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

[Tendrin]

Well this seems concerning.

Oklahoma Rep. Markwayne Mullin allegedly threatened embassy staffers in Tajikistan when needing assistance in transporting a huge amount of cash into the country, in his attempt to enter neighboring Afghanistan, according to a report.

Mullin, a Republican, planned to hire a helicopter to enter Afghanistan and rescue five American citizens – a woman, and her four children, and he sought the ambassador's help, the Washington Post reported. He needed assistance bypassing Tajikistan’s laws on cash limits.

But when embassy officials told him no, Mullin allegedly threatened U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan, John Mark Pommersheim, and embassy staff, according to the paper.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/okl...er-afghanistan

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Well this seems concerning.


https://www.foxnews.com/politics/okl...er-afghanistan

Concerning? For sure. Will anything happen to Mullin? Nope. Unless he's caught on audio or video making those threats, it's just a case of he said/she said, and Mullin will deny that exchange took place. Meanwhile, how long before other wannabe heroes on the Hill like Mullin decide to play Rambo from First Blood: Part II and try their hands at conducting covert behind the lines rescue missions? That shit has to be nipped in the bud TODAY. Yes, it's damned frustrating that Americans were left behind, but that is NO way to get those people home.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The crazy thing is , these folks doing this will piss off the regime there in charge trying to do Rambo style missions. Were already taking some flack from Taliban for a drone attack that killed 6 innocent people to take out some terrorists. People doing this will just make it worse.

[numberthirty]

The crazy thing is , these folks doing this will piss off the regime there in charge trying to do Rambo style missions. Were already taking some flack from Taliban for a drone attack that killed 6 innocent people to take out some terrorists. People doing this will just make it worse.

Probably depend on how the Taliban play it.

Once they are in the driver's seat?

If most of what they do starts looking like Porter in Payback?

That will probably buy a lot of understanding for everyone not answering to "Taliban..."

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Probably depend on how the Taliban play it.

Once they are in the driver's seat?

If most of what they do starts looking like Porter in Payback?

That will probably buy a lot of understanding for everyone not answering to "Taliban..."

They are pissed about official situations like a drone attack that killed people. Imagine reading where you have folks doing Rambo style missions the country doesn't know about.

[numberthirty]

They are pissed about official situations like a drone attack that killed people. Imagine reading where you have folks doing Rambo style missions the country doesn't know about.

Again...

The Taliban start settling scores?

I don't think folks are going to lose a whole lot of sleep about that sort of thing.

As for the drone attack, no one is happy about the loss of innocent life.

That said, murders that took place in a country the Taliban have assumed control of set the stage for that.

Wasn't simply a reaction with no action taking place before it.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published our original profile of David Dreier, the former member of the U.S. House of Representatives for California's 26th District who who once was a rising star in the GOP, until of course his secret started to leak out that he was a closeted homosexual. Still, through the years, Rep. Dreier managed to vote with his party against all manner of LGBT issues, including not only against gay marriage, but even gay adoption rights. Dreier also had th highest paid Congressional intern once upon a time, which ended up being a bit of an ethical issue because that intern just so happened to be his boyfriend. After eight years of rumors, Dreier finally chose to not to run for re-election in 2013.

On this date in both 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" shared profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Virginia’s 6th Congressional District, Bob Goodlatte, who was allowed to run for office in a very conservative district with almost no primary challengers, at all, from 1992-2018. Goodlatte was one of the co-sponsors of Florida Rep. Bill Posey's "Birther Bill" in 2009, and in 2015, he accused the Department of Justice of funneling money to liberal organizations such as ACORN and LaRaza. The former would have been an amazing scandal, mostly because ACORN had long since defunded and had not existed since 2010. Goodlatte's voting record through the years includes voting for the Defense of Marriage Act, against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", voted to allow displays of the Ten Commandments on government property and for a Constitutional Amendment to allow individual states to vote for their own state religions, voted for the impeachment of Bill Clinton,voted to try and keep Terry Schiavo alive against her wishes, and voted for the invasion of Iraq. And that's the stuff from before the Obama administration. Since, the guy will vote against anything sensible, even disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, or against the Zadroga Bill, to pay for the healthcare costs of 9/11 First Responders. But what Rep. Goodlatte felt was a wise use of taxpayer money was to spend years investigating Hillary Clinton for doing all the bad stuff at Benghazi, and in July of 2016, after FBI Director James Comey declared there was no wrongdoing found, Goodlatte demanded an investigation into Comey’s investigation. Which, at that point, he might as well take taxpayer dollars into a 55 gallon drum and set them on fire. He celebrated by starting the new session attempting to orchestrate a secret vote to eliminate funding for the Office of Government Ethics. When the effort collapsed due to political outcry, he immediately changed the subject and voiced his opinion that FBI Director James Comey should investigate Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. Because of course he did. But really, can we be surprised he loathes ethics when he literally was busted for going twice the speed limit through a school zone, then sent his wife to argue on his behalf that it only happened due to a faulty speedometer, because he’s too stupid to be able to tell the difference between 70 and 35 MPH. Goodlatte finally announced he’s retiring and not running for re-election in 2018 after 13 terms in office, and he’s so inspiring that his son, Bobby Goodlatte, donated the maximum amount to the trying to flip his father’s seat blue (and she pulled it off). The younger Goodlatte actually chastised his father on social media for “political grandstanding” in demonizing FBI agent Peter Strzok for working for the Mueller investigation and called the hearing where his father did it “a low point for Congress”. And that will likely be Bob Goodlatte’s legacy. Being so insipidly partisan and craven that his own son turned his back on him. It’s… fitting.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Russell Walker, a 2018 candidate for the North Carolina House of Representatives who was challenging Democratic incumbent Garland Pierce. This is another simple profile for us, because Walker seemed to just be a racist loon who in 2017, just so happened to be the plaintiff who tried suing the state of South Carolina for removing the Confederate flag from it’s courtrooms, and when was discussing his litigation with the media, he “accidentally” called Martin Luther King a racial slur. Walker would also picket outside the offices of local newspapers for not printing opinion editorials he wrote about the merits of racism, and when he announced he was running for office, the paper went ahead and revealed what some of Walker’s terrible opinions included:

