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

[numberthirty]

(Please keep this one in mind the next time someone thinks to tell folks about something Bill Maher has to say about anything...)

https://bleedingcool.com/tv/bill-mah...-in-interview/

Bill Maher Can't Even Get His Own COVID "Facts" Right in Interview

And we're not talking about some trumped-up, crackpot theory about drinking Drano or cookin' horse meds like crystal meth. The dude quoted two CDC reports so painfully wrong that DH had to fact-check him as "Editor's Notes" before the interview went live. Seriously. Take a look:

[worstblogever]

Because there are so many of us who look for fact-based reports from a bigoted s*** of a late-night comedian.

And last I checked... who the hell on this forum even quotes Maher for anything in the first place? The only time he gets mentioned, maybe once a month, everybody just seems to point out how s***ty he is and wonder why he's still on HBO.

[numberthirty]

IMO the Democratic Party should listen up and pay heed to Bill Maher's campaign coaching ...

That's it exactly. Maher may be an *******, but that doesn't mean he's always wrong. His New Rules segment often includes insights that make sense.

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[numberthirty]

I'm going to vote in person and to hell with the mail in ballots. People keep forgetting that you can vote early...been doing it for the past couple of elections. I keep thinking Trump will try and drag things out by contesting the mail in votes.

I know a lot of people here don't like him but Bill Maher was spot on tonight with his summing up

Agreed 100% with Maher here.

The “both sides are just as bad” and the “undecided” group are really a problem. I heard that nonsense a lot in 2016 and it’s pretty annoying because the stakes here are clear and Maher outlined it perfectly. That ridiculous both sides nonsense has gotten the country into a mess that’s going to have very,very far reaching consequences. Even today, I’m still debating some ex-Bernie supporters to vote Biden because of the stakes and thankfully a lot of them have come round to see reason.

What Republicans are doing is re-shaping the US for possibly generations and are determined to roll back a lot of progress that’s been made socially and economically. No matter what anyone says, they’re focused on this and because they have the power, nothing anyone says will stop them. It’s clear as day and that’s why anyone with a working brain should get out their vote for Biden. It’s no longer a case of just voting for the President, this is literally a vote for the future of the country. Trump supporters know this and that’s why the cruelty, scandal and general unseriousness of the President doesn’t bother them, they’re voting for what he represents.

..........

[numberthirty]

Like Bill Maher said the other night, it shouldn't have been #BelieveWomen; it should have been #TakeAllegationsSeriously.

..........

[worstblogever]

Well, thank you for wasting our time quoting the posts I referenced when I said, "maybe once a month..." and did a search to see how often it happened.

Not that it makes him much more relevant around this forum.

I've got this concept that Bill Maher does not, and should not "speak for liberals" and the less that's said about him, the better off everyone will be.

[worstblogever]

It was on this day in both 2015, as well as 2016, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Steve Martin, a former member of the Virginia legislature from 1988, serving five years in the General Assembly before moving to the Virginia State Senate from 1993 through 2016. The more famous silver-haired Steve Martin took to social media to ask that no one ever mixed him up with the Republican politician in February 2014 after the latter took to social media to argue against abortion, and in his anti-choice rant, he referred to pregnant mothers as "hosts". That's not all from Virginia's Martin, who was so in favor of torture said that it was justified no matter how many body parts the interrogated party loses, and that "Christ himself would have advocated for torture". Martin (again, the Republican one) believes that Constitutional rights don't apply to practitioners of Islam, because their religion "requires them to kill others to get into Heaven". Yes, somehow, a man with disgusting opinions like that can serve over a quarter century in politics. He was defeated in the GOP Primary for his Virginia State Senate seat in 2015.

