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

[shooshoomanjoe]

There were many of them, but that's always the first to come to mind as it's surprisingly not subtle at all.

I don't see it. You don't finger a penis. Joke doesn't sexual.

[worstblogever]

On this date one year ago, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Shannon Lundgren, a member of the Iowa House of Representatives from District 57 who was first elected to office back in 2016. Prior to reaching office during that 2016 campaign, Lundgren claimed she was the victim of vandalism after several lawn signs supposedly vanished, and/or were covered in spray paint (plus one family vehicle). Her opponent in that race, Tom Stecher, denounced the vandals, and no link ever seemed to emerge during the police investigation.

Most of her legislative priorities are conservative dreck, like trying to force schoolchildren to take the Pledge of Allegiance every day, or voting to try and block cities and municipalities from choosing to raise their own minimum wage.

But where Shannon Lundgren keeps popping up on our radar is when it comes to her fanatical stance on abortion. In 2017, we were dumbfounded when we saw a news story featuring her because she wrote legislation that would insist women who had already suffered a miscarriage must still carry their dead fetuses to term. Her exact quote during debate on the bill:

"This bill wasn't written for the intent to protect or govern on the side of the woman. It was written to save babies' lives, giving the choice and being the voice of those babies...that don't have one. I understand what you're saying—this fetus, this baby, is not alive. I would concur that in that instance, if your daughter's life is not in danger, that yes, she would have to carry that baby."

Now, we’ll correct her that at 20 weeks, the “dead baby” is still not a baby, it’s a fetus… but it’s more importantly a DEAD FETUS whose rights Lundgren holds more dear than the living woman with those remains inside of her. While no Republicans in the chamber corrected Lundgren at the time, it wasn’t until outcry began after a video of it circulated online that the Iowa GOP claimed she “misspoke”.

Bulls*** she did. She meant that.

Lundgren’s name appeared again in 2018, when she was the manager of amendments to a bill regulating the transfer of fetal tissue that suddenly began a ban on abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected, or at 6 weeks. At the time, it was the most restrictive bill to woman’s health in the nation, but we’ve seen some people cribbing her notes since. The goal was nothing short of putting something in place that would eventually lead to Roe v Wade being overturned.

We will conclude by pointing out that Lundgren is so “pro-life” that she voted against mask mandates for public school students during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as a prohibition on vaccine passports, which weren’t even being suggested at the time. So she can choke on her hypocrisy, to boot.

We are sad to report that it looks like it’s almost guaranteed that Shannon Lundgren stays in office until 2024, because no one filed to run against her this year. Just… just great. 

[CSTowle]

This seems like it could be important.

Meadows texts reveal direct White House communications with pro-Trump operative behind plans to seize voting machines



More at link.

In fairness that seems more like they're saying they wanted to see the machines to determine they hadn't been tampered with or altered in some way and having access to them would allow them to do that, where as they say Democratic forces worked to prevent or delay that. Not trying to "seize the machines" for ownership purposes or trying to suppress evidence or alter the machines themselves.

Now perhaps that was their intent, but I didn't see that in the tweet. It seemed like communication between two people who either believed the lie or wanted to have a digital record of supporting that narrative. It's in line with the behavior of someone who either believed it or were acting as if they did.

Shoe on the other foot, if Trump had won and there were legitimate concerns they had tampered with voting machines in key areas to do it (as Republican operatives were organized to disrupt vote counts in 2000) I'd want the Democratic Party to examine those machines and get to the bottom of it.

Again, think it's utter bull-pucky but I see nothing here that's a "smoking gun" or important in any way. It says this operative was behind the decision to hire the company that ultimately determined Biden had won a key county they disputed. If, as the repeated implication of the article would have us think, they were attempting to "seize the voting machines" rather than attempting to access the data in hopes of finding evidence of fraud (not nearly the same thing) that might be disturbing. But again, don't see that here.

There's a good mix of crazy/stupid/and liar in the "Stop the Steal" crowd, and this guy seems like a mix of crazy and stupid but does seem to believe this nonsense. Unless they come out with another tweet indicating even the notion of altering data to favor their narrative I'd say there's nothing here.

[Tendrin]

JFC.

The Michigan State Police’s nine-month sexual assault and financial misconduct investigation into former House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) has concluded and has been turned over to Attorney General Dana Nessel.

