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

[worstblogever]

Jeanine Pirro Abruptly Ends Fox News Segment After Guest Praises Joe Biden

“Thanks for nothing,” the host said after a dispute in which her guest told her there were “very few” facts on her show.

Prior to it completely breaking down, she interrupted her guest for saying Biden was improving the United States right now, clearly, to yell, "HE'S BRINGING COVID-19 INTO THIS COUNTRY!"

... really? That's your attack line as Covid-19 numbers are dropping daily and we're getting two and a half people vaccinated daily? Just... alternative fact-based reality, again.

[worstblogever]

Local news in Arizona reported Joe Arpaio's wife passed away. My social media feed had a bunch of people that thought it was the disgraced sheriff himself for a moment and then settled down...

But this one dude I know shared a story about her, as well... while she wasn't in the news as much as Sheriff Joe, my friend tells me an anecdote that he and his wife went to renew their wedding vows at a Valentine's Day event. They didn't realize the guests of honor were Mr. and Mrs. Arpaio. When they asked Mrs. Arapaio what it was about the sheriff she loved so much that keeps her around him, she said, "BECAUSE HE'S A REAL NATURAL BORN CITIZEN!" to which, a cheer went up that disgusted both my friend and his wife, because they didn't sign up to go to a white nationalist rally.

So... yeah, I can see why Sheriff Joe took a shine to her and vice-versa, anyway.

[worstblogever]

On this date in both 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled John Becker, a member of the Ohio House of Representatives who prior to taking office, spent two decades working as an anti-abortion crusader who was originally spurred into that role after he was “horrified” by the election of Bill Clinton in 1992. Becker has already sponsored legislation that would ban insurance companies from covering “abortion”, but his definition of that term was so poorly worded that it would have blocked funding from IUDs. When confronted with that fact, Becker’s excuse was to say, “Well, I’m not a doctor.” as well as fetal heartbeat bills. He has also voted to defund all Planned Parenthood clinics in Ohio, and has written newspaper editorial to argue that since schools are “gun free zones”, that there should also be “condom free zones”. On LGBTQ rights… he is also an abysmal human being, comparing gay marriage to bestiality and polygamy, calling for the impeachment of judges who rule in favor of the widowed spouses of gays to honor the benefits they would be given by departed spouses on death certificates, and has called for Massachusetts to be kicked out of the United States for having been the first state to legalize gay marriage (incidentally, he also once stated that Alaska should be expelled from the union over oil drilling rights). Becker also wrote in his own political magazine, The Becker Report in August of 2015, that the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling was "a national flipping of the middle finger at God." Becker has sponsored multiple Voter ID bills, and claimed that he broke down in tears when he heard guns that confiscated by law enforcement are sometimes melted down and destroyed. Becker has also argued that it’s the protesters of police violence in cases like that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, or Tamir Rice in Cleveland… it’s the protesters who are the real racists. In 2016, Becker made headlines with his support of transphobic bathroom legislation, and while he flailed about, paranoid about the transgendered using the bathroom of their choice, he also decided to lambast Target stores for respecting their bathroom choices.

What was new from John Becker is 2018, was that he suddenly became quite the apologist for police brutality, defending a Cincinnatti police officer after he used a taser on an 11 year old girl, saying he would be “shocked and embarrassed” if it happened to his daughter because “it would mean she resisted arrest”. In the days that followed, he doubled down, saying, "I've about had it with all of the finger pointing at law enforcement officers after shooting a punk in self-defense." (Remember, this ***hole claims to believe in a right to life.) What wasn’t new, though, was his anti-choice fervor, as we saw him vote for a fetal heartbeat bill that would effectively have outlawed abortion at six weeks, had it been signed by Gov. John Kasich.

Becker won re-election comfortably with 66.6% of the vote in 2018, and went back to work showing he had no understanding of female reproductive science when he tried to claim ectopic pregnancies could be re-implanted in the uterus of a woman having them removed, against all logic.

He also made headlines in May of 2019 after showing a “humorous” image of a shotgun propped up near a sleeping bag, and indicating he would be preventing his daughter and her fiancée from sleeping in the same room with it. Because of course this guy is fantasizing about murdering someone who might have sex with his daughter. Of course he is.

John Becker spent most of the past year trying to undermine the authority of Gov. Mike DeWine, including a botched attempt at impeaching him over DeWine’s, for once, wise decision to impose mask mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic (broken clocks and all that). He probably had all that spare time because he wasn’t allowed to run for re-election due to term limits. Yes, this desiccated husk dried out from lack of human empathy left office at the end of 2020. We hope that whatever tools there are to bar him from reaching office again, they redouble those efforts. And they’ll need to because he wants to be the chairman of the Ohio GOP. In other words, he’s looking to rebrand his state to be full of fanatics that are effectively clones of him, which is a terrifying thought.

