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

[numberthirty]

Funny thing. Qpublicans never worried that Democrats would cry foul about the dozen or so partisan investigations into Benghazi not being on the level.

Politely, "Apple..."/"Orange..."

Unless there was an "American Citizen..." angle to Benghazi?

That was an actual government face plant in a way that they are not looking to investigate here.

(Which is not to say that they should have investigated it about a zillion times. Just that it was a different thing.)

[worstblogever]

Politely, "Apple..."/"Orange..."

Unless there was an "American Citizen..." angle to Benghazi?

That was an actual government face plant in a way that they are not looking to investigate here.

(Which is not to say that they should have investigated it about a zillion times. Just that it was a different thing.)

Please. I know a good place those apples and oranges in your terrible metaphor can be placed.

Benghazi was a sudden thing that happened over the course of hours thousands of miles away in North Africa. It unfolded suddenly.

1/6 was on American soil and was being blatantly plotted on social media, wide open. For weeks. WEEKS. People booked travel to come to DC for it. It was carried out by Americans. Against Congress. Fomented by the President and white nationalist followers. It was seen coming a mile away, and yet the Capitol Police Chief assured everybody it would be under control (why he was sacked).

We still need to know why 1/6 was allowed to take place as well as who delayed the response within the intelligence community.

[Kirby101]

Politely, "Apple..."/"Orange..."

Unless there was an "American Citizen..." angle to Benghazi?

That was an actual government face plant in a way that they are not looking to investigate here.

(Which is not to say that they should have investigated it about a zillion times. Just that it was a different thing.)

I don't know what you are saying here. That Benghazi deserved to be investigated more than Jan. 6th?

[numberthirty]

Please. I know a good place those apples and oranges in your terrible metaphor can be placed.

Benghazi was a sudden thing that happened over the course of hours thousands of miles away in North Africa. It unfolded suddenly.

1/6 was on American soil and was being blatantly plotted on social media, wide open. For weeks. WEEKS. People booked travel to come to DC for it. It was carried out by Americans. Against Congress. Fomented by the President and white nationalist followers. It was seen coming a mile away, and yet the Capitol Police Chief assured everybody it would be under control (why he was sacked).

We still need to know why 1/6 was allowed to take place as well as who delayed the response within the intelligence community.

You just laid out that one has a pretty serious "Citizen..." component while the other was strictly a government mistake that should have been investigated because government came up short.

"Apple..."/"Orange..."

Does the "Orange..." warrant investigation?

Sure.

The fact that it does will not magically turn it into an "Apple..."

[numberthirty]

I don't know what you are saying here. That Benghazi deserved to be investigated more than Jan. 6th?

More like...

"What, Exactly, Would Be The Case For Not Investigating Bengahzi Almost Automatically?..."

It was the sort of "Strictly Government..." failure that absolutely should be investigated.

The sixth?

Different kettle of fish.

While it warrants investigation, I have never really got the vibe that anyone backing the investigation wants to keep it just to the "Governmental Shortcoming..." aspect of how it played out.

[worstblogever]

You just laid out that one has a pretty serious "Citizen..." component while the other was strictly a government mistake that should have been investigated because government came up short.

"Apple..."/"Orange..."

Does the "Orange..." warrant investigation?

Sure.

The fact that it does will not magically turn it into an "Apple..."

Stop. Gaslighting. Us. All.

It was plotted in plain sight. For WEEKS. It was covered by media based on those social media posts as a possibility of a thing that could happen before it happened. It was addressed with the police before it happened.

IT STILL HAPPENED.

F*** yes, there should be an investigation of how it was allowed to happen, and anyone pretending otherwise is insipid, or part of Trump's cult.

That is all.

[Kirby101]

More like...

"What, Exactly, Would Be The Case For Not Investigating Bengahzi Almost Automatically?..."

It was the sort of "Strictly Government..." failure that absolutely should be investigated.

The sixth?

Different kettle of fish.

While it warrants investigation, I have never really got the vibe that anyone backing the investigation wants to keep it just to the "Governmental Shortcoming..." aspect of how it played out.

What would be the case for not investigating the worst attack on the capitol in 200 years? One was that instigated by the sitting President?

[babyblob]

What would be the case for not investigating the worst attack on the capitol in 200 years? One was that instigated by the sitting President?

Ummm Hello Hunters Emails?

[numberthirty]

What would be the case for not investigating the worst attack on the capitol in 200 years? One was that instigated by the sitting President?

First, who is suggesting what is in blue?

Second, it's not about if one should and not the other.

If you have an embassy attacked or lead pipes that are making water unusable?

We are going to have an embassy and people using water this Sunday/three months from now/ten years from now(fingers crossed...)

How many more times in United States history will we have a President make that same move with Congress unprotected?

I'm not saying the thing doesn't warrant investigation. More like "The Steps To Address That Will Most Likely Happen Independent Of If An Investigation Happens Or Not..."

