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

[SUPERECWFAN1]

CNN+ going out like Casey Becker is more of a story than that nonsense.

Hold on....there was a CNN+ ?

That is the general reaction of mass public in learning there was a CNN+ lol

[Iron Maiden]

There are so many streaming services that IMO it's getting to be overkill. I'm certainly not going to be subscribing to umpteen different ones. Fortunately I get HBO Max for free with my Xfinity package and the only one I pay for is Disney Plus. The cable bills these days are getting ridiculous.

Not sure where you got that from. Vision was killed in Infinity War, then brought back TWICE in WandaVision, with the second time establishing Bettany as a brand new version of the character. Odds are he'll be back sooner rather than later.



I read something recently that they almost decided not to bring her back as Mera due to chemistry issues with Momoa, but I haven't heard anything about this situation affecting her career. Then again, what has she done recently other then Mera?

And for all the anger of the fans over Johnny being removed from Fantastic Beasts, he still got paid the full amount of his contract for the one scene he filmed. And judging by the box office returns of the latest installment, he probably managed to get off a sinking ship at the exact right time.

I think Johnny Depp's bigger problem will be getting off the drugs and it's been something that has been going on for decades. Unfortunately, he has been addicted for a lot longer than we knew. I happened to be watching his statement when he talked about his childhood in Kentucky and he told of his mother's use of "nerve pills'. From his testimony I would guess that she was possibly manic depressive and sometimes she would ask him to go get her "nerve pills" and she would calm down. He was about 11 when he started sneaking some for himself. IMO this is a problem in out society where people get hooked on something to make them feel better instead of addressing a problem. And back in that era with his mom taking "nerve pills" your family MD could unwittingly be an enabler.

[Malvolio]

Hold on....there was a CNN+ ?

That is the general reaction of mass public in learning there was a CNN+ lol

Except for that one travel show that Eva Longoria was going to host, CNN+ didn't seem to offer anything unique or different. Just the same news you would get on the regular CNN, but with different anchors. No wonder it failed.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

You could almost smell the "Sour Puss..." hating all the way in Illinois.

First?

Trump is salty because he doesn't have that kind of "Actually Tall..." paper.

Second?

Trump is salty because buddy done stole his "Truth..." social-whatever thunder.

Call me a cynic, but I'm not convinced Trump is done with Twitter. When you consider every second word out of his mouth is a lie, practically anything is possible.

[Tendrin]

DeSantis last week signed legislation that will dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District, where Disney operates its Walt Disney World Resort, unless it’s explicitly reauthorized. The company has been locked in a heated dispute with the Republican governor after it criticized a law he backed that limits school instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation.

“That was really the first step in what’s going to be a process to make sure that Disney should not run its own government,” DeSantis said at a press briefing on Monday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/othe...7a3a37a885fcc1

DeSantis is, of course, essentially arguing, "Back off on your lukewarm criticism of my homophobic and transphobic bills, start the money spigots again, and we'll let you off the hook."'

DeSantis knows if he can bludgeon Disney like this, the rest will get the message and back down. Exxon Mobil has already said it won't allow exterior flying of pride flags anymore, for example. Republicans are retreating fully into anti-trans, and anti-gay bigotry once more, knowing that they'll pay little national political price.

[JB]

CNN+ going out like Casey Becker is more of a story than that nonsense.

Haha good reference!

[Tami]

Disney is refusing to cut LGBTQ scene in Doctor Strange 2, Saudi Arabia says

Saudi Arabia has asked Disney to cut “LGBTQ references” from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness before it can be screened in the kingdom, an official said on Monday – but denied earlier reports that the film has been banned.

Disney has so far declined the requested edits to the Doctor Strange sequel, slated for release around the world next week. The cuts amount to “barely 12 seconds” in which a lesbian character, America Chavez, played by the actor Xochitl Gomez, refers to her “two moms”, according to Nawaf Alsabhan, Saudi Arabia’s general supervisor of cinema classification.

“It’s just her talking about her moms, because she has two moms,” Alsabhan said. “And being in the Middle East, it’s very tough to pass something like this.”

He added: “We sent it to the distributor, and the distributor sent it to Disney, and Disney has told us they are not willing.”

But Alsabhan disputed reports that the movie had been banned outright.

“It will never be banned,” he told Agence France-Presse. “There’s no reason to ban the film. It’s a simple edit ... So far they have refused. But we haven’t closed the door. We’re still trying.”

