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

[Kirby101]

I wasn't asking about what the left has done in the last 60 years, you just brought up things from the 60s because evidently the recent track record isn't looking so good. Call me crazy, I just don't think it's wrong to demand more from our elected officials.

You said the Left has not accomplished anything, period, full stop. "The American left has never accomplished a goddamn." When shown they have, you keep changing the discussion. In the last 40 years the Democrats, not the Left who have never been in power, but the Democrats, have held the Government exactly 4 years. Two under Clinton and two under Obama. In that time they balanced the Budget, saved the economy and passed the biggest Healthcare reform in a generation. You keep talking like the Left is power base in this Country that controls things. And the recent track record is 2 fucking months, and we are dealing with an obstructionist GOP and right of center Democrats, but you keep blaming the Left.

[PwrdOn]

You said the Left has not accomplished anything, period, full stop. "The American left has never accomplished a goddamn." When shown they have, you keep changing the discussion. In the last 40 years the Democrats, not the Left who have never been in power, but the Democrats, have held the Government exactly 4 years. Two under Clinton and two under Obama. In that time they balanced the Budget, saved the economy and passed the biggest Healthcare reform in a generation. You keep talking like the Left is power base in this Country that controls things. And the recent track record is 2 fucking months, and we are dealing with an obstructionist GOP and right of center Democrats, but you keep blaming the Left.

Look, the original point of contention was that the Democrats were actually a center-right party and that what we consider to be extreme left is actually centrist by global standards, but another poster tried to argue that this was not the case because, while the Democratic party may be fiscally conservative it is much more radical when it comes to social issues than most European parties. However, this is not really backed up by their track record, and the achievements of the social activists within the party is largely symbolic and has done little to benefit the people they're supposedly advocating for. And things like temporary deficit reduction and economic growth that largely benefited the elite are not really left wing priorities by any definition of the term. If anything it just shows that Democrats take their fiscal conservatism more seriously than the GOP does, which I suppose makes them more honest actors but is hardly a point in their favor from a left wing perspective. And this all sort of circles back to my main point, which is that American so-called leftists are way too quick to congratulate themselves for minor short term victories, which in turn makes them unfocused and uncommitted toward achieving those greater long term goals.

[Darkspellmaster]

Human smugglers use Facebook to connect with migrants and spread false hope of reaching U.S.

And in a lot of cases the people using these services tend to be those who give up a lot of their life savings to protect family that are being, in some cases, targeted by gangs. It's a messed up situation that's for sure.

Accused stalker who left candy outside woman’s home shoots her husband in wild kidnapping attempt: cops

Okay this is just insane! Did they catch the guy after he crashed? Is he injured or dead or what? That's just scary. I hope they throw the book at him. Any word on if the husband is okay? Wonder how her job is going to treat her after this.

[Malvolio]

The IRS should not target organizations because of their political affiliations, and the Inspector General's report found that conservative groups were singled out with unfair treatment.

https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/polit...ing/index.html

The IRS did not target these groups because they're conservative. They targeted them because they publicly advocated shady ways to avoid paying taxes. That's kind of a red flag for the IRS.

[Kirby101]

Look, the original point of contention was that the Democrats were actually a center-right party and that what we consider to be extreme left is actually centrist by global standards, but another poster tried to argue that this was not the case because, while the Democratic party may be fiscally conservative it is much more radical when it comes to social issues than most European parties. However, this is not really backed up by their track record, and the achievements of the social activists within the party is largely symbolic and has done little to benefit the people they're supposedly advocating for. And things like temporary deficit reduction and economic growth that largely benefited the elite are not really left wing priorities by any definition of the term. If anything it just shows that Democrats take their fiscal conservatism more seriously than the GOP does, which I suppose makes them more honest actors but is hardly a point in their favor from a left wing perspective. And this all sort of circles back to my main point, which is that American so-called leftists are way too quick to congratulate themselves for minor short term victories, which in turn makes them unfocused and uncommitted toward achieving those greater long term goals.

Okay then.

[worstblogever]

The IRS did not target these groups because they're conservative. They targeted them because they publicly advocated shady ways to avoid paying taxes. That's kind of a red flag for the IRS.

