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

[Johnathan]

This game of tit-for-tat is so typical of today's conservatives and Republicans. We called GW Bush dumb, so they called Obama dumb. We called the Trump administration a dumpster fire so they call Biden a dumpster fire. Do they have no originality at all? I mean, there are certainly legitimate criticisms of Biden that I've seen some on the left make. But all we get from the right is our own criticisms of Trump with Biden's name inserted wherever Trump's was. How childish.

A bit of the problem is that leaders outside of government are not emerging as people are very willing to attack their own for infringements of ideology. Trump leads the conservatives and ultra-conservatives in large part because no other conservative can challenge or reach for leadership without being torn down by other conservatives. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Barrack Obama, Ocasio-Cortez & etcetera, are just as likely to be attacked by democrats and progressives as they are by Republicans, and in regard to leadership, internal conflicts are far more crippling than external. We want people that enrage our opponents AND we need people outside government or political office who can unify our various movements.

However, often, it doesn't seem like the various progressive and liberal factions will even try to achieve a political advantage or work with anyone that doesn't completely agree with some minority ideological position even if it would benefit their movement.

[MacrossPlus]

A bit of the problem is that leaders outside of government are not emerging as people are very willing to attack their own for infringements of ideology. Trump leads the conservatives and ultra-conservatives in large part because no other conservative can challenge or reach for leadership without being torn down by other conservatives. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Barrack Obama, Ocasio-Cortez & etcetera, are just as likely to be attacked by democrats and progressives as they are by Republicans, and in regard to leadership, internal conflicts are far more crippling than external. We want people that enrage our opponents AND we need people outside government or political office who can unify our various movements.

However, often, it doesn't seem like the various progressive and liberal factions will even try to achieve a political advantage or work with anyone that doesn't completely agree with some minority ideological position even if it would benefit their movement.

I think that's what happens when perfect becomes the enemy of good

[Johnathan]

I think that's what happens when perfect becomes the enemy of good

Yes, I'd agree with that. Also, we're in a "post first and stir stuff up" mentality as well driven by and in return driving an equally irresponsible and ideological sensationalism in the media.

Everything someone in a position of leadership or influence says or does is online and it is no problem for any reporter or attention-seeking activist troll to find thousands of people that will post on any number of sites criticizing anything anyone says or does. So, there will be one story about how "twitter is in a fury" about what this or that person said or did, and then there will be dozens of other news stories repeating that one story and multiple times that in forums and other sites sharing those stories so that it simply becomes extremely unattractive for anyone who might be a good leader to even get involved.

[CaptainEurope]

Speaking of presidents who ACTUALLY acted like mobsters:

Chilling Trump Letter Calling For 'Seizure' Of Election Material Revealed In Log To Jan. 6 Probers

The letter was created Dec. 17, 2020, a day before Trump met in the Oval Office with advisers including former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and discussed seizing election equipment in states Trump lost.

Trump also discussed naming controversial far-right attorney and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell as a “special counsel” to investigate alleged election fraud, The New York Times reported, but Trump didn’t follow through with it.

Flynn had already suggested Trump could invoke martial law to seize control of the election.

[worstblogever]

This game of tit-for-tat is so typical of today's conservatives and Republicans. We called GW Bush dumb, so they called Obama dumb. We called the Trump administration a dumpster fire so they call Biden a dumpster fire. Do they have no originality at all? I mean, there are certainly legitimate criticisms of Biden that I've seen some on the left make. But all we get from the right is our own criticisms of Trump with Biden's name inserted wherever Trump's was. How childish.

Also, really weird that Biden's "dumpster fire" includes record numbers on the economy, and record numbers of judicial appointments. Also, daily Covid-19 deaths are about a third of what they were this time last year, and they've got about three-fifths of the country fully vaccinated, in spite of Republicans making it a political issue and messaging to their own to refuse to get the shot to die rather than "give a win to the left, defend your freedom to die".

