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

[thwhtGuardian]

I'm sorry to break it to you, but you compromise on every single right there is.

The right to free expression is balanced with libel laws and risks of endangerment. The right to practice religion is compromised when in opposition to local laws or risk to its practitioners. Rights of access are curtailed with rights of privacy and public safety. Rights to abortion are constantly being re-examined against potential rights of the foetus.

Whenever one person's rights might potentially impinge upon an other's a careful balancing act has to be considered as to everyone's best interests (not always perfectly, but we live in an imperfect world). And people have to learn to compromise.
It's literally why we have laws, courts and politicians and don't just wheel out the Magna Carta every time someone has a disagreement.

That you think there should be reevaluations and compromise on abortion and trans rights is pretty telling.

[Mardukas]

We're far past the trans bathroom bills and trans in sports arguments, that was yesterdays bigoted nonsense. We're into the just straight up making it illegal to be trans argument now, like what Missouri and Florida are trying.

You really aren't past it. Trans women in sport is probably the first time most people have experience of these issues and it is going to keep coming up*. People are being told they have to choose one side or the other - no nuance allowed - and, this being their first examination of the wider issues, every subsequent discussion will be framed by this one.

The reason Republicans jumped on the sport controversy is that this is the one issue they know they can win. Moreover, for the first time in as long as I can remember, they can make a claim to be on the side on science, the side of women and the side of basic fairness, without really having to do anything. You really think they're going to let this one go?

*I did start to write about the depressing failure of many progressives to understand the importance of sport, but I think that's a different debate.

[Mardukas]

That you think there should be reevaluations and compromise on abortion and trans rights is pretty telling.

Please don't make such a stupid accusation. I said abortion rights were achieved by compromise. What on earth do you think term limits are?

[Mardukas]

Deleted due to incompetence.

[Mardukas]

That's nice but not the argument here.

It is though.

[thwhtGuardian]

Please don't make such a stupid accusation. I said abortion rights were achieved by compromise. What on earth do you think term limits are?

The ever increasing limitations are not good and are an example of why there shouldn't be compromises on these issues.

[Panfoot]

The reason Republicans jumped on the sport controversy is that this is the one issue they know they can win. Moreover, for the first time in as long as I can remember, they can make a claim to be on the side on science, the side of women and the side of basic fairness, without really having to do anything. You really think they're going to let this one go?

Yeah, no, at least not if you actually look at the science.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of George Cleveland, from the North Carolina House of Representatives who we still think looks like Carl from Pixar’s “Up”, but is decidedly far less lovable, in our eyes. Cleveland has been allowed to run for office virtually unopposed in every election since 2002, and while he has missed a large percentage of the votes in the North Carolina House, he has turned up for some of the most notorious pieces of legislation to cross the desk of North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory. Cleveland has supported the state constitution having a ban on same sex marriage, blocked minimum wage increases, restricted early voting, blocked the Medicaid Expansion in the Tar Heel State, and voted for the notorious “motorcycle safety” bill that through amendments put forth by Republicans, became one of the harshest anti-abortion laws in the country. Cleveland also has gone to the floor of the North Carolina House to pitch ideas for illegal immigration, like profiling potential undocumented immigrants based on what they’re wearing, tried forcing the owner of the North Carolina State Fair to allow people to carry guns at the event, against his wishes, and once argued that there aren’t actually any people who are extremely poor in North Carolina, it’s just an illusion created by statisticians who redefine what poverty is (for the record, 8% of North Carolina lives in extreme poverty, and 17.5% live below the poverty line, in total). George Cleveland was one of several North Carolina Republicans who reacted to South Carolina’s state legislature removing the Confederate flag from state grounds by instead voting for SB 22, to make it HARDER to remove Confederate iconography from around the state. Cleveland also supported two pieces of legislation that were created by the North Carolina GOP to stick it to the LGBTQ community, voting for SB 2, a bill aimed at allowing for state officials to refuse to perform marriage duties based on their “sincerely held religious beliefs” and sponsoring the now-infamous disaster that is HB 2, which isn’t just written to force people to use bathrooms according to the sex they were born as, but it was written to specifically allow people of “religious faith” to use it as a justification to discriminate against the gay community in North Carolina. He was, of course, one of many North Carolina Republicans who responded to the loss in the governor’s race by Republican incumbent Pat McCrory by trying to supplant democracy by stripping many of the main powers of governance away from incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. Cleveland followed that up by co-sponsoring a bill with fellow FRED Michael Speciale and Larry Pittman of the North Carolina state legislature to attempt to eliminate the prohibition on seceding from the United States that was written into the North Carolina state constitution after the Civil War to reiterate the fact that the Tar Heel State should totally not do something that stupid ever again. Well, George Cleveland wants the option to start another American Civil War back on the table, apparently.