Chatfield, who was Michigan’s youngest-ever House speaker when he was elected to the position in 2018, served until 2020. He is accused of sexually assaulting his sister-in-law for more than a decade starting when she was a child, but has denied the allegations, characterizing the relationship as a consensual “affair.”

The Michigan State Police (MSP) has been investigating the complaint since December 2021, when it was filed with the Lansing Police Department. The MSP wrapped most of that probe in May, submitting a preliminary report to Nessel, then offering additional information in August.

“MSP is no longer investigating this matter as it has been turned over to the AG’s investigators for completion,” MSP spokesperson Shanon Banner said in an email Monday. “Any further information or updates will come from the AG’s Office.”

https://www.rawstory.com/michigan-st..._notifications

[Malvolio]

I don't see it. You don't finger a penis. Joke doesn't sexual.

You can finger a man's anus. Many people find that sexually stimulating.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Saw this on Twitter this morning and it gave me a chuckle....

[Tendrin]

Pennsylvania state Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R) last week introduced legislation to ban lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools through the fifth grade, telling supporters during a news conference that her bill was modeled after Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Borowicz has argued that measures to ban topics including sexual orientation and gender identity from the classroom should extend through high school.

Borowicz’s measure is backed by Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, the GOP nominee for governor.

A conservative Pennsylvania House member has introduced legislation to ban discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in public school classrooms, arguing the measure is necessary to protect the state’s youth from “indoctrination.”

'Gay is contagious!" is definitely back in style amongst the idiotic true believers, but to be fair, it never really left.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pennsylva...180102619.html

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, as well as 2016, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of Phyllis Schlafly, based on her inclusion on the 2012 Republican National Committee, helping write the GOP Party Platform, and several other platform committee slots in the decades prior to that. Schlafly, the founder of the Eagle Forum who ran for Congress way back in 1952, has been considered a radical conservative conspiracy nut since the Eisenhower Administration. Schlafly’s also been a proud anti-feminist for decades, having served as the opposite number to Gloria Steinem to prevent the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and not only believes women’s place is in the home (even though Schafly had a nanny raise her kids while she was politically active), but has given speeches where she argues there’s not even such a thing as marital rape. She’s also passionate about conspiracy theories like the secret Bilderberg Group, buys into the John Birch Society’s theories about fluoridated water, and the threat of a North American Union. Schafly argued against the GOP’s 2012 “autopsy” that suggested they find a way to attract minority voters, scoffing and saying that they should “focus on whites”. Phyllis also has been a staunch opponent of LGBTQ rights through the years, which is a shame considering one of her six children is gay. Another of her six children is Andrew Schlafly, the fanatically wacky creator of Conservapedia, the version of Wikipedia that exists for conservatives who reject facts and sources and instead have rewritten a version of reality on it that supports their agenda. Schlafly passed away in 2016 at the age of 92, and was eulogized by Donald Trump in the midst of his presidential campaign, whose nicest thought about Phyllis was that she liked HIM, which is kind of what her family should have expected when they asked an egomaniac to eulogize her. Schlafly remains dead, barring any sort of breakthroughs in necromancy conservatives might make to curtail womens’ rights.

