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

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Ted Crockett, the former Shelby County Commissioner who was a 2018 candidate for the Alabama House of Representatives from District 45. Ted Crockett is the former spokesman for Roy Moore during his ill-fated attempt to get elected to the Senate, Crockett defended the worst of Moore’s racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and yes, all the accusations of him spending his 30s sexually pursuing underage girls. In the process, Crockett taught us all a lot about him, as well, including his belief that homosexuality should be a crime. Only a year later, Ted Crockett was running for the Alabama House of Representatives, and continued being a theocratic loon, including insisting that Muslims should not be allowed to run for public office, because they refuse to swear on a Bible… which Jake Tapper had to point out to him that the law does not necessitate the book in question being a Bible, and it is chosen by the political figure. Upon learning this fact, Crockett was just completely befuddled. Alarmingly, Crockett only missed being elected in the GOP Primary by about 700 votes.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Jo Rae Perkins, who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. House of Representatives in Oregon’s 4th Congressional District in 2014, 2016, and 2018, losing each time to the also bats*** Republican Art Robinson in the GOP Primary for that seat. She has run afoul of the law before, having been charged with harassment and hindering prosecution in 2005, and twice filed for personal bankruptcy, in 1997 and 2009. But recently, she was a 2020 Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Oregon candidate who yes, is the latest in a far too line of folks we’ve profiled who ran for office while being supporters of the Qanon Conspiracy theory. Just in case you think she might not actually believe in something so stupid, and was just milking the hype for potential votes, she swore an oath to Qanon online, promising to be a “digital soldier” for them, and specifically mentioned them in her victory speech after the GOP Primary. When CNN went to interview her about her reprehensible belief in it, she was bewildered to see the reporters who showed up were wearing masks during the Covid-19 pandemic and let them know they “didn’t work”. Joe Rae Perkins got a far too high total of 39% of the vote in the 2020 election. She made another run for U.S. Senate again in 2022, looking to unseat Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, but her path to victory looks pretty much blocked given that she has posted video of herself in attendance at the January 6th rally that devolved into a violent coup attempt being carried out on behalf of Donald Trump. To give you an idea of how extremely conservative the eastern portion of a blue state like Oregon is, they still voted for her in 2020, and she one a third of the counties in the state. We will set aside her profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1104-55, since this was established in July 2014.


Will Dismukes

Welcome to what is the 1104th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Will Dismukes, who has been a member of the Alabama House of Representatives for District 88 since first winning office back in 2018, and has aspirations for higher office, evidenced by his brief run in the GOP Primary in 2020 to see if he could elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. Will Dismukes used to be an intern in the Alabama state legislator for

Where do we even begin with Will Dismukes? Well, let’s start with how he seems like he’s a fan of the Ku Klux Klan, what with publicly appearing at events to celebrate the date of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s birthday, hosted by a speaker named Pat Godwin who, definitely makes the proceedings quite the little hate rally. Dismukes’ appearance at this event in 2020 was also when Alabama was busy laying former Congressman and Civil Rights hero John Lewis to rest in his native Alabama, the state where he also almost died crossing a bridge in his struggle for voting rights, but hey, Will Dismukes had to honor the founder of the Klan, PRIORITIES. When asked by the local media to look at his life, and look at his choices, Dismukes of course, played the victim:

”I guess, with the anti-Southern sentiment and all, and the things that we have going on in the world today, there's a lot of people that are seeming to be more and more offended, We live in a time where we literally are going through cancel culture from all different areas and people are even more sensitive on different issues and different subjects. This was just one of those times that it didn't quite go the way I expected, and I never intended to bring hurt to anyone, especially my own family with everything that's been said.”

Ah yes. Classic “anti-Southern sentiment” like, “The KKK is a hate group and no good person should attend their events, nor honor anyone who ever was a member of the Klan.” Truly, cancel culture gone OUT OF CONTROL not celebrating a Confederate war criminal’s birthday.

There were calls for Dismukes to resign, but of course he didn’t. He’s only thirty, and has decades of being a s***lord in the Yellowhammer state to get to. He did resign from being a pastor at his local branch of the Baptist church, but as it would turn out, that little schism with his church wouldn’t have had anything to do with his fan for hate group founders, but that he was alleged to have stolen money from his former employer, which is, again, a church.

