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

[kidfresh512]

Proud Boys Charged with Sedition in Capitol Attack

Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, and four other members of the far-right group were indicted on Monday for seditious conspiracy in connection with the storming of the Capitol last January, the most serious crime to be charged in the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the assault.

The sedition charges against Mr. Tarrio and his co-defendants — Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — came in an amended indictment that was unsealed in Federal District Court in Washington. The men had already been charged in an earlier indictment filed in March with conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election, which took place during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

[JackDaw]

Boris Johnson has survived today’s confidence vote…but realistically the margin of victory is such that it’s pretty obvious he’s one of the walking dead.

[babyblob]

Proud Boys Charged with Sedition in Capitol Attack

It is goofd to see them get serious about charges. These guys if I were them I would take it to a Jury Trial.

[Totoro Man]

And yes, 19 children is "mass destruction."

The good news for those cops is that they will find it very easy to find a new job once they admit they are not up to the one they currently have:

these are based on averaged figures from their entire term as president. do we really think if Hillary Clinton had become president instead of Trump that those numbers would be significantly different for that time period? COVID-19 is effectively a "natural disaster". anybody who was president at that time would have been similarly "responsible" for losing those jobs.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

the unemployment rate was steadily returning to normal levels before Biden even became president. it went from 14% down to roughly 6% before Biden even got elected.

Biden has only been president two years. of course, if he took over when the economy is bouncing back from a catastrophe, he will naturally have the best numbers. he can ride that upswing wave and his fans can pat him on the back and tell him "job well done!" good for him. not to demean skill and political acumen altogether... but, sometimes, being lucky makes a bigger difference than knowledge or skill. it reminds me of an old proverb "I would rather be lucky than good."

I've never considered the president as being decisive in their influence on the economy. yes, they can make a skilled response or a clumsy mistake. but they don't actually control the market economy or international political landscape.

I didn't blame Bill Clinton for my getting stuck with a bunch of crappy temp jobs with no benefits or retirement during his eight years as president. sure, I might have been employed for three months and employed for two months before finding work again... but I was TECHNICALLY not unemployed for most of that time.

it seems like the proliferation in jobs might be attributable to the profusion of part-time and temp/gig work employment and won't have lasting benefits for people. that's better than being unemployed. but it's not the best possible situation to be in.

[Totoro Man]

There were no widespread vaccination plans in place when Biden took office. The plan his administration put forward allowed schools and bisnesses to reopen and hundreds of thousands of people to return to the workforce.

wouldn't state governments have been taking action to reopen schools and implement vaccination policies either way? I'm prepared to give Biden a little bit of credit... but, a lot of these things would have happened anyway. it's not like state government agencies were simply waiting for the President of the United States give them permission to act.

Biden creating federal jobs will certainly help the economy. I just don't think that would be enough to jumpstart the economy in and of itself.

[Totoro Man]

The last thing we need is armed security and cops in schools.

they already have them in some places. given the level of gang related violence in L.A. it seems like a reasonable decision.

"Armed security guards might make sense at some schools; Los Angeles Unified already has such officers at almost all of its high schools and about 20% of its middle schools."

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/edit...forced%20to%3F

this issue comes up every couple of years. but the larger issue is that the state needs to have the economic and political resources to justify that decision.

the other problem is that the armed guard is only as good as the person who holds that position. a coward with a gun is still just a coward.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for Indiana’s’ 8th Congressional District, Larry Bucshon, who since getting elected to Congress in 2010, has participated in the widespread campaign of Republican obstructionism, and making a name for himself as an exemplary climate change denialist. See, in September of 2014, he actually made the claim that climate change science is fraudulent because scientists are only producing studies that say it exists, and it is man-made, because if they didn’t, they would be out of a career. Never mind that scientists produce DATA to back up what they’re saying all the time, though.

Bucshon is opposed to same-sex marriage to the extent that he has went on record to whine about how he felt the Justice Department wasn’t enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act and is so Pro-Life that he sponsored the “Life Begins at Conception Act”, which would have effectively not only criminalized abortion, but most forms of birth control. Bucshon also voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, and at the vote to re-open the government, voted to keep it closed.

