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

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Randy Brogdon, a conservative extremist who actually once challenged Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin by trying to run to her right, based on his record of voting for things like allowing medical staff to refuse to treat a patient seeking an abortion for any reason, even if their life is in danger, based on their spiritual beliefs, supporting stricter Voter ID laws to combat the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud, pushing for “Stand Your Ground” firearms laws, and trying to take the unconstitutional step of making English the official language of the Sooner State. All of that seems to get overlooked because of the fact that Brogdon was also a complete loon who would attend events based around nullifying federal law, and that he believed in conspiracy theories like NAFTA leading to an eventual North American Union. Before he faded from relevance, Brogdon also began to call for Oklahoma to form its own state militia to protect its sovereignity from the federal government, and in a terribly racist moment later, asked the Black Caucus of the Oklahoma state legislature if the Affordable Care Act would also cover the cost of meals of fried chicken they might eat. He never apologized for that. Brogdon challenged Mary Fallin for the second time in the 2014 elections, and failed to crack even 5% of the vote. He has not run for office since.



It was in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and in 2021, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled the sitting U.S. House Representative for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District, Barry Loudermilk, who after serving in the Georgia state legislature for about eight years, defeated a clown car full of several Republicans in the primary for his seat in the 2014 elections to replace Congressman Phil Gingrey. Before Loudermilk was even sworn in to serve in the House, he was hanging out with the Family Research Council on their program as well, being interviewed by the running joke about hypocrisy that is Josh Duggar, where Loudermilk lamented the suffering he and his fellow Christians have had to endure as “the left in America have so badly damaged the holiday of Christmas”.Loudermilk was quickly hot-shotted to be the GOP’s new head of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee after being sworn in. and became the latest in a list of Republicans who seemed like they were given the job ironically when at his first town hall, Rep. Loudermilk was asked by a constituent if vaccines are linked to autism and he began boasting that he hadn’t vaccinated his children. After this unprecedented gaffe, there were even Republican strategists calling for Loudermilk’s resignation. This was in his SECOND MONTH on the job.

The crazy part, though, is that isn’t even the weirdest exchange from the town hall. Oh, no. Because for whatever reason, Loudermilk started discussing immigration with another constituent, who suggested the United States should “learn something from Afghanistan and start putting IUDs in the ground”. Now, that’s a weird idea for two reasons… the first being that she probably didn’t mean IUDs, which are a form of birth control, but probably meant IEDs, or “improvised explosive devices”. That seemed to be how Loudermilk interpreted her suggestion, to which he only objected because AMERICANS might get hurt. Any Mexican children that might find one of these rigged charges? Serves ‘em right for sniffing a chunk of real estate in the land of the free, man! But in that disastrous town hall, Loudermilk clearly wasn’t misspeaking when he voiced his fears that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the American government enough that they have gained access to the White House. He went on to elaborate and say that the Republican caucus of the House looked at ways to arrest Attorney General Eric Holder, before insinuating that the Council on American-Islamic Relations was a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot.

In March 2016, right on the heels of the terror attacks in Brussels, Loudermilk spoke before the House and explained what the real problem in winning the war on terror was… “political correctness”, which he felt was somehow the cause of the deaths of Americans, because we are too afraid to hurt the feelings of terrorists. At Loudermilk’s next town hall in July of 2015, he responded to the news of the massacre at the Emanuel AME Church, and how as a result, the South Carolina state legislature had voted to take down the Confederate flag in their state capitol. Well, apparently David Barton’s tendency to re-write false histories is contagious, and Barry Loudermilk has also caught that disease. You see, as Loudermilk explained, he thought the shooting was motivated by anti-Christian hate (and not racism, like Dylann Roof actually was). Instead, Loudermilk pivoted the talk to being about gay marriage, comparing it to slavery by saying, “Hey, it was the Supreme Court’s opinion that Dred Scott and slavery was okay, did they get that right?” While his voting record might not stretch on that long, Loudermilk has already voted to defund the Department of Homeland Security over President Obama’s delayed deportation orders on immigration, voted to try and defund Planned Parenthood based on the “sting” videos provided by the Center for Medical Progress, voted to try and block Syrian refugees from being resettled in the United States by supporting the SAFE Act and enjoys hanging out with anti-Islamic lunatic Frank Gaffney on his radio show to fearmonger about Muslim refugees.