Thank you for bringing the truth in here.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the current U.S. Speaker of the House and U.S. House Representative for Wisconsin’s 1st District, Paul Ryan, and in that breakdown of the 2012 Vice-Presidential candidate, we covered everything from his bizarre fascination with the P90X workout system, to his immense hard-on for the philosophies of Ayn Rand, to the fact that he was literally in bed with a lobbyist, who he ended up marrying. His voting record was laid bare, from his support for fetal Personhood bills, to his staggeringly anti-gay voting record, to the budgets he's written that favor the rich over the poor so much that nuns are willing to follow him around to deal a heaping dose of Catholic guilt in his direction for ignoring Christian values (while purporting himself to have them). Paul Ryan may have been the "ringer" that conservatives were clamoring for to save the presidential aspirations of Mitt Romney, but all they did was shine a spotlight on the Congressman who used to be content fading into the background and grinding out budgets and trying to keep a low profile. That went out the window when he was forced into a position of leadership after the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner, because the Plan A to Boehner’s successor, Eric Cantor, got beat in a primary election and the Plan B to be Boehner's heir apparent that the establishment GOP picked, California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, completely botched his step out into the limelight. The GOP's "House Freedom Caucus" at that point was refusing to accept any establishment candidate as House Speaker, save one... Paul Ryan. Begrudgingly, Congressman Ryan agreed to take the worst job in Washington and hope he could herd cats better than Speaker Boehner did. But he did so only after making a demand that the gig wouldn’t get in the way of his family time. Which is hilarious, because this Randian disciple has previously voted against family leave when the issue’s come up in Congress. (Classic conservative hypocrisy… the people should get no entitlements, BUT I SHOULD!) But yeah, we’re talking about the GOP’s THIRD pick for a job that he didn’t even want. And boy, has he been terrible at it. Barely a few months into the job, he was already fighting with the House Freedom Caucus, too. Hell, they already hated his guts seven weeks into the job, when he first tried passing a budget.

And that’s not Paul Ryan’s only headache. All through the 2016 GOP Presidential Primary, Donald Trump, for a lack of a better term, said a lot of stupid, crazy s***. Comments from Trump that were so outrageous that Speaker Ryan was left with no choice but to condemn him when the Beltway media asks him to comment on it. And while he is forced to distance his party from the frontrunner of the presidential primary, he also went out of his way to still say he’d have to support Trump if he is the nominee. Meanwhile, at the first perceived sign of disloyalty, Donald Trump was threatening to support Ryan’s own hard-right opponent, Phil Nehlen, in his primary for his seat. That’s how insane things are right now, the GOP candidate for president was backbiting and chafing at their Speaker of the House and nearly sabotaged his own chances at re-election as late as AUGUST of a campaign. Spoiler alert, though… Paul Ryan was re-elected rather easily. But maybe he’d be happier if he’d lost, after all, his daily routine has become… the Beltway media throw a Donald Trump quote, or read a Twitter post from him at Paul Ryan, and he has to pretend like it’s not the ravings of a lunatic, even if it’s straight up tinfoil hat paranoia about having his phone tapped by President Obama himself. Meanwhile, these days any perceived disloyalty or failure Ryan might display trigger Trump and his lackeys at Fox News to lay the blame at Ryan’s feet, with vultures like Judge Jeanine Pirro calling for his resignation.

As the GOP gained control of the House, Senate, and White House… they were finally set to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a wet dream of Paul Ryan’s that isn’t Ayn Rand for almost seven years now… to take access to healthcare away from poor people. He didn’t even flinch after meeting a man from his own district at a town hall who is a Republican who hated the ACA at first, but had to admit it saved his friggin’ life. Paul Ryan was so jacked up to give tax breaks to rich people by yanking insurance coverage from the filthy poors that he decided to hype his ideas with a PowerPoint presentation, but in the process, showed he didn’t seem to even understand HOW INSURANCE WORKED. But has Paul Ryan actually learned anything, and realize he might have wanted to work across the aisle with some Democrats if changes are to be made to the ACA? Of course not! He refused to work with any of them, either.

We might feel bad for him if he wasn’t an elitist ****sponge, or y’know, if Paul Ryan actually did his job and properly led an investigation into the fact that the Trump campaign is believed to have colluded with the Russian government and the oligarchs running their country to sway the election in their favor. Or just have enough of a spine to say Trump is, y’know, WRONG when he says things like voter fraud allowed over 3 million people to vote illegally and cost him the popular vote. Or condemn Trump and abandon him for admitting he’s a puss-burglar who commits sexual assault. (To say nothing of the number of members of the House who have been accused of sexual harassment, who Ryan wistfully remembers positively when they’re forced to resign like Trent Franks or Tim Murphy.)