On Friday the Hollywood Reporter said there were unconfirmed reports that the film had also been banned in Kuwait. Advance tickets had been removed from sale in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, but not in the United Arab Emirates.

Asked on Monday about the film, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch, an employee for AMC Cinemas in Saudi Arabia said it had been “withdrawn”

[Tami]

Russia appears to confuse ‘The Sims’ for SIM cards in possible staged assassination attempt

Russian security services on Monday have been accused of staging a Ukrainian assassination attempt by releasing photos of confiscated copies of “The Sims” video games that some speculate were mistaken by Kremlin officers for SIM cards.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation released the bizarre photos Monday and announced that police had arrested six neo-Nazis plotting to kill Russian TV Host Vladimir Solovyov in Moscow.

The Russian federal police (FSB) claimed to recover “an improvised explosive device, eight improvised incendiary devices of the Molotov cocktail type, six PM pistols, a sawn-off hunting rifle, an RGD-5 grenade, more than a thousand cartridges of various calibers, drugs, [and] fake Ukrainian passports” from the would-be assassins, as well as “nationalist literature and paraphernalia.”

Photos released from the apparent scene of the arrest, however, gave the impression of a poorly staged false-flag.

One photo shows a crisp red t-shirt with a swastika on it, inexplicably laid out next to three copies of the video game “The Sims 3.”

“Who knew they were so into The Sims 3?” BBC journalist Francis Scarr asked dryly on twitter.

Russia's FSB claims that it foiled an assassination attempt organised by Ukraine on state TV's Vladimir Solovyov

Dumb, da, dumb, dumb....da, da, dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted a profile of Timothy Jones, a former Missouri state legislator and the head of ALEC in Missouri who supported a variety of unconstitutional legislation, including drug testing welfare recipients, Voter ID laws so strict they were overturned by courts, as well as bills to nullify federal firearms laws and the Affordable Care Act. He might have seemed like a bit of a conspiracy theorist, because he passed legislation to prevent the implementation of environmental measures from the United Nations’ Agenda 21 conspiracy theory. But any doubt he was a kook goes out the window when you see the lengths he went to in support of the Birther conspiracy theory, signing off on the original lawsuit filed by “Birther Queen” Orly Taitz, claiming Joe Arpaio’s investigation into the birth certificate had “uncovered the truth”, and supporting the Birther Bill pushed by fellow state legislator Lyle Rowland. Once Jones left office, he apparently decided he never wanted to have to run for election again, going out of his way to say as many racist things as he could about unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, like “black elites are more of a threat to the black community than the Ku Klux Klan”, or get on social media to defend racist remarks about black-on-black crime made by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Last time we checked, Jones was still running ALEC in Missouri.

It was on this date in 2016 that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted a profile of JoAnn Windholz, a former one term member of the Colorado House of Representatives who won office in 2014 by a mere 104 votes. Her margin of victory proved easy for Democrats to overcome in the 2016 election to try and retake her seat, though, because but days after the shooting rampage by James Roland Dear at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, Windholz blamed THE VICTIMS of that massacre for bringing the attack upon themselves. 60,000 people signed a petition calling on her to resign, and began discussing a recall election, but they figured it would be cheaper instead to just endure her for the rest of her term and be rid of her in 2016. For their patience, they were rewarded with a few rather anti-LGBTQ votes from Windholz, including her vote against a ban on gay conversion therapy in Colorado.

On this date in 2017, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted a profile of Kurt Schaefer, a former Missouri State Senator who who served on that body from 2009-2016, and while staring down the prospect of term limits in the 2016 election, figured he’d run for Missouri Attorney General. That campaign wasn’t going Schaefer’s way, and it looked like he’d be facing a loss to his GOP Primary opponent, Josh Hawley, based on early polling. And that was unacceptable for Schaefer, who decided if he couldn’t hook his way into the AG spot, he’d crook it. Thus, he contacted Hawley’s boss at the University of Missouri, Tim Wolfe, and tried pressuring him to deny Hawley unpaid leave from his teaching job and force him to be unable to enter the race. If a state legislator pressuring one state employee to abuse their authority to prevent the political aspirations of another state employee sounds like some sort of breach of ethics to you, give yourself a pat on the back. An official complaint against Kurt Schaefer for his actions was filed shortly after the primary, which Hawley won with 65% of the vote (likely boosted by the story already being in the media). This isn’t to say that this is the only thing that concerns us about Kurt Schaefer, not by a long shot. During his eight years in the Missouri State Senate, he also led investigations into Planned Parenthood clinics in Missouri (finding no evidence of wrongdoing like he expected to after seeing the Center for Medical Progress’ “sting” video, at taxpayer expense, of course), or how he wasn’t just opposed to raising the Minimum Wage in Missouri, he actually floated the idea of punishing Kansas City for trying to raise it themselves by eliminating their earnings tax. He supported the failed conservative policy of drug testing welfare recipients, Republican efforts at voter suppression via unnecessary stricter Voter ID laws, and also voted for bills to attempt to nullify federal firearms laws. Schaefer, as we said, was turfed out of office by term limits in 2016.