Starting to get the feeling that this isn’t a nice person we’re profiling, you know?

So now we’ll mention that Dismuke was then arrested AGAIN and charged with felony theft AGAIN for allegedly stealing money from a flooring company where he worked.

We’ve established over several entries through the past several years not just that there’s a lot of right-wing extremism down in Alabama, but that the state is rife with corruption. You would think a guy twice indicted on felony theft charges who shows up to honor Klan leaders might be forced out of office and call it a career, right? Well, Dismukes did intend on not running for re-election in an announcement in January of 2022, but no, according to Ballotpedia, he is in the GOP Primary and trying to win back his seat (assuming he stays out of jail).

So that’s allowed Dismukes to stay in office to co-sponsor and/or vote for legislation to make it a felony to give gender-affirming therapy to minors, ban transgender kids from youth sports, anti-choice legislation, and voter suppression bills.

If there’s any hope for Alabama, it will be that this dips*** does not win a second term in office.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that ‘Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted a profile of Jay Townsend, a former candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010 who tried challenging Sen. Chuck Schumer… by claiming he didn’t actually support Israel enough (Chuck Schumer of all people!). Part of his campaign to do so involved him appearing with known anti-Islamic hate-monger Pamela Geller near the 9/11 site, as she raved about Muslims trying to build a “Ground Zero Mosque”. During protests in Wisconsin against Gov. Scott Walker by union workers, Townsend referred to the unions as “pigs needing to be slaughtered”. When he became a campaign advisor for former Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, he went way, way over the line when he suggested that conservatives should “hurl some acid” at female Democratic Senators who voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a move that typically is used by psychos in the Taliban to silence women they don’t agree with. Townsend’s political career went from being a terrible candidate, to a liability as an adviser, to not even rating headlines.

On this date in 2016, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted a profile of Spencer Bachus, a former eleven term U.S. House Representative from Alabama's 6th Congressional District from 1993 through 2015, Bachus easily won office in that district, mostly because of redistricting prior to his 1992 run, most of the African American parts of Birhingham, Alabama, were shunted off into Alabama's 7th, and brought most of the white wealthy districts from the 7th to the 6th, making it a much friendlier to a member of the GOP. Back in May of 2005, when it was rather easy for conservatives to chastise critics or anyone that had the nerve to not just nod their head and agree, comedian Bill Maher told a joke about how the U.S. military began falling short of recruiting goals by saying, "More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club. We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies." Spencer Bachus had the levelheaded response of accusing Maher of straight-up treason. He eventually was kind enough to backpedal and say that he at least wasn’t going to call for Maher to be prosecuted for this capital crime, instead settling to have him off the air. Bachus just called it a career perhaps not coincidentally around the time it was revealed he was the most prolific member of Congress to perform legal insider trading (at the time), benefit from knowledge about the collapsing financial industry of the time to manipulate his own personal stock portfolio to profit from the crisis, as many citizens were losing their own homes and retirement funds. He helped get himself richer by betting against the U.S. economy. As Elizabeth Warren began moving to step in and regulate the big banks after that crisis and close the kinds of loopholes that allowed Bachus' behavior to continue, he responded by saying that she and President Obama were "violating the Constitution". His overall voting record including voting to try and impeach Bill Clinton back in 1998, voted to repeal the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act that led to the 2007 financial crash, voted against Dodd-Frank financial reform that would prevent the next one, voted to allow government buildings to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments, the Iraq War, and was a staunch anti-abortion and pro-gun vote. Since Bachus has moved on to predictably start working as a lobbyist for K Street.

