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

[worstblogever]

Rove is taking the Cheney's side in the GOP divorce, is my summary.

[Tendrin]

https://twitter.com/cons_owned/statu...28017103298568

I thought we might all appreciate this owning.

[Xheight]

If we replayed the events of January 6 a thousand times, how often do you think it would end with Donald Trump as an installed dictator?

None. As a trick question. The Delay of the EC vote was a legal maneuver to examine the vote according to the EC act which written in such a way as to allow objections but weakly provides review of results and the election system. It was last used by Democrats and even Democrat law experts say that had SCOTUS reviewed it may have been a toss up to send it back to the states. Therefore no Military and no hyperventilating about a dictatorship.

This of course flies in the face of the brute Majoritarianism that dominates Democratic Party adherents wanting to dispense with the constitutional checks and balances that preserve state rights and the integrity of the system in favor of the popular vote.

In defense of Jan 6th - who believes that had the 2020 election had an majority of ballots in an non traditional way, meaning in-person with a paper ballot, that Trump would have lost?

In the 2020 election, 69% of voters nationwide cast their ballot nontraditionally — by mail and/or before Election Day. This is the highest rate of nontraditional voting for a presidential election (Figure 1) since questions regarding voting method have been included in the survey.

https://www.census.gov/library/stori...-election.html

This poses a HUGE problem for the GOP if they believe they can get people to believe that their votes matter ever again and join up to the "Big Lie" campaign that most of the press is pitching to disqualify Trump and the integrity efforts to de-mystify the voting system of its tech and Catch-22 legerdemain.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” ran a profile of Lynn Wachtmann, who served almost three decades in Buckeye State politics before finally being done in by term limits. Among Wachtmann’s more infamous moments were arguing that state law should trump federal environmental law when he was pushing for more water to be drained from Lake Erie (which coincidentally would benefit his former co-workers at Culligan Water Conditioning and Maumee Valley Bottlers Incorporated), and he said environmentalists were “fearmongering” and “spreading misinformation” about his ideas. He was known even more, however, for being a social conservative, including the time he pushed for legislation to create a $5000 fine for any sex-education teacher who taught students about any birth control method other than abstinence. Wachtmann also tried banning abortion if a fetal heartbeat could be detected (i.e. an unconstitutional 6 week abortion ban) on two separate occasions, and during debate over the bill, admitted he intended to ban all abortion. If that’s not enough, he also voted to defund Ohio Planned Parenthood clinics in 2012, and during debate over that bill, made the level-headed statement that Democrats are “abhorrent, crazy people intent on killing every baby they can.” He has been out of politics now for about four years, and Ohio is better for it.

In both 2016, and 2017, on this date, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Debbie Riddle, an eight-term member of the Texas House of Representatives who has been a known nutter,since 2003, during national debate over George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” education policy, she declared the idea came from a unique place, "It comes from Moscow. From Russia. Straight out of the pit of hell.” Now, for a few years, Debbie Riddle then was relatively reserved when it came to hyperbolic statements until Barack Obama got elected president, and the frequency of her doing so, particularly bigoted ones skyrocketed, which I’m sure has no correlation, whatsoever. In March 2009, Riddle again drew attention when she was taking testimony from a witness on the floor of the Texas House to discuss Texas’ HB 789, arguing that we live in a “color-blind” society and whether a person was “purple or green” it didn’t matter. She of course then spent much of 2010 trying to get legislation similar to Arizona’s SB 1070 anti-immigration law passed to legalize racial profiling, so you’ve got to think maybe she was being disingenuous during that prior debate about our nation being “color blind”. She has appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 where she tried pushing Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert’s ridiculous “anchor babies” theory, making an utter fool of herself when she claimed she had received word that it was true from “former FBI agents”, but when pressed, could not name a single person to defend the idiotic conspiracy theory. It was also totally not racist in September of 2012 when Debbie Riddle got on Facebook and told Abdul Pasha, a Pakistani-American law student attending law School at the South Texas College of Law that because he felt American soldiers should be given sensitivity training to help them in interacting with Afghani citizens while serving Afghanistan, to take his opinion and “go back to Afghanistan” (where he’s not from),and where as she put it, it’s “like the Stone Age”. A few months later, in January 2013, she also was arguing against the Voting Rights Act, and in favor of stricter Voter ID Laws that were being pushed for in Texas that disproportionately disenfranchise minorities, by pushing the myth of widespread “voter fraud”. In February 2015, she introduced two separate pieces of legislation that would criminalize the use of a public restroom by a transgendered person who entered the “incorrect” or “opposite birth sex” bathroom, and would actually make it a felony for business owners to not follow along with this transphobic policy. While when pressed for comment about her bills, she refused to do so, a few weeks earlier on social media, Riddle foreshadowed the legislation, saying, she would pass a law that “will protect women & children from going into a ladies restroom & finding a man who feels like he is a woman that day.” With such a long, wide career of bigotry towards minorities, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community from this one lunatic, we're proud to report that Debbie Riddle proved too insane for even Texas Republicans in 2016, and was defeated in the primary election for her seat in the Texas House of Representatives.