How did repealing the Affordable Care Act during the Trump administration go? Well, after hypocritically doing everything he accused Democrats of doing to pass the ACA (he was lying in ’09, of course), thanks to GOP Senators Murkowski, Collins, and McCain defecting from the cause, it failed in the Senate, likely leaving Paul Ryan with the worst set of blue balls since he didn’t get to completely f*** over poor people. That dull ache had to bother Speaker Ryan something fierce as he GOP, despite having a majority in both branches of our legislature and their own demented puppet in the White House managed to go almost a full year without any legislative successes to tout. That is, until December of 2017, where Ryan finally got what he always wanted for Christmas to celebrate Republican Jesus, a tax reform bill that created the opportunities for the richest to find even MORE tax breaks while placing the long term burden of American taxes on… its poorest citizens. It’s a tax plan that’s so s***ty for the poor that even the “up front” savings it gave the poorest Americans amount to about a buck and a half a week, which Paul Ryan managed to try to boast about, as if it was impressive, only to be openly mocked on social media. (He’s so cruel, and has given the needs of others so little thought that he’s completely out of touch with what real people need to survive.) That’s been it for legislative achievements for Ryan and his cronies, but he doesn’t care, as his Koch Bros. masters sent him a check for half a million dollars the day after it passed.

And that’s his only legislative achievement. But when it comes to dragging his feet? If that were an Olympic event, Speaker Ryan would be draped in more medals than Michael Phelps by now. Let’s just start with Ryan’s inaction on gun violence… For 3 years, he’s pretended that people haven’t been dying in mass shootings, and still wants the American people to believe when they inevitably happen that it’s an isolated incident, and not a HUGE pattern going on. Any move to prevent further ones? That’s a “knee jerk reaction”. Never you mind that people’s knees are jerking because the bodies they’re attached to have been riddled with bullets. Hell, after the largest mass shooting in modern American history took place in Las Vegas, Paul Ryan was too craven about angering the NRA to even call for definitive action to be taken against bump stocks (the device used by the shooter to effectively turn his rifles into automatic weapons). The absolute motherf***ing invertebrate is content to let people keep dying while he sits back and just sends his “thoughts and prayers” because “they work” (clearly they don’t) and continues to cash those NRA checks without losing an iota of sleep every night.

[worstblogever]

But surely, Paul Ryan can at least have shown the American people he’s able to stand up to Donald Trump after their long, murky relationship with each other, and the fact that the entire Trump administration has been a cesspool of corruption and incompetence, right? HA! No. Paul Ryan ignores all the failings and wrongdoing the way you’d expect, by pretending it’s not happening and just wanking even harder about screwing over poor people. When the story of the day is that Trump campaign officials are getting indicted, Ryan would much rather talk about how great his s***ty tax plan is going. And honestly, that’s one of his more honorable moments. Ryan defended Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey for not making the Russian collusion investigation go away. Which is goddamned pathetic when you remember there’s audio of Paul Ryan being told by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy that “Putin pays Trump”. He's riding a horse along the U.S./Mexico border like a putz as part of a fundraising blitz and wanting Trump’s stupid border wall built (which is an interesting stance for a supposed intelligent fiscal conservative to want to waste money on a useless novelty project). Paul Ryan had to be shamed by Jake Tapper in a CNN interview to even acknowledge that Donald Trump’s “both sides” remarks after the terrorist attack carried out by Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville was wrong. Like, if you couldn’t bring yourself to speak ill of Trump then? He did only moderately better when Trump spoke about “s***hole countries”, managing the nerve to say those remarks were “unfortunate” and “unhelpful”.

