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

[babyblob]

I'll talk about how reasonable Putin is when there's a free and fair election in Russia where Putin's opponent has a legitimate chance of winning.

Agreed! Everyone seems to be happy patting Putin on the Back for doing the bare minimum.

[Tami]

Opinion: Why being a red-state anti-Trump Republican just might work out for this senator

Voting to convict former president Donald Trump in February in his second impeachment trial might have seemed like political suicide for a Republican senator from deep-red Louisiana. But on closer inspection, Bill Cassidy might have better survival prospects than expected. He might just have to relocate from Capitol Hill to the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge.

Before the impeachment vote, many Louisiana Democrats considered Cassidy a garden-variety Trump supporter with more ambition than backbone. While he was long on sponsoring bipartisan bills, Cassidy was shorter on accomplishments.

A Baton Rouge physician now in his second Senate term, Cassidy might have been best known, before parting ways with Trump, for a May 2017 appearance on CNN, when he said that his legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act was influenced by this question: “Does it pass the Jimmy Kimmel test?”

The senator was referring to Kimmel’s emotional monologue on his ABC late-night show, several days earlier, about his infant son’s heart surgery and the importance of Obamacare’s coverage of catastrophic medical conditions for all Americans.

Cassidy’s bill, which Kimmel later derided for failing the test, also collapsed in the Senate. And Cassidy faded back into obscurity. His low profile seemed to justify the headline of a 2014 Politico profile: “Is this guy too boring for Louisiana?” In the article, I was quoted telling the reporter that the awkward and technocratic Cassidy had all the panache of “a grilled cheese sandwich.”

[worstblogever]

Anyone interested can take a look at what I wrote at the time.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post3994778

I can completely understand that people who don't think global warming is that serious issue wouldn't consider the deal.

It is worth noting that it's possible Republicans will get what would have been their preferred outcome in a grand bargain anyway as the Supreme Court is likely to rule that Roe VS Wade was unconstitutional at some point in the next few months.

It's worth noting that your deal on reproductive rights for climate change concessions is metaphorically speaking, a bit of Sophie's Choice.

Which is a wholly appropriate metaphor, given women's reproductive rights.

As far as this "concession" goes...

[AnakinFlair]

And in other news, here's Rand Paul being an idiot.

Something extra stupid for your next update of him, WBE.

[Tami]

And in other news, here's Rand Paul being an idiot.

Something extra stupid for your next update of him, WBE.

Am I the only one who thinks that Republicans like Rand Paul believe they are living in Russia? Or maybe they just want to but don't have the guts to pack up and move there.

[Malvolio]

Am I the only one who thinks that Republicans like Rand Paul believe they are living in Russia? Or maybe they just want to but don't have the guts to pack up and move there.

Well, they don't want to actually live in Russia and give up all of their American conveniences. But they do want a Putin-style leader who shares their agenda and will keep anyone who doesn't share their agenda out of power.

[JB]

White House, Jan. 6 committee agree to shield some documents
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wire...ments-81970525

WASHINGTON -- The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has agreed to defer its attempt to get hundreds of pages of records from the Trump administration, holding off at the request of the Biden White House.

The deferral is in response to concerns by the Biden White House that releasing all the Trump administration documents sought by the committee could compromise national security and executive privilege.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Harry Reid and John Madden passed.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day posted profiles of Chuck Winder, who in 2012, joined the ranks of Republicans who were talking about rape during a discussion about a mandatory ultrasound anti-abortion bill, when he intimated that a married woman could not be “truly raped”. When he was criticized for his comments, he defended them by saying that he just meant women should be “tested” to prove if they were actually raped or not. Winder has still has other issues with women, including supporting a bill so their employers could deny them contraceptive coverage on their insurance plans. Winder also has the staggering hypocrisy to demand federal marijuana laws should allow the states to override state law and continue to make the drug illegal, and then simultaneously push for legislation to nullify the Affordable Care Act on “states’ rights”, and supports the highly unconstitutional idea that states should be able to sue the federal government to annex federal lands. in 2016, he co-sponsored a bill to make the Bible as a reference tool in all public school courses. (Because when it's time to discuss evolution, you want to be able to cite a man being made of clay and a woman being made out of one of his ribs, for sciences' sake.)

Chuck Winder’s latest attacks on public education were in 2017 and were a move to pass legislation to remove the discussion of climate change from school classes, because heaven forbid the children learn that his party has been denying it’s happening and causing a global crisis for decades. (Spoiler Alert: He failed.)

Chuck Winder did receive a primary challenger in 2018, defeating him with 60% of the vote. And thus he has remained a fixture in Idaho politics, not unlike an old leaky toilet that needs replacing. He accomplished virtually nothing while leading the Idaho State Senate in the past session in the state legislature, and his satisfaction with the status quo where everything is broken is why the GOP have yet again named him to lead them for the next several years. Because why do things like legislate to save lives from an approaching pandemic when you can ban transgender youths from participating in sports in public schools?

Maybe the state would be better off in this crisis by banning abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected. (It won’t.) Or, y’know, limiting what power the Governor of Idaho has to declare a state of emergency to stop the spread of disease during a pandemic. Or to stop public school teachers from teaching critical race theory. (Which they weren’t teaching, anyway.)

He’s got priorities! (Terrible ones.)

[Jack Dracula]

White House, Jan. 6 committee agree to shield some documents
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wire...ments-81970525

The documents don't appear to be relevant to Jan 6.

“The documents for which the Select Committee has agreed to withdraw or defer its request do not appear to bear on the White House’s preparations for or response to the events of January 6, or on efforts to overturn the election or otherwise obstruct the peaceful transfer of power,” White House deputy counsel Jonathan Su wrote in one of two letters to the committee obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Su wrote that for the committee, withholding the documents "should not compromise its ability to complete its critical investigation expeditiously.”

