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

[Jack Dracula]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/u...istration.html

The article is behind a paywall…
Edit: Nevermind. It appears to have been a load of bunk anyway.

[Zauriel]

Will Newsom release Bobby Kennedy’s killer?

The question of releasing Sirhan on parole is becoming political. One of Bobby's sons is in favor of Sirhan's parole.

I don't think the governor will release him. No, not while the recall is still going on. But if Gavin survives the recall, would he release Sirhan?

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Troy King, the former Attorney General of Alabama who led unsuccessful witch hunts to root out voter fraud, and was a vocal opponent against pornography and sexual deviancy, including an attempt to outlaw sex toys in his state. Amongst his definition of sexual deviancy was homosexuality, and King, who argued against gay rights, was apparently caught in bed with a young male intern he hired out of Troy University and gave a $60,000 salary by his wife, and was quietly swept under the rug by the Alabama GOP, who highly funded a primary opponent against him in the next election cycle.

It was on this date in 2015 that we published our original "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Chris Lee, the former New York Congressman who was trolling for sexual encounters on Craigslist one day, until an uninterested woman recognized him as her Congressman and outed him to Gawker.com (RIP). Gawker then dug a little deeper and found out not just that Rep. Lee was running around on his wife online, he was also frequently attempting to solicit sex from transgendered or cross-dressing prostitutes. Not a good look for a guy who consistently voted against LGBTQ rights, y’know? Chris Lee (who is still not relathed to the legendary actor) has been out of office almost six years now, and probably won’t be back.

On this date this date in 2016 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Mike Pryor, a candidate to serve District 16 in the Iowa State Senate. Where things get interesting, is in Pryor’s biography and introduction to the world of politics. Mike Pryor is a rarity… he’s a GOP candidate who openly identifies as gay. However, it would be perhaps misleading to say he’s “out and proud”, based on his own description of himself as a candidate, where he admitted to also having gone to jail for disturbing the peace, and been through personal bankruptcy. But, in spite of himself being gay, Mike Pryor is decidedly anti-gay when he can say things like, ”That issue is an intersection of civil rights, r-i-g-h-t-s, and religious rites, r-i-t-e. It’s the unhappy intersection of both. For the community, I certainly believe everybody needs to be equal. Has gay marriage necessarily benefited our community? It certainly has benefited some folks. Others, not so much. We joke that the only people making any money off of gay marriage are divorce lawyers.” Mike Pryor is also admirably, a longtime foster parent who in spite of having a child he formerly cared for killed in 2009 in a drive-by shooting still is an advocate of interpreting the Second Amendment right to bear arms in absolute terms. Pryor lost his bid for office in 2016 by 25 points.