On this date in 2018, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Michael “Duke” Lowrie, a candidate in a 2017 special election for District 8 of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He also made a run for the same seat back in 2011, but only got 43% of the vote against Jeff Thompson. As the primary approached for that special election, and Lowrie was the only candidate on the ballot, someone noticed that on Lowrie’s Facebook page as recently as 2015, he was posting about how Islam is a “false religion”, how Americans should “run all Muslims out of business and anyone who employs them”, citing a conspiracy theory based around a poorly understood ISIS propaganda campaign, and telling people if they were offended to “unfriend him and seek the friendship of the Islamist”. When the media started asking questions about that, wouldn’t you know it, Lowrie doubled down on his post (And what would you expect from a proud Trump supporter who self-identifies as a “deplorable”?), and that led to three other Republican candidates hopping into the race. From that point, Lowrie had to win on his own merits, and his fanaticism about overturning Roe v. Wade, treating the 2nd Amendment as absolute, and refusing to work with Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards at all because he believes in “no compromise” was not enough to overcome his flagrant bigotry, and he only got 15% of the vote in the GOP Primary, finishing third.

On this date in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled George Faught, a former member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives who served District 14 for five terms in that body from 2006 through 2018, with the missing gap in the middle being from 2013-2014 after he lost an unsuccessful bid for Congress to Markwayne Mullin back in the GOP Primary for Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District in 2012. Faught’s shenanigans included support for “English Only” legislation, bills to allow religious expression (specifically, the Christian kind) in schools, anti-Sharia Law measure that was in no way constitutional or necessary, Oklahoma’s version of the “Birther Bill”, to require presidential candidates provide a copy of their birth certificates, a highly unconstitutional bill that would allow the state from re-issuing medical licenses to any physician who might perform an abortion, which is still a constitutionally protected procedure for women to have performed on them, a bill to allow a statue of the Ten Commandments to be constructed and displayed at the Oklahoma State Capitol, as well as a measure to allow church members to use the “Stand Your Ground” defense to kill anyone they feel is threatening them while they are at church services. Now, that list has Faught’s fingerprints on some out-there, loony legislative ideas. But his last extreme piece of idiocy on display was HB 1549, which would have prohibited abortions based on a mother seeking it because of a diagnosis of Down’s syndrome or other genetic abnormality in the fetus during gestation, without any exceptions for rape or incest. During debate on the bill, when Democrats challenged Faught on the measure, he began claiming that rape and incest could be a part of “God’s will”. And, Faught didn’t back down after the heated exchange at the state capitol, posting online in his belief that, “Life, no matter how it is conceived, is valuable and something to be protected. Let me be clear, God never approves of rape or incest. However, even in the worst circumstances, God can bring beauty from ashes. Between being an anti-choice lunatic to the extent that he would try and claim rapes were a secretly a part of the Almighty’s plan, as well as Faught’s vote against giving teacher’s a pay raise after a state-wide strike in 2018… he was ousted in the GOP Primary for his seat in the Oklahoma state legislature, and has not returned to politics.

