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

[BeastieRunner]

I've seen several of his cartoons in the Onion. I get what he's trying to do, but he's a bit ham-fisted with it. The person who did that sort of thing the best was Stephen Colbert, when he had the Colbert Report on Comedy Central. It's a fine line between staying in character and having people think you've actually become what you're satirizing.

Colbert took inspiration from Stan, for what it is worth.

[williamtheday]

I may have said 4000 years ago (if there is reincarnation) that mathematics would lead us to a catastrophe like this.

[Tami]

Ohio police chief resigns after he's caught placing KKK sign — along with mock hood and robe — on Black officer's desk

A white police chief in Ohio has resigned after placing a "Ku Klux Klan" sign on a Black officer's desk, in what he claimed was a prank.

Sheffield Lake police chief Anthony Campo, who had been with the department for 33 years, stepped down Tuesday after city officials got wind of the incident that occurred last Friday, according to Cleveland.com.

A surveillance video from inside the police station shows the chief printing out the sign, before placing it on top of a yellow jacket laid out to resemble a KKK hood and robe. When the Black officer discovers the sign, he appears to smile before engaging in conversation with the chief, but there is no audio. The officer later told the mayor he smiled because he was taken aback and didn't know what to do.

Upon learning of the incident, Mayor Dennis Bring said he immediately went to Campo's office.

"I came into the chief's office, and he's standing there with a smile on his face," Bring said. "He goes, 'So, am I fired?'"

The mayor said he gave the chief 10 minutes to get out and told him he was being placed on administrative leave. At that point, Campo resigned.

[AnakinFlair]

Meanwhile in the Gulf of Mexico, the ocean is on fire.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Meanwhile in the Gulf of Mexico, the ocean is on fire.

Not to make light of what's shaping up to be the worst man-made environmental disaster since Deepwater Horizon, but, while watching the video, I kept waiting for Godzilla to break the surface and raise hell against humanity. That video is straight up terrifying.

[Tami]

Not to make light of what's shaping up to be the worst man-made environmental disaster since Deepwater Horizon, but, while watching the video, I kept waiting for Godzilla to break the surface and raise hell against humanity. That video is straight up terrifying.

Godzilla? You're thinking too small. I'm thinking Cthulhu and his entire pantheon.

[Tami]

Supreme Court Rules Against Inmate in Death Penalty Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against an Alabama inmate whose lawyers argued that his trial counsel should have done more to try to show he is intellectually disabled and therefore he should be spared a death sentence.

In an unsigned 6-3 opinion, the conservative majority on Friday reversed an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finding and said that a state court had correctly rejected claims that Matthew Reeves had ineffective counsel at trial because they did not hire a neuropsychologist to present evidence he is intellectually disabled.

The three liberal justices dissented in the opinion. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, said the majority’s decision continues a “troubling trend in which this Court strains to reverse summarily any grants of relief to those facing execution.”

[BeastieRunner]

Ohio police chief resigns after he's caught placing KKK sign — along with mock hood and robe — on Black officer's desk

What is wrong with Ohio lately??

[Tendrin]

What is wrong with Ohio lately??

I can't qwhite put my finger on it.

[BeastieRunner]

I can't qwhite put my finger on it.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Godzilla? You're thinking too small. I'm thinking Cthulhu and his entire pantheon.

You got a point there!

**********

Found this online and got a chuckle out of it:

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Richard K. Jones, a man who has groused about illegal immigrants in hyperbolic ways now for over a decade, starting back when he would insult the Bush administration's immigration policy, and demand we seize whatever Mexican assets that were in the United States and sell them off to pay for the cost of catching and detaining illegal immigrants. Jones and his department have been successfully sued by legal immigrants for harassment that advanced to the violation of their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights (the 4th and 11th Amendment, specifically), and is being investigated by the Justice Department for racially profiling those he is sworn to protect and serve. Jones also claims that illegal immigrants are being given free computers by the Obama administration, and that his opinions about illegal immigrants don't make him a bigot because "he's just saying what everybody's thinking". While Sheriff Jones is still in office saying incredibly insane things like that the United States should “use the Mother of All Bombs on Mexican cartels” (which would be, y’know, just an act of war against our allies and deafen any innocent citizens within two miles of any strike), we’re going to look to folks in higher office than this incredible racist, fascist lunatic at this time.

