that he would be boycotting the pontiff’s speech because he refused to listen to the Holy Father’s talk of climate change, instead insisting writing an op-ed where he said he didn’t want to hear “leftist talking points”, and saying that climate has been changing since “first created in Genesis”.

By 2017, Paul Gosar was “all in” on Donald Trump’s white nationalist agenda for the country, including defending him by stirring up right-wing conspiracies regarding California Congressman Devin Nunes’ dud of a memo regarding Carter Page’s FISA warrant, claiming that its contents “constitutes treason” by the FBI like he did back in early 2018.

In October of 2017, Rep. Gosar was immediately trying to revise history regarding the terrorist attack carried out by a Neo-Nazi in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August of 2016. Heather Heyer’s death is something Gosar couldn’t have Neo-Nazis left hanging on their spotless record as American protesters, so in the middle of an interview on CNN, he started pushing the conspiracy theory that the entire weekend of terror carried out by White Nationalists was actually orchestrated by George Soros (similar to how after 1/6/21, he would try to blame the attack on the Capitol on “Antifa”). He wasn’t done slandering Soros, though, as he also claimed while he was fleeing the Nazis in Hungary eight decades ago that he was turning in other Jews to the Nazis.

This entire narrative was so insane and bizarre that all six, yes SIX of Gosar’s siblings wrote a letter to publicly distance themselves from him, and in both the 2018 and 2020 elections, have endorsed his opponents. Gosar blew them off as “disgruntled Hilary supporters”, and said that “Stalin would be proud” of them, and then a few weeks later, blamed Barack Obama on their rejection of him, because he’s a partisan lunatic.

We can’t underline how explicitly true that is, as he chose to use his time in the House Oversight Committee in 2019 during the testimony of Michael Cohen to quite constructively taunt Cohen with the not-at-all-childish rhyme, “LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!” Not being content to simply do it out loud, he had in intern present a giant poster of Cohen’s face with the taunt, as well. Sane pundits, including Republican ones, were embarrassed of their party’s performance that day, as they looked like incompetent flacks for Donald Trump, grasping at straws, who failed to refute any of Cohen’s claims.

Because Arizona’s 4th Congressional District only has a +20 Republican lean according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, Gosar still won re-election to a sixth term in office with 70% of the vote. even though he shared anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that made his own family turn their backs on him. Then, he cranked the crazy up to 11 (He’s currently at like a 13, at least).

In November of 2019, he put out a series of posts on Twitter whose first letter all spelled out “Epstein didn’t kill himself”, and referenced a story from the conspiracy site Project Veritas to the same. He followed that up by posting about Area 51.

A few weeks later, on January 6th, 2020, Rep. Gosar got on Twitter to post a fake photo of former President Barack Obama smiling and shaking hands with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, writing, “The world is a better place without these guys in power.” The two have never actually met, and Rouhani is still in power. (CNN did the research and determined the original photo of Obama was from his meeting with India’s former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.)

He then spent some time making baseless accusations about the University of Arizona’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, because why not try and stoke the fires of Islamophobia with more lies, to see if you can get someone disturbed and paranoid enough to go and attack a professor for daring to educate people?

Paul Gosar’s extremist has advanced to new lows, and hopefully he has hit the bottom (although he keeps finding ways). There have been multiple reports since Trump supporters attacked the Capitol in an attempt to subvert our democracy on January 6th, 2021, that certain members of Congress were helping those who carried out the attack in planning it prior to that date. The organizer of “Stop the Steal”, Ali Alexander, himself gave credit to three for helping,They were Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks, as well as Arizona Congressmen Andy Biggs and… Paul Gosar.

Now, once you’re on the FBI’s radar for potentially criminally aiding an attack by domestic terrorists on the Vice-President and entire legislative branch of the government, you’d think you might want to keep a low profile and finally cease your bulls***, right?

NOT PAUL GOSAR. He’s cranked it up into even higher gear, like we said earlier, blaming the failed coup carried out by Trump-loving right-wing nut-jobs we watched unfold live on cable news on “Antifa”, to gaslight all Americans. And then, rather than vote to get us much needed help from the government in the form of Covid-19 stimulus, he prioritized attending a political conferen- you know what, we’re not even going to mince words… the motherf*** went to give a speech at a white nationalist conference where all the racist ***holes in attendance were chanting his name like the bigoted cult members they are. This would be the conference for human garbage so blatant in their dedication to white supremacy that they're not welcome at CPAC.

[worstblogever]

I could've cut some words.

Which is somehow only an issue when those you disagree with do it.

But how many could it have taken to say, "Invoking lynching as a solution is disgusting, irresponsible rhetoric and Chip Roy should have apologized immediately."

I count fifteen in that very clear, crisp takedown I just made. (Chip Roy would count as one.)

