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

[worstblogever]

From Brian Tyler Cohen, on Twitter:

"We’re at the point where rightwing media has convinced its viewers not to get a free, life-saving vaccine, and those people are dying at a rate of 99-to-1 compared to the vaccinated. They’re literally killing their base, all to turn a public health issue into a culture war issue."

[worstblogever]

In happier news, a third consecutive venue in California has cancelled and not allowed Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene to host one of their "America First" white nationalist rallies. This one was hours before the scheduled start.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile on Jeremy Durham, a former House Majority Whip of the Tennessee House of Representatives, and, for lack of a better term, a colossal, skeevy f***-up. The first scandal that broke about Jeremy Durham back in December of 2015 seemed like something that a legislator might survive politically if they just kept a low profile… news leaded that back in 2013, Durham was accused of potential prescription drug fraud, having supposedly altered it in an attempt to get more Adderall. No charges were filed, no big deal, right? Well, a few days later, the media in Tennessee were digging more into Durham’s background, and saw that he had gone out of his way to ask a judge for leniency in the case of a youth pastor who had been caught in an improper relationship with a 16 year old, and while the cops were looking into that, the pastor was also found to be in possession of child pornography. Really interesting that this was the charity case Durham took up, huh? (More on this in a minute…) Well, then a few days after that, the Tennessean ran a story about an ongoing sexual harassment claim against Jeremy Durham, and the next thing you knew, ladies in the state legislature started coming forward stories about uncomfortable encounters where they were similarly harassed by Durham, and one of the common threads seemed to be that he was trying to get them alone, or into an encounter where they’d partake in some alcohol. Over the course of several months, a ton of women were producing evidence in the form of sexually-suggestive text messages from Durham (often apparently while he was under the influence of alcohol), as well, and a state Attorney General’s investigation came to the conclusion that he was, quite frankly, a creepy bastard. The funny part of all this, though, is that Jeremy Durham had been one of the loudest voices calling for one of those transphobic bathroom bills a lot of state legislators around the country are calling for, based on the idea that there were men pretending to be women and rolling up on them in public restrooms to assault them (which actually isn’t happening). But Durham was pervy enough that the Tennessee state legislature literally banned him to his own separate building, because he’s too much of a pervert to be trusted around the opposite sex. We wish we could share all of the details of Durham’s shenanigans to further embarrass him, but alas, Durham and his attorney are fighting to keep them legally sealed, even as the state Attorney General is trying to disclose them to the media, who sure want the dirt. A vote was held to officially expel him from the state legislature, and we’re going to guess that means his career in politics is mercifully over.

