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

[Mister Mets]

The lie you're telling by omission, which, you have done more than once in citing this example... is the legislature would have liked to have impeached him, but there is no viable process to impeach a sitting Governor in Virginia (which came up when former Gov. Bob McDaniel was allowed to finish out his term even though he was implicated in a bribery scandal). There was no viable option TO remove Northam, nor any of the others from office. There were calls for him to resign, but it wasn't, "KEEP HIM IN OFFICE SO A REPUBLICAN DOESN'T REPLACE HIM!"

It was, "The state constitution has too high a bar for impeachment for us to give him the boot." It's like a 3/4 majority. And the offenses are supposed to have occurred WHILE they're in office, as it's written in the state constitution.

The likes of Al Franken, Katie Hill, Anthony Weiner weren't impeached. They were pushed to resign. The same could have been done to Northam.

It's a lie by omission to imply that Democrats are just as upset at him now as they were when the news broke, and that the main reason he kept his job was the state constitution. The calls for Northam to resign diminished when it seemed clear that the next two Democrats in line were both tainted, AG Herring for something similar and Fairfax for something worse. It may also be that when the situation became more complicated than replacing a middle-aged white guy with an African American rising star, Democrats realized that they made a rush to judgment in determining that something stupid but legal a med student did in the 1980s should justify removing a person currently in office.

Northam is not currently treated as if he were a pariah, which is what you would expect if someone stays in office despite the consensus of the party that he is unfit to be Governor. Political figures who called for his resignation later appeared at events with him.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ter...ckface-scandal

It does appear that there was a consensus that Fairfax should not become Governor when it turned out one woman accused him of rape in college, and another accused him of sexual assault at the 2004 DNC. You could make the case that with Fairfax, Democrats clearly prefer him out of statewide office and are hindered by regulations about impeachment. There were still options available but they didn't want to choose that fight. For example, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced that they would refuse contracts with any political vendors that support a primary challenge to any Democratic member of Congress for any reason.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019...democracy.html

The DCCC and any organization that funnels money to Democratic lawmakers could have made a similar announcement regarding anyone who worked for Fairfax. But it's more important to support incumbents than to encourage rapists to resign.

[Mister Mets]

Plus they keep getting revealed as hypocrites.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is having an affair with Corey Lewandowski.

I would not care about their private business, but these are "Christian conservatives" who spend much of their time telling other people how they cannot spend their lives and whom they should or should not love.

Noem signed a religious refusal bill allowing businesses and individuals to deny services to LGBTQ people. I hope people see her and Corey L.

I hope people really, really see them.

As far as I can tell, the Noem/ Lewandowski story is a rumor, rather than anything confirmed.

I'm of the belief Republican voters, addicted to the insanity Trump brought to the Oval Office, not to mention his overt support of white grievance/nationalism/supremacy will want someone just as racist and cray-cray as he was. For damn sure the GQP will want another demogogue, but someone who doesn't have bats in the belfry like The Former Guy and won't say and/or do stupid shit any chance he gets. On the Dem side, I strongly suspect Joe is one term and done as he'll be 82 come Election Day 2024, no telling if he'll have the energy, or the desire to go through a second campaign, so I don't think he'll run again, as for Kamala, it's likely she could be tainted by the Afghanistan pullout debacle and the ongoing mess with the virus, and god only knows what other crises that might come down the road over the next two years. I honestly don't know if the party, or voters would support her if she ran for president. If neither Trump or Biden run again, the election could literally be up in the air.

Obviously your mileage may vary, but Kamala Harris seems like a weak candidate to me. There are reasons Biden seriously considered Karen Bass, a congresswoman and Susan Rice, a former National Security Advisor who had never held any elected office, over Harris.

Her approval ratings aren't that great.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...odern-history/

She barely won her first statewide race in California.

She seems uniquely positioned to piss off voters. Progressive activists see her as a cop, and moderates see her as a San Francisco liberal. The media seems to love her, as evident by Time Magazine making her co-person of the year in 2020, but that type of adoration doesn't always help (see Wendy Davis.)

I'd like to think most of us on the left would call for at least his resignation, given the many cases of credible sexual harassment claims outside of the Lewinsky affair and rape allegations, but after seeing the way people quickly attacked the woman making similar claims against Joe Biden this last election I'd imagine you'd see Democrats looking like Steelers fans and rallying around the candidate. #MeToo or no, when an election is on the line people are willing to overlook or outright ignore things. Same with the evangelicals and seemingly everything about Trump, and they're close to being rewarded on the abortion issue.