Again, if only Republicans could put the effort in to make statements condemning the worst things that you do putting up defenses of things like transphobia or when people call white nationalists what they are. It's rather telling that they can't.

[Tami]

Past marijuana use won't automatically disqualify Biden White House staff

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is issuing new guidelines Friday meant to address an unexpected hurdle it faced as it aimed to quickly fill key White House positions: recreational marijuana use.

Though marijuana use is legal in a growing number of cities and states, it's still illegal under federal law and is therefore a potentially disqualifying factor in obtaining security clearances. Transition officials quickly identified recreational marijuana use as a potential hurdle for applicants, especially younger ones, in meeting that requirement.

After what one official described as “intensive consultation with security officials” and the Personnel Security Division, the White House will now, on a case-by-case basis, waive a requirement that potential appointees in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) be eligible for a “Top Secret” clearance. Officials said a waiver would only be granted to those who have used marijuana on a “limited” basis and who are in positions that don’t ultimately require a security clearance.

A White House official emphasized that the policy applies only to marijuana use. And even under the new policy, some appointees would still not be granted a waiver given the extent of their acknowledged marijuana use.

But marijuana continues to be categorized as a controlled substance under federal law and applications for even minimal security clearances require individuals to answer specific questions about any past drug use. Not all White House staff ultimately obtain a security clearance, but all appointees must go through a vetting process that includes determining whether they are at least eligible for one.

Any individual granted that waiver must, in turn, agree to cease all use of marijuana for the entirety of their government service and agree to random drug testing. Those employees would also be required to work remotely for an unspecified period following their last acknowledged use of marijuana.

A White House official said that the new guidelines would “effectively protect our national security while modernizing policies to ensure that talented and otherwise well-qualified applicants with limited marijuana use will not be barred from serving the American people.”

I figured there had to be a reasonable explanation behind this.

[worstblogever]

We’ll review his recent voting record just to be thorough, but based on what we wrote above, there shouldn’t be a lot of surprises.

• January 22nd, 2019: Gosar can’t be arsed to vote against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Gosar voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• January 27th, 2019: Paul Gosar votes against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attack Gosar our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
• February 28th, 2019: Gosar votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 7th, 2019: Gosar votes against HR 183, a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism as a hateful extension of intolerance.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Gosar votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Gosar can’t be arsed to vote for the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 12th, 2019: Gosar is one of 12 Republicans who vote against the re-authorization of the Zadroga Act to provide healthcare to 9/11 First Responders.
• July 16th, 2019: Paul Gosar votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• October 17th, 2019: Gosar is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
• October 23rd, 2019: Gosar is one of 41 Republicans who, while staring down the possibility of Donald Trump being impeached, stage a ridiculous publicity stunt in response by crashing a classified impeachment inquiry hearing for a “protest”. He was supposedly upset that he didn’t get to participate in the hearings, which is a lie, because Gosar just chose to not show up for them.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Gosar ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
• October 2nd, 2020: Paul Gosar is one of 17 Republicans who vote against a resolution to condemn the Qanon conspiracy theory after its followers started to make death threats against Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski.
• January 6th, 2021: Paul Gosar not only allegedly gives assistance to the Trump supporters who literally storm the U.S. Capitol Building, he votes against certifying the electoral college results after the attack, a practical endorsement of the lies about election fraud that inspired them.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Gosar votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
• February 4th, 2021: Paul Gosar votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
• February 25th, 2021: Gosar votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Paul Gosar votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 3rd, 2021: Gosar votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Rep. Gosar votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Paul Gosar is one of 172 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).

If the Republican Party is serious about addressing its current identity as a white nationalist party, they’re going to need to find a primary challenger to Paul Gosar and seriously push that person to replace him. Because he’s not chilling out anytime soon, as evidenced how last week Gosar shared a cartoon meme of a sex worker propositioning a man to do anything he wants for $50 and he asks that she declare “AMERICA FIRST IS INEVITABLE.” (This is a member of Congress. Seriously.) Considering how quick the GOP were to act against Steve King (as in letting be a complete bigot for decades and then just taking his committee assignments away), we wouldn’t hold our breath. It’s much more likely than he’s arrested by the FBI for any assistance he may have given to domestic terrorists that qualifies as sedition than they develop the will to expel one of their own.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

McCarthy tries to rewrite history by claiming that he didn't back Trump's efforts to overturn the election

I'm at a loss to understand why McCarthy went this route. Doesn't he realize that the GQP's Godfather of Mar-a-Lago will look at what he said and whine that McCarthy stabbed him in the back?

I don't know why people keep coming up with excuses for incels.

Because incels are mainly white? Just a guess.

Which is somehow only an issue when those you disagree with do it.

But how many could it have taken to say, "Invoking lynching as a solution is disgusting, irresponsible rhetoric and Chip Roy should have apologized immediately."