On this date in 2014, 2015, and after a one year hiatus from us covering him, again in 2017, 2018, 2019, and then in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Mississippi State Senator Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Mississippi who you might remember as the guy who considers any compromise to be a "surrender", and attends meetings of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. When he gets caught speaking to people who think the Antebellum South was keen, or cash donations from lawyers for the KKK, he frequently, gets caught lying about it, too. But McDaniel was the challenger to Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014, who sent operatives into the nursing home where Cochran's wife is convalescing to have pictures of her taken laid up in bed to try and portray Cochran as some heartless monster who doesn't care about her. One of his aides committed suicide after being caught in the disgusting scandal, which McDaniel, not entirely convincingly, claimed he had no knowledge of. After many failed lawsuits stemming from his 2014 election loss to Thad Cochran (he was furious Cochran had Democrats vote in the open primary on the Republican ticket, and select Cochran, since he was less extreme of an option), McDaniel’s career as a Mississippi State Senator is beginning to stall, as well, as every piece of legislation he has written throughout his time in office thus far has died in committee. McDaniel remains an all-around heel, responding to the hugely attended Women’s March on Washington, D.C., the day after the Trump inauguration by trolling on Facebook, referring to the crowd as “"a group of unhappy liberal women" and asking how they "can afford all those piercings, tattoos, body paintings, signs, and plane tickets, when they want us to pay for their birth control?" Well, that was akin to kicking a hornet’s nest. He was far from apologetic the next day, ranting that "no amount of liberal hell raising" would ever make him change his opinion about "free abortions" (This is the guy who considers any kind of compromise to be “surrender” of course), and laughing off the disgust at his remarks, because he felt that "literally 99 percent of you are not from MS. Perfect. It's nice to know I'm in your heads." As Sen. Thad Cochran announced his impending retirement in 2018, that Chris McDaniel was not content to sit and watch Missouri Gov. Phil Bryant appoint Cindy Hyde-Smith to the U.S. Senate, and McDaniel is entering the special election to fill out the remainder of Cochran’s term, that ends in 2020, to avenge his 2014 loss. During the primary for that race, polling showed Mike Espy and Cindy Hyde-Smith in a virtual tie at about 33%, and McDaniel trailing in a distant third, with about 12%. Although, McDaniel insisted that such numbers are from a “fake poll”, and just a “dirty trick” because of course he did. As the election advanced further, McDaniel tried to stir up support online among the Neo-Confederate crowd by first calling Conderate General Robert E. Lee a “hero” and posting a survey on his Twitter whether or not people should consider Robert E. Lee agreed. Let us us describe the response McDaniel received as “ratio’ed”. Chris McDaniel ended up losing in the primary in the race for U.S. Senate, finishing third with only 16% of the vote. He was up for re-election in 2019 for his seat in the Mississippi State Senate, and will be re-elected on the basis that no one bothered to run against him. He thus will remain in office until 2023, where he will continue to vote against such modest suggestions for improving society as guaranteeing equal pay for women, and voting against removing the Confederate iconography from the Mississippi state flag, even under threat of sports and tourism boycotts if the state did not. McDaniel was quoted as saying “WHAT’S THE RUSH?” about taking something off the flag celebrating a failed rebellion over keeping human slaves from 160 years ago. Simply put, he remains a racist tool. As he is not running for any higher office currently and we have no further updates on him, we will temporarily set aside his profile for this year to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1005-50, since this was established in July 2014.


Nicholas Gladden

Welcome to what is the 1005th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Nicholas Gladden, who was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland’s 8th Congressional District, hoping to get a chance to unseat Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin in a deeply blue district. We have to profile Gladden not just because he decided to stir up anti-Asian resentment by referring to Covid-19 as “the China virus” on Twitter, but he’s the latest in a long line of Republicans who ran for Congress in 2020 who also promoted the Qanon conspiracy theory.

Nicholas Gladden finished third out of a possible six candidates in the Republican Primary in the race for Maryland’s 8th Congressional District in the House, getting only 12.8% of the vote. This has given him time to sporadically post on social media to spread conspiracy theories about Antifa secretly disguising themselves as Trump supporters to attack the Capitol and frame the right for January 6th, lies to contribute to Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the election is stolen, perpetrate the myth that conservatives are being “unfairly censored” for being banned from social media for racist posts or calling for outright violence, retweet posts from White Nationalist Nick Fuentes that were bad enough for Twitter to remove them, and compare Black Lives Matter protesters to Nazis so commenters can call on them to be murdered for calling for justice in the face of police violence. (We made sure Facebook was notified of the threats of violence being posted in that last one, because holy s***.)

We are going to underline our opinion that Nicholas Gladden is bigoted trash, and look forward to whatever platform he has to spread hate being taken from him.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

There are many politicians that have denounced Trump and did so even if there is a threat to their safety. Pence isnt worried for his life or the life of his family. He is worried about the safety of his political career. If he took a hard line stance on Trump he couldnt back track it and spin it later when he wanted the votes of these nut jobs.

He is not a brave man. He is more worried about is future in the GOP. That is why he didnt say **** after he and his family were threatened.

Not exactly a profile in courage. I've heard conflicting reports that Pence might try his hand at a presidential run in 2024, if so, then he'll need the support of Trump and his psychotic base.

From Brian Tyler Cohen, on Twitter:

Well, if the GQP wants to bump off it's voter base, that would make things easier for Democrats in future elections.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Pence really oughta accept that a presidential run isn't going to work for him, and just bring Trump crashing down with him.

Man up and revenge up at the same time

[thwhtGuardian]

From Brian Tyler Cohen, on Twitter:

I've said it since the beginning that it's truly a weird move for Conservatives to take an anti-vax stand on this, sure the anti-vax crowd will cheer...but they're just a small part of the conservative vote, the larger sum of voters are white, older and middle age people with poor access to health care which are at a great risk to Covid-19. So by not taking it seriously they are a far greater risk of literally killing off a portion of their voter base.