On this date in 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted its original profile of Bill Schuette, Michigan's Attorney General from 2010-2018, who was twice elected now with just 52% of the vote, and believe it or not, back in 1984, he won office to represent Michigan's 10th Congressional District in Congress, winning three terms before getting beat in attempt to unseat legendary U.S. Senator Carl Levin. In those six years in office, Bill Schuette managed to sponsor 11 bills, and exactly zero of them passed. That's actually understating how ineffective his time was a legislator... he even never got a bill out of committee in six years. After serving a few years as Michigan's Agricultural Commissioner, Schuette had an eight year run as a Michigan State Senator from 1994-2002. Schuette was appointed to serve as a judge from 2002-2009, bringing us to his time as Michigan AG. Schuette is known to be a fierce opponent of marijuana legalization, even for medical use, but his record as Michigan Attorney General on LGBTQ rights is perhaps his most disappointing crusade. He not only fought against marriage equality up until the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, but Schuette has even been the target of lawsuits by the ACLU in gay adoption cases as well. And if you think Schuette would be any better on women's rights, guess again, as he sued two abortion clinics over what he claimed were improper medical records disposal that opted to just close rather than go to court... and celebrated their closure. Schuette ran for Governor of Michigan in 2018 to replace utter failure, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder's legacy as the Governor who orchestrated the poisoning of the water supply of Flint, Michigan due to his sheer incompetence and desire to "save money" will, of course, be linked to Schuette, since Schuette was nice enough to not press charges against anyone in the administration, and just appointed a special prosecutor... who just so happened to be one of the biggest donors to Rick Snyder's political campaigns. Schuette’s campaign was already going fabulously, with Schuette receiving an endorsement from future disgraced president and current disgrace Donald Trump, where wouldn't you know it, Trump misspelled his name. He was defeated by Gretchen Whitmer, who didn’t even break a sweat in doing so, and will now he is fading into political irrelevance.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Thomas Gilmer, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District, who was, for the longest time, the favorite to win the GOP nomination for this seat. It was amazing that Gilmer held front-runner status, after all, he is yet another Qanon conspiracy theorist running for Congress as a Republican in the 2020 elections, as evidenced by the multiple times he linked to Qanon videos or posted on social media and included the Qanon hashtag. That should have been enough to have the GOP abandon him as a candidate, but what truly did it was the fact that on the eve of the GOP Primary, he was arrested for an assault he carried out in 2017 against a former girlfriend whom he choked, punched while she was on the ground, and then took off his T-shirt and started strangling her from behind with it. Shockingly, the video was almost never revealed to the public, even though the Connecticut GOP was aware it existed, but didn’t want anything to be done about the assault. It was only when rumors of its existence were beginning to gain steam that they opted to release it to the police, even if it would mean they would sabotage their own candidate. Thomas Gilmer dropped out of the race after his arrest on domestic abuse charges.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Larry Householder, who served in the Ohio House of Representatives for District 72 from 2017-2021, as well as District 78 in 1997-2004 (he was term-limited the first time, but made a comeback years later through some chicanery). We weren’t motivated to profile him even though he actively voted for bills that would prevent vaccination requirements for public schools and universities, his support for legislation to require pregnant women who have abortions or miscarriages to bury or cremate the fetal remains, fetal heartbeat anti-abortion legislation, and continuously supported bills to try and do an end-around to allow prayer in schools, or even his 100% NRA rating… We profiled Larry Householder because he was a crooked piece of s*** who was arrested in a $60 million bribery case to have a taxpayer-funded bailout of an energy company. (Effectively the company funneled the $60 million towards Householder and several allies in exchange for getting a $1 billion payout passed in the legislature.) Larry Householder was expelled from the Ohio House of Representatives by a vote of 76-21 (he was one of those NAY votes) on June 16th, 2021. As he’s looking at prison time, we’ll set aside her profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1140-55, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Carla Spalding

Welcome to what is the 1140th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where profiling Carla Spalding, who was a 2016 candidate for Congress in Florida’s 18th Congressional District, was a 2018 candidate in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District, and was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 25th Congressional District, and in 2022, is again supposedly looking to unseat Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz again in FL-25. It’s a fairer assessment to say she’s just running a troll campaign to take cheap shots at her instead.

Spalding’s campaign site states her objective as:

"As a Congresswoman, I promise to defend our Freedom, protect our children from predators, secure the border, and most importantly I WILL DRAIN THAT SWAMP!"

The irony of anyone from Florida saying “drain the swamp” aside, we’re raising an eyebrow at her making a mission statement to “protect children from predators”, because these days, that’s a big tell that a Republican is playing into the Qanon conspiracy, and that there are supposed child sex dungeons being run by Democrats in basements.

And where there’s smoke, there’s fire. In 2018 (which is pretty early to have been on the bandwagon), Carla Spalding posted the Qanon slogan on Twitter, and in 2020, appeared in a Youtube video with a noted Qanon conspiracy theorist, Cirsten Weldon, who recently died of Covid-19 after spreading a lot of anti-vaccination propaganda and refused to get the shot herself.

Carla Spalding is almost certain to get thrashed by Wasserman-Schultz by double-digits here in six weeks’ time. Time will tell how long she continues with the “perennial candidate” game she’s playing.

[Tami]

U.S. Coast Guard spots Chinese guided missile cruiser off Alaskan island

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A U.S. Coast Guard ship on routine patrol in the Bering Sea came across a guided missile cruiser from China, officials said Monday.

But it turned out the cruiser wasn’t alone as it sailed about 86 miles north of Alaska’s Kiska Island, on Sept. 19.

Two other Chinese naval ships and four Russian naval vessels, including a destroyer, were spotted in single formation, the patrol boat, known as a cutter called Kimball, discovered.