In both 2017, as well 2018, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of the eleven-term U.S. House Representative from New Jersey’s 11th District, Rodney Frelinghuysen, who arrived in Congress all the way back in the 1994 Red Wave Election. Quite literally, he is a part of one of the oldest political families in the history of the United States, that goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War, that has had seven generations serve as politicians from New Jersey at the state and federal level. Frelinghuysen made a variety of controversial ethical decisions through the years like accepting donations from military contractors while sitting on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, often getting those donations on the same days he voted to get the same companies lucrative government contracts. Eventually, he decided it would be more prudent to stop pretending he represents his constituents at all, dodging town halls altogether. This of course would have a lot to do over the outrage surrounding his endorsement (albeit reluctant) of Donald Trump during the 2016 elections, and in his final term of Congress, his flip-flopping over support for repealing the Affordable Care Act in 2017. He insisted he wouldn’t vote to repeal… and then he did. So almost immediately, disgruntled constituents began calling his Washington, D.C. office, and staking him out if possible. One of the main grassroots activists working against him was Saily Avelenda, a banking executive from his district. And that was unacceptable to Congressman Frelinghuysen, who responded by writing a poison pen letter in the form of an e-mail to Avelenda’s boss, outing Avelenda’s out of work activities to him as a “ringleader”, which yet again made him the target of an ethics investigation, because WOW that is beyond the pale. Through his career, Frelinghuysen was a co-sponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act, voted for the impeachment of President Clinton for lying about the Monica Lewinsky affair, voted against Equal Pay for women, against Wall Street reform after the global economy tanked in 2007, against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and voted for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood.

On this date in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled former Ohio State Senator Cliff Hite, who was first appointed to office back in 2011 by Governor John Kasich after serving four years on the Ohio House of Representatives. After a decade schlepping in office, Hite suddenly resigned in October of 2017, citing “health reasons”.Turns out, Hite was accused of sexual harassment, spending two straight months pleading with a female legislative employee to have sex with him despite her repeated refusals. Details included he admitted to previous extramarital affairs, he had a condo and no one would ever know, and on one specific day, he pestered her to have sex with him for more than an hour. Hite would shared intimate details of his sex life with his wife, and would plead, "I'm a grown man with needs," including (but not limited to) oral sex, according to the allegations. The woman refused eight or nine times. Cliff Hite’s voting record also was terrible for women, including support for anti-choice measures as extreme as fetal heartbeat bills.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Jamie Byers, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 4th District. Byers was a Qanon conspiracy theorist, who tweeted the slogan, “Where we go one, we go all” at Donald Trump on Twitter to show that loyalty, as well as support for Trump’s stupid f***ing border wall. Jamie Byers was defeated in the open primary for California’s 4th, finishing fifth out of six candidates and less than 2% of the vote. He has spent the pandemic raving like a madman over any Covid-19 restrictions being enforced by California Governor Gavin Newsom and repeatedly insisting, per the Qanon conspiracy theory that almost every living former member of the Obama administration are about to be taken to jail.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Scott Stone, who served one term in the North Carolina House of Representatives in District 105 from 2016 to 2018, following in the footsteps of fellow FRED Jaqueline Schaffer after being appointed to his place by dips*** former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory. Stone was unseated in the 2018 Blue Wave by Democrat Wesley Harris, sent packing with 48% of the vote. During his brief career as a state legislator, Stone supported numerous GOP voter suppression bills, including his co-sponsorship of HB 1092. Perhaps the most galling vote he had was his “YEA” on HB 330 in April of 2017, a bill that would have limited the liability of any motorist who should drive their car into a crowd of protestors, which was exactly the sort of signal of tacit approval for such a thing that shouldn’t have been sent a the motherf***er who did exactly that at Charlottesville only months later. In May of 2020, of all things, he put Pottery Barn on blast on his Twitter account for doing sales at a location in his area by appointment only for pickups because of the Covid-19 pandemic. After getting skewered by others on Twitter for his spoiled, clueless post, not for nothing, Stone also tried to become a Covid-19 truther and claim that not as many people were dying as reported (as the death toll was approaching 100,000 people in just ten weeks). Scott Stone finished eighth out of a possible nine candidates in the GOP Primary for Lieutenant Governor, earning just 6% of the vote. We will set aside hIS profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1105-55, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Bruce Westerman

Welcome to what is the 1105th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Bruce Westerman, the sitting U.S. House Representative from Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District since winning office in the 2014 elections, sliding into the House seat formerly held by partisan Senatorial s***heel Tom Cotton. For four years prior to that, Westerman was poking around the Arkansas state legislature, first achieving elected office as a beneficiary of the 2010 Tea Party Wave. Westerman is best known as the man who has become infamous as the cowardly wanker who fled to a bathroom after swiping a sword he yanked off a Civil War memorial in Kevin McCarthy’s office, and spending the Capitol Attack hiding on the toilet.