Wish I was joking about that last thing.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of Matthew Hill, a now former member of the Tennessee House of Representatives and host of the "Bible Buddies" conservative radio talk show, who tried to criminalize the death of a fetus or embryo in the Volunteer State, and also tried passing legislation to ignore how patient confidentiality laws work by drafting legislation to disclose the addresses of not just doctors who perform abortions, but any woman seeking out the procedure (because it's not like there's a history of terrorism against those individuals). He also tried to go out of his way to legalize the Ten Commandments being displayed in government buildings, make English the official language of his state, make the Bible the official state book, and ban UN poll-watchers from observing American elections. Matthew Hill is also a Birther, who hosted Orly Taitz on his radio show and he agreed with her that President Obama never released his birth certificate and is clearing "hiding something". In 2016, he also co-sponsored a bill created to try and prevent anyone from potentially changing the name of Confederate landmarks in the state, because honoring a failed rebellion fought over slavery and opposing anyone who doesn’t feel we should be glorifying it is always a top legislative priority as well as voting for a bill written to, and this is no joke… authorize people to keep skunks as pets. In Matthew Hill has still found new levels of s***ness to stoop to, as he filed legislation to make it more difficult for peaceful protesters who get run over by their political opponents to be able to sue their terrorist attackers. That’s right, Hill considers that what the Neo-Nazi in Charlottesville did to Heather Heyer should be a protected form of expression. He started off the 2019 session of the state legislature by putting far more energy towards honoring the Confederacy, again sponsoring legislation to punishing communities that change or alter Confederate monuments, than he is actually protecting the living, breathing citizens of Tennessee. But Hill figured that would be enough to cement him in place as the next potential Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Well, not quite. Matthew Hill decided to win the votes of his fellow legislators for the job by cutting $1,000 checks towards their own re-election campaigns. If that sounds like a bribe, it kind of is… but a legal one in Tennessee. Anyway, Hill’s transparent corruption didn’t win over his fellow legislators, and he was eliminated from the final three candidates for the job. But elevating his profile and demonstrating how devoid of ethical principles he was only made reporters at the capitol suddenly start digging into Matthew Hill’s campaign finances, and they discovered he was self-dealing, with his own campaign funneling $36,000 towards a consulting firm… that he owns. Again, it’s a legal gray area, but Matthew Hill is pocketing campaign funds by running them into a business he owns. Are you getting the idea that he’s a grifter yet? Well, he was also investigated for being the owner of Dock Haley Gospel Magic, a shop that sells “Christian-themed magic supplies”, which… already seems like a lot of Evangelical hypocrisy, just on the surface. But Matthew Hill never registered the company as a business, and the tax collectors in Tennessee seem to be suddenly interested in how much income Hill might be pulling down on the venture (Hill of course insists none). His books are still a mystery on the funding of this business, but a lot of folks around Tennessee are getting curious how Hill had a house in foreclosure and then suddenly had the cash at the last minute to save it. All of that controversy, brought about by his own indifference to doing things on the level, may have factored into how, in 2020, Matthew Hill was defeated in the GOP Primary for his seat. He is currently out of office, and as such, we will set aside to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1060-50, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Kristi Noem

Welcome to what is the 1060th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing the sitting Governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, who was first elected to that office in 2018 who came on the scene in the South Dakota state legislature in the 2006 elections, and after two terms, riding the crest of the Tea Party Wave to Washington D.C. to spend four terms in Congress serving as the U.S. House Representative for South Dakota’s At-Large Congressional District. In case you’ve forgotten how much of an extremist she was as a legislature, we have some receipts:

• On January 5th, 2011, Rep. Noem votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. She voted for every attempt to do so that the GOP attempted from that point forward.
• On February 18th, 2011, Kristi Noem votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
• March 17th, 2011: Rep. Noem votes to cut funding to National Public Radio.
• September 15th, 2012: Rep. Noem votes for the "No More Solyndras Act".
• September 21st, 2012: Noem co-sponsors and votes for the "Stop the War on Coal Act".
• January 15th, 2013: Kristi Noem votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
• February 28th, 2013: Noem votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
• June 19th, 2013: Kristi Noem votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Noem votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the vote came up seventeen days later to re-open the government, Noem voted to keep it closed.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Kristi Noem goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
• July 10th, 2014: Noem votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• January 22nd, 2015: Kristi Noem votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
• February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Noem votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that by this point, the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• September 11th, 2015: Noem votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• September 18th, 2015: Rep. Noem co-sponsors and votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
• November 19th, 2015: Noem votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
• February 2nd, 2016: Kristi Noem votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
• February 16th, 2017: Noem votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Kristi Noem votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order. We feel safer already.
• May 4th, 2017: Noem votes for the GOP's healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partum depression, and sexual assault as "pre-existing conditions". Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Noem would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. She and her Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Kristi Noem votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• October 3rd, 2017: Noem votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• February 18th, 2018: Rep. Noem and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.

x

[worstblogever]

But it has been since Kristi Noem became a governor, how she truly started to make headlines… mostly by catering to the whims and malignant narcissism of one Donald Trump whenever he would abscond to her state for a hate rally, and to incessantly try to manipulate his way onto having his butt-ugly mug added to Mt. Rushmore. As a former beauty queen, she’s certainly his type. Noem tried to placate his endless ego about having his likeness put on Mt. Rushmore by presenting him with a miniature statue of what it might look like, and yes, he has it down at Mar-a-Lago today.

And at first, in say 2019, that sort of sucking up didn’t have any major consequences on the lives of people in her state… there were signs she might be in over her head, like how her administration spent about half a million dollars on an ad campaign to combat methamphetamine addiction that came up with the tagline, “Meth: We’re On It”. But in 2020, Kristi Noem’s sycophantic obedience towards the Dotard-in-Chief became truly lethal. The Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, and Trump wanted to campaign for president like it wasn’t happening. He needed Republican Governors who were fanatical enough to keep his rallies unrestricted, unmasked, not-socially distanced… ignoring public health advisories to stop the spread of the virus, specifically at a July 4th rally that had some pretty blatant white nationalist vibes.

Noem was there to foolishly accommodate him, visit after visit, and went so far as to advocate for the non-effective and potentially harmful treatment of hydroxychloroquine. Meanwhile, she also diverted funds from the federal government meant for pandemic relief towards state tourism advertising, trying to make sure that events like the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally were packed (and thus became super-spreader events). And again, she’s enough of a fanatic that she not only ignored the warnings prior to Sturgis 2020… she is stupid enough to repeat the same idiocy, and did it again in 2020, causing another septupling of Covid-19 rates in her state. She’s refused to allow unemployment payments to workers displaced by the pandemic, and while forcing people back to work has definitely not helped mitigate the problem, her spreading anti-mask and anti-vaccination talking points doesn’t help.

And yet, as all of her campaign assistance to Donald Trump didn’t help him beat Joe Biden in 2020, Gov. Noem has baselessly jumped to help her guy spread his “Big Lie” that the election was somehow stolen from him through “mass voter fraud” that she provides no evidence of, and also, Donald Trump easily won South Dakota.

But alas, her corrupt ideology is not limited simply to doing Donald Trump’s bidding. She also has been accused of abuse power in office to try to get her daughter a license as a realtor, calling the state employee who gave her a failed grade to her office, specifically, and forcing her to let her daughter an extra chance to correct her wrong answers to be granted the license anyway. Oh, and that official had their retirement forced only months after this unorthodox testing session, but tipped off the local media about where to send a FOIA request to get the dirt.

Kristi Noem is currently trying to cement her status as a potential contender for a VP nomination or perhaps 2024 presidential candidate by, what else, bullying the LGBTQ community in ways such as banning trans-women from women’s sports in South Dakota, and also coming out in opposition to the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. Because who better to stand up for the sanctity of marriage than a woman who has allegedly been running around behind her husband’s back to f*** Corey Lewandowski, right?

We’re going to go ahead and advise the country to please take a hard pass on a president who is so woefully and brazenly corrupt and places partisan politics and willful scientific ignorance above using common sense to preserve lives. Hell, someone competent might want to primary her.