In 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of the former U.S. House Representative from Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, Keith Rothfus, who not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, and then when the time came to reopen the government, he voted to keep it closed. He voted against disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, and against the latest version of the Violence Against Women Act. Rothfus is a climate change denier who adamantly opposes same sex marriage, wants to privatize Social Security, and wants to restrict women’s reproductive ways in as many ways as can be thought of. That latter point, and his love for Government Shutdowns crossed paths during the faux-outrage over Planned Parenthood in 2015, as Rep. Rothfus was actually one of 28 Republican men who threatened to shut down the government, again, over their inability to defund an organization who only uses about 3% of their budget on abortions, none of which comes from whatever government funding they do receive (that all goes towards women’s health). Keith Rothfus then continued to participate in the GOP’s smear campaign against Planned Parenthood, where he described “crushing baby parts” and how “ghoulish” the organization was… (y’know, the sort of rhetoric that served as a stochastic terror trigger to inspire Robert Lewis Dear to go and shoot up a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. After investigations into Planned Parenthoods turned up nothing, and the Center for Medical Progress actually ended up having two of their leaders indicted for tampering with government records… Rothfus still insists that Planned Parenthood admitted to wrongdoing, and was caught selling human body parts. Rothfus took to the floor of the House in May of 2016 to whine about how his “religious freedom” was being threatened in today’s America. And while you might not see Keith Rothfus on cable news all the time, where you do see him comment is in press releases whenever the Supreme Court makes a major ruling, and as a former corporate lawyer, Rothfus always chides them for making rulings that as a conservative, he just doesn’t like, like when he released an amicus brief after the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 against the state of Texas in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, where he was still trying to keep up the illusion (the lie) that “safety” was the motivation behind the undue and unnecessary restrictions placed upon abortion clinics in Texas to shut them down violated a woman’s constitutional right to find access to the procedure. Rothfus spent his last term in office dodging his constituents in his home district, failing to attend scheduled town halls with them. Maybe if he was there, he would have heard how upset they were about a proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The one that Rothfus not only voted for, in spite of only 17% of the country supporting it, but that he actually took to the floor of the House to talk about, giddy with anticipation to vote for. Pennsylvania’s 12th was restructured by a court-order to undo a Republican-engineered gerrymander, and that made it possible for Conor Lamb to send him packing after he only managed 44% of the vote in 2018.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Donald Bolduc, a 2020 candidate for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, and veteran of 36 years with the U.S. Army. Bolduc announced his run for office in June of 2019, and immediately announced his intention to see Roe v. Wade overturned and to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Perhaps the disqualifying moment for Bolduc was when he furthered the racist conspiracy theory that the Chinese intentionally created Covid-19 in a lab and deliberately released it on their on people, and let it spread into the rest of the world. Of course, Bolduc constantly beats the drums of war when it comes to China, seemingly itching to fight them, so his reasons for bringing up the conspiracy are telling. If you weren’t concerned enough, in May of 2020, as Trump blathered on at daily White House press briefings, spreading misinformation about Covid-19 including asking out light if people could inject themselves with disinfectants, Bolduc was suggesting that it was the MEDIA that should be shut down during crisis situations like pandemics, which holy s***, would be an obvious violation of the freedom of the press covered in the First Amendment. While that’s the bulk of our reasons why this maniac should have no place in the U.S. Senate, we’ll add that he also had some bizarre revisionist history about how “gridlock, blaming, and finger-pointing” were the cause of the Civil War, and told a misogynist joke about how to prove who loved you more, try locking your wife in the trunk of your car, then your dog, and see which would be happier to see you when you let them out. Alas, Bolduc finished second in the GOP Primary in 2020, and never got to face off against Senator Jean Shaheen. But don’t look now, but he didn’t decide to take a hint and has registered to appear in the 2022 GOP Primary to take a shot at the Senate seat held by Senator Maggie Hassan, who’s even more formidable. We’ll keep an eye on him as we get closer to the mid-terms next year, but for now, we’ll set aside his profile to take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 999-50, since this was established in July 2014.


Errol Webber

Welcome to what is the 999th profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Errol Webber, a rare African-American immigrant Republican (from Jamaica) who was a 2020 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 37th Congressional District, hoping to knock off much-beloved Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass.

In June of 2020, Webber posted twice in two days on Twitter, first baselessly accusing Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (who was not his opponent) of committing “immigration fraud” without any proof, or explanation of what he was talking about. He then went on to complain about CNN hosting Sesame Street characters in interviews to help children understand the dangers of Covid-19, saying they were “brainwashing our kids ”.