[Tendrin]

https://news.yahoo.com/west*********...174541826.html

A Republican delegate from West Virginia who once sponsored a bill to ban the teaching of sexuality in public schools was removed from committee positions after posting explicit TikToks where he talked about the "male G-spot" and offered oral sex advice to women, according to Metro Weekly and other outlets.

The state-level delegate, Joe Jeffries, represents West Virginia's District 22. The 39-year-old was elected to the role in 2018, re-elected in 2020, and will continue to serve until 2022 unless he resigns, which some officials are calling on him to do.

Oh WBE-Eee, etc.



....west V-i-r-g-i-n-ia is now running afoul of the censor. xD

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I've said it since the beginning that it's truly a weird move for Conservatives to take an anti-vax stand on this, sure the anti-vax crowd will cheer...but they're just a small part of the conservative vote, the larger sum of voters are white, older and middle age people with poor access to health care which are at a great risk to Covid-19. So by not taking it seriously they are a far greater risk of literally killing off a portion of their voter base.

I wonder if conservatives really care that they're sending their base to an early grave, or if fighting against science which they consider to be exclusively the purview of the left and us godless liberals is more important to them than life itself.

https://news.yahoo.com/west*********...174541826.html



Oh WBE-Eee, etc.



....west V-i-r-g-i-n-ia is now running afoul of the censor. xD

Well now, this guy is certainly a class act.

[AnakinFlair]

Prosecutors said a Capitol rioter left a probation officer an obscene voicemail. Now, his bail has been revoked.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/january...ene-voicemail/

What pisses me off about this story is the idiot judge. Fellows was repeatedly belligerent and has flouted every rule that was put down before him when he was granted bail, but it took three tries from the Prosecutor before the judge would finally revoke his bail.

Prosecutors had asked a judge twice to revoke his pretrial release, but the judge had previously denied both requests. On Thursday, Judge Trevor McFadden granted their third request, noting he could no longer give Fellows the benefit of the doubt after his sustained pattern of behavior.

Benefit of the doubt. If Fellows had been black, that judge would have thrown him in a hole and buried the hole at his first hearing.

[godisawesome]

So the Cyber Ninja “audit” of Arizona has done its earliest narrative-construction - they found an area where a clerical short-cut lets them pretend that there’s a clerical error. Basically, Arizona has a weekend where in-person early voting could happen without it being recorded alongside requested mail-in ballots on the same sheet of paper… so there *is* actually a record showing all but two of the 74,000+ that Cyber Ninja is whining about as being legal and proper, it just looks funny on the paper report Cyber Ninja is going to be publicizing.

[Mister Mets]

Doesn't sound that cut and dry.

https://www.politicalflare.com/2021/...nown-officers/

Sounds like their were a lot of trust issues with the Secret Service.

The story's coming from a major book that will be published soon.

It's gotten coverage elsewhere.

It's worth noting that the specific idea that Pence didn't trust unknown secret service agents because he thought they might've been sympathetic to the rioters isn't reported by major figures.

Political Flare does not have a great reputation.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/political-flare/

The original tweet was from a film producer.

It's worth noting that the writer of the book doesn't suggest Pence was scared secret service may be involved in a coup attempt. Nor do the writeups about it in Newsweek, Political Wire, or Business Insider.

An issue may be that people who didn't read a book that isn't coming out until Tuesday are going off an excerpt and missing some context.

A Huffington Post summary notes the concern that Pence would be taken somewhere so secure he won't be able to get back easily.

Finally, he was escorted to a subterranean location, where Pence’s armored limousine awaited, and was told to get in the car.

“I’m not getting in the car, Tim,” Pence replied, according to Rucker and Leonnig. “If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I’m not getting in the car.”

Tony Ornato, who oversaw Secret Service movements, reportedly told White House senior official Keith Kellogg in the West Wing that agents were planning to move Pence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

“You can’t do that, Tony,” Kellogg said, according to the book. “Leave him where he’s at. He’s got a job to do. I know you guys too well. You’ll fly him to Alaska if you have a chance. Don’t do it.”

He’s “going to stay there,” Kellogg added, according to the book. “If he has to wait there all night, he’s going to do it.” (Ornato denied that the conversation took place.)