[numberthirty]

https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/05...ad-rage-clash/

Chicago Cop Who Fatally Shot Anthony Alvarez Being Investigated For Pulling Gun In Logan Square Road Rage Clash

[4saken1]

Please. I know a good place those apples and oranges in your terrible metaphor can be placed.

Benghazi was a sudden thing that happened over the course of hours thousands of miles away in North Africa. It unfolded suddenly.

1/6 was on American soil and was being blatantly plotted on social media, wide open. For weeks. WEEKS. People booked travel to come to DC for it. It was carried out by Americans. Against Congress. Fomented by the President and white nationalist followers. It was seen coming a mile away, and yet the Capitol Police Chief assured everybody it would be under control (why he was sacked).

We still need to know why 1/6 was allowed to take place as well as who delayed the response within the intelligence community.

The only reason that I can see for Benghazi to be investigated by Congress over the event on January 6th is that the former happened on foreign soil where we didn't have as much of a law enforcement agency present already investigating it. I still think Congress should investigate the latter, however.

[numberthirty]

One other "Small Potatoes..." thing when it comes to Sinema...

What was the point of doing this, only to turn around and do what she wound up doing?

(Barring The Outside Chance That She Might Be Looking For An 'Out' On The Filibuster...)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/janua...b09604b528654c

Joe Manchin And Kyrsten Sinema Beg GOP To Support Bipartisan Jan. 6 Commission

In a joint statement, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) called the creation of a commission “critical” to prevent such an attack from occurring again.

“We implore our Senate Republican colleagues to work with us to find a path forward on a commission to examine the events of January 6th,” the two senators said in the statement.

[numberthirty]

Along that line...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-ky...ommission-vote

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Won’t Explain Why She No-Showed for the Capitol Riot Commission Vote

Sinema’s spokesperson did not offer a reason for her absence but maintained that “she will be entering into the Congressional record that she would’ve voted ‘yes,’” in support of the commission.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Here Are The Big Questions A Capitol Riot Commission Could Answer

Senate Republicans blocked a plan for a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. What could it have uncovered? That Qpublicans had their hands in the riot and don't want that knowledge released to the public.

**********

The Filibuster Discourages Bipartisanship. The GOP Filibuster Of A Jan. 6 Commission Just Proved it.

Will this change the opinion of the remaining Democratic supporters of the filibuster? Ask smacked asses Joe Manchin and/or Kyrsten Sinema about that.

**********

GOP Accused Of Betraying America In Progressive PAC’s Stinging New Ad

MeidasTouch’s #GOPBetrayedAmerica spot calls out Republican opposition to a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. That ad was pretty potent.

**********

San Jose Shooter Was Reportedly Under Investigation At Work Over Racist Comments

A number of the 9 victims were people of color. Authorities found 12 other firearms and 22,000 rounds of various kinds of ammunition at the shooter’s home.

**********

Twitter Erupts After Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Breaks Out ‘Mexican Accent’

The ‘QAnon congresswoman’ pulled another outrageous stunt. Meanwhile, Craven Kevin McCarthy mumbles, "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!"

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that ‘Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Jay Townsend, a former candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010 who tried challenging Sen. Chuck Schumer… by claiming he didn’t actually support Israel enough(Chuck Schumer of all people!). Part of his campaign to do so involved him appearing with known anti-Islamic hate-monger Pamela Geller near the 9/11 site, as she raved about Muslims trying to build a “Ground Zero Mosque”. During protests in Wisconsin against Gov. Scott Walker by union workers, Townsend referred to the unions as “pigs needing to be slaughtered”. When he became a campaign advisor for former Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, he went way, way over the line when he suggested that conservatives should “hurl some acid” at female Democratic Senators who voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a move that typically is used by psychos in the Taliban to silence women they don’t agree with. Townsend’s political career has gone from being a terrible candidate, to a liability as an adviser, to not even rating headlines.