[worstblogever]

On this date one year ago, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Michael Saari, a 2018 candidate for Michigan State Senate, specifically to represent District 15 of that body. Which only four years prior, Saari was a failed Democratic primary candidate for the same seat… he seems like his mindset does, in fact, jive with modern Republicans. And not just because his take on gun rights was: “The government continues to increase small crimes to there long list of felony offenses in removing firearm rights from her citizenry for the purpose of creating governmental puppets or slaves if you will for firearm disarmament.” While most Republicans are willing to defend members of their party who are straight-up pedophiles, bizarrely, not long after announcing his candidacy for the Michigan State Senate again in 2018, Michael Saari decided to start ranting online against the judge who sentenced Larry Nassar to what would effectively be his sentence to die in prison for molesting members of the U.S. Women’s gymnastics team. Saari wrote, ”Judge was wrong for her personal vocal opinions on record… That should be a crime against jursiprudence itself.. Lastly, what do you think this feminazi judge would say if her husband asked for a BJ? In one of his further follow-up comments he further defended men being attracted to 12-year old girls because it’s in the Bible, writing, ”Woman don't seem to understand that from the very beginning of time men have taken young girls (Prior to periods) as wives and concubines. Even the bible talks of this so don't make it sound like men that are attracted to 12 year old girls are sick... it's you woman [sic] that can't get a grip on reality is whats [sic] sick...it's only normal and you can't change normal or a persons DNA.” Michael Saari denied ever making the second comment (that was caught in screen caps) and ended up dropping out of the race in February of 2018, after his comments went viral online, but still insisted he felt the judge’s comments were WAY out of line (so, decidedly a non-apology towards her). It’s probably for the best that Michael Saari decided to drop out, because shortly after the GOP Primary took place, a completely different man named Michael Saari was arrested in Escanaba, Michigan, for possession of child pornography. Amazing coincidence, that.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Anthony Aguero, a 2020 Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’ 16th Congressional District. It takes some disconnect to hear Donald Trump call Mexicans rapists and support him and his ICE goon squads in whatever inhumane things they’re doing while being a Mexican American… But Aguero is far more gone than that. He is yet the latest example we’ve got of someone who is in the modern Republican Venn diagram of “Congressional Candidate” and “Qanon conspiracy theorist”. As is the case in the far, far too many Qanon folks we’ve had to profile at FRED, Aguero was sharing QAnon videos, posted “#TheGreatAwakening” and “#GreatAwakening” across all his social media accounts. While he was at it, he was literally sharing the unscientific lie that Democrats harvest adrenochrome from humans (someone thinks the Maze Runner series is based on fact, it seems). On his Parler account (yes, he’s off on white nationalist Twitter), he was also pandering the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. But Aguero went for the conspiracy theory hat trick and delved into some John Birch Society paranoia about dihydrogen oxide, and laser-focused on one “Q” post about water, panicking and asking, “Q says watch the water? Why are there so many connections between celebrities and water companies?” Aguero also has ties to an anti-immigrant hate group (and protested against immigrants in El Paso), and has been charged with both domestic assault and driving under the influence, so there’s that. Anthony Aguero still got 13% of the vote, which was enough to finish third in a crowded six person GOP Primary in Texas’ 16th. As he seems unlikely to ever reach office, especially after he admitted he was a part of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6th (how is he not in jail right now?) we will set aside his profile to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1063-50, since this was established in July 2014.


William Hayward

Welcome to what is the 1063rd original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing William Hayward, who was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’ 35th Congressional District, looking to upset longtime Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett. However, we should note that he has failed to be elected to Congress on four occasions, losing in Texas’ 28th District in 2012 and 2016, and having a failed run as a carpet bagger in Texas’ 9th District in 2018. Figuring out why he deserves a profile for being a lunatic unfit shouldn’t take us too long to cover based on how his 2020 went.

In April 2020, a security camera video and cell phone videos emerged from Tim’s Seafood Market in San Antonio, Texas, where Hayward and his wife started screaming at customers wearing masks, and when a store employee went to ask what the trouble was, he called her, “a stupid, f****** Asian b****” and then added, “I am a U.S. congressman. Who do you think you’re talking to?"

1. Rude.
2. Racist.
3. Sexist.
4. Why the hell are you trying to throw a fit about OTHER PEOPLE wearing masks, you jackass?
5. You’re actually NOT a Congressman, you’re a four time loser trying to become one who only meets the prerequisite for a conservative candidate of being an unmitigated ***hole.

Hayward never apologized, and the statement he released only made things more troubling:

“It should be noted that I never gave them permission to film me or my wife, the children kept shoving me putting their phones in my face and blocked my car. Again, I must apologize for me from losing my temper over the insults they gave me and my China wife."

Alright… so the other thing… would be this post on Twitter from June of 2020 where he recommended using”Vitamin D, hydroxychloroquine, and zinc cold medicine as a cure for Covid-19.