On this date in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Missouri state legislator Bob Dixon, a Missouri state legislator who served 8 years in the Missouri House and moved up to the Missouri State Senate in the 2010 Tea Party wave who at one point during the 2016 elections, had designs on trying to win the GOP Primary to become the next Governor of Missouri. Bob Dixon turned a lot of heads when he claimed that he had been sexually abused as a teenager, and that it made him have “teenage confusion” that made him question his sexuality so he was gay for a years until a religious experience in 1988 convinced him he should be straight and marry a woman and live out his days as such. Alright, there’s a lot to unpack here. First off, being gay isn’t a choice. (Dixon’s by all demonstrated history, bisexual, and just hasn’t had any sex with any men in awhile.) Second, can’t say we’re thrilled about Dixon implying that being molested is a gateway to experimenting with a gay lifestyle. Perhaps the real cause for the disclosure was that a newspaper article from over a quarter century ago turned up where Bob Dixon’s mother, former state legislator Jean Dixon, outed him. By 1992, as far as the Dixon’s were concerned, Bob had just decided he was straight, and that was that. He popped into the Missouri House of Representatives in 2002 without anyone really thinking much about it, because by that point, he had a wife and a couple kids. Well, needless to say, Republican primary voters didn’t exactly rally around the idea of an ex-gay candidate, and four months into Bob Dixon’s bid to win Missouri’s Governor’s mansion in 2016, he bailed on his campaign, opting to stay in the State Senate. And even if that story weren’t to be an obstacle for him, Dixon had quite the quote during a bill discussing prescription drug monitoring in 2016, saying, “Liberty, schmiberty… I’ve heard enough about people’s liberty being taken away… I am tired of hearing these arguments over and over again, they just don’t hold any water for me.” Bob Dixon was term-limited in 2018, and has stepped back to simply be the Greene County Commissioner in 2018.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled about former Ohio state legislator Wesley Goodman, a staunch social conservative who was first elected to office back in 2014. In the tradition of hypocritial Republicans who are secretly gay with anti gay voting records… Goodman was outed when he chose to go about sexin’ in his office in the state legislature with another dude and someone walked in on him. If there were any sympathy that might have been had for a man forced to live a lie in his politics… it sure went out the door even faster when over 30 people came forward admitting that Goodman had sent them unsolicited dick pics or sexually harassed them, including gents as young as 17, or, y’know, half Goodman’s age. And wouldn’t you know it, while in Washington, D.C., prior to becoming a state legislator, Goodman was a Congressional aide for Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan. The same Jim Jordan who is currently being accused of participating in a cover-up of young men being sexually assaulted by a trainer while working as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University. If this all didn’t seem to be a nexus of anti-gay hatemongers being secret sexual predators, well, it gets even crazier. Back in 2015, Wesley Goodman was hanging around the anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council, when at one of their retreats, he let himself into the hotel room of an 18 year old boy and sexually assaulted him while he was sleeping, and THAT sexual assault was covered up by CSGOPOTD alum Tony Perkins. So… yes, Wesley Goodman resigned, his wife left him, and he’s almost certainly not going to turn up in the news again, assuming he doesn’t try to prey on an underaged male again.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Mike Yenni, who was the Mayor of Kenner, Louisiana from 2010-2016, and was elected President of Jefferson Parish in the 2015 election. As a Republican touting his family values and his marriage to his wife and being the father of two children, it should come as little surprise that in his first year on the job, he was caught sexting a 17 year-old boy. Yenni tried assuring everyone of the fact that he “wasn’t gay”, but didn’t make any explanation for the fact that the boy he exchanged sexts with was, y’know, a boy, and not 18. That meant the FBI also opened an investigation, but for whatever reason, Yenni wasn’t charged with a crime. This wasn’t the first time Yenni was busted for sexting, either, as he did so as the chief administrative officer in Kenner, back before he was mayor, with both male and female members of his staff. He chose not to run for re-election in 2019, because he doesn’t think his marriage would do well with his predilections coming up as a topic while campaigning.

On this date in 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Pennsylvania State Senator Mike Folmer, who was first elected to represent State Senate District 48 back in the 2006 elections, and held his seat through 2019. It’s not his voting record that concerns us, even though he sponsored anti-choice bills, support for the death penalty, and how he continuously found new ways to cut the social safety net, and increased voter suppression tactics through voter ID laws…No, Mike Folmer is getting a profile because in 2019, he was arrested on child pornography charges and forced to resign. He gave the bizarre excuse to police “that he had been dealing with some personal problems/issues and that he had received child pornography through his Tumblr blog.” Mike Folmer was sentenced in July of 2020 to serve a one to two-year sentence in county prison, and after that, will have eight years of probation and be required to register as a sex offender. As he has almost no chance of ever reaching office again, we will set aside his profile at this time, however, to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1019-50, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Bob Lancia

Welcome to what is the 1019th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Bob Lancia, who was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District, who served two terms for District 16 in the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 2015-2018. Lancia thought he would be the guy who would bounce ten term Democratic Congressman Jerry Langevin from office before he could get an eleventh term in office, but there was just one problem with that… he got caught with his hand in the Qanon conspiracy theory cookie jar. When the media caught wind of Lancia making several posts with Qanon content on Twitter, he threw his own campaign under the bus, saying “someone else on his campaign handles his Twitter” and said that his account started having QAnon content because “probably it was attached to something else – maybe something to do with the president, MAGA, something like that.”

