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

[MiddleMan]

Trump has a talent of being a magnet of every white supremacist in Washington, he may not be book smart but he attract them all the same. Because, obviously, he's a white supremacist.

he (or his team) know what aggrieved White Americans want to hear

[WestPhillyPunisher]

he (or his team) know what aggrieved White Americans want to hear

Exactly what do those white Americans have to be aggrieved about? The fact they weren't allowed to openly practice their racism until Trump took office? Awwww! Poor widdle snowflakes!

[Moon Ronin]

Not to make any assumptions about CTTT, but I have a feeling that a lot of white people who say they have Black friends, really just mean that there are a few Black people at work who they talk to at the water cooler about the previous night's sporting event. In order to prove that the Black people they know are indeed their friends, ask them, "He's your friend? All right, what's his wife's name? Have you ever had him over your house for dinner? Who's his favorite music performer?" If he doesn't know the answer to any of those questions, then he's not really friends with any Black person. He's just friendly enough to get along with a co-worker.

And, full disclosure, I say this as a white man who wishes I were better acquainted with the Black people I've worked with and gotten to know in my life.

I never got the requirement to have a black friend, is seems that it would be a strain on the black community. Take Seattle Washington with a black population of just under 8% and white at 66%, that would mean that each black person would need to have almost 9 white friends so that they all could have that black friend.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Troy Mader, a former member of the Wyoming House of Representatives who after being appointed to his position, garnered the attention of the media after he complained too much about “dangerous” animals on the endangered species list, and they found essays he wrote online where he compared environmentalists to Hitler wanting to commit genocide. A few other reporters noted that his own country and music CD featured a rant in the insert where most give thanks to their bandmates featured complaints about how society has too much tolerance nowadays, and before long, reporters dug up a copy of a book Mader wrote back in 1987 where he reported false information about the spread of HIV and AIDS, and claimed that homosexuals willfully spread the HIV virus and want to have sex with children. Not surprisingly, in his first primary campaign to win office, Mader was defeated, and rebuffed by the voters of his district.


In both 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented its original profile of the current U.S. House Representative from Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District, Blaine Luetkemeyer, who has sponsored legislation to try and deregulate community banks altogether, and to enable the payday loan industry to undertake some of the most predatory practices outside of the mafia, in terms of radical loan interest rates. Hell, he introduced legislation back in 2014 that would have made it easier for payday lenders to launder money (Gee, call me crazy, but I don’t think the average voter in his district wanted him to put effort towards something like that). And for most of his four terms in office, Rep. Luetkemeyer kept his mouth shut, his head down, and didn’t make much in the way of headlines. He broke that streak in a big way, though, in March 2016, when he chimed in about Senator Elizabeth Warren, a notorious thorn in the side of Wall Street executives, in less-than-flattering, terms that show he has trouble using simile and metaphor. You see, he referred to Sen. Warren as “the Darth Vader of the financial services world”, and added that Wall Street should “find a way to neuter her”.

All right, first off, someone who stands up to big banks is hardly a Darth Vader, as he was all about crushing a rebellion, not the empire. Second, she’s a lady, and ladies don’t get neutered, look it up if you’re having trouble with female anatomy, Blaine. Third, I don’t need to defend Elizabeth Warren, because she responded and sufficiently handed Luetkemeyer his own ass on a plate, with her kindest remark being that the former bank regulator (who didn’t regulate banks so well) was “a Wall Street Yes-man”. Elizabeth Warren is not the only female lawmaker who Luetkemeyer has ever taken issue with, though, as he was frequently seen campaigning with “Fire Pelosi” signs during the Tea Party Wave in 2010. (It’s almost like he has a problem with women in authority, or something.)

So other than Blaine Luetkemeyer having a huge hard-on for big money interests and seems turned off by the idea of women having equal rights. But his whole voting record is pretty much garbage, including votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, for bans on abortion at 20 weeks (including ones without exceptions for rape or incest), two votes to defund Planned Parenthood, votes against Dodd-Frank or regulations upon the oil industry after the Deepwater Horizon spill, votes against raising the debt ceiling (which would have collapsed the global economy), voting for not just the 2013 Government Shutdown, but voted to keep it closed rather than reopen it, votes against LGBT rights such as hate crime protections or anti-discrimination protections, and oh yeah… a vote for every attempt to repeal the successful Affordable Care Act.

For whatever reason, Luetkemeyer does not seem to ever develop a reputation as a stooge for the 1%, and his district s re-elected him in the 2018 elections with 65% of the vote over Democrat Keith Miller. That’s probably because in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, Missouri’s 3rd District has a +13 Republican lean. Back in Washington for a sixth term, Luetkemeyer has jumped right back on the leash his corporate banking supporters keep him on:

• January 22nd, 2019: Luetkemeyer cannot be arsed to bother to vote against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Luetkemeyer voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Blaine Luetkemeyer votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Luetkemeyer votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Blaine Luetkemeyer is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• June 4th, 2019: Luetkemeyer votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Blaine Luetkemeyer votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• October 17th, 2019: Rep. Luetkemeyer is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
• October 23rd, 2019: Luetkemeyer is one of 41 Republicans who, while staring down the possibility of Donald Trump being impeached, stage a ridiculous publicity stunt in response by crashing a classified impeachment inquiry hearing for a “protest”.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Luetkemeyer ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.