“While the formation has operated in accordance with international rules and norms, we will meet presence with presence to ensure there are no disruptions to U.S. interests in the maritime environment around Alaska,” Rear Adm. Nathan Moore, Seventeenth Coast Guard District commander said.

The Coast Guard said Operation Frontier Sentinel guidelines call for meeting “presence with presence” when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters.

[Tami]

Japan consul ‘blindfolded and restrained’ during FSB interrogation in Russia

Japan has summoned Russia’s ambassador in Tokyo after a Japanese diplomat was blindfolded and physically restrained during an interrogation in Vladivostok.

Japan’s foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said Tatsunori Motoki, a consul based in the eastern Russian city, had been subjected to a “coercive interrogation” during his detention by Russia’s FSB security service.

The FSB said it was holding him on allegations of espionage, one of which was linked to the effect of Ukraine war sanctions on Russia.

The Kremlin has previously labelled Japan a “hostile country” – a designation it shares with the US, Britain and EU countries – after Tokyo joined them in imposing sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

Hayashi said on Tuesday that Motoki had not engaged in any illegal activity and described his detention, which lasted several hours, as “totally unacceptable”.

In response, Japan’s foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador, Mikhail Galuzin, over the incident, according to the Kyodo news agency.

The ministry demanded that Moscow make a formal apology, Hayashi said, adding the government would consider appropriate retaliatory measures.

[Tami]

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fled his home to avoid being served with subpoena, court record says

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fled his home in a truck driven by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, to avoid being served a subpoena Monday, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

Ernesto Martin Herrera, a process server, was attempting to serve the state’s top attorney with a subpoena for a federal court hearing Tuesday in a lawsuit from nonprofits that want to help Texans pay for abortions out of state.

When Herrera arrived at Paxton’s home in McKinney on Monday morning, he told a woman who identified herself as Angela that he was trying to deliver legal documents to the attorney general. She told him that Paxton was on the phone and unable to come to the door. Herrera said he would wait.

Nearly an hour later, a black Chevrolet Tahoe pulled into the driveway, and 20 minutes after that, Ken Paxton exited the house.

“I walked up the driveway approaching Mr. Paxton and called him by his name. As soon as he saw me and heard me call his name out, he turned around and RAN back inside the house through the same door in the garage,” Herrera wrote in the sworn affidavit.

Angela Paxton then exited the house, got inside a Chevrolet truck in the driveway, started it and opened the doors.

“A few minutes later I saw Mr. Paxton RAN from the door inside the garage towards the rear door behind the driver side,” Herrera wrote. “I approached the truck, and loudly called him by his name and stated that I had court documents for him. Mr. Paxton ignored me and kept heading for the truck.”

[Dalak]

You seem to be responding to points I haven't made.

It seems to me the suggestion that "drag queen story hour" is largely a spinoff of vaudeville is inaccurate or dishonest. It's better to argue for why this variation of modern drag is a good idea than to claim that it's something it isn't.

E: We're not even talking about Drag Queen Story Hour, but a Drag hosted Bingo event (which was held inside a church). If you got that confused how do you know it has nothing to do with Vaudeville and/or is worthy of being protested? And if you didn't want to discuss Gay Culture why even bring it up? Remember that this started when you responded to someone complaining about how the GoP didn't have such a problem with Drag until pretty recently.

I understand the suggestion that we should avoid saying certain true things lest it be weaponized by bad people, but it's a dangerous attitude to have.

We should all be encouraged to say things that are true, and consider it repugnant to lie or to push against the truth.

However this isn't about the truth, it's about an opinion piece that theorizes that the Jury won't accept 2 Witnesses, and you framing it as if they are without merit entirely seemingly in order to make it appear like Gaetz is innocent of these crimes you don't believe he's guilty of. In fact you are doing so while ignoring the Venmo evidence and saying that it doesn't matter if he sought a pardon for crimes he wasn't charged for yet.

We should be encouraged not to go to such lengths to defend horrible people, or excuse what they did simply because it cannot be proved in a court of law.

[CaptainEurope]

The pressure in both the Nordstream1 and the Nordstream2 pipelines dropped to zero, and now Norway found evidence of an explosion near the latter. Conspiracy theories on German social media are crazy right now. All sides blaming everybody.

[CaptainEurope]

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fled his home to avoid being served with subpoena, court record says

So the rumors on the Internet that there is a bounty on his head because he helped a lover get an abortion are not true?