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

[skyvolt2000]

Man, this one isn't quite as simple as that.

While I am living in a state where this is currently the position of a formerly "Seriously Pro Mitigation..." governor?

He has told me that he is the only person at his workplace doing so. In a "Garden Variety..." trip to a grocery store/Target/Wal Mart/Walgreens? I'd ballpark that, maybe, ten percent of folks are still actually wearing a mask.

If you stop by a McDonalds drive through for an iced tea?

They seem to be sticking to masks. That said, I tend to suspect that is more about attempting to hold on to the workers that they have(a local "Mom And Pop..." bakery/diner is still closed on Tuesdays because they are short staffed...) than any attempt at slowing spread of covid.

I had to go do Jury duty last week.

The judge nor the attorneys, bailiff or their clients had masks on.

Of the 40 of us there-only 4 did not have masks on and we were crowded in that courtroom. Then had to stay until near 6 PM for them to choose 12 folks.

80 folks got called for duty that day and even security was SHOCKED to see that many folks called in.

The comic con I went to today-very few masks and even the guests (Diana Slainger, Donnie Dunagan (Bambi 1941)m the voice of Andy from Toy Story and others did not have masks on and took up close pictures with folks).

Yet every business I went to masks on employees. At school-everyone wears mask when in large groups.

It depends on the environment-most are just use to it and try to stay safe.

[GindyPosts]

Orrin Hatch fucking died. I'm amazed at the obituaries being written highlighting all the things he never was.

May he rot in hell.

[Tami]

Twitter Link

[CaptainEurope]

QAnon Star Who Said Only ‘Idiots’ Get Vax Dies of COVID

In January.
Guess there were so many of them dying at the time, we didn't notice all of them.

[CaptainEurope]

Screenshot 2022-04-24 115127.jpg

A visibly covid stricken German minister of finance Christian Lindner participates in his Free Democrats party convention via Skype. I guess the on-brand message is that we can still work while ill.
Meanwhile, another high ranking party member, Vice President of the Bundestag Kubicki, complains that their Social Democrat coalition partner Minister of Health stuck to quarantine rules that prevented the CLEARLY infectious Lindner from participating in person.

Just so you don't think all German politicians are sane.

[Tendrin]

A climate activist who lit himself on fire on Earth Day outside the United States Supreme Court Building has died, according to reports.

Wynn Bruce, 50, of Boulder, Colorado, died Saturday, a day after he set himself ablaze in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department told Fox News.

The incident happened around 6:30 p.m. on the plaza in front of the court building.

He was airlifted to a local hospital, where he died.

A Facebook page belonging to a person named Wynn Bruce said he was a Buddhist and a climate activist.

In 2020, Bruce left a cryptic Facebook comment that included a fire emoji and the date of his death, 4/22/2022.

Did any of you hear about this? Because I sure didn't.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/23/wynn-b...supreme-court/

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Did any of you hear about this? Because I sure didn't.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/23/wynn-b...supreme-court/

I hadn’t heard anything about that either.

[CaptainEurope]

Did any of you hear about this? Because I sure didn't.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/23/wynn-b...supreme-court/

Yeah, I saw it on twitter.

[Mardukas]

A couple of years ago I would have agreed with all that.

But Covid and time has changed it all. I can’t remember last time I came across a heated Brexit debate.

I really was going to just roll my eyes at this post and move on, but this last week was such a clear demonstration of this polarization that you keep insisting doesn't exist that I decided to address it.
The Rwandan proposals (where the government will illegally ship refugee claimants 6,500 miles away for "processing") has been described by the civil servants meant to implement it as so impractical as to be essentially unworkable. It will be prohibitively expensive and is almost guaranteed that it will not achieve it's stated goals (and this is the same civil service who happily implemented Theresa May's 'Hostile Regime").
So why is Johnson so keen to force it through; particularly at a time when he political standing has never been lower? It's because it stirs-up and panders to his supporters. I already posted the study showing the clearest measurable separation between pro and anti brexiters was their favourability towards authoritarian or liberal regimes (which you apparently ignored). The fact it is not being "debated" 6 years after the referendum is irrelevant.

Rightly or wrongly a lot of the debate about whether to stay in or come out of the EU centred around the economic benefits of membership.

Every supposed economic benefit has been dropped. Literally only one economist was willing to defend brexit at the time (Patrick Minford) and since people actually started reading his economic theory (that the UK should allow all manufacturing and farming to collapse) they've stopped referencing him. The aspects of the campaign that had the most impact was the appeal to authoritarianism and racism.

I don’t really think many people bought the line that the EU has an uniquely civilising impact on social and cultural life. (My best friend lives in Italy for 3 months of the year, and my better half is Hungarian. Both those countries are in EU…and both more racist and socially intolerant than UK, believe me! I have less knowledge of France…but given the high polling of far right candidates there, again it’s hard to argue than EU membership has a wonderful civilising impact.)