Only days before Christmas of 2019, Lourdermilk claimed that the treatment Democrats were giving Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial was worse than Pontius Pilate treated Jesus. Last time we checked, nobody sized up the dumbass-in-chief for any crowns of thorns or anything, so this would be not just inappropriate, but very ill-timed hyperbole.

But he was in the tank for Donald Trump enough that even as late in the administration as December of 2020, he was shouting it out to the mountains that he wanted Evangelical "historian" David Barton to chair Trump’s “1776 Commission” that was their white nationalist response to the 1619 Project. Because why not put a proven liar and fraud out there to whitewash history in the most racist sense of the term?

[worstblogever]

Georgia’s 11th Congressional District has had a +19 lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index for the past decade, meaning Loudermilk’s been almost guaranteed re-election so after the past several years, he could do things like this:

• January 27th, 2019: Barry Loudermilk refused to vote for HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attacking our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Loudermilk ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: Loudermilk votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• January 6th, 2021: Barry Loudermilk votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Loudermilk votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
• February 4th, 2021: Barry Loudermilk votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
• February 25th, 2021: Loudermilk votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Loudermilk votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 3rd, 2021: Barry Loudermilk votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Loudermilk votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Loudermilk is one of 172 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).
• May 19th, 2021: Rep. Loudermilk votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/117-2021/h154
• May 20th, 2021: Barry Loudermilk is one of 63 Republicans who vote against the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act.
• November 5th, 2021: Barry Loudermilk votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Barry Loudermilk was re-elected in 2020 with 60% of the vote, and has gone back to Washington to legislate based on lies that don’t track with any reality, including this moment on Twitter when he claimed illegal immigrants were getting Covid-19 stimulus checks (as they’re tied to people paying taxes via the treasury, it’s just not possible). We expect Loudermilk to continue to incoherently bleat out whatever current outrage is being promoted by Fox News for at least the next year and a half when he’s up for re-election again.

[babyblob]

So say Putin releases a ton of dirt on Hunter B in next few days: could any sane person place any reliance on its accuracy? Wouldn’t a big chunk of the Donald’s supporters worry that their guy was so chummy with Putin that Putin was happy to help out?

No Not at all. They would go on and on about how Biden was so soft on Putin and let him invade and because the Biden's are controlled by Moscow and the stuff he releases proves it.

There is nothing Trump can do that would turn his cult away. The crap he has done makes sane people sick and angry yet these brainwashed idiots just cheer louder. We have seen it on this board with people falling over backwards to defend him and the QOP cult.

Trump was not joking when he said he could shoot someone in the street and he would still get votes.

[worstblogever]

No Not at all. They would go on and on about how Biden was so soft on Putin and let him invade and because the Biden's are controlled by Moscow and the stuff he releases proves it.

There is nothing Trump can do that would turn his cult away. The crap he has done makes sane people sick and angry yet these brainwashed idiots just cheer louder. We have seen it on this board with people falling over backwards to defend him and the QOP cult.

Trump was not joking when he said he could shoot someone in the street and he would still get votes.

babyblob is right, and I can back him up with this reminder... the Trump supporter core demographic, the **holes who marched tiki torches wearing MAGA hats & khakis in Charlottesville? Those white nationalist f***ers literally chanted, "Russia is our friend" when they weren't yelling, "Blood and Soil" or "Jews will not replace us."



It was pretty telling how in bed the right-wingers are with Putin's authoritarian regime.

[Kirby101]

No Not at all. They would go on and on about how Biden was so soft on Putin and let him invade and because the Biden's are controlled by Moscow and the stuff he releases proves it.

