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

[JB]

Folks have discussed it. Because if the incident that started all this had not happened-none of this happens.

Along with if the police put more effort into the attacking of businesses than trying to arrest or whatever protestors who were NOT bothering anybody-Rittenhouse is still at home.

Far too many times we have seen Jedi handwaving when stuff is being trashed. What good is trashing Target going to do for George Floyd? With the excuse of folks are just mad and venting.

How many of those folks ARE the reasons why we have cops in large numbers in POC communities? How many have VOTED?
How many black children have died during this BLM movement? That have not gotten a march or anything destroyed in frustration?

The marches are NOT working. They are just attracting looters and trouble makers.

The part that breaks my heart the most is that so many minority-owned businesses get destroyed. I'll never forget Zaydi Tejada, a business owner in Kenosha, crying on TV because her family-run supermarket was destroyed. A few doors down was a black-owned salon that was also obliterated. It has to stop.

[babyblob]

I live near the Chicago area and it's become a regular event with a couple of the upscale malls in the suburbs and many times Louis Vuitton stores are the target. Northbrook Mall was hit twice in about a month recently and now Oakbook Mall has been hit a second time, most recently on this past Thursday the 18th.

I also got links going back to the same stores being targeted as far back as 2014. I have my doubts they are linked to the Rittenhouse trial. They just probably sell off the stuff they steal and when they need more money they make another hit. I am surprised the Louis Vuitton stores are still open with the thefts being this frequent....pretty hefty ones at that. I recall there were rumours last year around Chicago that a lot of stores will leave Michigan Avenue if the Mayor doesn't get have a better plan for the next time it happens. They may just decide not to renew their leases when they come up. There was a lot of damage from the 2020 "protests." IMO if your main objective is stealing than you are not protesting anything. You're just a common criminal

After the shooting of George Floyd and all the protests there was a small couple of protests here in Cincinnati. A group broke off the protestors and went and broke into a sports store and stole shoes and Bengals Jerseys, and a store a couple doors down and stole beer and booze.

It was all planned around the protests because there were cars that pulled up to drive the looters away.

It is stuff like that that gave the protests for a real issue a bad name.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of the U.S. House Representative from North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, Mark Meadows, the former U.S. House Representative for North Carolina's 11th District, the most right-leaning, gerrymandered seat in all of the Tar Heel State at the time. Prior to taking office in 2012, he pandered to Birthers by saying that President Obama should “go back to Kenya”. One of his first votes upon arriving in the capitol was to vote against disaster relief funding for Hurricane Sandy victims, an amazing precedent for a freshman Congressman whose own district is in a state notorious for being hit by hurricanes and wanting disaster relief of their own. Meadows is also a confirmed climate change denier, says that gay marriage will cause a Constitutional crisis, and voted against a new version of the Violence Against Women Act because it provided protections towards lesbians. He’s also prone to jumping on faux scandal bandwagons, as we evidenced by his comments about Hillary Clinton’s original Benghazi testimony, and calling for IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to be held in contempt in the middle of his testimony, getting rebuked by Koskinen for doing so. Perhaps his most infamous moment, though, came during Congressional testimony over healthcare plans for the Affordable Care Act, where he raged against the idea that men should have to pay an equal amount for insurance plans as women, and they have the nerve to also ask that they get maternity coverage on their insurance, when he doesn’t need it… the physician testifying, and trying to explain this to him was a Dr. Mindy Cohen, who was… wait for it… 8 months pregnant at the time. If that isn’t “GOP’s War on Women” optics in a nutshell, I don’t know what is. Oh, maybe the fact that Rep. Meadows still paid his chief of staff thousands of dollars months after he was fired for sexually harassing female staffers, because he really can't have any less respect for women. Meadows’ is so out of sync with American opinions and attitudes right now, where even after a White Nationalist like Steve Bannon was forced out of the White House, Meadows has continued working with him, and he was one of the most vocal people who endorsed noted pedophile Roy Moore for Senate in Alabama, and after Moore’s history of diddling kids came to light, Meadows would only go as far as to say he should drop out of the race “if the allegations are true”, immediately putting on that caveat to cast some doubt on Moore’s accusers. Mark Meadows was one of the most fever-pitch fanatics in defending Donald Trump during the Ukraine impeachment inquiry, where he’s so easy to set into a rage-fueled meltdown that he can simply overhear a report how Republicans are struggling to defend Trump and he’ll stupidly dive into a live television interview to embarrass himself further. And boy, does he embarrass himself, like when he tried to go “off the record” while live C-SPAN cameras were rolling, for example. On March 6th, 2020, Mark Meadows was named the new White House Chief of Staff, replacing acting Chief of Staff ld Mark Kelly in the same role for the Trump administration. Meadows blundered about for 8 months in that role, including when he contracted Covid-19 in an election night party at the White House before he rushed back to work to help plan a coup to be carried out on January 6th, 2021. And that’s why Mark Meadows is currently staring down subpoenas that he’s ignoring that are going to leave him in contempt of Congress. As he is not currently in office, we will set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1045-50, since this was established in July 2014.