So, y’know, party of no responsibility.

Bob Lancia lost to Jerry Langevin with only 42% of the vote. He has already announced his intention to challenge him for his seat again in 2022.

[Tami]

What major political party? There are only two major political parties in America

You might want to look at this first: Political parties in the United States

the Political Party system has changed a lot through out history.

[PwrdOn]

...except the Democratic party doesn't want to turn back the clock on LGBTQ, womens and civil rights.

This isn't a situation where both sides are the same.

The issue is that just running on a platform of "well at least we're not the GOP" kind of rings hollow when they fail to roll back any of the harmful policies that the Republicans put in place. As of now, there are still kids in cages at the border, a $15/hr minimum wage, Medicare for All, or meaningful environmental legislation are all far off pipe dreams, and the ONE good thing that Biden did, getting out of Afghanistan, is getting him hammered in the press by his own party. And Congressional Democrats are gearing up to have a huge intra-party fight over the infrastructure bill, that was half-assed to begin with and will end up being much less when it finally does pass. On the state level, what's happening in Texas right now shows that a Democratic administration is powerless to stop the rollback of rights in red states anyway, and the impending recall in California could see the largest liberal bastion in the country fall under the same type of administration. The Democrats are simply losing in every conceivable way right now, and barring some kind of miracle, they WILL lose the midterms next year, and if Breyer doesn't hurry up and retire soon that might just cost them another seat on the Supreme Court, and the party still wonders why they have so much trouble turning out young voters.

[Mister Mets]

What major political party? There are only two major political parties in America

I meant in terms of whether there's a previous iteration trust you thought was better?

[Jack Dracula]

So the third parties should be taken off the ballot making the voters choose one between only two parties? Sure, That may fix the problem but is it really what you call a democracy?

Deliberately pretending to misunderstand the other persons point is a sign of someone arguing in bad faith. They’d rather misinterpret than admit they might be wrong.

[babyblob]

the thing of 3rd party candidates. I have not seen one I support, I have not seen one I take seriously. But that does not mean others are like that. if someone hates the GOP but also does not like the Dems for whatever reason they are under no obligation to vote Dem. Cant just say Well The Dems are not the GOP so you have to vote for them. or sat well you didnt vote for the Dems over a 3rd party so everything going on right now is your fault.

For one thing is some who votes 3rd party does find a Dem they like or are at least on the fence about then they may say look at they way I was treated by them. To Hell with these people.

I would not vote 3rd party right now unless I really believed in the candidate. And I am not going to tell someone that they have no right to vote for a 3rd party or blame them for it.

Maybe the Dems should stop blaming the 3rd party and give them so much hate and abuse and say
"Well you dont like our message. Why is that? let me hear your reasons and I will try and address them."
We keep saying the GOP needs to reach out and try and change if they want voters. Why dont the Dems do the same with 3rd party rather then do the whole "Your are an idiot this is your fault nonsense."

At the end of the day voting is one of are biggest and best rights. And people have no obligation to vote for anyone for any reason. If I found a 3rd party I liked better then Biden I would damn sure vote for him even if I was only one of 100 people who did. Because that is my right.

And the Dems blame the 3rd party a lot. But if there was no 3rd party on the ticket that year would all of those 3rd parties have still voted for Clinton would enough of them have voted for her to make a difference anyway? If they dislike her enough to vote someone else who has no chance of winning why would they all the sudden like her enough to vote if their person was not around?

Voting for a 3rd party or any party however out of spite is dumb as Hell though.

[Jack Dracula]

If the Republican party was to cease to exist tomorrow, the Democrats would split in two by the next Presidential election. They are held together by the Winner Take All system in the Electoral College, and by the fact that the Republicans seem opposed to their very existence (many for reasons not tied to politics).

God, if only.

If the GOP and all it’s supporters ceased to exist, IMO we’d wind up with another two party system of moderate Democrats and left-leaning Democrats akin to the Green Party. A situation I’d love to experience for a few decades.

[Panfoot]

For one thing is some who votes 3rd party does find a Dem they like or are at least on the fence about then they may say look at they way I was treated by them. To Hell with these people.