I count fifteen in that very clear, crisp takedown I just made. (Chip Roy would count as one.)

Again, if only Republicans could put the effort in to make statements condemning the worst things that you do putting up defenses of things like transphobia or when people call white nationalists what they are. It's rather telling that they can't.

More like won't.

[PwrdOn]

That is the most anemic pushback against lynching I have seen. I found it horrific, you would rather they didn't lynch when possible. And BTW lynching has nothing to do with justice.

And Trump blaming the Chinese for the Corona virus is where the increase in anti Asian hate crimes came from. So maybe telling your constituency that we should hate the Chinese isn't the best way to stop it.

The nuance would be lost on them.

Yes, because Americans needed Trump to tell them to hate Chinese people...

[The Cool Thatguy]

Yes, because Americans needed Trump to tell them to hate Chinese people...

He stroked the flames, if nothing else

[PwrdOn]

He stroked the flames, if nothing else

Nah, as with most things Trump simply took advantage of a pre-existing sentiment, which in this case cuts across partisan lines. How many variations of "well I don't like Trump at all but I'm glad someone is finally getting tough on China" did you hear in the last 4 years? Not to mention that the hate crimes have become far more prevalent and deadly ever since Biden took over.

[OopsIdiditagain]

He stroked the flames, if nothing else

Agreed, if it was just Trump then places we wouldn't be seeing a rise of anti-asian attacks in places outside the USA too.

[Mister Mets]

No subtext, he invoked lynching as a viable solution for justice.



And when told that what those "oak trees" really meant was the lynching of black people, he said "Yeah, so?"



You find it okay to discount the thousands of African Americans who were lynched?

Of course I expect this from Republicans, who see the Capitol insurrectionists as heroes and BLM as terrorists

This is the first reference to his "yeah, so?" comment in the thread, or in any of the links. While trying to find the full exchange online, to see what he's responding to, I don't see many links.

There are two tweets about it, which would suggest that aspect of his response isn't driving much of the conversation.

https://twitter.com/search?q=chip%20...d_query&f=live
https://twitter.com/search?q=since%3...d_query&f=live

My guess would be that the congressman doesn't want anyone to make the connection to lynchings of African-Americans.

If you think he did want some people to make that connection, what could his motives be? Is he trying to bait progressives somehow? Is he trying to signal to racists who are well-informed about postbellum hate crimes?

[PwrdOn]

This is the first reference to his "yeah, so?" comment in the thread, or in any of the links. While trying to find the full exchange online, to see what he's responding to, I don't see many links.

There are two tweets about it, which would suggest that aspect of his response isn't driving much of the conversation.

https://twitter.com/search?q=chip%20...d_query&f=live
https://twitter.com/search?q=since%3...d_query&f=live

My guess would be that the congressman doesn't want anyone to make the connection to lynchings of African-Americans.

If you think he did want some people to make that connection, what could his motives be? Is he trying to bait progressives somehow? Is he trying to signal to racists who are well-informed about postbellum hate crimes?

Chip Roy comes from a long and proud tradition of Republicans saying incoherent **** and thinking that they're clever for it. Whether he was deliberately trying to make the connection to lynching to strike a nerve with liberals, or if that's just what his racist brain immediately goes to in these situations, that's immaterial. I'm sure it won't hurt him in the least when he's up for re-election though.

[OopsIdiditagain]

Chip Roy comes from a long and proud tradition of Republicans saying incoherent **** and thinking that they're clever for it. Whether he was deliberately trying to make the connection to lynching to strike a nerve with liberals, or if that's just what his racist brain immediately goes to in these situations, that's immaterial. I'm sure it won't hurt him in the least when he's up for re-election though.

In other words, he's a troll?

[PwrdOn]

In other words, he's a troll?

Nah, in order to be an actual troll you need to be able to actually trick people into thinking that they agree with you before you pull the rug out from under them. Republicans don't have the wittiness or the intelligence to pull that off, all of their "trolling" attempts are targeted purely at other conservatives, so that they can all circle jerk about how badly they owned the libs. Hell, just look at what Mets has been doing for the last few pages, clearly he's trying to gaslight everyone else but for the life of me I can't find a coherent argument in all the nonsense he's typing, though I'm sure that in his mind he's just really owning all the dumb libs with facts and logic.

[Bruce Wayne]

He stroked the flames, if nothing else

I'd argue the media also did a good share of that. Hate-crimes against Asians were also rising in places like Vancouver. And that's not exactly Trump country.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I'd argue the media also did a good share of that. Hate-crimes against Asians were also rising in places like Vancouver. And that's not exactly Trump country.

The problem is that Trump is a world leader, and damned if he didn't like to imply he had proof. So I think he pushed a few nut bags over the edge