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Spencer Bachus, a former eleven term U.S. House Representative from Alabama's 6th Congressional District from 1993 through 2015, Bachus easily won office in that district, mostly because of redistricting prior to his 1992 run, most of the African American parts of Birhingham, Alabama, were shunted off into Alabama's 7th, and brought most of the white wealthy districts from the 7th to the 6th, making it a much friendlier district to him, as a member of the GOP. While Bachus was often associated with his role from 2006 to 2012 as the head of the House Financial Services Committee, he was certainly a figure not without other controversy. Back in May of 2005, when it was rather easy for conservatives to chastise critics or anyone that had the nerve to not just nod their head and agree, comedian Bill Maher was using his First Amendment right of satire on his show to joke about how the U.S. military began falling short of recruiting goals by saying, "More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club. We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies." Spencer Bachus didn’t take that sort of talk in stride, and had the levelheaded response of accusing Maher of straight-up treason. He eventually was kind enough to backpedal and say that he at least wasn’t going to call for Maher to be prosecuted for this capital crime, instead settling to have him off the air (alas, he would not get that wish). But that’s not the only time Bachus went over the top to demonize dissenting opinions. On April 9th, 2009, he started going the Joe McCarthy route in rhetoric and complaining to local Alabama officials that there were a supposed 17 socialists in the U.S. House. We’ll at least give him credit for Bernie Sanders, at least. Bachus just called it a career perhaps not coincidentally around the time it was revealed he was the most prolific member of Congress to perform legal insider trading (at the time), benefit from knowledge about the collapsing financial industry of the time to manipulate his own personal stock portfolio to profit from the crisis, as many citizens were losing their own homes and retirement funds. He helped get himself richer by betting against the U.S. economy. As Elizabeth Warren began moving to step in and regulate the big banks after that crisis, and close the kinds of loopholes that allowed Bachus' behavior to continue, he responded by saying that she and President Obama were "violating the Constitution". His overall voting record including voting to try and impeach Bill Clinton back in 1998, voted to repeal the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act that led to the 2007 financial crash, voted against Dodd-Frank financial reform that would prevent the next one, voted to allow government buildings to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments, the Iraq War, and was a staunch anti-abortion and pro-gun vote. Since Bachus has moved on to predictably start working as a lobbyist for K Street.

In both 2017, as well 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted profiles of the eleven-term U.S. House Representative from New Jersey’s 11th District, Rodney Frelinghuysen, who arrived in Congress all the way back in the 1994 Red Wave Election. Quite literally, he is a part of one of the oldest political families in the history of the United States, that goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War, that has had seven generations serve as politicians from New Jersey at the state and federal level. The family name has intimidated enough within New Jersey that many pundits note that for two decades, Rodney hasn’t had to face much in the way of a challenger at the polls. Frelinghuysen made a variety of controversial ethical decisions through the years like accepting donations from military contractors while sitting on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, often getting those donations on the same days he voted to get the same companies lucrative government contracts. Eventually, he decided it would be more prudent to stop pretending he represents his constituents at all, dodging town halls altogether. This of course would have a lot to do over the outrage surrounding his endorsement (albeit reluctant) of Donald Trump during the 2016 elections, and in his final term of Congress, his flip-flopping over support for repealing the Affordable Care Act in 2017. He insisted he wouldn’t vote to repeal… and then he did. So almost immediately, disgruntled constituents began calling his Washington, D.C. office, and staking him out if possible. One of the main grassroots activists working against him was Saily Avelenda, a banking executive from his district. And that was unacceptable to Congressman Frelinghuysen, who responded by writing a poison pen letter in the form of an e-mail to Avelenda’s boss, outing Avelenda’s out of work activities to him as a “ringleader”, which yet again made him the target of an ethics investigation, because WOW that is beyond the pale. Through his career, Frelinghuysen was a co-sponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act, voted for the impeachment of President Clinton for lying about the Monica Lewinsky affair, voted against Equal Pay for women, against Wall Street reform after the global economy tanked in 2007, against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and voted for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood. He is retired, and we hope that it’s not to groom his son to take his place in a few years.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Ohio State Senator Cliff Hite, who was first appointed to office back in 2011 by Governor John Kasich after serving four years on the Ohio House of Representatives. After a decade schlepping around the Ohio state legislature, Hite suddenly resigned in October of 2017, citing “health reasons”.Turns out, Hite has that medical condition a lot of Republicans around the country have had forcing their resignation, of “being a skeevy scumbag”. Because there’s sexual harassment, and then there’s just practically stalking. The 63-year-old Hite was revealed to have actually spent two months pleading with a female legislative employee to have sex with him despite her repeated refusals. Details included he admitted to previous extramarital affairs, he had a condo and no one would ever know, and on one specific day, he pestered her to have sex with him for more than an hour. Hite would shared intimate details of his sex life with his wife, and would plead, "I'm a grown man with needs," including (but not limited to) oral sex, according to the allegations. The woman refused eight or nine times. Cliff Hite’s voting record also was terrible for women (amazing coincidence, that), including support for anti-choice measures as extreme as fetal heartbeat bills. We’ll also note that he voted for legislation to allow guns in bars, tried to nullify the Affordable Care Act, and supported every Voter ID measure he could to try and rig our democracy so that Republicans would win in Ohio going forward.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day profiled Jamie Byers, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 4th Districtwho is also a parole officer and Pomeranian wrangler. While all of that description is ridiculous… it gets more so when we point out that Byers is a Qanon conspiracy theorist, who tweeted the slogan, “Where we go one, we go all” at Donald Trump on Twitter to show that loyalty, as well as support for Trump’s stupid f***ing border wall. Jamie Byers was defeated in the open primary for California’s 4th, finishing fifth out of six candidates and less than 2% of the vote. He has spent the pandemic raving like a madman over any Covid-19 restrictions being enforced by California Governor Gavin Newsom and repeatedly insisting, per the Qanon conspiracy theory that almost every living former member of the Obama administration are about to be taken to jail. As he seems unlikely to ever reach 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 990-50, since this was established in July 2014.