[Gray Lensman]

Also, really weird that Biden's "dumpster fire" includes record numbers on the economy, and record numbers of judicial appointments. Also, daily Covid-19 deaths are about a third of what they were this time last year, and they've got about three-fifths of the country fully vaccinated, in spite of Republicans making it a political issue and messaging to their own to refuse to get the shot to die rather than "give a win to the left, defend your freedom to die".

Wish I was joking about that last thing.

You forgot to add blaming the left for it - I visited my family this Christmas and that was the messaging they were repeating. Since Democrats had doubts about the vaccine when Trump had his hands in it all the people refusing it has become their fault. The fact that Trump had suggested injecting bleach, or that the fool he had put in charge of the FDA thought it was too much of a burden on those poor pharmaceutical companies to have to try and prove their products actually worked has nothing to do with it. And neither does all the right wing TV and radio hosts railing against vaccinations.

Welcome to the Brave New World, where one can select their own scientific proof.

[Tami]

Self-proclaimed ‘Vaccine Police’ tells Walmart pharmacists they ‘could be executed’ for administering shots

By the time Christopher Key and his half-dozen followers reached the Springfield, Mo., Walmart pharmacy counter on Monday evening, the metal shutters were nearly fully drawn.

An Alabama-based anti-vaxxer who has gained a following online — where he spreads false information about the coronavirus pandemic, Key was on a mission to give the pharmacists inoculating shoppers a warning.

“What they’re doing is crimes against humanity,” he said in a live stream on Facebook. “And if they do not stand down immediately, then they could be executed. They can be hung in the state.”

Key, who did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment early Thursday, was invited to Springfield for an anti-vaccine rally this past Saturday, according to the Springfield News-Leader, which first reported the Walmart incident. Videos on Key’s Facebook page show he also spoke at a Springfield Public Schools board meeting and made the rounds to other pharmacies, where he bombarded workers with similar false rhetoric.

Wearing a polo with “Vaccine Police” written across the left side of his chest, Key ran through the game plan with the group. During a prayer in the parking lot, Key said he hoped to “put the fear of God in these pharmacists.”

The live stream shows Key walking past the produce section and then along the grocery aisles. As he made his way to the pharmacy counter, workers there can be seen shutting down the counter and locking the door.

Open carry is legal and mostly unregulated in over 40 states. Christopher Key says his goal is to “put the fear of God in pharmacists” and told Walmart pharmacists they “could be executed” for administering COVID shots

[Tami]

Marjorie Taylor Greene just got herself permanently suspended from Twitter.

Marjorie Taylor Greene berates Dan Crenshaw for 'hurting' her conservative 'brand' by taking Covid seriously

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Sunday accused fellow Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw (TX) of hurting her conservative "brand."

In a tweet, Greene linked to a Fox News interview in which Crenshaw called on President Joe Biden to use FEMA resources for increased Covid-19 testing capacity.

"So what the federal government should be doing, again, using their FEMA resources to bolster a lot of these testing sites, open up new testing sites," Crenshaw said. "This is what we saw happen during the Trump administration."

But Greene disagreed and argued that the idea damages conservatives.

"No FEMA should not set up testing sites to check for Omicron sneezes, coughs, and runny noses," she wrote on Twitter. "And we don’t need FEMA in hospitals, they should hire back all the unvaccinated HCW they fired."

"Stop calling yourself conservative, you’re hurting our brand," Greene added.

[worstblogever]

Well, that's a belated Christmas present for us all, at least.

[babyblob]

What ever happened to the organizers of the 6th rally turning over records and going before the committee? Other then a couple news stories a couple weeks ago I havnt heard anything about it.

[worstblogever]

What ever happened to the organizers of the 6th rally turning over records and going before the committee? Other then a couple news stories a couple weeks ago I havnt heard anything about it.

Seeing stories this morning that Bernard Kerik is cooperating.

But open hearings are set to start in the next couple weeks here. Whatever info has been given, we're gonna hear a lot about it real fast.