[CaptainEurope]

I can completely understand that people who don't think global warming is that serious issue wouldn't consider the deal.
.

That is rude and unnecessarily provocative. By the same token, we could say that somebody who does not care about women bleeding to death in a back alley would propose such a deal.

[Tami]

Anyone interested can take a look at what I wrote at the time.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post3994778

I can completely understand that people who don't think global warming is that serious issue wouldn't consider the deal.

It is worth noting that it's possible Republicans will get what would have been their preferred outcome in a grand bargain anyway as the Supreme Court is likely to rule that Roe VS Wade was unconstitutional at some point in the next few months.

Handmaid's Tale crossed with Logan's Run.

[Tami]

How Paid Experts Help Exonerate Police After Deaths in Custody

When lawyers were preparing to defend against a lawsuit over a death in police custody in Fresno, Calif., they knew whom to call.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Gary Vilke has established himself as a leading expert witness by repeatedly asserting that police techniques such as facedown restraints, stun gun shocks and some neck holds did not kill people.

Officers in Fresno had handcuffed 41-year-old Joseph Perez and, holding him facedown on the ground, put a spinal board from an ambulance on his back as he cried out for help. One officer sat on the board as they strapped him to it. The county medical examiner ruled his death, in May 2017, a homicide by asphyxiation.

Dr. Vilke, who was hired by the ambulance provider, charged $500 an hour and provided a different determination. He wrote in a report filed with the court this past July that Mr. Perez had died from methamphetamine use, heart disease and the exertion of his struggle against the restraints.

Dr. Vilke, an emergency medicine doctor in San Diego, is an integral part of a small but influential cadre of scientists, lawyers, physicians and other police experts whose research and testimony is almost always used to absolve officers of blame for deaths, according to a review of hundreds of research papers and more than 25,000 pages of court documents, as well as interviews with nearly three dozen people with knowledge of the deaths or the research.

Their views infuriate many prosecutors, plaintiff lawyers, medical experts and relatives of the dead, who accuse them of slanting science, ignoring inconvenient facts and dangerously emboldening police officers to act aggressively. One of the researchers has suggested that police officers involved in the deaths are often unfairly blamed — like parents of babies who die of sudden infant death syndrome.

Many of the experts also have ties to Axon, maker of the Taser: A lawyer for the company, for example, was an early sponsor of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, a commercial undertaking that is among the police-friendly entities, and some of the experts have worked as consultants for Axon; another has served on Axon’s corporate boardv

Beyond the courtroom, the individuals and businesses have offered instruction to thousands of police officers and medical examiners, whose cause-of-death rulings often help determine legal culpability. Lexipol, a Texas-based business whose webinars and publications have included experts from the network, boasts that it helped write policy manuals for 6,300 police departments, sometimes suggesting standards for officers’ conduct that reduce legal liability. A company spokeswoman said it did not rely on the researchers in making its policies.

[Tami]

Russian Dissident Snatched Hours After Daily Beast Interview About His Entire Family Being Kidnapped

MOSCOW—Every Chechen has come to fear the word “abduction.” Anyone who dares to speak out against Ramzan Kadyrov—the Putin-anointed leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya—dreads the heavy steps of armed men at their door.

The latest spate of raids against critics and bloggers began last week. Men and women were snatched and disappeared without trace. In many instances, the only “crime” committed by those taken away and detained illegally was being related to human rights defenders or critics of the regime.

Abubakar Yangulbaev, a lawyer with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, told The Daily Beast that he had been “worried sick” by Christmas Eve as he struggled to get in touch with more than 30 members of his own family.

“I constantly checked Telegram channels, saw terrible news that all Yanbungalayevs had been abducted, as well as many Musayevs from my mother’s side of the family,” he said.

By Christmas Day, the scale of the horror had been confirmed. “My dear aunts, my uncles, my cousins disappeared; I learned from Telegram channels, that the abductors took cellphones from them, so I published a post with a photograph of my family members on Saturday and officially appealed to the Investigative Committee,” Yangulbaev, 29, told The Daily Beast in an interview on Monday.

The following morning, he was taken too.

[Tami]

Committee investigating Jan. 6 attack plans to begin a more public phase of its work in the new year

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol plans to begin holding public hearings in the new year to tell the story of the insurrection from start to finish while crafting an ample interim report on its findings by summer, as it shifts into a more public phase of its work.

The panel will continue to collect information and seek testimony from willing witnesses and those who have been reluctant — a group that now includes Republican members of Congress. It is examining whether to recommend that the Justice Department pursue charges against anyone, including former president Donald Trump, and whether legislative proposals are needed to help prevent valid election results from being overturned in the future.

The five teams behind the investigation have begun to merge their findings. The topics include: the money and funding streams for the “Stop the Steal” rallies and events; the misinformation campaign and online extremist activity; how agencies across the government were preparing for the Jan. 6 rally; the pressure campaigns to overturn the election results or delay the electoral certification; and the organizers of the various events and plans for undermining the election.

Investigators have consulted with experts as they attempt to understand what might have happened if the electoral count was not completed that day and “we ended up in a constitutional gray zone,” said the first senior committee staffer.

With this in mind, the panel is expected to recommend legislative and administrative changes. Members have begun reviewing the Electoral Count Act, the 19th century law that dictates the procedure for counting electoral votes during a joint session of Congress. Legal scholars across the political spectrum have said the law is in need of reform.

Also on the agenda is whether the panel will refer to the Justice Department crimes they believe may have been committed by Trump and his aides.

“This is the next progression — to see whether or not some of the things that we have uncovered or discovered rises to the level of a criminal referral,” Thompson said.