Rod Hamilton

Welcome to what is the 1045th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Rod Hamilton, a pork producer by trade who has been a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives for District 22B since first being elected back in 2005.

Our main reason for profiling Hamilton is that he was accused of sexual assault in April of 2018 by a lobbyist who had begun a working relationship with him to… and this is the real burner… was an advocate for victims of sexual violence. Because the alleged assault did not involve someone employed in any way by the state legislature, and happened away from the capitol at his apartment, there wasn’t a precedent for doing a proper investigation. Thus, Hamilton conceded by giving up his leadership positions in the state legislature, but steadfastly refused to resign.

So… outside of that unsettling background, we’ll note that legislatively, within the past decade we’ve seen Hamilton vote for voter suppression bills, vote against raising the minimum wage, vote for harsh anti-choice legislation to force women seeking an abortion to have to get a medically unnecessary ultrasound, voted against legalizing gay marriage, and also voted for transphobic bathroom legislation. Really, he runs the gamut of conservative f***ery.

Rod Hamilton won re-election in 2020 with 73% of the vote, and unless the GOP starts taking sexual misconduct accusations seriously and getting primary challengers for those accused of such behavior (unlikely), he will probably remain in office until he decides to retire.

[Malvolio]

The part that breaks my heart the most is that so many minority-owned businesses get destroyed. I'll never forget Zaydi Tejada, a business owner in Kenosha, crying on TV because her family-run supermarket was destroyed. A few doors down was a black-owned salon that was also obliterated. It has to stop.

And of course FOX News and all the other usual suspects will shout about how this proves that the liberals are really worse than any of the Jan. 6th insurrectionists.

[shooshoomanjoe]

And of course FOX News and all the other usual suspects will shout about how this proves that the liberals are really worse than any of the Jan. 6thy insurrectionists.

The big difference is that liberal leaders and politicians condemn these riots while the right defend Jan 6.

[Iron Maiden]

After the shooting of George Floyd and all the protests there was a small couple of protests here in Cincinnati. A group broke off the protestors and went and broke into a sports store and stole shoes and Bengals Jerseys, and a store a couple doors down and stole beer and booze.

It was all planned around the protests because there were cars that pulled up to drive the looters away.

It is stuff like that that gave the protests for a real issue a bad name.

I agree. As I mentioned, the grab and go mobs have been pulling off these thefts in the malls going back at least 7 years Now they seem to be trying to time it with these kind of hot button issues that turn into a legitimate protest.

[BruceWayneJr.]

The part that breaks my heart the most is that so many minority-owned businesses get destroyed. I'll never forget Zaydi Tejada, a business owner in Kenosha, crying on TV because her family-run supermarket was destroyed. A few doors down was a black-owned salon that was also obliterated. It has to stop.

Yeah, it really is a sad situation. I hope some little white kid doesn't have his friend buy him a gun in another state and have his mother drive him there to pick it up so he could shoot people in defense of property that he has no connection with. It has to stop, but it's just been encouraged by the American justice system. It's so sad, isn't it Jbenito?