It was on this date in 2018 that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted a profile of Bill Lant, a former member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 2010-2018. Back in 2014, where he wrote an opinion editorial that featured a 68 year old Lant discussing his high school reunion, and one of his favorite parts was how all the pretty cheerleaders he had the hots for but couldn’t woo back in the day didn’t show up because they “didn’t want us to see how old they looked.” That might seem a little misogynist, but then when you read the whole story, where Lant discusses a woman who DID show up who he remembered for filling out a tight sweater five decades ago, but as he remarked, “Time has not been kind to that girl! What was stretching the cardigan 50 years ago is now bumping the belt.” We know, a Republican who only seems to regard women as sexual things. Shocking. Fast forward a few months, and Lant was sponsoring right-to-work legislation in Missouri, not that he wrote it, of course. He was handed the bill by the conservative organization ALEC, which finds schmucks like Lant to push forward whatever idiot ideas they come up with in state legislatures around the country. While some Republicans might argue somehow gives “freedom” to workers… but Bill Lant’s too much of a dumbass to lie to the people of Missouri. He actually boasted about how right-to-work laws had lowered average hourly wages in states where it had passed, and laughed about how the reward workers got was… “less wages, more work”. (Again, why no one seriously ever challenged this ***hat for his seat…) In 2017, in a hearing in the Missouri House of Representatives regarding discrimination law, he silenced a witness, Ron Chapel, called from the NAACP called to give his expertise, choosing to instead berate and whitesplain how discrimination works to him. He then refused to allow Democrats to continue questioning Chapel during their own time with the witness. Missouri’s Democratic House Minority Leader summed it up quite nicely, saying, “A white man abused his power to stop a black man from expressing a contrary view, and on legislation that seeks to turn back the clock on Missouri’s anti-discrimination laws, no less. This situation is simply dripping in irony.” Lant faced term limits for his seat in the Missouri House of Representatives in 2018, and at the age of 72, does not seem to be up t the task of running for statewide office, or a spot in the Missouri State Senate.

On this date in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled former Iowa State Senator Bill Dix, who was in the Iowa state legislature since 1996, and actually made a run for Congress to represent Iowa’s 1st Congressional District in 2006. However, while serving as the Majority Leader of the Iowa State Senate, Dix abruptly resigned under the cloud of what appeared to be a combination of sex scandal and ethics scandal. Yes, the double-whammy of political ruin came in March of 2018 when Dix was filmed on video out at a bar in Des Moines kissing a woman who was not his wife (yes, he is married), but was in fact, a lobbyist who was apparently hunting for some… policy shifts. Go figure, only about five years earlier, Dix was the same person who fired a caucus communications director for reporting a hostile work environment at the state capitol with sexual harassment being a part of the normal culture. Also, he liked to brand himself an anti-LGBTQ “defender of marriage”, who co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Outside of all the hypocrisy and getting caught on camera playing a game of tonsil hockey with a lobbyist, there’s also Bill Dix’s legislative record and policy stances where he was against raising the minimum wage (during the greatest period of income inequality in our country in almost a century), supported anti-abortion legislation as extreme as fetal heartbeat bills, was homophobic enough that he opposed bans on gay conversion therapy on minors, and his record on voting rights shows a distinct pattern of being anti-democratic and trying to keep citizens from exercising that right. Bill Dix resigned in disgrace.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”profiled George Papadopoulos, the dumbass former Trump 2016 campaign staffer who helped draw enough attention to himself by boasting about Russians helping them try to get access to Hillary Clinton’s e-mails while drunk that it drew the attention of the FBI, and then when Special Counsel Robert Mueller followed up by questioning him ,he lied to investigators and ended up being found guilty and doing jail time. As a result, he was mocked by President Trump and those loyal to him for being “just a coffee boy”, which is false, but a hell of a burn. Now, most people after living through that kind of saga would just write a tell-all book, or go on a talk show tour to cash in on their fame… (he and his wife are trying to cash in on his ill-gotten fame to get a reality show) but call it a career. But George Papadopoulos is a special kind of stupid, and thought being a felon who got caught lying about a foreign power interfering in American elections would be a great launching pad towards having a career in Congress, specifically in California’s 25th Congressional District, to replace Democratic Congresswoman Katie Hill. He insisted there was a “deep state” conspiring against the Trump administration, but said virtually nothing about what his stances on issues were, but specifically did endorse Donald Trump’s stupid idea for a border wall along the U.S./Mexico border. George Papadopoulos ended up finishing eighth out of fourteen people who were running for the seat, earning a whopping 2% of the vote. His wife, Simona Mangiante, promptly filed to divorce him after the election while posting on social media that he was abusive, and that she regretted ever defending him in public.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Rayla Campbell, a 2020 Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Massachussetts’ 7th Congressional District, aspiring to get stomped on Election Day by the incredibly popular Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. Campbell unsuccessfully sued to try and get on the ballot (she only got 1,200 votes in the primary and needed 2,000 signatures to get on ballot in the general election), and ended up being a write-in candidate who only got 695 votes, or 0.2% of those cast in the district. However, we’re giving a quick profile to Rayla Campbell for her support of Qanon, as her campaign page was chock full of photos of her wearing a Qanon t-shirt, with the “WWG1WGA” slogan, making her yet another Republican running for Congress who bought into the deranged conspiracy theory. Including with some proud anti-vaxxers protesting the flu shot. That might be a good thing to remember because Rayla Campbell has designs on elected office again in 2022, already working towards being elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. Hopefully, that will not come to pass, and she does not become a perennial candidate trying her luck at winning office. As we think she has little to no chance of that happening, we’re going to set aside her profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1096-55, since this was established in July 2014.