[Mister Mets]

Also, really weird that Biden's "dumpster fire" includes record numbers on the economy, and record numbers of judicial appointments. Also, daily Covid-19 deaths are about a third of what they were this time last year, and they've got about three-fifths of the country fully vaccinated, in spite of Republicans making it a political issue and messaging to their own to refuse to get the shot to die rather than "give a win to the left, defend your freedom to die".

Wish I was joking about that last thing.

The improvement in the economy and the improvement for Covid deaths is largely the result of factors beyond Biden's control: the creation of the vaccine before he was President, and the mildness of the Omicron variant, which is very contagious but seems to avoid the lungs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/h...sultPosition=6

I think that's what happens when perfect becomes the enemy of good

This is often a problem in politics.

A bit of the problem is that leaders outside of government are not emerging as people are very willing to attack their own for infringements of ideology. Trump leads the conservatives and ultra-conservatives in large part because no other conservative can challenge or reach for leadership without being torn down by other conservatives. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Barrack Obama, Ocasio-Cortez & etcetera, are just as likely to be attacked by democrats and progressives as they are by Republicans, and in regard to leadership, internal conflicts are far more crippling than external. We want people that enrage our opponents AND we need people outside government or political office who can unify our various movements.

However, often, it doesn't seem like the various progressive and liberal factions will even try to achieve a political advantage or work with anyone that doesn't completely agree with some minority ideological position even if it would benefit their movement.

It is worth noting on the Democratic side that a lot of leaders outside government go on to become elected officials.

AOC was a bartender and activist. Elizabeth Warren was an academic. Raphael Warnock led Martin Luther King Jr's church.

So that's a bit of a wrinkle in the outsider VS insider fight, especially on the left. Their most influential figures get elected to office.

really not such a big difference - tweaking numbers in select states with a handful of corrupt election officials dovetails with the special circumstances that made the steal possible. Without the mail-in ballot and registration databases the targeted battleground states would have required the Massive fraud that people poopoo as "conspiracy thinking" as a way to ease their conscience that democracy took a bullet to head off four more years of Trump. Desperate people do desperate things like steal elections.

As to rigging the College with some law making, ignoring its just a possibility but a needed take back if Republicans take the midterm

If there really wasn't a difference, people claiming the election was stolen wouldn't change goalposts, and wouldn't use the motte and bailey fallacy.

*nudges in the direction of the Supreme Court and Randy DeJoy*

It's pretty hard to replace Supreme Court justices. For good reason. Whatever power would be given to Biden may end up in Trump's hands four years later.

Yes, the 22nd amendment prohibits a 3rd term, but let's consider for a moment who his VP would be. He certainly won't make the mistake of teaming up with someone with a shred of integrity like Pence again. We're more likely to wind up with a toady like Kevin McCarthy or a sociopath like Stephen Miller, or possibly one of his children. Either way, Trump will run the show from the sidelines while continuing to chip away at political norms and the democratic election process.
Let's also consider what would happen if the same man who, without remorse or apology, has already sent a thousand plus mob of rioters to storm the Capitol in order to overturn an election decides to just stay in office permanently. Who's going to stop him? Half the country, (a heavily-armed half btw) given a semi-plausible reason, would welcome it.

In the article, Hansen touts the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the HR 1 bill as being the two main things he hopes will counteract the voting restrictions pushed through individual Republican-controlled states. These two bills contain language strengthening voting rights and reestablishing some of the protections for southern minority-dominated districts which were undone in 2013 by the SCOTUS (because evidently racism no longer exists).
Now, bear in mind the article was published in June of 2021 and the interview itself was likely done in May or possibly April. Since then The John Lewis Voting Rights Act has died in the Senate and HR 1 has stalled on its way to a vote. Even if it gets to that stage, Manchin has stated he's not in favor of it and who the hell knows what Sinema will do.
Some things can be done at the state level, but time is a factor and it's now 2022 with the mid-terms just 10 short months away.

The 2013 Supreme Court decision wasn't based on the idea that racism no longer exists, but that we shouldn't determine what states should be under higher levels of scrutiny based on their problems generations ago.

A problem with the Democrats' focus on voting rights laws is that it doesn't solve the potential problem of legislatures sending in their own groups of electors, which was the threat of January 6.