Blaine Luetkemeyer is at least now in the minority party in Congress, which means he can do less damage on the House Financial Services Committee than he has over the past eight years. He could be one of many Republicans who greatly regret digging in to defend Donald Trump during the impeachment inquiry when November comes around. How much was Luetkemeyer in the bag for Trump? This was his statement after the impeachment vote in the House:

”Despite an unconstitutional investigation and a complete lack of evidence, House Democrats are formally introducing the articles of impeachment of President Trump, he said. " It is clear that this is an all-consuming obsession for House Democrats. Instead of working with the President and Republicans to support the United States’ historic economic success, their three-year temper tantrum appears to be headed toward the next phase.”

Gonna be real hard to back-pedal from that. We’ll continue to monitor him headed into 2020, and see if he threatens Elizabeth Warren’s non-existent testicles again if she ends up being the VP candidate on the Democratic Presidential ticket.

[PaulBullion]

Wow! Trump has presided over 19 of the 20 largest single day point drops in the history of the Dow Jones and 3 of the largest percentage changes (2 of which are in the top 5).

List of largest daily changes in the Dow Jones Industrial Average

Well, they do say the stock market is kind of like a casino ...

[The Cool Thatguy]

Exactly what do those white Americans have to be aggrieved about? The fact they weren't allowed to openly practice their racism until Trump took office? Awwww! Poor widdle snowflakes!

Well, they are being forced to account for generations of damage, admit that regardless of wherever they are in life that they have enjoyed preferential treatment, and discussion of racism is now front and center.

So truly, they are the greatest victims

[KOSLOX]

I never got the requirement to have a black friend, is seems that it would be a strain on the black community. Take Seattle Washington with a black population of just under 8% and white at 66%, that would mean that each black person would need to have almost 9 white friends so that they all could have that black friend.

I live in Iowa.

I have tons of people I personally despise who probably say I have a "black friend" because I saw them one time at a little league game.

That's why I commonly tell people to keep my name out of their mouths.

[PaulBullion]

I love it when my friends refer to me as "a black."

When I want to hang out with a black, I know which friends to call.

[PaulBullion]

From the piece that actually involved interviewing Sanders himself...

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-n...-done-fighting

Funny how you did not provide the (almost identical) context for the Biden quote.

[PaulBullion]

He wasn't shot. An officer strangled him to death by kneeling on his neck for almost ten minutes.

It's almost as if somebody has limited access to information about what is happening in the US.

[Moon Ronin]

I live in Iowa.

I have tons of people I personally despise who probably say I have a "black friend" because I saw them one time at a little league game.

That's why I commonly tell people to keep my name out of their mouths.

Pretty sure that I'm some peoples go to "Mexican, Hispanic, Latino, brown" friend... I really don't care

[worstblogever]

The GOP are so incapable of doing ANYTHING right now that they just resubmitted their 2016 GOP Party Platform as the 2020 one. Which of course, had support from Ukraine removed from it, wanted a border wall built, and came out in support of gay conversion therapy.

It also made several attacks directed at "the current president". Which, means the 2020 GOP Party Platform attacks Trump because they couldn't be bothered with simple edits.

[Tendrin]

The GOP are so incapable of doing ANYTHING right now that they just resubmitted their 2016 GOP Party Platform as the 2020 one. Which of course, had support from Ukraine removed from it, wanted a border wall built, and came out in support of gay conversion therapy.

It also made several attacks directed at "the current president". Which, means the 2020 GOP Party Platform attacks Trump because they couldn't be bothered with simple edits.

LOL. Oh, man. That's the GOP for you.

[Malvolio]

It was on this date in 2015 that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Troy Mader, a former member of the Wyoming House of Representatives who after being appointed to his position, garnered the attention of the media after he complained too much about “dangerous” animals on the endangered species list, and they found essays he wrote online where he compared environmentalists to Hitler wanting to commit genocide. A few other reporters noted that his own country and music CD featured a rant in the insert where most give thanks to their bandmates featured complaints about how society has too much tolerance nowadays, and before long, reporters dug up a copy of a book Mader wrote back in 1987 where he reported false information about the spread of HIV and AIDS, and claimed that homosexuals willfully spread the HIV virus and want to have sex with children. Not surprisingly, in his first primary campaign to win office, Mader was defeated, and rebuffed by the voters of his district.