Well, of course, with Rep. Karen Bass being well-liked and all, and her district being pretty liberal, she won re-election easily and Errol Webber only got 14% of the vote. Much like his political idol, Donald Trump, he refused to concede after getting obliterated at the polls, claiming that “Every LEGAL vote needs to be counted!”

Anyway, he was very briefly a candidate for Governor of California in 2022 before withdrawing, and is still active on social media, trolling sane people by posting things like how Donald Trump deserves credit for Juneteenth becoming a holiday because he hosted a tone-deaf rally in Tulsa on the holiday, or conspiracy theories about Joe Biden being debilitated from dementia, or that the entire Covid-19 pandemic is a “fraud”.

Webber has the look of being on of those “perennial candidates” that people should back away from slowly. Or, full on run away from.

[Tami]

Inseparable: On their 75th anniversary, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter celebrate a record-setting love story back where it all started

PLAINS, Ga. — When they arrived, they strolled hand-in-hand toward their pond with a graceful willow at its edge.

“We’re going to be buried right there, on that little hill,” Jimmy Carter said, motioning toward the lawn sloping up from the pond.

“There are little white azaleas all the way around the back of it,” Rosalynn Carter said, pointing and remembering the recent day when a beautiful bluebird landed on her future gravesite. “It sat there all the time I was talking to the man who was actually digging the holes to put the vaults in.”

“I’m pulling you along now,” Jimmy said, laughing and tugging gently on his wife’s thin hand.

“I know, I know,” she said, smiling at him and locking her pinkie around his.

On Wednesday, the Carters will be married 75 years, the longest in presidential history. Jimmy, 96, and Rosalynn, 93, will mark the occasion in the town where they met nearly a century ago. “They will probably just sit and hold hands,” said a friend and neighbor, Jill Stuckey.

Three days later, family, friends and Carter administration officials will travel to Plains for an anniversary party in the local high school auditorium.

On the summer evening three years ago when we met with them, they chatted happily about what they looked forward to most: gathering with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, working at the Carter Center in Atlanta, teaching Sunday school, greeting political leaders who come to Plains to talk to the 39th president. (In April, President Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited.)

But their health was failing, and no one was denying the obvious. Jimmy had been treated for a series of health problems, including melanoma that had spread to his brain and liver. Rosalynn had osteoporosis and had recently undergone surgery for painful intestinal problems.

They had made their peace with the inevitable, but they said the hardest part was knowing that one would leave the other behind.

Carter was a good President, I actually felt bad for him. The Presidency, maybe it wasn't the right job for him.

[Mister Mets]

What is wrong with Ohio lately??

One official did something really stupid, and now he's out of a job. It is a state with over 11 million people.

I can understand the part of the law about "gives the appearance of being an election official.” Wouldnt a work around for that be for when someone shows up to talk they just say at the start "I am not an election official can I have a moment of you time?" Or something like that?

Of course I can think of groups where it would benefit them for being seen as an election official so not sure what a work around could be.

Some people may benefit from being able to convince others that they're election officials, but that's probably not a good thing.

None of them were convicted of sexual misconduct.

Tiger Woods cheated on his wife. Elvis Presley not only cheated on his wife but also dated an underage girl while he was in Germany serving in the Army. Yet both of them received the medal of freedom from none other than Donald J. Trump, a fellow wife cheater. Neither of them were convicted, like the examples you provided but they were credibly accused of sexual misconduct.

My main point is that politicians can abuse the ability to take away the presidential medal of freedom retroactively.

There are some potential workarounds. If it's limited to extreme situations like convictions for sexual misconduct, it's less likely to be abused. Technically, Cosby's conviction was overturned, so that doesn't count.

One idea I've heard is that a former president should be able to request it to be revoked. This will allow it to be taken away in a Cosby-style situation, and prevents the process from being abused by partisans.

[worstblogever]

Ignoring the tragedy in of that condo collapse in Florida that has still left 100 lives unaccounted for in its wreckage, Donald Trump ignored pleas to not hold a rally in the Sunshine State last night, for fear of pulling state resources from law enforcement to crowd control on his grievance-o-rama.

And then, much like his idiot sons have gone onto Fox News and commented on the indictments against the Trump Organization, Donald Trump essentially admitted to a tax avoidance scheme using company cars, apartments, or tuition for their children to avoid paying taxes as benefits he gives employees.