[Malvolio]

From Brian Tyler Cohen, on Twitter:

Well, the vaccine is free so that makes it socialized health care, right? If some corporation were profiting directly from the vaccine, you can bet the Republican Party would be promoting it every day on FOX News.

[Tami]

Well, the vaccine is free so that makes it socialized health care, right? If some corporation were profiting directly from the vaccine, you can bet the Republican Party would be promoting it every day on FOX News.

The companies are profiting from it, the only difference is that the vaccine is being paid for from the Common Pot of taxpayer money, instead fo being paid for though insurance or out of pocket.

Still, the difference is enough to give the Republicans another excuse to acts as crazy as they are.

the companies profit margin from the current vaccine is small, but in the future they can profit from it as well as using it as proof of concept. At least one of the other companies has already said that they want to use this technology to create vaccines against AIDS and other similar illnesses.

[Malvolio]

The companies are profiting from it, the only difference is that the vaccine is being paid for from the Common Pot of taxpayer money, instead fo being paid for though insurance or out of pocket.

Still, the difference is enough to give the Republicans another excuse to acts as crazy as they are.

the companies profit margin from the current vaccine is small, but in the future they can profit from it as well as using it as proof of concept. At least one of the other companies has already said that they want to use this technology to create vaccines against AIDS and other similar illnesses.

Oh, of course. Pfizer and Moderna (and to a lesser extent, Johnson & Johnson) are profiting more from the positive publicity than from the literal cost of the vaccine. But if a Martin Shkreli type were charging $600 a dose for it, you would see Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham defending his absolute right to profit from the vaccine that he, not the scientists he hired, is responsible for creating.

[Tami]

FT editor among 180 journalists identified by clients of spyware firm

The editor of the Financial Times is one of more than 180 editors, investigative reporters and other journalists around the world who were selected as possible candidates for surveillance by government clients of the surveillance firm NSO Group, the Guardian can reveal.

Roula Khalaf, who became the first female editor in the newspaper’s history last year, was selected as a potential target throughout 2018.

Her number is included in a leaked list of mobile phone numbers selected for possible surveillance by clients of NSO, an Israeli firm that manufactures spyware and sells it to governments. Its principal product, Pegasus, is capable of compromising a phone, extracting all of the data stored on the device and activating its microphone to eavesdrop on conversations.

Other journalists who were selected as possible candidates for surveillance by NSO’s clients work for some of the world’s most prestigious media organisations. They include the Wall Street Journal, CNN, the New York Times, Al Jazeera, France 24, Radio Free Europe, Mediapart, El País, Associated Press, Le Monde, Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse, the Economist, Reuters and Voice of America.

NSO has long insisted that the governments to whom it licenses Pegasus are contractually bound to only use the powerful spying tool to fight “serious crime and terrorism”.

Ah uh...yeah...right.....

Private Israeli spyware used to hack cellphones of journalists, activists worldwide

Military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners.

The phones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that are concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of the Israeli firm, NSO Group, a worldwide leader in the growing and largely unregulated private spyware industry, the investigation found.

The list does not identify who put the numbers on it, or why, and it is unknown how many of the phones were targeted or surveilled. But forensic analysis of the 37 smartphones shows that many display a tight correlation between time stamps associated with a number on the list and the initiation of surveillance, in some cases as brief as a few seconds.

Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism nonprofit, and Amnesty International, a human rights group, had access to the list and shared it with the news organizations, which did further research and analysis. Amnesty’s Security Lab did the forensic analyses on the smartphones.

The numbers on the list are unattributed, but reporters were able to identify more than 1,000 people spanning more than 50 countries through research and interviews on four continents: several Arab royal family members, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials — including cabinet ministers, diplomats, and military and security officers. The numbers of several heads of state and prime ministers also appeared on the list.

Among the journalists whose numbers appear on the list, which dates to 2016, are reporters working overseas for several leading news organizations, including a small number from CNN, the Associated Press, Voice of America, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Le Monde in France, the Financial Times in London and Al Jazeera in Qatar.

The targeting of the 37 smartphones would appear to conflict with the stated purpose of NSO’s licensing of the Pegasus spyware, which the company says is intended only for use in surveilling terrorists and major criminals. The evidence extracted from these smartphones, revealed here for the first time, calls into question pledges by the Israeli company to police its clients for human rights abuses.