I don't know anyone who has ever said that. It sounds like you're paraphrasing a brexiter's appeal to self-pity and resentment.

The economic damage of coming out has been done, and has been dwarfed by impact of Covid and the Ukraine crisis.

This is probably the stupidest things I have read outside of Youtube. The implantation of brexit happened 16 months ago. Covid started 25 months ago. The current costs of each to the taxpayer is both £250 billion. As covid recedes brexit will continue with the current calculations putting it at 2 to 3 times more than that of covid.
https://internetretailing.net/indust...73e6219befdaac

I really don’t think there’s any appetite to rejoin anymore (I suspect France would insist on ruinous terms.).

Again you're just picking figures based on your own prejudices. The last national poll I'm aware of had the support for re-joining higher than that of the referendum.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...55afe8516e6393
And no, France would not force "ruinous terms" on us because the rules of the EU don't allow sure behaviour (despite what the Daily Mail might claim). What would likely happen is that we would lose the specific exemptions and advantages we had managed to negotiate for ourselves over the years.

I think Sir Keir Starmer (Labour’s leader) agrees with that…if he thought it was a vote winner he’d arrange for it to go on next manifesto (like most Members of Parliament he wanted to stay in EU). He won’t…because there’s no real appetite to rejoin.

An appetite for rejoining is not the same as an appetite for another referendum or for overturning the existing results of a referendum. Again you're confusing completely different things.

[Tami]

Utah Democrats back independent as US Senate candidate

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah Democrats pulling hard to defeat Republican Sen. Mike Lee took the unusual step Saturday of spurning a party hopeful to instead get behind an independent, former presidential candidate Evan McMullin.

Democrats were swayed by calls from prominent members who said McMullin, a conservative who captured a significant share of the vote in Utah in 2016, was the best chance to beat Lee in the deeply conservative state that hasn't elected a Democratic U.S. senator for more than 50 years.

“I want to represent you. I’m committed to that. I will maintain my independence,” McMullin told Democratic delegates.

Lee also faced two GOP challengers at his party's nominating conventions. He handily won in front of the right-leaning crowd with over 70% of the vote. But those candidates will still appear on the primary ballot because they used the state's other path to the primary ballot and gathered signatures.

Former state lawmaker Becky Edwards garnered about 12% of the vote Saturday. Former gubernatorial deputy chief of staff Ally Isom came in third.

Lee's relationship with former president Donald Trump has been front and center since CNN reported on text messages showing that the senator was involved in early efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, though Lee later pivoted and voted to confirm the election results after no widespread fraud emerged.

“I did my job,” Lee said about the messages. “I did my job the way that I’ve always promised I would go about doing my job.”

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” ran a profile of Basil Marceaux, who while simultaneously running for Governor of Tennessee and for Congress to represent Tennessee’s 3rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives, put out a political ad online that made him a viral sensation. Having several teeth missing that give him a cartoonish and funny speech impediment, yet he still champions on as a public speaker in his ad, where he promised to "immune you from all state crimes for the rest of you life!" and stated his desire that "everyone carry guns", eloquently warning, “Voters "like my gun views. I want everyone to have a gun. If I think that someone doesn't have one, maybe I'll fine them $10." Marceaux also claims to be an agent of the Freedman’s Bureau, an organization that assisted freed slaves in 1866 and had been defunct for… oh, more than a century. But his role as an agent with them makes him immune to all crimes. While judges who have seen Marceaux in court for speeding tickets disagree with that logic, they do tend to find him guilty for reason of insanity, instead. (Yes, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Tennessee was too insane to be found guilty of a crime.) Other Marceaux campaign planks included planting grass or vegetation "across the state on any vacant lot and sell it for gas so we can use it for our expenses”, which would in no way generate revenue and to "remove all gold-finch flags and fly the real flag with the three stripes” and to “stop traffic stops."

