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

[Mister Mets]

They weren't facing a 6-3 supermajority, were they?

Since I asked numberthirty an uncomfortable question, I'll ask the same of you. What is your vision of the Supreme Court? What interpretations of the law should they make?

Are you an originalist, supporting the understanding of the text at the time the law was established? Are you a textualist, looking at the plain meaning of the law? Or is it something else? If so, what?

[numberthirty]

Even with those attempts, it's going to be hard to call out the GOP if a couple of Dems are still getting in the way of getting things done.

While it will be true that Republicans are around and in the way in such a scenario, it's going to be tough to put the focus squarely on them if you have at least a couple of Dems getting in the way too.

[numberthirty]

Which recent presidential administration has been more union-friendly?

This is kind of like asking me about the kids on a tee ball team that don't hit as hard as the kid that can regularly hit a triple.

We're still talking "Tee Ball..." level hitting.

There's easily a more "Friendly..." position that can be taken.

[numberthirty]

One other thing about potentially being able to put the focus on Republican obstruction...

It's going to take a good bit of doing when the most capable Republican politician is not actually a Republican.

https://thehill.com/news/senate/3265...t-fast-enough/

Manchin on inflation: Biden administration ‘failed to act fast enough’

[CaptainEurope]

But that case has to be made.

I almost envy you for never having seen a single clip from Tucker's show.

[CaptainEurope]

The Slime Machine Targeting Dozens of Biden Nominees

I'm wondering if this can backfire.
The Republican base is eating that propaganda up.
But not all of them get to vote for a Hawley or Marge Greene. There is video online of Chuck Grassley (of all people) being treated like a RINO at a town hall meeting because he defended Ukraine and did not agree that Judge Jackson supports pedophiles.

[CaptainEurope]

You realize this is an outside group that is contracted by many different organizations, companies and individuals. And is in no way "The Administration."
How tenuous are you going for negative Biden post 30? Politely.
No need to answer, it's rhetorical as it is self apparent.

That is the 2nd time this week somebody on this board lies that "the Biden administration" does something when it ends up being someone (checks note) not in the Biden administration.

[Catlady in training]

Please, continue to complain about Biden and Democrats, while ignoring everything Republicans do, from voter suppresion to targeting trans children. Because both sides are equally bad and what your country needs is for voters to give up and don't bother to turn up for the next elections. Surely it can't get any worse, there is no real threat of the US sliding further into fascist and authoritarian ideology, which by no means is a huge threat to the entire world and democracy itself. No, it's business as usual, let's focus on the one issue where they don't meet your expectations and ignore what they have managed to do so far.
(Sarcasm off.)

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Rotting fruit, spoiled vegetables: How Texas just made the supply chain even worse

A weeklong protest by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott against President Biden’s recent immigration policy reached a resolution on Friday, but the gridlock it created has resulted in hundreds of millions of lost dollars and delays in shipments of everything from avocados to automobile parts that will have a longer-term impact.

On Friday, Abbott reversed course on an order he put in place last week that required lengthier “enhanced safety inspections” of commercial vehicles entering Texas. The efforts, he said, were to help stop the flow of illegal contraband and human trafficking.

Abbott’s move, which Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller criticized as “political theater,” ultimately created a logjam of trucks between the US and its largest goods trading partner. Vegetable producers say their produce is spoiling in idling trucks and they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

And all for the sake of a stupid political stunt done for the sole purpose of making Biden look bad. All that rotted produce should be dumped in front of the governor's mansion so Abbott can see the folly of his actions.

[CSTowle]

Please, continue to complain about Biden and Democrats, while ignoring everything Republicans do, from voter suppresion to targeting trans children. Because both sides are equally bad and what your country needs is for voters to give up and don't bother to turn up for the next elections. Surely it can't get any worse, there is no real threat of the US sliding further into fascist and authoritarian ideology, which by no means is a huge threat to the entire world and democracy itself. No, it's business as usual, let's focus on the one issue where they don't meet your expectations and ignore what they have managed to do so far.
(Sarcasm off.)