In effect, Paul Ryan is a craven s*** who feared not winning re-election, so opted to “retire” in 2018, not long after our last profile. He was one of the LAMEST lame duck Congressmen in the history of the House, twiddling his thumbs impotently and shrugging whenever asked to comment on any of the abhorrent quotes from Donald Trump. The only thing he could be arsed to do in his last days in office was to try and increase the amount of immigration in America… provided those immigrants are IRISH. This during a supposed “immigration crisis” at our southern border. If you think the infectious touch of Paul Ryan is gone from American politics… not exactly. He’ll continue smearing his own brand of s*** about because even further underlining the fact that Fox News is state television for the Republican Party… Paul Ryan was hired with no experience to be on the Board of Directors of Fox Corp, the parent company of Fox News. In conclusion, f*** Paul Ryan, and may he never win any political office again.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Jose Oliva, who was a member of the Florida House of Representatives for District 110 from 2011 through 2020. Oliva spent eight long years being a toady as a legislator for former Gov. Rick Scott, where we saw him support some of the Florida GOP’s more extreme bills through that time, including a bill aimed at prohibiting courts from basing decisions on “foreign laws” which was a piece of legislation created by Islamophobic conservatives trying to stop the spread of Sharia Law in the United States (that isn’t, at all), a bill that aimed to authorize student-led prayer in school, an attempt to limit abortion by changing the legal definition of fetal viability, a bill aimed at allowing adoption agencies to refuse to grant adoptions to same sex couples based on their religious need to be discriminatory homophobes, a bill to create a medically unnecessary 24 hour waiting period for abortions, a bill to allow for the open carry of firearms in Florida., a bill to authorize churches to decline marriage services to same sex couples, a bill to prohibit local cities and governments from creating sanctuary cities for undocumented citizens, and only months after the mass shooting at Parkland, he voted for a bill to authorize firearms on school campuses, because the solution is always an influx of more guns. But, where we truly realized that Jose Oliva should have no place in politics was back in February of 2019, when during an interview about abortion, he referred to pregnant women as “host bodies”. This was not a one-time slip off, because later in the same interview, Oliva mentioned that he believed in life at conception, referring to women as “host bodies” a second time. Jose Oliva was term-limited in the Florida House in 2020. We’re pretty sure that given his age, we won’t be hearing the last of him, however, and we’re expecting him to run for higher office at some point, likely in the Florida State Senate. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis might appoint him. Given the above quotes, he may have damned himself from being able to “fail up” politically, but only time will tell. As he is now out of office, we will set aside his profile at this time to take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 976-50, since this was established in July 2014.


Melissa Esparza-Mathis

Welcome to what is the 976th profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Melissa Esparza-Mathis, who ran for U.S. House Representatives in Texas’ 8th Congressional District in 2020 as a primary challenger to Republican Congressman Kevin Brady. She is also the latest Republican candidate for Congress from 2020 we’ve covered who was caught endorsing the Qanon conspiracy theory, although she did it using an alt-account on Twitter from the one she was campaigning on. That account is now suspended based on a number of posts Esparza-Mathis made about “The Great Awakening” and captive children being molested in memes.

Melissa Epsarza-Mathis ended up getting all of 3.1% of the vote in the primary, or about 1/26th of the amount of people who voted for Kevin Brady. While we wish we could say she was rejected by GOP Primary voters for supporting Qanon, their disinterest in her as a candidate probably had more to do with the fact that she supported immigration reform, which tolerance for non-white people the true deal-breaker for Republicans these days.

[Tami]

In unexpected move, U.S. Supreme Court asks Justice Dept. to weigh in on battle involving N.J. and mob watchdog

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, in an unexpected move, called for the U.S. Solicitor General to step into the long-running legal battle by New Jersey to kill the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor — a bi-state agency created more than 65 years ago to police the region’s ports.

In its order, the court sought briefs to hear “the views of the United States,” in a case that argues New Jersey should not be able to walk away from a federally approved interstate compact. The state wants to withdraw from the commission and turn over its policing role to the New Jersey State Police.

The case before the justices so far has been on very narrow grounds, dealing with whether the commission could seek legal intervention to save itself. But instead of ruling on whether to take the case, the high court instead asked the office that represents the federal government before the Supreme Court for its opinion on the complex issues in the case.

Waterfront Commission officials declined comment, but some legal experts questioned whether New Jersey can implement what they believe is an unconstitutional statute.

The commission — which includes one member from each state appointed by its governor — has wide jurisdiction over the region’s piers and terminals, including the ports in Newark, Elizabeth, Bayonne, Staten Island and Brooklyn. It certifies that those hired on the waterfront are not tied to organized crime and are otherwise fit to work in the shipping trade.

But mounting political pressure in recent years by the New York Shipping Association and International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents dockworkers, ultimately led to efforts in Trenton to kill the commission.

Industry officials argued the commission was overstepping its authority and overstating the problem of crime on the docks. In his final week in office, Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation he once vetoed as unconstitutional to withdraw New Jersey from the compact with New York. That essentially meant the end of the agency.

The commission immediately went to federal court seeking an injunction against the state and the new governor, Phil Murphy. It argued that New Jersey could not simply decide for itself that it no longer wanted to honor its obligations under a bilateral compact ratified by Congress.

This is something I was not aware of until now, and I'm glad the Supreme Court is not rushing into a decision. I do have a feeling that NJ should back away from this and leave the Commission intact.

[Gray Lensman]

The IRS did not target these groups because they're conservative. They targeted them because they publicly advocated shady ways to avoid paying taxes. That's kind of a red flag for the IRS.

