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

[numberthirty]

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/loca...ating/2515634/

Chicago Police Board Rejects Firing Officer Accused of Making False Statements in Hospital Patient Beating

[Tendrin]

Nevermind.

[Robotman]

Florida governor DeSantis signs bill targeting social media platforms

The bill DeSantis signed prohibits tech platforms from suspending or banning political candidates in the state, with possible fines of $250,000 per day if the de-platformed candidate is seeking statewide office and $25,000 per day if the candidate is running for a non-statewide office.


DeSantis taking more steps to make Florida the United State of Trump.

Free market and limited government unless it interferes with Glorious Leader’s will.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Texas set to allow unlicensed handgun carry despite outcry

So, in essence, Texans will soon become no better than common crooks who own guns without licenses. Well played, Qpublicans.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted a profile of Matt Richardson, who was a candidate for the Washington State Senate back in 2010 trying to unseat the legendary CSGOPOTD, Pam Roach. The main problem with his candidacy was that at the age of 16 he was charged with molesting two family relatives, aged 8 and 5 at the time. Richardson’s far lesser flaw that’s still pretty wild, was that his campaign website compared abortion to slavery, even using the phrase “Modern Emancipation” in his calls to prevent it. He’s not exactly suited for office, just given those two facts.

It was on this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted a profile of Molly White, whose background prior to being elected to office was as a radical anti-abortion advocate. She still proudly traveled with displays of plastic fetuses in her SUV ready to go, and blames the fact that she herself got two abortions and blames it on rampant substance abuse at that stage of her life. There’s also her fervent passion for the 2nd Amendment that saw her pander to fellow gun enthusiasts by posing with guns almost as big as she is. But then, the Texas GOP learned how off her rocker Molly White really is as she proceeded to then make headlines for all the worst reasons but weeks into being sworn into office. On January 29th, 2015, a group of Muslim constituents had planned to visit Austin for Texas Muslim Capitol Day, where they would seek out lawmakers to discuss policy, as part of an event hosted by the Council of American Islamic Relations. Molly White, however, had heard somewhere that CAIR was considered to be the 82nd top terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates, and that was good enough reason for her to make sure that no Muslim coming to the event had nefarious intent. So, she went on Facebook, where she made a post instructing her staff to confirm that these Muslims they were good, loyal Americans, by taking them to her office where an Israeil flag would be present on her desk, and where they would “ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws. We will see how long they stay in my office.” All right, there’s a lot to unpack here. First off, that’s bigoted as all get out. Second… why did she have an Israeli flag in her office? And why did she think that Muslims would turn away for it like a vampire seeing a cross? Not even two months went by, and Molly White was at it again, shaking her fist at the sky, and showing she probably flunked social studies, because she was under the impression that she could undermine a Supreme Court ruling, drafting Texas’ HB 2555, which was meant to overturn rulings to overturn bans on same sex marriage. She also filed HB 2553 around the same time, a bill meant to allow Texas businesses the right to refuse goods or services to anyone based on their own religious grounds. (Because that wasn’t something that Southern states didn’t argue to try and keep discriminating against African Americans after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, either.) Her love of denying LGBT rights really does mean something to her, as she was photographed with several Texas Republicans celebrating the state amending the Texas constitution to ban same sex marriage with delicious cake. It seemed like White might get through the rest of 2015 without making an arse of herself, but on December 9th, 2015, she decided to give her opinion about President Barack Obama (uh oh). She apparently thinks he’s in league with the Muslim Brotherhood and should be arrested and tried for treason against the United States. Mercifully, Molly White was defeated by Hugh Shine by 104 votes in the 2016 GOP Primary for her Texas House seat. As such, we'll move on and start profiling a different wacky Republican on this date instead.