• ”God made the races and he is the greatest racist ever.”
• “What is wrong with being a white supremacist?”
• “The Jews are not Semitic they are Satanic as they all descend from Satan.”
• ”MLK wanted to destroy the Caucasian race through mixing and integration."

Apparently he also was a bit of an anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist, so there’s that, as well. Russell Walker ended up getting only 37% of the vote in 2018, which is about 37% more than he deserved.

[worstblogever]

On this date one year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, first profiled the current U.S. House Representative for Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, Russ Fulcher, who with a resume of being an Idaho State Senator for eight years, swooped in to run for that seat back in 2018 upon the foolhardy decision by its former occupant, former Congressman Raul Labrador, to make an ill-advised run for Governor of Idaho. Four years prior, Fulcher himself made an ill-fated run for Governor of Idaho, losing to Gov. Butch Otter in that legendary race that featured the clusterf*** debate with Harley Brown and Walt Bayes.

By merely being the third craziest person at that debate, it might be easy to overlook what a piece of work Russ Fulcher is. But when someone attributes obvious statistical and scientific evidence of climate change being a major concern that threatens the globe to simply being “in the cycle that’s happened since the beginning of time", we’re at least going to put a profile here on the back-burner for a bit. The fact that Fulcher now is a freshman member of Congress makes us think we may have put it off too long.

Here’s the interesting thing… Russ Fulcher was elected partially because his campaign kept the fact that his wife Kara, the mother of his three children, filed for divorce only days before the election, citing “adultery” as the reason to being the end of their 32 year marriage. Again, the GOP “party of family values” hypocrisy jumps out at us, as Fulcher is against same sex couples that would be monogamous getting married. While we’re at it, he’ll even vote against workplace protections for the LGBTQ community.

And since we’re opening up on ludicrous hypocrisy or extreme policy stances from Russ Fulcher, we’ll note he’s also got a 100% rating from the NRA, wants the pointless, racist Trump vanity project of a border wall on the U.S./Mexico border, is a Personhood supporter, and boasts of how as a state senator in Idaho, he worked to get a “pro-life clinic” right next to a Planned Parenthood back in 2013. We’ll note that last “achievement” is more dubious, because the Stanton Healthcare Center has made international headlines for disseminating false information about abortion and cancer links to the public.


The Cook Paristan Voting Index gives Idaho’s 1st Congressional District a +19 Republican lean, which helped Rep. Fulcher get re-elected in 2020 with 68% of the vote. He continues to rack up an extremely conservative voting record:

• December 18th, 2019: Russ Fulcher ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
  [z*]May 15th, 2020: Fulcher votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• December 10th, 2020: Fulcher signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
• January 7th, 2021: Russ Fulcher votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Fulcher votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
• February 4th, 2021: Russ Fulcher votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
• February 25th, 2021: Fulcher votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Fulcher votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 3rd, 2021: Russ Fulcher votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Fulcher votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Fulcher votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 19th, 2021: Russ Fulcher votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• May 20th, 2021: Fulcher is one of 63 Republicans who vote against the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act.

Russ Fulcher is currently throwing a fit over people being vaccinated against Covid-19. Including a mandate that all Department of Veterans’ Affairs staff be vaccinated while they’re, y’know, treating patients without potentially spreading the disease throughout hospitals full of vulnerable patients. We would like to have thought his anti-vaccination fervor would have changed once he became highly at-risk once he found out he has renal cancer, and that while he undergoes treatments, he would be extremely vulnerable to anyone spreading Covid-19.

But, some people are so dedicated to their idiotic politics that they’ll jeopardize their own lives rather than compromise, it seems.