Cleveland won re-election in 2018 after surviving the GOP Primary with but 52% of the vote, and then won with 58% of the vote in the general election. For those keeping track, George Cleveland is now just shy of his 81st birthday, and has used his current term in office to co-sponsor legislation to ban abortion at not just 20… but 13 weeks, and the completely over-the-top anti-choice bill known as the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act”. Oh, and lest we forget, he also voted against extending the statute of limitations on child abuse cases, because he apparently would like molesters to still have a better chance of getting away with their crimes.

Cleveland won re-election in 2020 with 60% of the vote and immediately sought to work to limit the ability of Gov. Roy Cooper to continue state-of-emergency orders, co-sponsoring a bill to limit such orders to a 30 day window, and past that, requiring approval from the state legislature. Because heaven forbid any governor keep mask mandates in order during a pandemic to save lives.

In March of 2021, George Cleveland was still doing his part to promote “The Big Lie”, by sponsoring HB 259, a bill to “require that all voting machines in the future be manufactured in the U.S.”, furthering the narrative that Donald Trump and his supporters have pushed about foreign entities having hacked into voting machines made overseas to influence the outcome of 2020 and “steal” the election for the GOP's favorite idiot autocrat.

Of course George Cleveland running for re-election for a tenth term in office in 2022, and he will be 83 years old within the next few days. Why would any of these awful people resign in disgrace?

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of former Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, who even as a reporter before entering politics, openly mocked the science behind climate change and chastised poor people for living in apartments while doing a story on lead abatement for living in a roach-infested apartment for the “luxuries” they had, like a TV or brand-name speakers. In spite of surviving cancer, thanks in part to her husband’s medical insurance that he receives through the government as a state legislator, Kleefisch has gone on the warpath against the Affordable Care Act, and lied and said it would lead to “healthcare rationing”. Kleefisch has also rhetorically asked if the legalization of gay marriage would lead to people being able to marry their dogs, and rounds out her stupidity by first defending Paul Ryan by claiming you can’t even attempt to categorize rape, and then, seconds later in the same interview, starting to define rape as if it’s “forcible rape” or not. She is truly a couple tacos short of a combination plate. Kleefisch was rumored to be considering a run against U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin for her seat in Washington, D.C., but apparently the momentum shown by Democrats in special elections scared her off of taking on the cagey incumbent, and instead, she’s going to run for re-election as Lieutenant Governor for a third term, staying tethered to a man clearly made half of water, and half of vinegar (but all douche), Gov. Scott Walker. She spent most of her last few years in office being sent on trips outside of Wisconsin to try and lure manufacturers into relocating to the Badger state, without any success, and there are whispers that even Scott Walker aides were lamenting that she’s continued to try to stick to the governor’s ticket like a remora on a shark. Mercifully, both Kleefisch and Scott Walker were turfed out of office in 2018,. which isn’t shocking, considering her main campaign strategy seemed to be to be as racist as possible and falsely accuse her African-American opponent, Mandela Barnes, of kneeling during the national anthem, Colin Kaepernick style, without any evidence.

She currently leads in polls in the GOP Primary to be the next Governor of Wisconsin, and is already suing the Wisconsin Election Commission, presumably because they uphold any integrity, at all, and won’t just declare her the winner in advance.

[Tendrin]

Please don't make such a stupid accusation. I said abortion rights were achieved by compromise. What on earth do you think term limits are?

Do... you do understand that term limits have been enacted on the abortion rights granted by Roe V. Wade by conservatives as a way to continually chip away at abortion rights?

[worstblogever]

On this date in both 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled U.S. House Representative from Georgia’s 1st Congressional District, Buddy Carter, who has served in Congress since first winning office in 2014. Prior to that, he was festering around the Georgia state legislature for a decade from 2005 to 2014. It was in his last year in office in 2014 in the Georgia State Senate that he became the subject of controversy after he sponsored SB 408 which would add requirements on insurance companies which could make mail-order pharmacies lose some of their price advantage. Critics immediately pointed out that this was obvious self-dealing, because Carter owned three local walk-in pharmacies, and he scoffed, instead attacking the media for reporting on his attempt at corruption, and claiming, “It was not a conflict of interest at all. This is just another example of the biased media attacking conservatives,” and of course, Carter is still looking for ways to try and enrich himself based on voting now that he’s in Congress, swearing to never make a vote that would support the Affordable Care Act, and reacting to Senator Lisa Murkowski promising to vote against a repeal of it by saying that “Someone needs to go to the Senate and snatch a knot in their ass.”