On this date in 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of Josh Moore, a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who finished eighth in the general election for his seat, and voters were right that he should barely qualify for office, if at all. You see, there was debate over a public nudity bill sponsored by Josh Moore in the New Hampshire House of Representatives back in December of 2015, HB 1525, which was oddly specific about women’s nipples being an offending thing (but not men’s) and State Rep. Amanda Bouldin was one of the Democrats opposed to the bill because she thought it might potentially make public breastfeeding a crime, and she posted her frustration over it on Facebook. While all any of her fellow legislators had to do was point out that the bill actually did have a written exemption in it for breastfeeding mothers… Josh Moore decided to argue with her by taking a slightly different, and really stupid angle, writing “Who doesn’t support a mother’s right to feed? Don’t give me the liberal talking points Amanda. If it’s a woman’s natural inclination to pull her nipple out in public and you support that. Than you should have no problem with a mans inclantion [sic] to stare at it and grab it. After all... It’s ALL relative and natural, right?” So it seems Josh Moore feels that at the first sign of areola, he’s been given a free pass to grope anyone he likes. Which isn’t true, incidentally, and would actually be a form of sexual assault. Moore then closed his discussion with Amanda Bouldin by telling her, “I’ll see you on the House floor. I obviously have more respect for women and her innocence and decency than women who are support public nudity.” Yeah, that’s pretty much a response of, “I’m not a disrespectful sexist, you are for believing your nips aren’t filthy and need to be covered up.” Two off-kilter comments aren’t enough to consider someone touched in the head here at FRED, but when we look at his voting record, we also take note of how much of an extremist he’s been while in office, what with a vote to repeal the buffer zone for protesters around abortion clinics. Y’know, so they can actually BLOCK THE DOOR. Moore also voted against HB 1661, an attempt to ban the practice of gay conversion therapy upon minors. With the Blue Wave on the horizon in 2018, Josh Moore opted to not run for re-election.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Jeffrey Pierce, a former member of the Maine House of Representatives from District 53 who served in office from 2015-2018. After failing to be elected in 2012, Pierce won in 2014 by about 280 votes, and proceeded to head to the capitol to prove himself dedicated loyalist of highly insane GOP Gov. Paul LePage, as evidenced by his voting record. Where things got interesting was just prior to the 2018 elections, when Maine Democrats made it a point to note that four GOP candidates for office in the election were in possession of criminal records. And one of them was sitting state legislator Jeffrey Pierce, who was arrested for trying to sell cocaine back in 1981, earning probation and in 1983, had a felony drug trafficking conviction. Even more interesting was that somehow, Pierce owned a firearm and had a hunting license, which should have been impossible for him to own as a felon. While Pierce trying claiming that was just when he was a “stupid kid”, he apparently didn’t get much smarter, and also had DUI arrests from 2004-2006. But still, for a time, Pierce was indicted for having that hunting license fraudulently until charges were dropped. With the momentum of the Blue Wave in 2018, Jeffrey Pierce lost to Democrat Allison Hepler, garnering just 48% of the vote. He attempted to avenge that loss in 2020, but again lost with only 48% of the vote. The one thing that he had going for him? He was pardoned of all crimes on his record by Paul LePage as he bitterly left office in January of 2019, against the recommendations of the state’s clemency board.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Patrice Kimbler, a failed 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 36th Congressional District, who wanted to challenge Rep. Raul Ruiz but was probably undone by the fact that she’s a kook who believes in the Qanon conspiracy theory while running for Congress. Her Twitter account posted the Qanon hashtag and motto, but because as we approached the insurrection in the capitol on 1/6 and the inauguration of Joe Biden, she was warning about the “demonic forces of the Deep State”, raving about “Obamagate” (with no concept of what it was), accusing Hillary Clinton of “suiciding” people (likely a reference to the Vince Foster conspiracy), and outright accused the incoming president of molesting children, per the conspiracy theory. Feel free to further scan her Twitter feed for other conspiracy theory nonsense and slander of the BlackLivesMatter movement supposedly invading churches, if you want to go down the rabbit hole of this kook. Patrice Kimbler finished fourth in the open primary for the seat, getting just 7.6% of the vote. She went mostly silent after the failed coup attempt by Donald Trump and his conspiracy theory-obsessed ilk and Joe Biden was sworn in as president. As such, we will set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1067-50, since this was established in July 2014.