The Republican Party, truly profiles in courage, cowering from the mob they incited in the first place.

Anyway, we’ll also note that Bruce Westerman is regarded as a climate change denier, especially given this quote:

"Climate change happens. The question is, what causes it to happen? You have natural vents… Forest fires put millions of tons of carbon into the air every year. Volcanic eruptions put millions of tons of carbon in the air. And when it happens, it's minute changes. So, you can't deny the fact that climate change happens. The question is, what causes climate change to happen?… It's a very complicated subject you hear talked about a lot in platitudes, and not as much in details of science."

He has no legislative achievements to speak of after 8 years in the House, but has made sure to cement himself on the wrong side of history by co-sponsoring an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban same sex marriage. The rest of his voting record is about as painfully as dumb as that:

• January 22nd, 2015: Bruce Westerman 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. Westerman 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: Westerman 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: Westerman votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• September 18th, 2015: Rep. Westerman co-sponsors and 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: Westerman 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: Bruce Westerman 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: Westerman 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.
• March 16th, 2017: Bruce Westerman 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.
• May 4th, 2017: Westerman 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 Westerman 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: Bruce Westerman 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: Westerman 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: Bruce Westerman 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. Westerman 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. Westerman voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Westerman 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. Westerman 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: Bruce Westerman 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).
• May 17th, 2019: Westerman doesn’t bother to show up to vote for the Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Westerman votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Bruce Westerman votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Westerman ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: Westerman votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

[CaptainEurope]

We had a budget surplus under the Clinton administration that Bush promptly nuked. I know time moves fast now, but that was definitely less than 100 years ago.

In a rare case of me definding Zaurial, a few years surplus don't go frar into paying back a country's debt that has accumulated for many decades.

[worstblogever]

• December 10th, 2020: Westerman signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that she won re-election in.
• January 6th, 2021: Bruce Westerman 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. Westerman 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: Bruce Westerman 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: Westerman votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Westerman votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 3rd, 2021: Bruce Westerman votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Westerman 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. Westerman 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. Westerman votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• November 5th, 2021: Bruce Westerman votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• March 31st, 2022: Westerman 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. Bill Johnson would rather they be gouged by pharmaceutical giants and/or die.
• May 18th, 2022: Bruce Westerman is one of 192 Republicans who vote against HR 7790, to create supplemental funding for infant formula (while claiming to be pro- life).
• May 18th, 2022: Rep. Westerman votes against HR 350, the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, because these days, a plank of the Republican Party is ostensibly domestic terror.
• May 19th, 2022: Westerman votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.

Based on Westerman’s support of “The Big Lie” by signing on to the Supreme Court challenge to Joe Biden’s victory, and his failure to certify the votes thereafter, we’re hoping when the GOP attempts another coup after the 2024 elections that Bruce Westerman runs back into a lavatory with the nearest melee weapon he can find, and this time, flushes himself down the commode to never be seen again. An utter waste of a seat in Congress.

[Kirby101]

In a rare case of me definding Zaurial, a few years surplus don't go frar into paying back a country's debt that has accumulated for many decades.

Except Clinton's policies (if Gore had become President) would have continued to lower the debt. G W Bush gave the rich massive tax breaks and then got us into expensive wars he did not pay for. Culminating in the biggest market crash since the Great Depression. After the initial spending to save the Economy, the deficit shrank under Obama, until Trump gave even more money to the Rich.