It was on this date in 2017, as well as 2018, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted a profile of Bob Gannon, a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly who should not be confused with the pig-faced nemesis of Link in The Legend of Zelda series, but we could understand how people could get him mixed up with an evil warlord with a pig face. In his short one term and change in office, Gannon has already made an ass of himself on numerous occasions. It was in December of 2015 when Gannon reacted to a shooting in a Wisconsin mall by advising more citizens to practice concealed carry and “help clean society of these scumbags” in vigilante killings. On January 6th, 2016, Gannon put out a press release with false statistics blaming a higher murder rate on “the black population”, who he seemed to claim were also deliberately choosing crime over employment. Well, that story gets worse. When Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca began to criticize Gannon for his comments on the floor of the Wisconsin State Assembly, he didn’t exactly take it too well, with his rebuttal coming in the form of a middle finger flashed at Barca. And you know it’s bad when even fellow Republicans find your behavior distasteful. Bob Gannon tends to get called out for his rhetoric, or dishonesty, or d***ishness within the Wisconsin State Assembly, and likes to throw around the phrases “leftists” and “liberals” in response to Democrats, using the terms as epithets. The victimization complex in him is strong, nearly as strong as his desire to shoot black people in the street before they have a chance to commit a crime, apparently. In October of 2017, Bob Gannon was found dead in his pickup truck, apparently of natural causes, at the age of 58.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Alaska State Senator Pete Kelly, who originally served for six years in the Alaska state legislature from 1994-2000 before taking twelve years off and returning to office in 2012. In that first tenure, Kelly’s most noteworthy legislative victory was to pass legislation to allow for wolves to be hunted by helicopter. Because nothing is more charming than trying to side-step federal wildlife protections for douchebag hunters with their own personal choppers looking to trophy hunt. During Pete Kelly’s second term in office, though, he started to turn more heads, and not just because he advanced to be the President of the Alaska State Senate. Back in 2014, Alaska’s state legislators were debating an increase in cases of fetal alcohol syndrome being documented in newborns around the state, when Kelly threw his two cents in during the discussion on providing better access to birth control around the state, and instead submitted legislation that would use state funding to place pregnancy tests in vending machines in bars around the state. His colleagues were baffled. Anyway, Kelly had other embarrassing things that weren’t his own mouth to also help make him face a tougher road to re-election… like the fact that his 30-year-old son was arrested for sexually assaulting a 13-year old, as well as exposing his genitals and masturbating in public to another child under 16. That earned the younger Kelly. because of course he did) a six year prison sentence. Meanwhile, Pete Kelly and the ministry he founded, Humble Raven Ministries, would rather protect families from the dread threat of same sex couples getting married… If that wasn’t enough to sink his campaign, during his debate against his opponent, Democrat Scott Kawasaki, Kelly also denied the science proving the threat of Climate Change, which in Alaska, where they literally are watching the glaciers melt, was enough to topple Pete Kelly fom office, as he lost by 179 votes. We hope that he does not get a third chance at reaching office.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Cody Henson, a former member of the North Carolina House of Representatives who served District 113 from 2017 until his resignation in July of 2019. Now, while we were concerned with Henson’s voting record, including how he was the co-sponsor of Voter ID bills to attempt to suppress the vote, or that he co-sponsored a bill to allow guns to church services, or how he voted for a bill to force local sheriffs to cooperate with ICE agents during immigration sweeps…We’d more like to talk about how Henson’s career was undone by accusations from his wife of domestic abuse, which she followed up by getting a protective order against him. Henson was charged with cyberstalking, and plead guilty to avoid jail time, settling for a sentence of 18 months probation for all the mental abuse and harassment he directed towards his wife. At first, he plead guilty, and wanted to finish out at least the rest of his term without resigning, but under pressure to leave office, caved in and announced his resignation in July of 2019. He won’t be missed, and we hope that his wife and children thrive without him lurking about. As he is now out of office and his career looks to be over, 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 987-50, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Aaron Von Ehlinger

Welcome to what is the 987th profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Aaron von Ehlinger, a former member of the Idaho House of Representatives who was first appointed to his seat in the legislature by Gov. Brad Little to replace the late Idaho state Thyra Stevenson, who passed away suddenly of a heart attack in May of last year, and he was on the job in June 2020.

We’re betting that Little probably regrets the pick, considering that less than ten months into his career, Von Ehlinger was accused of raping a 19 year-old intern who works in the state capitol. He resigned in disgrace a month later after the House Ethics Committee found him to have engaged in “conduct unbecoming” of a legislator, and unanimously it voted to recommend his suspension. So even without the crime he’s been accused of being investigated or litigated in court, he f***ed up bad enough that he had to get the boot. Even if the relationship was consensual (we believe the accuser that it wasn’t), it doesn’t exactly track with EEO guidelines within any workplace to date a subordinate, such as say, an intern who’s half your age… so even if his story about the encounter being consensual is true (we don’t believe him), he’s still violated a pretty clear workplace guideline that would warrant action being taken.

We’re comfortable enough writing the profile on Von Ehlinger based on his resignation after this charge prior to how it plays out in court, but we’ll note that sadly, the saga of how it’s being handled by his fellow Republicans is not over, nor is the news coming out of Boise positive… currently, multiple state legislators have gone out of their way to violate ethics procedures in cases like this to protect the accuser’s identity, and have outed her to conservative media outlets so she can be harassed for daring to accuse a fellow Republican.

To anyone who has carelessly done so to the victim, we would like to say, “F************ Youuuuuuu” for being partisan, petty s**ts who want to ruin a young woman for having the courage to come forward just based on political alliances. We had to use more letters to drag that out to express the proper amount of contempt, and we’ll extend the same salute to Aaron von Erlinger for being a creep.

[numberthirty]

So, in essence, Texans will soon become no better than common crooks who own guns without licenses. Well played, Qpublicans.

"Own..." is probably even a bit of a stretch in that second half.

The charge is "Illegal Possession Of A Firearm..." for a perfectly good reason.