I find that those who have criticisms of the Administration and the Party also have criticisms of the opposition, but fellow posters with a left leaning don't notice those because they agree with them. Hard to have a discussion, let alone an argument, with people on subjects that you agree on. It's why 90% of my posts on these boards are about politics or football rather than comic books. Other than pointing out particular storylines or artists/writers I like to recommend to others I don't see much to talk about with them, and most of it is hardly worth repeating.

When rightwing posters enter the politics discussion board it's usually a dogpile as it's a very left-leaning board, and I'll admit I engage in that though I do try to keep my arguments factual and try not to insult or dismiss people or their arguments and try to address them point by point if I feel like I have a valid criticism. There was a poster whose name began with an "X" who was recently banned, and I'd often engage despite the warning of not feeding the trolls because I think not speaking when someone's either deliberately spreading misinformation or simply have a point that I believe is wrong and should be addressed is giving a legitimacy to them that they may not deserve.

The difference is, I feel the same way about the Party I support and the country I live in. It's why I won't "love it or leave it" (to either one), and make arguments because I think there's a lot of room for improvement in both and want to help shape that discussion. It's also why I speak up when I see people trying to silence others or label them in ways that look to undermine them so as to dismiss their arguments. Silence and suppression of thought never works in the end, and often enables the more radical thoughts and belief systems to grow and gain power because when people aren't allowed or are actively encouraged not to examine their own bulls##t they keep themselves in their bubbles and become more confident in their beliefs, no matter how wrong they might be or what the facts/reality say. That applies as much to Democratic bubbles as Republican ones, even if you (and I) find their bubbles to lead to worse outcomes.

It won't stop me from voting for Biden in 2024 or whoever the Democratic nominee is, it won't stop me from voting in the midterms, and I don't think pointing out legitimate criticisms people have with the Party or specific members of it will hamstring them to the point of making them unelectable. In fact, trying to bury our heads in the sand when it comes to our vulnerabilities is more likely to get another Trump Administration than pointing out the obvious. When you make promises and don't live up to them, whatever the circumstances, you will find the voter base is less enthusiastic in supporting you the next time around. Whether that's labor, black voters, immigrants, or anyone else you can reliably count on.

That should be pointed out and pressure should be applied, in the hopes that it will move them to action. Politicians are risk-averse as a rule, and it often takes outside pressure to get them to do the right thing rather than the politically expedient thing (which is often nothing). The sad fact is most of the centrist Party supporters on here criticizing any bad word said against Biden now were saying exactly the same thing on outside political pressure during the BLM riots and police reform movement (which is still ongoing). They recognize that outside pressure and criticism of the system is justified when they agree with it, they just seem to forget it when they don't.