Kelly Ernby

Welcome to what is the 1096th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Kelly Ernby, who was a 2020 candidate for District 74 of the California State Assembly who narrowly lost in the GOP Primary for that seat. Ernby was the deputy DA of Orange County, California, and had been challenging laws to require vaccine mandates in the very blue state of California. She herself, was also unvaccinated a year after the vaccine became available. So it was that she was dedicated enough to her own conservative principles that she remained unprotected from a preventable death, caught Covid-19, was unaware she was even sick, and died of a blood clot at her home suddenly in January of 2022.

We would hope that there would be a lesson here that other conservatives pushing back against vaccines might learn from this, but given the dedication to cognitive dissonance the Republican Party had after Herman Cain’s death after attending a Trump rally without mask mandates in 2020, we wouldn’t expect them to learn anything from a tragic death like Kelly Ernby’s now, either. They’re pathologically incapable of it at this point.

[Username taken]

Hold on....there was a CNN+ ?

That is the general reaction of mass public in learning there was a CNN+ lol

Exactly.

I legit didnt know it was a thing until it died.

[Catlady in training]

Russia appears to confuse ‘The Sims’ for SIM cards in possible staged assassination attempt





Russia's FSB claims that it foiled an assassination attempt organised by Ukraine on state TV's Vladimir Solovyov

Dumb, da, dumb, dumb....da, da, dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!

Molotov cocktails in plastic bottles were a bit too much .

[achilles]

Hold on....there was a CNN+ ?

That is the general reaction of mass public in learning there was a CNN+ lol

First I heard about it was when I read the story about how it died.

[achilles]

Russia appears to confuse ‘The Sims’ for SIM cards in possible staged assassination attempt





Russia's FSB claims that it foiled an assassination attempt organised by Ukraine on state TV's Vladimir Solovyov

Dumb, da, dumb, dumb....da, da, dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!

Damn, they are stupid at times! Remember that time where they claimed they'd planted a flag under the North Pole, and used that to claim it? Then a Finnish teenager with way too much time on his hands, and who happened to be a huge "Titanic" fan who'd watched it like a thousand times pointed out that the footage they used was from that movie. I guess they think the rest of the world has no memory or indeed brains.

[Malvolio]

Call me a cynic, but I'm not convinced Trump is done with Twitter. When you consider every second word out of his mouth is a lie, practically anything is possible.

Well, yeah. For the last year or so, Trump has had a sock-puppet presence on Twitter, so he still obviously sees the value of Twitter as a platform for getting his message out. This is just an "I know where I'm not wanted" bit just in case Musk keeps the ban in effect. But the minute Musk lets Trump know that his account is reinstated, you can bet that Trump will start tweeting again.