[Mister Mets]

That's not accurate. There is no such thing as perfection, and every human has failings and makes mistakes and does things that are worthy of criticism. And evrey9one has a right to voice these criticisms.

Only, if the criticisms aren't warranted, are not based in fact or logic, or are based on a higher expectation than is reasonable given the circumstances, then that criticism may be challenged as being unfair.

Sometimes you get a candidate running for office that you don't fully agree with, but that, compared to the alternatives, is the best one out there. So sure, then you might hold off on airing any criticisms until after the election. Then you have to decide if your criticisms are worth airing, are they bad enough to warrant it.

It doesn't matter where along the line the candidate is, except in regards to how they match up with what you think a candidate should be.

Far Left voters are less likely to criticize far-left candidates. Moderate left voters are less likely to criticize Moderate Left candidates. Centrist voters are less likely to criticize centrist candidates, moderate right voters are less likely to criticize moderate right candidates. Far-Right voters are less likely to criticize far-right candidates.

That is how it goes.

I'd add to your point about voters supporting politicians who match up with their political positions, that there are voters who act the same way based on other factors, like tone, identity, or whatever. They might prefer a brash businessman who has the exact same positions as a cautious bureaucrat, and will forgive their guy.

I do agree that this is human nature, but this is something we should be careful about, to avoid falling into the trap ourselves and to recognize it when it occurs, whether it's convenient to do so or not.

"Obnoxious progressives" how? Don't see a lot of people touting Occupy or socialism around here.

"Obnoxious" is standing up for human rights for you these days.

The problem could be that "conservativism" has become justifying bigotry and cruelty as not exactly that through the Trump years.

And Republicans are becoming unable to unwind that Gordian knot. It's been woven into the identity of both the GQP and conservatives in spite of warnings from those within it, and without that it would happen.

For the most part (with the exception of stuff like explicit white nationalism), obnoxiousness is not about political positions.

A socialist can argue in good faith without making personal attacks, with generous interpretations of ambiguous situations.

A centrist can make arguments they know to be unfair, make personal comments about the people they're arguing with, insist that online strangers waste a lot of time, assume that everyone online is familiar with their sources of information, assume the worst not on their side, and hypocritically abuse report functions.

This is a board of mostly left-leaning comic book fans, all we ever do is annoy the crap out of each other and argue about stupid stuff. So perhaps you can take your little persecution complex and stick it right back where you pulled all of your political opinions from.

If you're open about it, that's one thing. Many people aren't as self-reflective as you are.

[worstblogever]

I'd add to your point about voters supporting politicians who match up with their political positions, that there are voters who act the same way based on other factors, like tone, identity, or whatever. They might prefer a brash businessman who has the exact same positions as a cautious bureaucrat, and will forgive their guy.

I do agree that this is human nature, but this is something we should be careful about, to avoid falling into the trap ourselves and to recognize it when it occurs, whether it's convenient to do so or not.

For the most part (with the exception of stuff like explicit white nationalism), obnoxiousness is not about political positions.

A socialist can argue in good faith without making personal attacks, with generous interpretations of ambiguous situations.

A centrist can make arguments they know to be unfair, make personal comments about the people they're arguing with, insist that online strangers waste a lot of time, assume that everyone online is familiar with their sources of information, assume the worst not on their side, and hypocritically abuse report functions.

It must be hard for someone to have "political opinions" that are, let's say for example, statements that are open bigotry towards trans people or defending someone from criticism after they endorse lynching as extrajudicial killing what with our country's history of white supremacy... and having such comments potentially reported because this forum asks people to make it a welcoming and civil place. I'd hope that they wouldn't start claiming people were "hypocritically" reporting them for it when they do it, and were doing it because that's literally the way making this place welcoming works.

It would be a bit silly of them to then try to make themselves out to the victim when people were pleading with them not only to do it for the sake of promoting that environment, but because it would be toxic towards the political ideology of a political party that had a majority of its voters across the board, say, spend five years telling people "f*** your feelings* while celebrating bigotry against a bunch of other groups. Y'know, when in the interests of patience, people from outside it asked its members to do some serious soul searching and they apparently they struggled to find one.

Especially when people kept pointing out to people as thing happened in real time, they could literally abandon that party at any point over any number of grotesque new lows they found within that half-decade of blindly supporting people whose only policies are "make the rich richer" and "cruelty towards anyone else".