I suppose you could make a "Biden Administration Appreciation Thread", like with the comic threads you could ban criticism of the Administration. But in a political discussion thread you should probably expect some, well, discussion. That probably means having to occasionally encounter differing views. The neat part is, if you disagree with an argument or point, you can make a better one.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of the sitting U.S. House Representative from North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, Walter Jones, whose biggest claim to fame is that during the build up to the Iraq War, when France refused to join the United States in invading, he responded by submitting a resolution to have French Fries in the Capitol cafeteria renamed "Freedom Fries". He was also a big supporter of Ilario Pantano, a U.S. Soldier from Iraq who was placed on military trial for killing two Iraqi citizens and displaying their corpses with a sign saying, "No better friend, no worse enemy." Of course, Jones seems rather fine with anti-Muslim measures himself, considering he's publicly complained about community colleges in his district spending money on copies of textbooks on Islam or Muslim culture, called for defunding the Obama administration to stop the resettlement of Muslim refugees, and has tried to get classified information about 9/11 declassified, claiming that Saudi Arabia would be secretly revealed to have funded the attacks. He has also discussed impeaching President Obama for his executive orders on immigration, and going on the conservative news network Newsmax to be interviewed by former Congressman J.D. Hayworth to say he felt Republicans have a “Constitutional duty to impeach President Obama”. As late as June of 2015, Rep. Jones was repeating lies about how the Affordable Care Act would create “death panels”, over a half-decade after it was named Politifact’s “Lie of the Year”. Walter Jones also is a repeated guest of Alex Jones' InfoWars, agreeing with the host on one episode that "abortion is a curse upon America", and that if it was stopped, the curse would be lifted. Walter Jones has been sabotaging the Republican Party’s biggest establishment names for the past few years. We discussed in our original profile of Jones that he recanted his belief that the War on Iraq was justified (that’s right, even the Freedom Fries guy has hindsight). By the end of the Bush administration, Jones was more than willing to throw Dubya under the bus, and lay blame with him for the deaths of thousands of American troops in a conflict we stared because of selectively presented evidence against the Hussein regime. And that guilt and resentment over his Iraq War vote carried over to the rest of the Bush family, it seems, because while Jeb Bush was trying his damnedest to make some headway in the 2016 Presidential Primary, Walter Jones was right there to chuck Jeb under the bus over it, as well, going on Alex Jones’ InfoWars (again) in August 2015 to do so, saying, “If my brother had sent 4,000 Americans to die in an unnecessary war, I don’t believe I’d be making those statements. We never had to go into Iraq. It was manufactured intelligence. We had no business going into Iraq, taking out Saddam is part of the problem that we’ve got with the Middle East right now.” And he still wasn’t done. Through most of the summer and early fall of 2015, Walter Jones was working with the House Freedom Caucus, a group of the most obstinate, pigheaded, and deranged Republicans in all of Congress, to push for the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner, who they no longer trusted because they felt he compromised with Democrats too much. (Think about that for a second… John Boehner compromised too much in his mind.) Rep. Kevin McCarthy was fast-tracked to be John Boehner’s replacement as House Speaker, and while McCarthy certainly did botch his step into the media spotlight for the job, it certainly didn’t help that Walter Jones sent out a letter to Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers than implied Rep. McCarthy was having an affair with another woman, who many speculated was fellow Congresswoman Renee Ellmers. Walter Jones survived three consecutive attempts by the national Republican Party to bounce him from office in a primary election, winning another term in 2018. He would not, however, survive his own health, though, as only a month after he announced he would retire from office in 2020, Jones suddenly passed away at the age of 76, leaving behind one of the most bizarre political legacies of any modern Republican. Jones shuffled of his mortal coil in 2019.

On this date in both 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Werner Horn, who first was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives since 2014, when he unseated incumbent Democrat Scott Burns by all of 12 votes. In the 2018 mid-terms, Horn again held off Burns by a staggering 20 votes. We’re profiling Horn not so much for his voting record, where he’s voted against minimum wage increases, voted against an official procedure to investigate sexual harassment within the state legislature, against an attempt to repeal the death penalty, voted against a ban on gay conversion therapy, and voted against a measure to prevent discrimination in public schools. In July of 2019, he had a conversation with a former GOP state legislator on Facebook where he posited his opinion that, “owning slaves doesn’t make you racist.” It wasn’t a misunderstanding, as he was contacted by the Huffington Post and gave an interview where, at length, he defended his goddamned ignorant stance, saying:

”It’s never OK to own another person. But to label the institution as racist is a false narrative. Slave masters didn’t consider race at the auction block but instead were making an economic decision and purchasing who was available. When you look back at auction inventory lists, Horn said, there aren’t white names” or Native American or Hispanic names

I should’ve said European instead of white, but I’m a little less PC than normal people. Women and children cost less than male slaves, so does that mean they were being discriminated against? Unless you’re going to try to tell me those plantation owners were so in the dark ages that they delighted in being also sexist and ageist — practicing age discrimination and sex discrimination when they bought slaves — I don’t see how you can say they’re being racist because they bought black slaves

My comment specifically was aimed at a period of time when that was how you survived, that’s how you fed your family. It wasn’t ‘I want to own a black person today.’ It was, ’I need to feed my family; I need five guys who can work stupidly long hours in the sun without killing themselves.’”