Joe Collins

Welcome to what is the 1067th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Joe Collins, who was a 2020 candidate fpr U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 43rd Congressional District, hoping to upset legendary Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a frequent target of ire during the Trump era in particular. Collins gives the impression he will line up on any party’s ticket for any office for campaign contributions, considering he was originally a 2020 presidential candidate running for the Green Party nomination. By switching his party affiliation to the GOP and challenging Waters, he started getting way more campaign cash to play with, much of which he spent funneling back into the same Trump businesses who were helping promote him in his doomed campaign.

What definitely confirmed suspicions that Joe Collins was never going to win in a highly Democratic district was when Collins responded to the death of George Floyd by claiming that “Democratic policies killed George Floyd”, and not, y’know, Derek Chauvin putting his knee on his neck until he was choked to death. In the wake of the killing of Dijon Kizzee getting shot 20 times by LAPD officers and camera footage at the scene not at all jibing with the deputies’ stories… well, that’s in the district Collins was running for, so he came out and blamed “outside influences” for protests after the LAPD’s attempted coverup of the incident resulted in protests.

Joe Collins only beat absolute kook and convicted felon Omar Navarro in the GOP Primary by 250 votes, and got 28% of the vote in the general election, because Auntie Maxine is no joke and he definitely is. We expect him to run troll campaigns for money every two years going forward.

[CSTowle]

Yeah, they still haven't ever won any Election on the national level. Seems like they struggle to get even 1% of the vote most of the time. Political movements that are destined to succeed have something called momentum. A far better strategy would be to run as Democrats, then change Party affiliation once in office. At this point, I wonder if their goal is to actually get elected.

Or, they could do like those of us on the left of the Democratic Party and accept that change takes time and the majority of the country doesn't hold the same views you do. Short of a Green/leftist becoming a dictator there's no way that agenda is going to be carried out. So you have a few choices. 1. Work to persuade those who might be willing to listen with the best arguments you can and try to change the system from within. 2. Give up and just vote 3rd Party and continually be disappointed as they fail to ever get any traction. 3. Actively sabotage the system and hope that when the dust clears it's far left climate activists in charge instead of the more likely white supremacist christian Taliban types that have been praying to their guns something like a collapse might happen, because they are simple folk and the workings of politics and society confuse them and violence and the illusion of a golden era where things were simpler is appealing. I'd say any choice but the first and you'd be just as delusional, but it's still (for now) a free country.

As to Bill Maher, he was clearly out of his depth and speaking with strong opinions about things he knew little about (which makes him like your average voter, just funnier and with a platform) even on Politically Incorrect. It's just that most of his opinions lined up with those who are s##tting on him now, and that was good enough to ignore his areas of ignorance. Now that the tolerance for stepping out of the Party line is nearly nonexistent some of those things that were overlooked during the Clinton and Bush eras are being more closely scrutinized. I like the format of journalists/experts/politicians having a place to give opinions they might not express otherwise, I just wish he'd do more listening than opining or at least keeping it to looking for a good spot to drop a joke. Same with John Oliver, though he's less scrutinized as he tends to stick to the Party line, I'm sure he probably knows little about what's been written for him. But he's interested in learning and passing along that knowledge in a humorous and bite-sized form that your average voter can consume easily. Both of them make jokes that make me cringe, not from being offensive but just cringey, but I'll overlook that if I'm enjoying what I'm seeing/hearing.

[Gray Lensman]

I remember when Maher tried to defend Elliot Spitzer as not really having done anything wrong. I can't remember who the guest was, but they tried to explain why the allegations were worse for Spitzer than they would be for anyone else but Maher just shouted them down like, well, like Hannity or Carlson does.