[JB]

Yeah, it really is a sad situation. I hope some little white kid doesn't have his friend buy him a gun in another state and have his mother drive him there to pick it up so he could shoot people in defense of property that he has no connection with. It has to stop, but it's just been encouraged by the American justice system. It's so sad, isn't it Jbenito?

Any and all violence, damage to property, and polarization of communities is sad. And it doesn't help when media further ignites things, like the journalist who was arrested while following the jury bus the other night. The American justice system also rightfully convicted Chauvin so all I can do is hope a jury properly does what it's supposed to do.

[Tendrin]

Any and all violence, damage to property, and polarization of communities is sad. And it doesn't help when media further ignites things, like the journalist who was arrested while following the jury bus the other night. The American justice system also rightfully convicted Chauvin so all I can do is hope a jury properly does what it's supposed to do.

Yes. Damage to property. That's definitely the real issue here.

White supremacy has a certain number of acceptable losses its willing to allow. Chauvin was one. (Also, the prosecutors took their jobs seriously.)

[JB]

Yes. Damage to property. That's definitely the real issue here.

White supremacy has a certain number of acceptable losses its willing to allow. Chauvin was one. (Also, the prosecutors took their jobs seriously.)

Hey, the very thing that led to this entire tragedy and people being killed are riots. That’s why I posted and applauded Biden’s statement calling for remaining peaceful. Portland was declared a riot last night. We don’t need this kind of thing to happen again, especially now with many other issues at hand.

[Tendrin]

Hey, the very thing that led to this entire tragedy and people being killed are riots. That’s why I posted and applauded Biden’s statement calling for remaining peaceful. Portland was declared a riot last night. We don’t need this kind of thing to happen again, especially now with many other issues at hand.

I live in Portland. Don't talk to me about the 'riots'. They're usually police riots.

And no, what lead to this whole thing is definitely *not* the riots. That's placing blame on the wrong set of shoulders. What lead to this whole thing was a dumb, propagandized kid with more firepower than he needed and incredibly poor judgment and a system that caters to people just like him and wants to create even more of him.

[numberthirty]

I live in Portland. Don't talk to me about the 'riots'. They're usually police riots.

And no, what lead to this whole thing is definitely *not* the riots. That's placing blame on the wrong set of shoulders. What lead to this whole thing was a dumb, propagandized kid with more firepower than he needed and incredibly poor judgment and a system that caters to people just like him and wants to create even more of him.

Politely...

No.

Because the actual "Whole..." of the thing being just that kid?

He turns up to do whatever he was dumb enough to think he was doing, and goes home after nothing actually happens.

Meanwhile?

The actual "Whole..." also consists of at least one person who was there looking for a fight, and two or three other people who were dumb enough to buy into the exact same "Vigilantism is acceptable when I'm the one doing it..." mindset that was informing the "Dumb Kid..." part of the whole.

People need to take a look around and realize that you don't get to decide how big a fire will get once you start it.

[ed2962]

Meanwhile, Ann Coulter is posting...

[Tendrin]

Nevermind.

[Gray Lensman]

I live in Portland. Don't talk to me about the 'riots'. They're usually police riots.

And no, what lead to this whole thing is definitely *not* the riots. That's placing blame on the wrong set of shoulders. What lead to this whole thing was a dumb, propagandized kid with more firepower than he needed and incredibly poor judgment and a system that caters to people just like him and wants to create even more of him.

As someone who grew up conservative I still can't wrap my head around the GoPs fetishization of the Police.

<Ahem>

Unelected government officials empowered to take your property without trial, your freedom with delayed due process, and even your life. When things go wrong, they answer to themselves. Attempts to use the judicial system are stymied by the fact that prosecuters need their cooperation to even function, and in civil cases they are protected by Qualified Immunity, a doctrine invented whole cloth by the Supreme Court in an unprecedented act of judicial activism.

Which is another reason why I dropped the Republican party years ago - I kept finding too many instances where the mantra of the party ceased to even apply. It's one thing to see failures of doctrine, quite another to see it constantly ignored whenever convenient.