One thing that's bugged me is that the left is trying to lose a fight they won, arguing that Bill Clinton should have resigned, now that there's no political cost to it.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...insky-resigned

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/u...isconduct.html

The allegations against Biden smelled funny to begin with and fell apart soon after. Maybe the suspicion it was a counter op was warranted? Many Democrats felt burned by what happened to Al Franken and did not want a repeat.

I understand that some Democrats are pissed about Franken. In his case, there were multiple allegations and the first accuser did have photographs of inappropriate behavior.

There is a question of what it means for people to be burned by what happened to Franken. What kind of mistake(s) do they think party leadership made? Was it a rush to judgment (which is bad)? Was it cynical lies (which is worse)?

[Xheight]

Plus they keep getting revealed as hypocrites.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is having an affair with Corey Lewandowski.

I would not care about their private business, but these are "Christian conservatives" who spend much of their time telling other people how they cannot spend their lives and whom they should or should not love.

Noem signed a religious refusal bill allowing businesses and individuals to deny services to LGBTQ people. I hope people see her and Corey L.

I hope people really, really see them.

It cracks me up when I hear these supposed holier than thou's being caught in a sin...by what is seems like agnostic humanists who seem to have never heard of redemption. Repent and you shall be saved I think is how it works and you get a clean slate. It used to be one of those things held against Catholics too(drunk on Saturday saved on Sunday). There is also the strong strain getting a clean slate in American Ambition which many have tried to run on - hello Anthony David Weiner.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

One of the big issues in the Build Back Better plan seems to have been revealed. There is a Per Miles tax on what you drive per year. This one is a major WTF as people are now questioning the wisdom of this. Rural drivers would be hit harder as they drive further as well as small businesses , truckers etc.

This one just became a big talking point and possibly a push to remove it from the plan hopefully.

[CSTowle]

Mets- too lazy to cut/snip your comment out of that to comment on but I'm not saying he should have resigned (or better yet, never been the nominee in '92) for political reasons. I think he's a fundamentally flawed human being who was unfit for office and is someone we should be embarrassed to continue to lionize and trot out every four years. He gets credit for the economy surging when we were coming out of the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War as the world's only super-power and had the rise/boom of the internet. I think if a Republican of the HW variety had been in office for those 8 years he would have enjoyed economic prosperity as well.

[CSTowle]

One of the big issues in the Build Back Better plan seems to have been revealed. There is a Per Miles tax on what you drive per year. This one is a major WTF as people are now questioning the wisdom of this. Rural drivers would be hit harder as they drive further as well as small businesses , truckers etc.

This one just became a big talking point and possibly a push to remove it from the plan hopefully.

As a rural Democrat one of the things you notice is where urban-based and urban-minded Democratic party leaders have a disconnect with the rural community. If you're living in a city guns mean usually one thing: crime/threat/death. In rural areas they're recreational, protection, hunting and crime/threat/death. Public transportation is great where it can be used, but where I live outside of a bus line going to major points (or what passes for them in our town) you're not getting from living 40 miles in the sticks to anything like civilization on a bus or bullet train. There's a small group of very out of touch folk in the Democratic leadership who would like to see rural folk abandon the countryside and be funneled into urban areas, to leave the rural areas as preserved/undeveloped where possible to be enjoyed by all (and usually by those with the means to travel). Like many NYers/Mass folk who see Vermont as a cheap ski destination and nothing but, they'd like to see that on a large scale.

[numberthirty]

It cracks me up when I hear these supposed holier than thou's being caught in a sin...by what is seems like agnostic humanists who seem to have never heard of redemption. Repent and you shall be saved I think is how it works and you get a clean slate. It used to be one of those things held against Catholics too(drunk on Saturday saved on Sunday). There is also the strong strain getting a clean slate in American Ambition which many have tried to run on - hello Anthony David Weiner.

When that is actually an issue anywhere near as current/pressing as...

- Eviction/Foreclosure assistance
- Actually improving healthcare in America

Drop us a line.

[babyblob]

Edit. I was able to find a good article. So never mind to that question.

[Kirby101]

One of the big issues in the Build Back Better plan seems to have been revealed. There is a Per Miles tax on what you drive per year. This one is a major WTF as people are now questioning the wisdom of this. Rural drivers would be hit harder as they drive further as well as small businesses , truckers etc.