In 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” presented profiles of Gary Glenn, from District 98 in the Michigan House of Representatives, and who previously made a living working as an anti-gay conservative activist, specifically with the American Family Association as the president of their Michigan chapter, which the Southern Poverty Law Center still classifies the AFA as an anti-gay hate group. Prior to running for office, Glenn had already directed a variety of disgusting comments towards the LGBTQ community publicly, not limited to his call to criminalize homosexuality as recently as February of 2010, the fact that he signed on to a lawsuit against the federal government because he felt the via the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 “elevates people with deviant sexual behaviors to a special, protected class”, his comparison between comparison between homosexuality and smoking, and in a July 2011 interview where he shared his belief that businesses should not hire gay employees because they “are not the best and brightest employees” because they take “health risks”, by which he expounded included a “dramatically higher risk of mental illness and substance abuse and AIDS and cancer and hepatitis.” Alas, after losing in the GOP Primary in a 2012 bid for U.S. Senate, Glenn did not give up his political aspirations, instead choosing to run for the Michigan House of Representatives in the 2014 mid-term election, and won the Republican primary for his seat by about 300 votes, and then winning the general election with 55% over Democrat Joan Brausch. After winning office, Glenn sent out an “agenda alert” warning on social media in March 2015 when he heard that a local newspaper had hired an openly gay news editor, and decided to claim a bias against the Midland Daily News before the editor had even started the job. A couple months later, in June of 2015, Glenn was calling for a school to be held criminally liable if a student ever contracted an STD from homosexual activity after being taught it existed in sex education class. Glenn also co-sponsored and voted for not one, not two, but three separate bills to allow adoption agencies to refuse to allow children to be placed in adoptive families based on their religious beliefs (i.e., same sex couples can’t adopt). It’s almost an after-thought that he also has voted for extreme anti-abortion legislation to try and prevent women in Michigan from even hearing abortion is an option if they’ve been sexually assaulted, by claiming it’s “prevention of coercion into having an abortion”. Gary Glenn was looking to try to move into the Michigan State Senate’s District 31 in 2018, but did not even advance out of the GOP Primary, and is now a former Michigan state legislator.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Tim Eyman, a 2020 Republican candidate to try and become the next Governor of Washington state. In his thirties, he emerged as what can only be described as a professional ballot initiative lobbyist turning up with cartoonish glee at different points he’s dressed up as a gorilla or even Darth Vader (yes, the enforcer of Emperor Palpatine who’s one of the biggest bad guys in film history) as has made a living overseeing these political ventures, managing over 22 years to get 17 initiatives on the ballot. Of those, 11 were voted to be approved… but 8 of that 11 were then completely or partially overturned by courts as unconstitutional. Which would probably be something to consider before you lobby for it… Unless you’re financial well-being is centered around working to get anything on the ballot, regardless of whether it’s a good idea or not. Now, Eyman’s political affiliation has traditionally been more of an “independent conservative populist” that if you squint, you would identify as somewhat libertarian, given his overall distaste for taxation of any kind, but there also seems to be a pattern of him wanting to place ballot initiatives in place to eliminate workplace protections for the LGBTQ community that perhaps would indicate a pattern of homophobia in his “small government” focus. As early as 2002, however, experienced political wonks in Washington noticed a pattern in Eyman’s activities… he frequently diverted campaign money into his own pockets. When caught, the state would fine him, and ban him from serving as a treasurer on any political campaign, and… that’s about it. But yet, he stuck around, and kept making a living with more and more filings. And thus he was a nuisance for another thirteen years… That is, until 2015, when an investigation by the state (that Eyman fought every step of the way) found that again, Tim Eyman was self-dealing. That allowed Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson to file a $2.1 million lawsuit against Eyman in 2017, And those legal woes meant Eyman would be facing more fines and be forced to pay back money he illegally procured… which of course, he was spending hand over fist. To the tune of $24,000 a month. Forced to pay those large sums, including up to $77,000 in legal fees, he was now going to be forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. His wife soon left him. Judges have upheld the state’s filings, and he was still looking at massive debt. Tim Eyman decided all of his legal and financial woes could be solved if he mounted a run and could win election to be the next Governor of Washington as a Republican in 2020. Go figure, the guy who turned around and filed for bankruptcy and thus would be asking taxpayers to already pay for his idiocy would be a long-shot if trying to run as a populist, but Eyman was going to try. Could a man with so little to show for over two decades of political activity except illegal personal enrichment win the governor’s race and use the power of the office to sole all his problems? Any hope of that happening probably fell by the wayside on March 14th, 2020, when after an executive order by Jay Inslee to ban gatherings of more than 250 people (quite reasonable for the moment) to stop the spread of Covid-19. Tim Eyman chose to respond like a douchebag on “The Price is Right” by putting out a press release that he would be hosting a campaign event where 251 people were invited, and he would be serving Corona beers to them. That… was a choice. As more and more people were dying from Covid-19 every day than died on 9-11. Eyman’s corruption and Covid-19 stupidity ended up getting him a fourth place finish in the open primary.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, profiled Larry Norman, a 2020 candidate for District 18 of the North Carolina House of Representatives. Perhaps the campaign issue that was most troubling to everyone regarding Norman was his unique stance on abortion. Unlike most Republicans, Norman was fine with children getting sex education that included discussions of contraceptives, but he also volunteered another option to prevent pregnancies… STERILIZATION. Saying, ”We must do more to encourage people who are not willing to support and raise children, not to have them. I am opposed to abortion, but I am not opposed to better education for children to learn to prevent pregnancies through contraceptives or sterilization.” Then again, we can’t be shocked that a guy would be racially insensitive like that when his political role model is Jesse Helms and says “liberals and progressives want to take God out of our Schools”. We will set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1094-55, since this was established in July 2014.