Any metric will show that the Democrats are better on the budget and the Economy. But the media continues to spout the GOP narrative that they are more fiscally responsible. But what they really mean is that they will give away massive amounts to the Rich, to Corporations and to Military Contractors. But they will not let money be used for the poor or needy, especially since so many of them are not white.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Michael Peroutka, a former member of the Constitution Party who ran for president on that ticket back in 2004, and in 2014, shifted his party to Republican to run for a seat on the Maryland Arundel County Council. While his current political rank might seem pretty low compared to being a one-time presidential candidate, Peroutka is a worthy enough person to profile for his influence, as he has long been a financial supporter of dim-witted Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, in his quest to violate the separation of church and state that our Constitution guarantees by putting Ten Commandments monuments up in courthouses. But that’s not where Peroutka’s extremism stops… he’s also a long time member of the NeoConfederate group, the League of the South, and when called out on that fact, once responded, “I’m not a Neo-Confederate, if anything I want to be just a True Confederate.” We covered an extensive list of racist and homophobic comments from Peroutka, as well as his calls to arrest all women who get abortions, and using his media profile to claim that Planned Parenthood stalks children and hopes they get pregnant so they can abort their own unborn children. He’s also disgustingly anti-science, to boot, having donated an allosaurus skeleton to a Creationalist museum that teaches children the Earth is only 4,300 years old, and that the Columbine shooting massacre happened because evolution was being taught in public schools. We cannot describe him as terrifyingly bigoted and insane… but at least he doesn’t hold a higher office than he does, currently.


It was in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, and 2021, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” presented its original profile of the four term U.S. House Representative for Illinois’ 16th Congressional District, Adam Kinzinger, and those who only have followed the most current events are probably like, “WHUH? How the heck is one of the only Republicans rejecting Donald Trump’s bulls*** one of the ‘crazy’ ones?”

Well, our memory goes back a bit farther. We’re talking about a guy who not only bought into the Center for Medical Progress’ bogus “sting” video that illegally taped a Planned Parenthood executive, and compared the fraudulent footage to concentration Camp experiments on conservative talk radio. And it’s part of that sort of reaction that the GOP had that served as a stochastic terror trigger to send a man named Robert Lewis Dear over the edge, and to shoot up a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. But Kinzinger wasn’t satisfied with the violence his party incited, that day, not at all. During the five hour siege that left three people dead, and many others hospitalized or pinned inside the building, Adam Kinzinger was live on CNN, and said he expected an apology from Planned Parenthood if it turned out they were not the intended target of the shooter. We’ll repeat that… Kinzinger demanded an apology from the organization attacked while there was still gunfire being heard, and an active shooter was still attacking them. Kinzinger has never apologized for his remarks. His voting record also is highly conservative across the board, and not surprisingly, very much so on abortion rights.

And now, the brutally depressing part… in spite of all members of Congress having a pathetically low approval rating, Adam Kinzinger’s heartless comments about victims of a mass shooting while they were still laid up in a hospital, or that Kinzinger that he decided to send out a mailer of him taking a photo with some of his constituents which he used to make an ad mailer touting his pro-life record without their consent…

In 2020, Kinzinger criticized Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers for removing National Guard troops from the U.S./Mexico border that were requested to be sent there by Donald Trump. Kinzinger is a reservist, and could have faced discipline for publicly criticizing his own orders to stand down. The theory was at the time that he probably only made the statement in the first place to win the approval of Trump, and hope it would allow him to be named Air Force Secretary (maybe he held a grudge when his name didn’t get called)…

And as Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic by simply issuing stay-at-home orders to keep the public safe also led to Kinzinger chiming in to be on the wrong side of history.

All we know is that for his “betrayal” of Donald Trump, the Republican Party made it impossible for Adam Kinzinger to win re-election in 2022, and he will be making as much of a nuisance of himself to his fellow Republicans in the January 6th Select Committee hearings over the summer. We still wish him “good riddance”, but will offer thanks for doing his best to hold many of his own accountable before he headed out the door.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Chris Simcox, a primary challenger to Sen. John McCain in the 2010 elections who ran to McCain’s right, particularly on the issue of immigration. Simcox did so because he just so happened to be a co-founder of an anti-immigrant militia group known as the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (the other half being mass murderer, Neo-Nazi, and aspiring Arizona state legislator J.T. Ready). Simcox, prior to running for office, was interviewed in a documentary called “USA Under Attack” where he openly talked of revolution, and lynching politicians in Washington, D.C. He also accused John McCain, of all people, of having ties to ACORN, and was a frequent guest of Alex Jones on InfoWars and J.D. Hayworth on Newsmax to rant about McCain’s supposed soft stance on immigration. His campaign came to an abrupt end, however, after Simcox went on the lam from law enforcement, after he was accused of molesting three little girls, one of them his ten-year-old daughter. He was arrested in 2013, and was found guilty, being sentenced to prison for quite a long stretch.