This one just became a big talking point and possibly a push to remove it from the plan hopefully.

It's a pilot study program. Not a tax that will be put in place.

[Gray Lensman]

One of the big issues in the Build Back Better plan seems to have been revealed. There is a Per Miles tax on what you drive per year. This one is a major WTF as people are now questioning the wisdom of this. Rural drivers would be hit harder as they drive further as well as small businesses , truckers etc.

This one just became a big talking point and possibly a push to remove it from the plan hopefully.

That's a tough one - EVs and Hybrids don't use the fuel needed to keep a gas tax earning enough to fund the roads, so something else needs to make up for it. A mileage tax seems more fair than most other ideas, like the punishment for hybrid/EV fees that some states seem to be pushing.

[Gray Lensman]

As a rural Democrat one of the things you notice is where urban-based and urban-minded Democratic party leaders have a disconnect with the rural community. If you're living in a city guns mean usually one thing: crime/threat/death. In rural areas they're recreational, protection, hunting and crime/threat/death. Public transportation is great where it can be used, but where I live outside of a bus line going to major points (or what passes for them in our town) you're not getting from living 40 miles in the sticks to anything like civilization on a bus or bullet train. There's a small group of very out of touch folk in the Democratic leadership who would like to see rural folk abandon the countryside and be funneled into urban areas, to leave the rural areas as preserved/undeveloped where possible to be enjoyed by all (and usually by those with the means to travel). Like many NYers/Mass folk who see Vermont as a cheap ski destination and nothing but, they'd like to see that on a large scale.

As a former resident of the Adirondack Park I can agree with this - it's why I was a Republican for so long.

[Tami]

‘Incendiary device’ failed to ignite, sparing Travis County Democrats office after vandalism, arson attempt

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Fire Department is investigating possible arson after a witness saw a fire at the offices of the Travis County Democratic Party on Wednesday morning.

Austin police and AFD were notified about the fire on East Sixth and Navasota streets in east Austin at about 2:18 a.m.

Capt. Brandon Jennings with AFD said the suspect, an unidentified man wearing a gray shirt, black shorts with black and grey tennis shoes with a flag bandanna and mask, was seen on surveillance footage throwing something at the door of the building twice. On the second try, the object broke the door’s window, Jennings said.

The suspect then put something, what AFD is calling the “incendiary device,” inside the door near a stack of papers. Jennings said it was then the fire started to be visible, but the incendiary device did not catch fire, just the papers it was near.

Employees from a neighboring business were able to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher before the flames from the papers could spread, Jennings said.

When asked if the damage could have been worse, Jennings replied, “Absolutely.”

[AnakinFlair]

Screenshot 2021-09-29 205341.jpg

So Bill Cosby was trending on Twitter earlier today... because of course he feels that R. Kelly was railroaded.

[Mister Mets]

Mets- too lazy to cut/snip your comment out of that to comment on but I'm not saying he should have resigned (or better yet, never been the nominee in '92) for political reasons. I think he's a fundamentally flawed human being who was unfit for office and is someone we should be embarrassed to continue to lionize and trot out every four years. He gets credit for the economy surging when we were coming out of the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War as the world's only super-power and had the rise/boom of the internet. I think if a Republican of the HW variety had been in office for those 8 years he would have enjoyed economic prosperity as well.

I agree with you here.

Worst thing for Bill Clinton's reputation was Obama's presidency. Now there's an unproblematic two-term President who will likely be able to attend DNC conventions for generations, and who actually managed to get a member of his administration to follow him in the office (bonus point- it was in a historically unusual way because it's quite rare for a political party to get kicked out of the White House after one term; the only other example in the last 120+ years was Jimmy Carter.)

Screenshot 2021-09-29 205341.jpg

So Bill Cosby was trending on Twitter earlier today... because of course he feels that R. Kelly was railroaded.

This one shouldn't be all that surprising, to be honest.

[AnakinFlair]

I agree with you here.

Worst thing for Bill Clinton's reputation was Obama's presidency. Now there's an unproblematic two-term President who will likely be able to attend DNC conventions for generations, and who actually managed to get a member of his administration to follow him in the office (bonus point- it was in a historically unusual way because it's quite rare for a political party to get kicked out of the White House after one term; the only other example in the last 120+ years was Jimmy Carter.)

This one shouldn't be all that surprising, to be honest.

Um... George HW Bush was a one term President. Just over a decade later.