[babyblob]

They don't care about the "facts". You have these folks who saw 13 dead soldiers and decided to spend days proclaiming BIDEN HAS BLOOD ON HIS HANDS. Yet as pointed out every President during this war lost soldiers and their passing wasn't discussed. Yet they refuse to admit Trump's hand in it. The truth kills their belief Trump can do no wrong.

Trump very much has blood on his hands. Hep played a huge role in this. That doesnt mean a person like me can not be upset at those left behind. Trump messing up does not mean that Biden handled this like a champ by any means. Both things can be true.

[worstblogever]

Trump very much has blood on his hands. Hep played a huge role in this. That doesnt mean a person like me can not be upset at those left behind. Trump messing up does not mean that Biden handled this like a champ by any means. Both things can be true.

If I were to accept that Biden may have blood on his hands... Trump's in a tub full of it like Elizabeth Bathory.

Admittedly, that's not the bodily fluid he's most noted for enjoying, but eh.

[babyblob]

If I were to accept that Biden may have blood on his hands... Trump's in a tub full of it like Elizabeth Bathory.

Never said he wasnt. Why do people seem to think I am defending Trump? Like I said Just because Trump did bad does not mean Biden did well.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Never said he wasnt. Why do people seem to think I am defending Biden. Like I said Just because Trump bad does not mean Biden did well.

The simple truth is that NO ONE could’ve handled this mess any better. Did Biden make mistakes? Absolutely, some of which were indefensible, but, chances are if a Qpublican was in office, our troops would STILL be in Afghanistan, continuing that endless war. That much is a given.

[Mister Mets]

Twitter Link

How is it that an unlicensed attorney is being allowed to appear in this proceeding for any purpose whatsoever? I can not imagine any federal judge permitting this to occur, although, apparently, it is happening here.

The associate isn’t a licensed attorney. So, is he a 1st year associate, whose bar application is pending?



This keeps getting stranger and stranger.

The New York Times had a decent article on this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/n...tol-riots.html

But in the days that followed, Mr. Pierce — who is defending more cases connected to the riot than any other lawyer — missed additional hearings and the reasons for his absence started changing.

On Wednesday, his associate told a judge in one case that Mr. Pierce had gotten Covid-19 and was in the hospital on a ventilator — but only after telling a prosecutor in another case that Mr. Pierce had been in a car accident. That same evening, a different associate told a reporter that Mr. Pierce had in fact been hospitalized, but was getting care for “dehydration and exhaustion.”

Finally, on Monday — after Mr. Pierce had still failed to emerge — the government got involved. Federal prosecutors issued letters to several judges in 17 Capitol riot cases, informing them that no one in the Justice Department had heard from Mr. Pierce in a week and that “multiple” phone numbers for his law firm appeared to have been disconnected.

Without citing evidence, Mr. Pierce has said he intends to implicate the F.B.I. and the intelligence community by showing that the riot was something like a grand act of entrapment or an inside job. He has often talked about his cases with a conspiratorial zeal, painting himself as something like a lonely legal warrior out to save his clients from an overreaching government.

“I’m like Gerard Butler in ‘300,’” Mr. Pierce said in an interview before dropping out of sight, comparing himself to the action star who played a Spartan king. “I’m in the hot gates at Thermopylae, holding the pass against the million-man Persian army.”

While the government has not yet weighed in on the merits on his claims, prosecutors did express concern in their letters filed on Monday about the young associate, Ryan Joseph Marshall, who has been standing in for Mr. Pierce at the hearings he has missed.

For one thing, Mr. Marshall is not a licensed lawyer, prosecutors said, and has taken actions on behalf of clients “that he is not permitted” to take. Moreover, they went on, it remains unclear if and when Mr. Marshall will be able to get his law license given that he is under indictment in two criminal cases accusing him of corruption, theft and fraud in Pennsylvania.

It is weird.

[babyblob]

The simple truth is that NO ONE could’ve handled this mess any better. Did Biden make mistakes? Absolutely, some of which were indefensible, but, chances are if a Qpublican was in office, our troops would STILL be in Afghanistan, continuing that endless war. That much is a given.

Im not getting into a huge debate. I have said I am not sure what president could have done better. it still does not mean I have to like how Biden handled things. You can support a president and not like everything they do. A person is allowed to point out when a president does something they do not like. I get Trump was awful and a lot of this is on him. I never said it wasnt. Doesnt mean I like how this was handled by Biden. Im sure the Qop would have handled things worse. But Biden is the one who is here now and I dont like how he handled it. Is it enough to make me hate him. No. Just wish he would have done better. That was my point.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Im not getting into a huge debate. I have said I am not sure what president could have done better. it still does not mean I have to like how Biden handled things. You can support a president and not like everything they do. A person is allowed to point out when a president does something they do not like. I get Trump was awful and a lot of this is on him. I never said it wasnt. Doesnt mean I like how this was handled by Biden. Im sure the Qop would have handled things worse. But Biden is the one who is here now and I dont like how he handled it. Is it enough to make me hate him. No. Just wish he would have done better. That was my point.

I agree with you. I’m no fan of how Biden handled the situation either.