[4saken1]

Aren't you talking about Krysten Sinema, the ex-Green Party member who switched to Democrat?

I think this actually strengthens my argument.

[Jack Dracula]

That's like trying to do in Wile E. by getting him an Acme catalog.

He already had it covered just fine.

The reason we’re talking about her right now is because she’s actively obstructing Democratic efforts to pass legislation. Trying to still make that the Democrats fault is ridiculous. I know you really want to paint the party in a bad light but also put the blame where it’s due.

[Jack Dracula]

Yes, Boston is quite liberal, but as in New York, there's also a very thick "You can't tell me what to do" mentality there.

That mentality is everywhere, though I think a sizable portion of the people protesting are largely uninformed and don’t honestly care about the issues. They just want to jump on the bandwagon and be part of something bigger than them and feel like they actually have some power or control over their personal situation.
That’s really what the GOP has been doing for the last couple of decades. Instilling a sense of powerlessness and anxiety in their base by constantly telling them they’re being taken advantage of or somehow being made redundant by progressive ideals. They create the problem and then offer the opportunity to seize back the control these people think they’ve somehow lost by voting for or against whatever they’re told to. It’s a pretty damned simple and effective means of mass manipulation.

[Billy Batson]

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5...nmental-lawyer

One, who also is a donor to Democrats. Probably nominated by Gilibrandt. Really stretching here to find fault.

Tlaib blasts Biden judicial nominee whose firm sued environmental lawyer

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a vocal critic of the prosecution of former environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, blasted the Biden administration’s judicial nomination of a lawyer who worked on Chevron’s lawsuit against Donziger.

“President Biden was elected with the hope that he would guard against and reverse the ongoing conservative takeover of our courts, not accelerate it,” Tlaib said in a statement to The Hill.

She went on to blast Jennifer Rearden’s role in “the outrageous Chevron legal assault on human rights lawyer Steven Donziger" as well as work on behalf of landlords facing discrimination lawsuits.

“This nomination is a slap in the face to the very people who put President Biden in the White House, and he should withdraw it immediately,” Tlaib added.
In the 1990s, Donziger sued Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001, on behalf of a coalition of indigenous Ecuadoreans and farmers. Rearden, working for the law firm of Gibson and Dunn, represented Chevron in its countersuit against Donziger.

Donziger refused to turn over his electronic devices during the case and was put under house arrest in 2019. He was sentenced to six months in jail last October. Donziger’s conviction and sentencing have been condemned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as by Tlaib and fellow members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In August, Tlaib joined several colleagues in calling for Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the case. Tlaib also condemned the sentence in an October hearing of the House Oversight Committee, when Chevron CEO Michael Wirth testified before the panel.
Rearden was first nominated in February 2020 by then-President Trump and came highly recommended by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Biden renominated her Wednesday after her nomination expired at the end of 2020. Data from OpenSecrets indicates she has made bipartisan political donations, including to Gillibrand, then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) 2015 reelection campaign, and the 2008 presidential campaign of Rudy Giuliani.

Donziger himself condemned the nomination as well, saying in a tweet Thursday that he was “outraged” by the renomination.

[Mister Mets]

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5...nmental-lawyer
Tlaib blasts Biden judicial nominee whose firm sued environmental lawyer

Suggesting that someone is ineligible for office because of who they represented as a lawyer goes against the principle that the rule of law allows everyone access to counsel. That's kind of the Washington consensus, because so many people in Washington are top lawyers.

There's certainly an argument for it, and I'd love to see Tliab make it.

[Mister Mets]

The reason we’re talking about her right now is because she’s actively obstructing Democratic efforts to pass legislation. Trying to still make that the Democrats fault is ridiculous. I know you really want to paint the party in a bad light but also put the blame where it’s due.

If Democrats don't have the votes, there are other ways to pass the legislation.

Instead of having one giant 700+ page bill on voting reform, they could split it into smaller pieces.