If you were playing white nationalist bingo, you may have just won based on that interview alone. Realizing that he had little chance of winning re-election after even his own Republican Governor called him out for being racist as heck, Werner Horn opted to call it a career as a legislator and not run for re-election in 2020. As he is no longer in office, we will set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1092-55, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Jim Bob Duggar

Welcome to what is the 1092nd original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Jim Bob Duggar, who attempted a political comeback after not running for any office since 2006 in 2022. He was actually successful in his first two elections back in 1998 and 2000, serving two terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives for District 6 before making the disastrous decision to challenge U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson for his seat back in 2002. After losing in that effort, Duggar ran another unsuccessful campaign to try and get back into office by running for District 35 of the Arkansas State Senate, failing again.

And that’s when he truly became famous/infamous as a reality show star, being the patriarch on TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting”, where the show focused not only on the sheer size of the Duggar household, not just on the ability of his wife Michelle to pop out children like she was a Pez dispenser and you could tilt her head and get another baby out of her, but focusing on their faith as Fundamentalist Christians. The Duggars’ religious philosophy of “MOAR BEHBAYZ NOW!” is from an offshoot of Christianity founded in 1995 known as “The Quiverfull Movement” that refuses to take birth control and leaves it up to God as to how many babies they can have. Note, of course, that Michelle’s 19th child was born prematurely and it was stop-and-go if she would survive, and the 20th pregnancy was a miscarriage Michelle still carried to term, and it hospitalized her. We’ll note that Jim Bob tried to explain away his links to the movement when asked about it in 2015, but the original family website had a direct link to Quiverfull on it, and the Venn diagram of Quiverfull philosophy and Jim Bob Duggar’s is a virtual circle. We’ll also note that the founder of Quiverfull was accused of sexual assault, and the whole group is anti-feminist and patriarchal.

Funny coincidence then that Jim Bob Duggar’s oldest son Josh was accused in 2015 by multiple women, including some of his sisters, of molesting them at the Duggar family home a decade prior. What did brilliant family leader Jim Bob do when faced with such a test? Well, he called a friend who was a state trooper, who never filed a report of the sexual abuse of children, and that state trooper just gave Josh a “stern talk” and let his church leaders decide how Josh should be punished… PHYSICAL LABOR.

And then Jim Bob followed up by thinking it would be a good idea to make his son famous on TLC as a "family role model" in 2008. Surely, fame would not further corrupt a young man prone to taking advantage of those closest to him, right? He obviously learned his lesson about sexual deviancy- oh wait, in 2021, Josh Duggar was arrested for child porn and is now serving time. Which, was a great headline to have turn up six years after TLC cancelled “19 Kids and Counting”, but days before Jim Bob was trying to return to the political arena, planning another run for Arkansas State Senate in a special election.

Thus, mercifully, the timing worked out to where Jim Bob Duggar easily lost that election. The Duggar name is now more infamous than famous, and the country will be better for that.

[Catlady in training]

Russia gave Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol a time to surrender, otherwise they will all be killed. That time has now passed, no clear result yet, but I doubt that many have taken the offer. They promised that those who surrender be treated in line with the Geneva convention on prisoners of war. Sure.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...ie-passes-live

[worstblogever]

Russia gave Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol a time to surrender, otherwise they will all be killed. That time has now passed, no clear result yet, but I doubt that many have taken the offer. They promised that those who surrender be treated in line with the Geneva convention on prisoners of war. Sure.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...ie-passes-live

Wishing on Mariupol to get that big "Russian warship go f*** yourself" energy right about now.

[Catlady in training]

Rotting fruit, spoiled vegetables: How Texas just made the supply chain even worse

And all for the sake of a stupid political stunt done for the sole purpose of making Biden look bad. All that rotted produce should be dumped in front of the governor's mansion so Abbott can see the folly of his actions.