[Mister Mets]

Of course, Thirty doesn't really understand the reason the DOJ is appealing this. He just seeks a chance to take quick pot shots at the Biden administration while ignoring the actual elephants in the room.

Here's a thread on the why's of the DOJ's actions, however, and while I don't love it, I understand the why's of it and I don't think it's rooted in a 'refusal to hold Trump accountable'.

https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/statu...15969113968643

Someone can easily believe it's a bad thing if the Biden administration appeals a judge's decision regarding transparency in a way that allows Trump to get away with stuff because they want to be able to hide stuff which judges rule should be released. I'm sure numberthirty would generally be in favor of presidential administrations abiding by judicial rulings about transparency.

Granted, another wrinkle is that a memo about the conclusion that Trump didn't commit obstruction might help his reputation, or at least not hurt. It would presumably give some material to his defenders, even if they're unlikely to consider it holistically, and just going to look at anything that disputes an argument prominent progressives said (IE- this congressman said X, but the memo found otherwise.)

[Tami]

McGahn Is Likely to Testify Next Week on Trump’s Efforts to Obstruct Russia Inquiry

WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump’s former White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, has agreed to testify behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee sometime next week about Mr. Trump’s efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers for House Democrats, the Justice Department and Mr. McGahn had tentatively struck a deal to provide the testimony earlier in May. But the scheduling was delayed for weeks while they waited to see what Mr. Trump, who was not a party to the agreement, would do.

Mr. McGahn’s agreement to testify — with President Biden’s permission — was contingent upon there being no active legal challenge to his participation in the matter, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the legal and political sensitivity of the matter.

Immediately after the deal was announced this month in a court filing, a lawyer for Mr. Trump had conveyed that the former president intended to intervene. Former presidents can invoke executive privilege, although courts weigh that against the view of the incumbent president, and Mr. Trump could have sought a court order blocking Mr. McGahn’s testimony.

But late last week, the people said, the lawyer for Mr. Trump — Patrick Philbin, a former deputy White House counsel in the Trump administration who is continuing to help handle his post-presidential legal affairs — said that Mr. Trump would not be intervening after all.

Mr. Philbin, who did not respond to a request for comment, is said to have provided no reason for the about-face.

Now that Mr. Trump is no longer president, however, there is at least one major difference: To keep litigating over the matter, Mr. Trump would have to pay the legal costs himself.

[Ragged Maw]

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/loca...ating/2515634/

Argument may have been that he "roughly but faithfully" followed guidelines of the latest police training video; and he lied out of "genuine fear of violent reprisal that could end his life".

[CaptainEurope]

Romney is a yes on the January 6 commission. Not a big surprise.

[Tami]

Romney is a yes on the January 6 commission. Not a big surprise.

Susan Collins is a 'Maybe'

Well, lets' see if anyone else steps up.

[Tami]

Missing man found dead inside Spanish dinosaur statue

Officers were called to the statue in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a satellite town of Barcelona, after a man and his son noticed something inside the papier-mache stegosaurus on Saturday afternoon.

A spokeswoman for the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, said the death of the 39-year-old man was not being treated as suspicious.

“A father and son noticed that there was something inside and raised the alarm,” she said.

“We found the body of a man inside the leg of this dinosaur statue. It’s an accidental death; there was no violence. This person got inside the statue’s leg and got trapped. It looks as though he was trying to retrieve a mobile phone, which he’d dropped. It looks like he entered the statue head first and couldn’t get out."

The spokeswoman said officers had called in firefighters to help cut into the statue so the body of the man could be removed.

Warning, if you drop your mobile phone inside a papier-mache Dinosaur statue, get help. Don't try to retrieve it on your own.

[Hellion]

Missing man found dead inside Spanish dinosaur statue



Warning, if you drop your mobile phone inside a papier-mache Dinosaur statue, get help. Don't try to retrieve it on your own.

I was laughing about this yesterday. I find it hard to believe there's no foul-play involved. The dinosaur stands in a public area, if the guy was really stuck he could have made enough noise to attract attention. If it ain't murder, however, I expect the poor guy to win a Darwin Award.

[Hellion]

Has anyone heard about the crazy story of the Belarusian government literally hijacking an EU plane over its airspace solely so they could kidnap a dissident journalist on board?

I mean the ridiculous brazen-ness of this evil action is mind boggling and alarming. It could potentially be the biggest air transit incident since 9/11 since what's to stop authoritarian leaders in India, China and other countries to weaponize its airspace and pull stunts like this in future?

Since nobody else remarked on this, I'll have a go. Thanks for bringing it up, I was following the news on this story yesterday. It's crazy and scary. Pulling a bullshit lie about Hamas having a bomb on the plane...is the EU really going to step up, though? I mean Putin was letting Navalny starve to death in a dungeon recently and nobody else did much that didn't just amount to "thoughts and prayers."