I remember reading a more in depth version of that story that mentioned several other keywords that the IRS would zone in on that were more left-leaning, or neither but indicated the group in question was probably opposed to the War on Drugs. Government agencies have their own biases, but that doesn't always indicate that it is a partisan one. On the other hand, the lack of a partisan motive does not mean that agency in question is free of wrongdoing.

[Tami]

And in a lot of cases the people using these services tend to be those who give up a lot of their life savings to protect family that are being, in some cases, targeted by gangs. It's a messed up situation that's for sure.




Okay this is just insane! Did they catch the guy after he crashed? Is he injured or dead or what? That's just scary. I hope they throw the book at him. Any word on if the husband is okay? Wonder how her job is going to treat her after this.

That's all I have. If I see a follow up I'll share it.

[Jack Dracula]

Reynolds signs gun bill easing background checks, permits




Why do Republicans do stupid things? Because they can.

Certainly not because crowds of people were out in the streets clamoring for this legislation.
I suspect, since she’s up for re-election in 2022, this is both pandering to gun nuts for votes and a signal to the NRA that she’s open to accepting donations.

[Jack Dracula]

Prominent Democrats have said objectively untrue things about the legislation, so it's not as bad as people say.

The Washington Post gave Joe Biden four Pinnochios for claiming inaccurately that it lowered voting hours.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...g-hours-early/

Voter ID is more popular than abortion. This bill does allow people to vote if they have photo ID, but also provides opportunities to vote if they do not.

There is a general understanding that a system of signature matches is deeply flawed, so going away from that makes sense. People change signatures all the time. People develop medical conditions that can affect their handwriting (which many younger voters barely do to begin with) and many change their names (there's an argument that signature match legislation penalizes women who are more likely to take their spouse's last name than men are.)

Drum's summary seems to exclude some key details, like the requirement that every county have at least one drop box, formalizing the online option for ballot applications, or allowing officials to process absentee ballots earlier. One complication in discussions is that there were changes in policy that were understood to be temporary due to Covid, so there are arguments about how to precede with this, as well as the appropriate rhetoric.

As for the sense that the bill "gives the GOP dominated legislature complete power to determine an election" it would be smarter if the messaging from critics of the bill stuck to that point, when the main complaints were about other stuff (Voter ID, an incorrect sense polling sites closed earlier, ban on third-party groups handing out water or food.) That way the discussion could be on the merits of those changes, rather than distractions. Making the Secretary of State a non-voting member of the State Election Board would seem sensible to people bothered by the secretary of state being a partisan elected official in charge of the elections of his political allies, or himself (check all the arguments in earlier threads about how wrong it was that Kemp could run for Governor.)

I notice that you're not addressing what he says at all.

Your argument is that a national correspondent at Slate, a left-leaning media outlet that is generally considered reputable, is so deeply flawed that we should dismiss his understanding of Georgia law.

One piece of evidence that you give is that he wrote a book called Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War in 2003. The book was an analysis, but he's not in agreement with conservatives on abortion. This is an indication of a troubling tendency to view analysis as endorsement.

Then there's your take on a wikipedia summary of Saletan addressing a hot-button issue, where he cited a study, and then apologized afterwards because the coauthor of one article he cited was deeply flawed.

One question with the ad hominem is whether writers should be allowed to make mistakes. If you quote a writer, is it okay for me or numberthirty or PwrdOn or anyone who disagrees with you to ignore your comments on the issue, and to go after you with the least generous interpretation of something the writer said about a completely different topic? I wouldn't do it because I'm not a fan of ad hominems, but it seems to be an approach you advocate for the people you disagree with.

“Not as bad as they say”
You admit it is bad legislation, but support it anyway? You’re certainly willing to put a lot of energy into downplaying it’s probable effect on the next election. Why is that?
In my opinion any legislation limiting citizens access to their constitutional right to vote is inherently bad. The degree of bad really has no bearing.

[mogwen]

Except Germany funded the Pfizer vaccine, not the US.
https://fortune.com/2020/11/09/pfize...speed-germany/

Do you really still oppose Universal Healthcare?

Yet, the US kept the vaccine for themselves. The EU sent vaccines to UK, Canada, the US but unfortunately it hasn't been reciprocal. There will be a lot to say when it's over. People are dying here (in the EU) too. So long for being allies, we're only allies when we fight your wars

[Kirby101]

Yet, the US kept the vaccine for themselves. The EU sent vaccines to UK, Canada, the US but unfortunately it hasn't been reciprocal. There will be a lot to say when it's over. People are dying here (in the EU) too. So long for being allies, we're only allies when we fight your wars

It wasn't our war when we saved your ass from the Hun! Dangnabbit!!