Over here, the prices of everything, including basic food have been going up for some time. Experts have been warning of it since at least last Autumn, but the war in Ukraine is now expected to make it even worse, because the country provides a significant part of food and they obviously have problems supplying other countries now, not to mention producing it. In quite extraordinary feat, they have reportedly managed to sow about 80% of the usual amount, but who knows how much of it will be harvested and how the transport will work. What I'm trying to say is, the food situation will get only worse.

From what I read, the inflation is already in progress in USA too, including prices of basic food. Just few days ago, I have listened to some expert talking about what governments are doing and what more should they do to combat the inflation and help especially those who live paycheck to paycheck. There is a lot that can be done, but the first thing that was stressed was that now is the time to really stop wasting food (and energies, but especially food). And then I see news like the above. Sigh.

I find that those who have criticisms of the Administration and the Party also have criticisms of the opposition, but fellow posters with a left leaning don't notice those because they agree with them. Hard to have a discussion, let alone an argument, with people on subjects that you agree on. It's why 90% of my posts on these boards are about politics or football rather than comic books. Other than pointing out particular storylines or artists/writers I like to recommend to others I don't see much to talk about with them, and most of it is hardly worth repeating.

When rightwing posters enter the politics discussion board it's usually a dogpile as it's a very left-leaning board, and I'll admit I engage in that though I do try to keep my arguments factual and try not to insult or dismiss people or their arguments and try to address them point by point if I feel like I have a valid criticism. There was a poster whose name began with an "X" who was recently banned, and I'd often engage despite the warning of not feeding the trolls because I think not speaking when someone's either deliberately spreading misinformation or simply have a point that I believe is wrong and should be addressed is giving a legitimacy to them that they may not deserve.

The difference is, I feel the same way about the Party I support and the country I live in. It's why I won't "love it or leave it" (to either one), and make arguments because I think there's a lot of room for improvement in both and want to help shape that discussion. It's also why I speak up when I see people trying to silence others or label them in ways that look to undermine them so as to dismiss their arguments. Silence and suppression of thought never works in the end, and often enables the more radical thoughts and belief systems to grow and gain power because when people aren't allowed or are actively encouraged not to examine their own bulls##t they keep themselves in their bubbles and become more confident in their beliefs, no matter how wrong they might be or what the facts/reality say. That applies as much to Democratic bubbles as Republican ones, even if you (and I) find their bubbles to lead to worse outcomes.

It won't stop me from voting for Biden in 2024 or whoever the Democratic nominee is, it won't stop me from voting in the midterms, and I don't think pointing out legitimate criticisms people have with the Party or specific members of it will hamstring them to the point of making them unelectable. In fact, trying to bury our heads in the sand when it comes to our vulnerabilities is more likely to get another Trump Administration than pointing out the obvious. When you make promises and don't live up to them, whatever the circumstances, you will find the voter base is less enthusiastic in supporting you the next time around. Whether that's labor, black voters, immigrants, or anyone else you can reliably count on.

That should be pointed out and pressure should be applied, in the hopes that it will move them to action. Politicians are risk-averse as a rule, and it often takes outside pressure to get them to do the right thing rather than the politically expedient thing (which is often nothing). The sad fact is most of the centrist Party supporters on here criticizing any bad word said against Biden now were saying exactly the same thing on outside political pressure during the BLM riots and police reform movement (which is still ongoing). They recognize that outside pressure and criticism of the system is justified when they agree with it, they just seem to forget it when they don't.

I suppose you could make a "Biden Administration Appreciation Thread", like with the comic threads you could ban criticism of the Administration. But in a political discussion thread you should probably expect some, well, discussion. That probably means having to occasionally encounter differing views. The neat part is, if you disagree with an argument or point, you can make a better one.

I'm not saying that people shouldn't be able to criticise the current government and certainly not that we should have a Biden or Democratic appreaciation thread, but the length that some posters (well, mainly one poster) can go to in order to point out their failures, while ignoring both their successes and the Republican's own evil schemes, is mind boggling to me. Especially considering that the current administration is dealing with some unprecedented problems resulting from outside factors like covid and war. And that Republicans are not doing much (or anything) to help them, from what I've seen. That is certainly a double standard.