It was in both 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Tennessee State Senator John Stevens, who shortly after South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from their state capitol, was dismayed to hear a small minority of Democrats in the Tennessee state legislature then begin debating whether or not the state should change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park, named after the Confederate general who went on to be the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Stevens went ballistic, and said it would lead to a slippery slope that would lead to people acting like ISIS, saying, “I’m certainly not going to defend Gen. Forrest. I just think it’s a slippery slope when you start changing names and taking down statues. What separates us from ISIS? Because that’s what they do, they go around and tear down history in those nations that they’ve conquered. If that’s what America is about now, then it concerns me.”

Alright, let’s unpack that a little, just for giggles. Comparing any dissenting opinion to the worst of humanity, be it ISIS, Nazis, or terrorists of whatever kind… is just terrible discourse in that whole Godwinn’s law vein. But that’s not even quite correct, in any aspect. ISIS destroys historical landmarks of religious significance, as part of their radically perverted views of Islam. So for anyone to be attacking Nathan Bedford Forrest, he would have to be held as some sort of figure of revered spiritual significance. Unless Stevens was saying he felt Bedford was that sort of icon…

Anyway, John Stevens has been involved in some of the most ridiculous legislation to come out of Tennessee the past several years, including voting to bring back the electric chair as a method of execution, voting for TRAP laws to try and shut down every abortion clinic in the state, voting for a highly unconstitutional measure to make the Bible the state book, trying to block Syrian refugees from being resettled in the state, and voting to allow for firearms to be carried in parks around the state.

Wouldn’t you know it, Stevens was re-elected to a second term in 2016 on the benefit of getting to run for re-election unopposed. He continued wasting time and money on quests that are… well, of a bigoted nature. In March of 2017, he became one of a few Tennessee State legislators to file a lawsuit against the federal government, trying to use the Tenth Amendment and claim “State’s Rights” like Republicans do… because they’re upset that the state will have to resettle Syrian refugees. In August of 2017, he tried to re-write language in state marriage law to better gain footing to attack the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, and not recognize same sex marriages. Just in January of 2020 he tried supporting “religious freedom” legislation that would allow adoption agencies to deny adoptive rights to same sex couples based on their ”religious beliefs”.

John Stevens was regrettably re-elected in the 2020 elections, and has used his new lease on legislative life to vote for a bill to prohibit the use of Covid-19 vaccination passports, and vote for both of the Tennessee GOP’s transphobic bills, to both ban transgender athletes from playing against their biological sex, co-sponsor legislation to ban transgender athletes from college sports, and should there be events where it’s relevant, banning transgender student athletes from locker rooms. When he hasn’t been busy with that, he’s been voting to ban “Critical Race Theory” because of course he’s scared of the Republican Party’s new boogeyman.

He’s up for re-election again in 2024, and we hope he implodes prior to that.

[AnakinFlair]

This would be hillarious if innocent people hadn't been hurt as well.

Individual Open Carrying AR-15 Gets Robbed at Gunpoint in St. Louis

The North County Police Cooperative reports that there was a shoot-out on Friday, May 27, that left three people injured after a person open carrying an AR-15 was robbed at gunpoint.

The individual went inside Wellston Food Market on 6250 Page Avenue open carrying the semi-automatic rifle, but did not use it in a threatening manner and left the store. Outside of the store, shortly before 3 p.m., an adult male confronted the individual, brandished a weapon and demanded the AR-15.

The individual handed over the assault-style rifle, but then went to a vehicle and retrieved another gun. A shootout ensued. Two innocent bystanders were struck during the shootout, and the adult male who had initiated the robbery was struck several times by gunfire. According to police reports, the robbery victim left the scene and then another male returned moments later and shot the individual who had initially taken the rifle.