In both 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented its original profile of the current U.S. House Representative from Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District, Blaine Luetkemeyer, who has sponsored legislation to try and deregulate community banks altogether, and to enable the payday loan industry to undertake some of the most predatory practices outside of the mafia, in terms of radical loan interest rates. Hell, he introduced legislation back in 2014 that would have made it easier for payday lenders to launder money (Gee, call me crazy, but I don’t think the average voter in his district wanted him to put effort towards something like that). And for most of his four terms in office, Rep. Luetkemeyer kept his mouth shut, his head down, and didn’t make much in the way of headlines. He broke that streak in a big way, though, in March 2016, when he chimed in about Senator Elizabeth Warren, a notorious thorn in the side of Wall Street executives, in less-than-flattering, terms that show he has trouble using simile and metaphor. You see, he referred to Sen. Warren as “the Darth Vader of the financial services world”, and added that Wall Street should “find a way to neuter her”.

All right, first off, someone who stands up to big banks is hardly a Darth Vader, as he was all about crushing a rebellion, not the empire. Second, she’s a lady, and ladies don’t get neutered, look it up if you’re having trouble with female anatomy, Blaine. Third, I don’t need to defend Elizabeth Warren, because she responded and sufficiently handed Luetkemeyer his own ass on a plate, with her kindest remark being that the former bank regulator (who didn’t regulate banks so well) was “a Wall Street Yes-man”. Elizabeth Warren is not the only female lawmaker who Luetkemeyer has ever taken issue with, though, as he was frequently seen campaigning with “Fire Pelosi” signs during the Tea Party Wave in 2010. (It’s almost like he has a problem with women in authority, or something.)

So other than Blaine Luetkemeyer having a huge hard-on for big money interests and seems turned off by the idea of women having equal rights. But his whole voting record is pretty much garbage, including votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, for bans on abortion at 20 weeks (including ones without exceptions for rape or incest), two votes to defund Planned Parenthood, votes against Dodd-Frank or regulations upon the oil industry after the Deepwater Horizon spill, votes against raising the debt ceiling (which would have collapsed the global economy), voting for not just the 2013 Government Shutdown, but voted to keep it closed rather than reopen it, votes against LGBT rights such as hate crime protections or anti-discrimination protections, and oh yeah… a vote for every attempt to repeal the successful Affordable Care Act.

For whatever reason, Luetkemeyer does not seem to ever develop a reputation as a stooge for the 1%, and his district s re-elected him in the 2018 elections with 65% of the vote over Democrat Keith Miller. That’s probably because in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, Missouri’s 3rd District has a +13 Republican lean. Back in Washington for a sixth term, Luetkemeyer has jumped right back on the leash his corporate banking supporters keep him on:

• January 22nd, 2019: Luetkemeyer cannot be arsed to bother to vote against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Luetkemeyer voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Blaine Luetkemeyer votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Luetkemeyer votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Blaine Luetkemeyer is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• June 4th, 2019: Luetkemeyer votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Blaine Luetkemeyer votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• October 17th, 2019: Rep. Luetkemeyer is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
• October 23rd, 2019: Luetkemeyer is one of 41 Republicans who, while staring down the possibility of Donald Trump being impeached, stage a ridiculous publicity stunt in response by crashing a classified impeachment inquiry hearing for a “protest”.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Luetkemeyer ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.

Blaine Luetkemeyer is at least now in the minority party in Congress, which means he can do less damage on the House Financial Services Committee than he has over the past eight years. He could be one of many Republicans who greatly regret digging in to defend Donald Trump during the impeachment inquiry when November comes around. How much was Luetkemeyer in the bag for Trump? This was his statement after the impeachment vote in the House:



Gonna be real hard to back-pedal from that. We’ll continue to monitor him headed into 2020, and see if he threatens Elizabeth Warren’s non-existent testicles again if she ends up being the VP candidate on the Democratic Presidential ticket.

Well, I don't know about that last part. I think a lot of us would say that Elizabeth Warren has some pretty big balls. And we mean that as a compliment.

[worstblogever]

LOL. Oh, man. That's the GOP for you.

Among the highlights of the lack of change:

"The survival of the internet as we know it is at risk," the platform reads. "Its gravest peril originates in the White House, the current occupant of which has launched a campaign, both at home and internationally, to subjugate it to agents of government."

The warning about speech online is one of more than three dozen unflattering references to either the "current president," "current chief executive," "current administration," people "currently in control" of policy, or the "current occupant" of the White House that appear in the Republican platform. [...]

The platform censures the "current" president [...] and his administration for, among other things, imposing "a social and cultural revolution," causing a "huge increase in the national debt" and damaging relationships with international partners.

"The Middle East is more dangerous now than at any time since the Second World War," the platform reads.

I mean, it wasn't probably going to change much. There were some GOP moderates wanting to strike the support for gay conversion therapy... but given current events, you would think they would change their tone about say, maybe adding police reform or even a lip-service commitment to doing better about, I dunno... public health.

NOPE. Don't Wash. Don't Rinse. Just repeat.