There is nothing Trump can do that would turn his cult away. The crap he has done makes sane people sick and angry yet these brainwashed idiots just cheer louder. We have seen it on this board with people falling over backwards to defend him and the QOP cult.

Trump was not joking when he said he could shoot someone in the street and he would still get votes.

This!^^^^^^

[Tendrin]

It was pretty telling how in bed the right-wingers are with Putin's authoritarian regime.

Because he an Orban are the model for 'owning the libs' they want. Hell, the 'parental choice bill' is just Putin's anti-gay-propaganda law for schools. How long before they expand it beyond that because of 'woke corporations'? You know they will as soon as they can.

[kidfresh512]

Gop realizing that it might be beneficial to at least pretend to have some policy issues and not be just about hate policies, and banning books....Pence releases lengthy policy agenda ahead of midterms and amid 2024 speculation

Pence’s policy platform is divided into three sections: American opportunity, American leadership and American culture.

The first section is largely economic beliefs like boosting U.S. energy production, eliminating special-interest tax breaks and pursuing fairer trade agreements.

The leadership pillar is focused on foreign policy, with Pence calling for investments in the U.S. military, developing cyber capabilities and revoking China’s permanent normal trade relations, something the Biden administration and Congress are doing with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Pence’s culture platform calls for ending taxpayer-funding for abortion, ensuring freedom of religion, finishing the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, requiring high school students to be tested on their knowledge of key U.S. documents and preventing transgender athletes from participating in sports with the gender group with which they identify.

Oh look build the Wall coming back up again. The obligatory march to repeal Roe vs Wade. As well as continuing to spend political capital on transgender attacks that are in vogue right now with the right.

[Kirby101]

Ever notice that the critical issues that are of the utmost importance to the country that the GOP run on last only one election cycle before they are forgotten for the next outrage?

[Catlady in training]

Well, I don't think I've seen this here yet:

Trump asks Putin to release any info about Hunter Biden



Jesus Christ....

And here I was just a few days ago thinking that it's weird we haven't heard him commenting on the war. I thought that he's just waiting how things turn out, but he was in fact ignoring it, while planning to further his own agenda. Should have expected that.

[babyblob]

And here I was just a few days ago thinking that it's weird we haven't heard him commenting on the war. I thought that he's just waiting how things turn out, but he was in fact ignoring it, while planning to further his own agenda. Should have expected that.

The War is the best thing to happen to the GOP and Trump. Now they get their talking points of how Biden is soft on Russia, the Dems cant protect the world, Biden is in the pocket or Moscow. Never mind millions are displaced, thousands are being killed and citizens of a country have to live in fear of foreign soldiers.

Doesnt matter. They can score some talking points on Fox News against the Libs and that is much more important.

[Catlady in training]

Sounds like a problem that will solve itself in a few weeks...

Multiple Darwin Award winners!

And we maybe didn't even have to wait few weeks:
https://www.newsweek.com/chernobyl-r...uclear-1693714

Russian troops digging trenches around Chernobyl have been hospitalized following their work next to the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, a Ukrainian official said.

Yaroslav Yemelianenko, a council member of the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management, posted on Facebook that Russian "terrorists" had been digging in the Red Forest—named after the color of trees contaminated by the disaster of April 26, 1986, and which lies within the exclusion zone.

While nuclear experts on Twitter have been disputing whether troops could have suffered "acute radiation syndrome" from digging in the soil, as some outlets reported, the claim highlights the concern over nuclear power plants being caught up in the war in Ukraine.

Newsweek has contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yemelianenko and the Russian defense ministry for comment.

Yemelianenko said Russian troops were taken to the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology in Gomel, Belarus.

"If you have minimal intelligence in command or soldiers, these consequences could have been avoided," he wrote, according to a translation next to an image of a vehicle apparently with troops, adding: "Russian soldiers are brought to this center on a regular basis."