[Sharpandpointies]

Handgun freeze in Canada and five-round limit on magazines

Trudeau maybe/actually doing something for a change, rather than performative stuff he doesn't follow through on and trying to scare the left into voting for him.

I'm stunned, but will give him his due for this*.

* will not make me vote for him, mind.

[Jack Dracula]

This would be hillarious if innocent people hadn't been hurt as well.

Individual Open Carrying AR-15 Gets Robbed at Gunpoint in St. Louis

So, the first guy shoots the thief, grabs his rifle back and leaves the scene, then someone else arrives, shoots the thief again for good measure and also leaves.

And the supposed “good guy with a gun” created the whole mess. I can’t wait for the follow-up.

[seismic-2]

In a rare case of me definding Zaurial, a few years surplus don't go frar into paying back a country's debt that has accumulated for many decades.

Quite true, but when you've dug yourself into a really deep hole your first step ought to be to stop digging it deeper. At the rate things are going, most of the Federal budget will be devoted simply to paying the interest on the national debt, never mind reducing the principal (or, you know, actually doing stuff to help the country).

[kidfresh512]

Uvalde police, school district no longer cooperating with Texas probe of shooting: Sources

The Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation into the massacre at Robb Elementary School and the state's review of the law enforcement response, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News.

The Uvalde police chief and a spokesperson for the Uvalde Independent School District did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.

According to sources, the decision to stop cooperating occurred soon after the director of DPS, Col. Steven McCraw, held a news conference Friday during which he said the delayed police entry into the classroom was "the wrong decision" and contrary to protocol.

Also changed the story again saying it wasn't a teacher propping the door open that let him in it was a auto lock failing

[Mister Mets]

Exactly.

Child costs easily run into the thousands. Raising children these days isn't what it was before, it's really, really expensive now.

There has been a recent shift on the right to recognizing that taking care of families is too expensive. This has popped up more in the last few years.

It was easy to ignore because legislators, political commentators and donors tend to have enough money to support 2-4 children up until college.

On his New Yorker podcast, Ezra Klein had some interesting discussions recently with Republicans who think more should be done to support families, but it's telling that this just wasn't in the air before. That's more about blind spots than maliciousness, but now there's a spotlight on this serious issue and an understanding that Americans are having less children than they would prefer.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/236696/...ies-ideal.aspx

Exactly.

Let's say that Gaetz does not wind up being charged or even seriously disciplined.

Saying that means he was "Acquitted..."

I don't know about all of that.

Politics is just pretty much it's own deal when it comes to this particular thing.

I think some people have a mistaken understanding of the criminal justice system, especially when it comes to politics.

They see trials as a way to get at the truth. But the American legal system is one in which people who are probably guilty but not certainly guilty are not supposed to be convicted. A prosecutor should not go forward with a trial unless certain of guilt. Defense attorneys are mainly in case prosecutors screw up.

An additional factor is that there are many things that are bad but not obviously illegal, especially since laws are made by the legislators who do not want these used against them or their buddies.

Was I responding to you saying "Total Student Loan Forgiveness" was unpopular? Or "Student Loan Forgiveness" was unpopular when I posted that it is supported by 64%?

Let's check:


Yep


As for the cost, Please spare us the fiscal responsibility BS when Trump's tax cut cost $2.3 trillion. Your Party lost the mantle of fiscal conservatives under Reagan.

In most cases when someone says a loan is forgiven, the assumption is that it is totally forgiven. If it turns out to be partially forgiven, people get called out for being misleading.

In a discussion about unpopular or controversial positions by Democrats, statements by Democrats in good standing, which would include Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, are certainly valid. A counterpoint that some Democrats don't go that far doesn't disprove the initial point. The Senate majority leader is not some backbencher.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Uvalde police, school district no longer cooperating with Texas probe of shooting: Sources






Also changed the story again saying it wasn't a teacher propping the door open that let him in it was a auto lock failing

Perhaps I’m mistaken, but this sounds like folks having gone into cover your ass mode, to be soon followed by someone thrown under the nearest Greyhound. This story is only going to get messier and uglier.