[Johnathan]

That's an interesting statistics. Can't say it surprises me, wonder what the reasons are. More laws targeting minorities and/or human rights? More bullies in general? Better access to guns? All of the above?

Better access to guns is likely a factor. However, I believe the amount of rural populations is likely the greatest factor.
https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/tool...0urban%20areas).

Suicide in Rural Areas
The suicide rate is nearly twice as great in the most rural areas of the U.S. compared to the most urban areas (18.9 per 100,000 people in rural areas vs. 13.2 per 100,000 people in urban areas). This difference in suicide rates between rural and urban areas has widened from 1999 to 2019, increasing 50% in rural areas compared to 31% in urban areas. In some states, the suicide rate in rural areas continues to rise whereas in urban areas it has remained stable (CDC, via WISQARS, as of July 21, 2021).

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...record-numbers
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested that male farmers in 17 states took their lives at a rate two times higher than the general population in 2012 and 1.5 times higher in 2015. This, however, could be an underestimate, as the data collected skipped several major agricultural states, including Iowa. Rosmann and other experts add that the farmer suicide rate might be higher, because an unknown number of farmers disguise their suicides as farm accidents.

Not a lot of political advocacy for farmers in the United States and they are generally hardest hit by any policy changes whether economic or social.

Also, of course, these same populations suffered and continue to suffer greatly under the opioid epidemic as well as other drug problems like meth addiction and alcoholism.

[worstblogever]

Tom Reed

Welcome to what is the 1094th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Tom Reed, who was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for New York’s 23rd Congressional District back in the 2012 elections. Now, with a bland name like Tom Reed, this guy is very forgettable compared to some of his more extreme and often more quotable GOP House members from the past decade… the only headlines he ever made were for passing out and losing consciousness while waiting to do a TV interview in September of 2019, and for being one of many enabling idjits to talked about holding those responsible accountable for January 6th, but then going on record to outright refuse to support the impeachment of Donald Trump for plotting a coup and inciting an attack on the Capitol.

But when you look, his voting record is in no way moderate, not even for a New York Republican:

• February 28th, 2013: Reed can’t be bothered to shop up to vote for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
• June 19th, 2013: Tom Reed votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Reed votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the vote came up seventeen days later to re-open the government, Reed voted to keep it closed.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Tom Reed goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
• July 10th, 2014: Reed votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• January 22nd, 2015: Tom Reed votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
• February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Reed votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act.
  This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• March 3rd, 2015: Reed votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
• September 11th, 2015: Reed votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• September 18th, 2015: Rep. Reed votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
• November 19th, 2015: Reed votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
• February 2nd, 2016: Tom Reed votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
• February 16th, 2017: Reed votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Tom Reed votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order. We feel safer already.
• May 4th, 2017: Reed votes for the GOP's healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partum depression, and sexual assault as "pre-existing conditions". Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Reed would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Tom Reed votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
• October 3rd, 2017: Reed votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Tom Reed votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
• February 18th, 2018: Rep. Reed and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Reed voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Reed votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Reed votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Tom Reed is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Reed votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.

[thwhtGuardian]

Better access to guns is likely a factor. However, I believe the amount of rural populations is likely the greatest factor.
https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/tool...0urban%20areas).

Suicide in Rural Areas
The suicide rate is nearly twice as great in the most rural areas of the U.S. compared to the most urban areas (18.9 per 100,000 people in rural areas vs. 13.2 per 100,000 people in urban areas). This difference in suicide rates between rural and urban areas has widened from 1999 to 2019, increasing 50% in rural areas compared to 31% in urban areas. In some states, the suicide rate in rural areas continues to rise whereas in urban areas it has remained stable (CDC, via WISQARS, as of July 21, 2021).

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...record-numbers
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggested that male farmers in 17 states took their lives at a rate two times higher than the general population in 2012 and 1.5 times higher in 2015. This, however, could be an underestimate, as the data collected skipped several major agricultural states, including Iowa. Rosmann and other experts add that the farmer suicide rate might be higher, because an unknown number of farmers disguise their suicides as farm accidents.

Not a lot of political advocacy for farmers in the United States and they are generally hardest hit by any policy changes whether economic or social.

Also, of course, these same populations suffered and continue to suffer greatly under the opioid epidemic as well as other drug problems like meth addiction and alcoholism.

Education also plays a role as well, and people in urban areas tend to be more educated and have an easier access to education than those in rural areas.

[Johnathan]

Education also plays a role as well, and people in urban areas tend to be more educated and have an easier access to education than those in rural areas.

And obviously people in cities and suburbs have more mental health support and the incomes and available time to take advantage of it.