Bucshon’s actually got an MD, but we’re going to be honest, the man seems to have forgotten the Hippocratic Oath. Instead, in 2020, he effectively recited a loyalty pledge to Donald Trump, because he ignored all medical experts and all logic that he should have picked up in med school this past year, proving so when he called for the country to “reopen” in April of 2020. Regardless of if that opening would cost, y’know, tens of thousands of lives. In 2021, Bucshon threw a tantrum that Nancy Pelosi when mandated members of the House and staff continue to wear masks unless providing proof they have been vaccinated, pointing out that many people like him will refuse the vaccine until their last. Again, a former doctor, not just refusing life-saving vaccines, put putting his own politics ahead of public health with an ignorant f***ing statement like that.

Bucshon, though, still gets to enjoy a +15 Republican lean that Indiana’s 8th Congressional District has, and was re-elected with 67% of the vote in 2020.

[worstblogever]

He has returned to the capitol, and now in the minority party, remains a hyper-partisan twit.

• January 22nd, 2019: Bucshon cannot be arsed to bother to vote against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Bucshon voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Larry Bucshon votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• June 4th, 2019: Bucshon votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Bucshon 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: Bucshon votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• January 6th, 2021: Larry Bucshon 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. Bucshon 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: Larry Bucshon 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: Bucshon votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Bucshon 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: Larry Bucshon votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Bucshon votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Bucshon votes 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: Larry Bucshon votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• November 5th, 2021: Larry Bucshon votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• March 31st, 2022: Bucshon 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. Larry Bucshon would rather they be gouged by pharmaceutical giants and/or die.
• May 18th, 2022: Larry Bucshon 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. Bucshon 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: Bucshon votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.

Larry Bucshon has now been in office 12 years, and somehow the people of Indiana’s 8th have yet to realize his dumb ass has accomplished nothing in that time for their benefit. No major legislation passed, nothing of note except some dumbass empty quotes. (HINT: They can do better.) He’s running for a seventh term in office in 2022, because of course nothing changes in gerrymandered GOP districts holding their own accountable.

[Tami]

We need to focus on the real fight against 'great replacement' theory

A survey released by the Southern Poverty Law Center last week had an eye-popping finding: An overwhelming majority of Republicans report believing in key tenets of “great replacement” theory. According to the poll, which was conducted with Tulchin Research, a Democratic polling firm, via online panel in late April, 68 percent of Republicans agree with the statement that “the recent change in our national demographic makeup is not a natural change but has been motivated by progressive and liberal leaders actively trying to leverage political power by replacing more conservative white voters.”

Gulp.

[The Cool Thatguy]

We need to focus on the real fight against 'great replacement' theory

I love how Republicans jump to 'Replacement Theory' well before 'having kids is too damn expensive'.

[numberthirty]

Since the problem you’re describing originated years ago and is legal according to existing laws and Regs, I have to think most of us would blame Capitalism itself.

Yet every other administration up until now has managed to keep formula on the shelves to the point where it is not a "Straight Up Emergency..." situation...

Past that?

Ask Elizabeth Warren if we should just blame capitalism, and government bears zero responsibility for the dumpster fire in question.

[numberthirty]

So...

Government at the "Federal..." level?

It's very existence is to be a check on capitalism.

Sound like you are essentially saying "Well, what did you expect? That a politician who ran on competency would have an administration that actually acted as a competent check on capitalism?..."

Which, politely, just does not compute.

If you are not going to make even the most basic effort past "Hey, at some point(you know, whenever the heck you feel like it...), you oughta get this plant that government actually allows to operate into the sort of shape where it can pass a really basic inspection..."?

Yes. A large part of the responsibility falls on you failing at governing.

[Kirby101]

Until now America apparently never faced a shortage of any kind. Obviously every other Administration was able to ward them off.
Also the FDA has always been able to inspect,, close and reopen a plant in weeks.. Good to know.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Yet every other administration up until now has managed to keep formula on the shelves to the point where it is not a "Straight Up Emergency..." situation...

Past that?

Ask Elizabeth Warren if we should just blame capitalism, and government bears zero responsibility for the dumpster fire in question.

"Up until now..."

How many pandemics have we had, exactly?

Also, this formula shortage demonstrates that we've always had this choke point/single point of failure. So we had this potential under Trump, Obama and who knows how long?

[Kirby101]

Actually, as I posted here and 30 full well knows, it was Trump's Trade Deal that caused this choke point and made it hard to import formula. But it's always all and only Biden for him.