Classy.

Carter also sponsored HB 586 in February of 2017, which had it passed, would have outlawed abortion. Completely. Without any exceptions. From conception, he wants all zygotes to have constitutional rights. (How they’re going to exercise their right to bear arms, we can’t say, but it’s the most Republican idea possible.)

On immigration, Buddy Carter deems that “granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is unconstitutional”, and he supported Donald Trump’s bigoted Muslim travel ban from the moment it was announced. But he’s not just Islamophobic, but transphobic as well, supporting Donald Trump’s illogical, random attempt to ban transgender troops from the armed services, saying, quite callously, “I don’t want ‘em serving in the military. SORRY.”

At his first town hall after the election of Donald Trump, Congressman Carter told his constituents he would be “in the front of the line” to investigate Donald Trump should he have done anything illegal prior to getting elected in regards to soliciting help from a foreign power to interfere in our elections. Shock of shocks, when Donald Trump had Bill Barr try to make the Mueller Investigation go away only to immediately pressure Ukraine for dirt on Joe Biden, Carter’s reaction wasn’t to bury his head in the sand where he stood, but to immediately declare the whistleblower complaint “wasn’t evidence of anything” from the jump and then dig in and spend the following months after it twisting himself in knots to keep an incompetent crook in office.

Here’s a look at some of the other low lights of his career as a legislator from the past few years:

• May 4th, 2017: Carter 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 Carter 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.
• February 18th, 2018: Rep. Carter and his fellow Republicans vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• January 27th, 2019: Buddy Carter votes against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attack Carter our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
• February 28th, 2019: Carter votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• October 23rd, 2019: Carter is one of 41 Republicans who, while staring down the possibility of Donald Trump being impeached, stage a ridiculous publicity stunt in response by crashing a classified impeachment inquiry hearing for a “protest”.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Carter 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.
• January 6th, 2021: Buddy Carter 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. Carter 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: Buddy Carter 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: Carter votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Carter votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 10th, 2021: Carter votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because she feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Carter 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. Carter votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• November 5th, 2021: Buddy Carter votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• March 31st, 2021: Carter votes against HR 6833, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which would limit the cost that drug companies could list insulin at to $35 and make sure no diabetic was priced out of surviving their condition.

Buddy Carter won re-election with 58% of the vote in November of 2020. Rep. Carter, however, is currently in the middle of a circular firing squad of Georgia Republicans blaming each other for the state flipping blue in 2020, overall, and his seditious activities are getting called out by other candidates looking to bounce him from office in 2022.

YOU HATE TO SEE IT. *wink*

[JCAll]

You really aren't past it. Trans women in sport is probably the first time most people have experience of these issues and it is going to keep coming up*. People are being told they have to choose one side or the other - no nuance allowed - and, this being their first examination of the wider issues, every subsequent discussion will be framed by this one.

The reason Republicans jumped on the sport controversy is that this is the one issue they know they can win. Moreover, for the first time in as long as I can remember, they can make a claim to be on the side on science, the side of women and the side of basic fairness, without really having to do anything. You really think they're going to let this one go?

*I did start to write about the depressing failure of many progressives to understand the importance of sport, but I think that's a different debate.

That's why people fought against it so hard, it was always just a wedge to drive everyone away from trans people. They're going to keep hammering that wedge because it plays well to the base, but they're already moving on the grander methods of trans exclusion.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The reason Republicans jumped on the sport controversy is that this is the one issue they know they can win. Moreover, for the first time in as long as I can remember, they can make a claim to be on the side on science, the side of women and the side of basic fairness, without really having to do anything. You really think they're going to let this one go?

Republicans? On the side of women? When they’ve been trying to kill Roe v. Wade for decades while hellbent on having government deny women the right of control over their own bodies? THOSE Republicans?

[JCAll]

Republicans? On the side of women? When they’ve been trying to kill Roe v. Wade for decades while hellbent on having government deny women the right of control over their own bodies? THOSE Republicans?

I'm sure they'll claim it, they're obviously lying but that's to be expected at this point.

[Panfoot]

That's been their defense for it, despite them never giving any sort of lip service to women's sports before, all while stripping women's rights state by state the entire time. It also doubles as them getting to ingrain the message of transwomen as not "real" women, Republicans are masters of bigotry.