Because they might end up becoming an out-of-touch Principal Skinner meme if they were incapable of moving past that point of view:

[4saken1]

Yes, very possibly. Good point.
I think it's unrealistic to expect him to jump in and solve squabbles between corporations and labor unions that only arose six days ago and are likely to resolve themselves independently given that both sides have teams of high-paid lawyers to negotiate the situation.

Definitely. Doesn't the article also state that about 100 jobs were lost at the plant? I mean, yeah, if this is the start of a large scale exodus then Biden should definitely take notice. But I think his time is better spent looking at how to get 10+ million unemployed back to work rather than addressing every instance where a few dozen workers lose their jobs.

[Tendrin]

The magical reappearing spines of Republican politicians who announce their retirement.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/r...capitol-attack

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) on Sunday decried “alternative versions” of the deadly Capitol insurrection, a day after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) pushed a false narrative of no violence on the Senate side of the building during the attack.

During an interview on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Blunt was asked to respond to Johnson and former President George W. Bush’s takes on the Capitol insurrection. While Johnson has desperately tried demonize the Black Lives Matter movement by saying that he would have felt more threatened by BLM protesters if they had breached the Capitol, Bush told the Texas Tribune last week that the deadly insurrection left him “sick to my stomach” to see the Capitol stormed by “hostile forces.”

[OopsIdiditagain]

China says US cannot speak from 'a position of strength'

I thought we'd have a couple more years before other superpowers start talking down on the USA.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It must be hard for someone to have "political opinions" that are, let's say for example, statements that are open bigotry towards trans people or defending someone from criticism after they endorse lynching as extrajudicial killing what with our country's history of white supremacy... and having such comments potentially reported because this forum asks people to make it a welcoming and civil place. I'd hope that they wouldn't start claiming people were "hypocritically" reporting them for it when they do it, and were doing it because that's literally the way making this place welcoming works.

It would be a bit silly of them to then try to make themselves out to the victim when people were pleading with them not only to do it for the sake of promoting that environment, but because it would be toxic towards the political ideology of a political party that had a majority of its voters across the board, say, spend five years telling people "f*** your feelings* while celebrating bigotry against a bunch of other groups. Y'know, when in the interests of patience, people from outside it asked its members to do some serious soul searching and they apparently they struggled to find one.

Especially when people kept pointing out to people as thing happened in real time, they could literally abandon that party at any point over any number of grotesque new lows they found within that half-decade of blindly supporting people whose only policies are "make the rich richer" and "cruelty towards anyone else".

Because they might end up becoming an out-of-touch Principal Skinner meme if they were incapable of moving past that point of view:

In my humble opinion, Qpublican voters are incapable of leaving their party for one of two reasons:

1) They're all in on the hate and racism and love the ugliness that's taken over the GQP

2) They know the party is irreversibly fucked up but can't bring themselves to admit that sad reality

[PaulBullion]

Keep an eye out for just how much Biden is actually going to walk the walk when it comes to actually looking out for the working class...

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/u...n-ohio-mexico/

That move clearly makes Biden the worst CEO Ford Motors ever had. Worth than Nazi Gerald!

[Malvolio]

Prior to it completely breaking down, she interrupted her guest for saying Biden was improving the United States right now, clearly, to yell, "HE'S BRINGING COVID-19 INTO THIS COUNTRY!"

... really? That's your attack line as Covid-19 numbers are dropping daily and we're getting two and a half people vaccinated daily? Just... alternative fact-based reality, again.

I wonder how many glasses of wine Pirro had before going on the air that night.

[Jack Dracula]

Yes I meant Weiner. Confused the phallic last names.

I snicker a little bit when I read his name because I have the sense of humor of a twelve year old boy.

[Tami]

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson falsely claimed Greenland only recently froze and now admits he has 'no idea' about its history

In an attempt to undermine climate science, Sen. Ron Johnson falsely claimed in 2010 that Greenland - a largely ice-covered island - was named for its once-green landscapes.

Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, told The New York Times last week that he had "no idea" how Greenland got its name.

"You know, there's a reason Greenland was called Greenland," Johnson told Madison news outlet WKOW-TV in 2010. "It was actually green at one point in time. And it's been, you know, since, it's a whole lot whiter now so we've experienced climate change throughout geologic time."

[Tendrin]

Oh WBE-EEEEeeee

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021...with-officers/

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A video uploaded to the social networking site Parler appears to show Texas state Rep. Kyle Biedermann standing near the steps of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, as a mob clashed with Capitol Police Officers.

[Gray Lensman]

I wonder how many glasses of wine Pirro had before going on the air that night.

All of them. Pirro probably doesn't have any wine at home because it doesn't stick around long enough to build up stock...