Although Yemelianenko didn't say it in his post, Ukrainian and Western reports are suggesting that the soldiers are suffering from "acute radiation syndrome."

Environmental data group Safecast said that based on its data, Russian forces may have been "reckless, and could get notable radiation exposure in the Red Forest," but that there was "not enough for Acute Radiation Sickness."

Mark Nelson, founder of the Radiant Energy Fund, an adviser on nuclear energy, told Newsweek that 36 years of isotope decay meant that disturbing the soil might increase the radiation exposure of the occupying soldiers, but that "it is not plausible that it would lead to mass acute radiation sickness."

Russian forces took control of the Chernobyl facility on February 24, the first day of the invasion. Workers were on duty for more than 600 hours before being allowed a shift change. They are now understood to be back home.

Meanwhile, there were concerns that Russian troops had moved heavy military hardware through the area. Russian soldiers drove armored vehicles through the most contaminated area of Chernobyl's exclusion zone, kicking up clouds of radioactive dust, Reuters reported.

On Wednesday, a Pentagon official said Russian troops were leaving the Chernobyl facility "and moving into Belarus," The Kyiv Independent reported.

Thoughts and prayers.

[Xheight]

You'd be surprised just how many people like being able to openly express their hate and ugliness after being forced to keep it under wraps for most of their lives. THAT'S why they love Trump who gave them free rein to be their worst selves.

Oh so unlike the ugly and nasty that is forced upon swaths of majorities in the name of tolerance? Not that I subscribe to visceral reaction but theses boards have said as kindly as possible that gay and trans behavior is being normalized against their wishes. Love is not an excuse to wipe away all standards or differences. It is a potent but sophist technique to argue that "good" is the real difference between what are only different perspectives. Freedom is about being free not your select notions of what should or should not be free and by excusing a censorious society does not make it any less authoritarian. Both the Left and Right are in our nation just now insisting on theirs being okay and crushing different freedoms when individual freedoms should be foremost.

[babyblob]

Oh so unlike the ugly and nasty that is forced upon swaths of majorities in the name of tolerance? Not that I subscribe to visceral reaction but theses boards have said as kindly as possible that gay and trans behavior is being normalized against their wishes. Love is not an excuse to wipe away all standards or differences. It is a potent but sophist technique to argue that "good" is the real difference between what are only different perspectives. Freedom is about being free not your select notions of what should or should not be free and by excusing a censorious society does not make it any less authoritarian.

So because of some hate mongering idiots and mouth breathers Gay and Trans people have no right to be themselves and be treated like equals and human beings? Maybe we should just make all of them stay home so as not to offend the GOP snow flakes.

God help two men do something as normal as hold hands in public. That is only for a man or a woman. God help a Trans person want to sit at a coffee shop with out being called names and harassed. That is only for "Normal" people

[Kirby101]

Oh so unlike the ugly and nasty that is forced upon swaths of majorities in the name of tolerance? Not that I subscribe to visceral reaction but theses boards have said as kindly as possible that gay and trans behavior is being normalized against their wishes. Love is not an excuse to wipe away all standards or differences. It is a potent but sophist technique to argue that "good" is the real difference between what are only different perspectives. Freedom is about being free not your select notions of what should or should not be free and by excusing a censorious society does not make it any less authoritarian. Both the Left and Right are in our nation just insisting on theirs being okay and crushing different freedoms when individual freedoms should be foremost.

You're not suppose to say the hateful, bigoted stuff out loud. And I know that the Right live in an alternate reality, but the large majority of Americans, even a majority of Republicans support Gay Rights. It is only the deranged, religious zealots who are anti-gay. Unfortunately, they make up the majority of the Republicans in power.

Meanwhile, under Trump, the GOP normalized sexual assault, criminality and treason.

[babyblob]

You're not suppose to say the hateful, bigoted stuff out loud.

he has shown manhy times just the kind of person he is and the party he supports shows every day just the kind of party they are. It is sickening.