I feel those types of people don't need a good reason not to vote, they will ALWAYS find an excuse to justify it to themselves, just like anti-vaxxers really. The Dems are already the big tent party with varying levels of support for a lot of different issues, there is already a lot of crossover with some of the bigger third parties in the US, the problem is there is also a lot of pie in the sky ideas with no plans and some outright conspiracy theory stuff that tends to plague those candidates too, and you can't really coddle all the stuff. Yeah it's great that people like Jill Stein have pretty progressive ideas on education and the economy, but you also have to weigh that with the "vaccines cause autism/wifi is making us sick/etc." which it seems like all these big position third party candidates end up sharing in some form or another.

[TheDarman]

I wish I could believe it but in reality, Obama administration was kissing up to their corporate donors.

Republican Party is like an overt narcissist. They're clear about being for themselves.
Democratic Party is a covert narcissist. They pretend to care about you until they've got your commitment/vote. Once they've won they gaslight you and pretend they never promised you anything.

Here's the thing. Progress isn't a one-way street. There is also the constant, omnipresent fear of regression.

The Republican Party runs on regression--not just stalling progress. Sometimes they are successful on regression (abortion); sometimes they are not (gay marriage). But that ultimately makes them D-F candidates, because there is very little progression happening.

The Democratic Party runs on progress--not just stalling regression. Sometimes they are successful on progression (ACA, the COVID stimulus, and potentially paid medical and family leave and infrastructure); sometimes they are not (as is likely going to be the case on voting rights and abortion). But that ultimately makes them C-B candidates, because there is very little regression happening--especially if they control all three branches (Democrats just control two and they are much closer to being in the minority than the third branch, which is 6-3 Conservative dominated).

Choices have to be framed in adult terms. Don't let the better be the enemy of the good.

[PwrdOn]

Here's the thing. Progress isn't a one-way street. There is also the constant, omnipresent fear of regression.

The Republican Party runs on regression--not just stalling progress. Sometimes they are successful on regression (abortion); sometimes they are not (gay marriage). But that ultimately makes them D-F candidates, because there is very little progression happening.

The Democratic Party runs on progress--not just stalling regression. Sometimes they are successful on progression (ACA, the COVID stimulus, and potentially paid medical and family leave and infrastructure); sometimes they are not (as is likely going to be the case on voting rights and abortion). But that ultimately makes them C-B candidates, because there is very little regression happening--especially if they control all three branches (Democrats just control two and they are much closer to being in the minority than the third branch, which is 6-3 Conservative dominated).

Choices have to be framed in adult terms. Don't let the better be the enemy of the good.

Incremental progress can be just as dangerous as stagnation though, and in some cases may even be worse because we lull ourselves into a false sense of security that we are doing SOMETHING even if new problems are emerging at a faster rate than we can solve the existing ones. And simply tacking on an endless sequence of patches and quick fixes can create an unintuitive mess of a system that isn't robust and has major structural weaknesses that can't simply be plugged. Sometimes you just need to hit a big reset button and accept that the short term pain that will cause will be balanced out by the long term benefits.

[TheDarman]

Incremental progress can be just as dangerous as stagnation though, and in some cases may even be worse because we lull ourselves into a false sense of security that we are doing SOMETHING even if new problems are emerging at a faster rate than we can solve the existing ones. And simply tacking on an endless sequence of patches and quick fixes can create an unintuitive mess of a system that isn't robust and has major structural weaknesses that can't simply be plugged. Sometimes you just need to hit a big reset button and accept that the short term pain that will cause will be balanced out by the long term benefits.

I think the issue with something like that is that it is not popular enough to win elections running on that. People are very adverse to short-term pain so you either lie to them about it or lose--and that doesn't ultimately help anyone.

[green_garnish]

Being conservative, and especially being Republican, by definition means the only change you are comfortable with is change that takes you away from something unknown and back to something familiar.

If there was no GOP and politics was divided between two parties intent on moving forward in different ways, it's hard to see how that's not an evolutionary win.