In spite of that, Republican voters were still not completely disenchanted with William Hayward, and he narrowly lost the GOP Primary in his Congressional run, getting 47% of the vote. He is planning to challenge Lloyd Doggett again as an Independent in 2022, but Hayward’s campaign strategy seems to be to spread conservative conspiracy theories, spread lies about the origins of Covid-19 while referring to it as the “China virus”, and refer to Cabinet Secretary Pete Buttigieg with homophobic slurs (Feel free to also report that to Twitter), so we don’t see him pulling an upset.

[Xheight]

I can't access the full Op Ed by Karl Rove, however it seems to have hit a cord on both sides

Rove is either deluded or cynical to think that Republican numbers can bounce back to establishment backing where they were before Trump and so few % of the vote represents the once silent majority the Trump is tapping with his populism.

First and foremost election power rests with the minority of the politically engaged in this country that come out and vote, or at least once did as that has now become a virtual exercise, and the largest growth in participation has been two areas Democrat databases of registration drives seizing the virtual advantage and the Trump wave of turn out of in person voters that toppled Hillary and caught pollsters by surprise.

The Bush, Romney path to power is dead and I know of no motivated GOP voter that thinks that kicking the Trump populism aside is going get those numbers up. Working class Jan 6 backers would be right to walk away from a party that is trying to do what Fox News has been trying to pull off, raise the anger but channel it to the establishment mainstream. Fox News isn't revolutionary, to no one's surprise, but that is where the anger is at government that is viewed as illegitimate and corrupt. Note they prefer to call Libs kooks or out of touch rather than calling out usurping the the government. Driving the discontent back to the legal system is part of the Rove message which a sector of GOP is more and more thinking that is not viable to save the country.

Let's not forget what is Driving the media day today - This is a pre-impeachment to stop Trump from running in 2024 where the machine that installed Biden may not be working and enough people might come back to vote for him. Building a head of steam toward legal barring of Trump and Co. from running is a think tank op that is playing out in the press as we watch.

[worstblogever]

Just a reminder of the sorts of people who stormed the Capitol:





Trump and the GOP are still lying about the attack not being planned, still lying about the results of the election, and plotting the next coup attempt. In plain sight. There's no remorse. Any statements you see from anyone still with a Republican Party membership today are crocodile tears.

[Malvolio]

Attempted murder is a lesser crime than murder but it is still a crime. An attempted but unsuccessful coup may be a lesser crime than a successful coup, but it is still a crime.

In fact, a successful coup would not result in any arrests as the perpetrators of said coup would now be in power or rewarded by those who take power.

[CaptainEurope]

President Biden wants to cap insulin at $35 a month. How is that bad?

Fewer Americans will be bankrupted by medical cost. Here is how this is bad news for Joe Biden.
By Chris Cillizza.

[CaptainEurope]

They were close. Sure, they didn't have the military... but they had the military making statements to not interfere in either direction while Michael Flynn's brother was at the Pentagon stalling the National Guard's response. They tried to get people within the Pentagon and National Security Team at the last minute in December to get traction on it.

The press is reporting that this almost was a coup because it was. And it's on,y by honoring that truth that we can move forward and take steps yo make sure that in 2024, 2028, or any other year it can't happen again.

The fact that we're watching the forum's one still-admitted Republican try to hand-wave away a coordinated domestic terror attack planned by his party's president/overlord and members of his party that their die-hard militia and conspiracy supporters carried out that killed Capitol Police and wanted to capture and kill the VP or noteworthy progressives to lynch them... this is now becoming the GQP brand. Ignore all the evidence of the evil and seditious things we did, nothing to see here...

Meanwhile, Liz Cheney is like, "ENOUGH."

If those pipe bombs had gone off, Trump would probably have declared a state of emergency and still be in power.

[mortari]

Attempted murder is a lesser crime than murder but it is still a crime. An attempted but unsuccessful coup may be a lesser crime than a successful coup, but it is still a crime.

In fact, a successful coup would not result in any arrests as the perpetrators of said coup would now be in power or rewarded by those who take power.

Except a Successful Coup is definitely NOT a crime

[Xheight]

Except a Successful Coup is definitely NOT a crime

Hence the Biden Presidency

1antifa-1.jpg

Old news but still out there

Published Date: 2020-05-31

Washington, D.C. — On Saturday, May 30, and into early Sunday, May 31, 2020, U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division Officers made one arrest during the demonstrations near 15th St. NW and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Some demonstrators repeatedly attempted to knock over security barriers, and vandalized six Secret Service vehicles. Between Friday night and Sunday morning, more than 60 Secret Service Uniformed Division Officers and Special Agents sustained multiple injuries from projectiles such as bricks, rocks, bottles, fireworks and other items. Secret Service personnel were also directly physically assaulted as they were kicked, punched, and exposed to bodily fluids. A total of 11 injured employees were transported to a local hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

[Jack Dracula]

Can you outline a convincing narrative where because the events had gone differently on 6th January, the Donald would be acting as President today?

I can’t think of any.

Say the rioters had been more successful and occupied the Capitol building for as long as a week…it wouldn’t have changed the legal position, or the courts view of the position, the military’s stance, or police stance.

Eventually the building would have been cleared. To be honest I think a longer occupation would in the long term would have actually damaged the Donald even more…it would damaged his chances of contesting next Presidential election.

What if the Capitol Police hadn’t managed to get the Democratic Representatives out of harms way in time? Or if one or more of the rioters had inadvertently or purposely started a fire?
In the aftermath of a full-on riot resulting in the death of a number of Congresspersons and Senators as well as the possible destruction of the U.S. Capitol, Trump as the remaining President could declare a national state of emergency granting him all sorts of special powers to shut down communication, freeze bank accounts, suspend habeas corpus and institute martial law. This state of emergency can only be revoked by a bipartisan Congressional vote, which would be unlikely since new Democratic Representatives would need to be elected and Republicans would have to be on board with the revocation. This situation would give the Trump administration ample time to twist arms at the state level in order to decertify the election. While that is happening, the GOP propaganda machine is working to pin the blame on Leftist agents provocateurs, creating doubts as to the actual instigators. Trump cronies still in office at the DOJ would stall and hamper investigations by the FBI.
Not knowing what to believe and being confused as to what their roles should be during the state of emergency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff will default to preserving the union and tacitly remain behind the sitting President giving Trump time to maneuver cronies into their seats. Over the next year of confusion sown by right wing media and politicians, Trump will continue to consolidate power in the military and at the state level, the whole time continuing to instill doubt regarding the election process. Trump supporters continue to be elected to key gubernatorial and elector positions at the state level and consistent Republican victories are guaranteed for years to come. With those states made unavailable, The Democrats have no hope of dominating Congress or the Senate let alone electing a President. The GOP effectively controls the country and Trump controls the GOP.

[seismic-2]

The next time the GOP loses in the Electoral College, they will likely succeed in sending the certified votes back to the States, because apparently no actual evidence of fraud is needed to do so. Just "suspicion", and "the votes can't be trusted", will be enough reason. Also from now on, the GOP-controlled legislatures will vote themselves the authority to override the Secretary of State's certification of the election results, so when the votes are returned to those States, the legislatures will simply appoint their own (Republican) slate of electors to replace the slate that actually won the election. What is most depressing about this scenario is that no one is even pretending that the elections has to be shown to be "fraudulent" or "stolen" for this plan to be implemented. Just having the Democratic candidate win will be sufficient for the GOP to throw out the results and send the election to the House, where they will control the results.

[Mister Mets]

None. As a trick question. The Delay of the EC vote was a legal maneuver to examine the vote according to the EC act which written in such a way as to allow objections but weakly provides review of results and the election system. It was last used by Democrats and even Democrat law experts say that had SCOTUS reviewed it may have been a toss up to send it back to the states. Therefore no Military and no hyperventilating about a dictatorship.

This of course flies in the face of the brute Majoritarianism that dominates Democratic Party adherents wanting to dispense with the constitutional checks and balances that preserve state rights and the integrity of the system in favor of the popular vote.

In defense of Jan 6th - who believes that had the 2020 election had an majority of ballots in an non traditional way, meaning in-person with a paper ballot, that Trump would have lost?

https://www.census.gov/library/stori...-election.html

This poses a HUGE problem for the GOP if they believe they can get people to believe that their votes matter ever again and join up to the "Big Lie" campaign that most of the press is pitching to disqualify Trump and the integrity efforts to de-mystify the voting system of its tech and Catch-22 legerdemain.

I'll leave it to others to explain how the coup would work, since I'm interested in other peoples' understandings.

On that topic, I'm curious as to your specific objections to how the November 2020 election and the results were handled. It can be a bit of a dodge to defend others (in your case the January 6 rioters) since you're not committing to their viewpoint.