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

[worstblogever]

On this date, in 2014, in 2015, and in 2016, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of former Colorado House of Representatives member Gordon Klingenschmitt, a.k.a. “Dr. Chaps” who in 2014, actually managed to get enough support to be elected in spite of the fact that he is, for lack of a better term, a complete goddamned lunatic. Klingenschmitt is a former military chaplain reprimanded and discharged by the Navy in 2006 for disobeying orders and attending a political protest in uniform. He also apparently while once counseling a rape victim on his vessel, discovered she was a lesbian and immediately stopped helping her through her trauma to restrain her and try to exorcise the demons out of her that were making her gay (he’s bragged about this). Klingenschmitt then took to the airwaves on a cable access show, where he has tried performing long-distance exorcisms on all sorts of famous people to remove demons from them, from liberal celebrities like Madonna, to politicians like President Obama and Texas State Senator Wendy Davis. The latter makes sense when you consider he claims the Bible teaches us to defend ourselves against “left-wing crazies” (Jesus said no such thing). He also thinks the FCC have loosened guidelines to help demons travel through televisions to “molest and visually rape your children”, that the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us to discriminate against gays, and repeatedly has claimed “Obamacare causes cancer”. Klingenschmitt, despite being pants-s***ingly insane (speaking of which, he has claimed the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has made gay soldiers have to start wearing diapers from all the gay sex they’ve been having making them lose bowel control, because he’s that charming)… despite being that barking mad, decided to make a run for the Colorado House of Representatives. And just prior to the election, he claimed openly gay Democratic Congressman and future governor Jared Polis was “going to join ISIS and start beheading Christians”. Within three months of being sworn into office, Colorado House Republicans refused to allow Klingenschmitt to participate in any committees in state government, for fear of what he might say on them, and halfway through his term, he praised the Bundy family for seizing a federal building and called on the judges who tried the case to be executed. He’s called for the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, arguing that we should “push gay people back in the closet”, which doesn’t make any goddamned sense because the people who have come out of it can’t put that genie back in the bottle, and also claimed that a female Muslim cadet at The Citadel would lead to an increase in female service members being raped because… well, he’s insane, so don’t try to make sense of that. Klingenschmitt’s still going on his cable access show daily, where he continues to insist President Obama is a secret Muslim, argues that God preached against gun-free zones in the Bible, compares same sex marriage to “the yoke of slavery”, said that executives from Planned Parenthood have “blood dripping from their fangs” and blames polling that shows Americans are starting to accept same sex marriage on what else? Massive demonic possession. Mercifully, Klingenschmitt was defeated in his efforts to be elected to the Colorado State Senate in 2016, and hopefully will never, ever even sniff anything close to elected office again.

On this date in 2017, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Bill Nojay, a former member of the New York State Assembly who was first elected to office in 2012, and seemed to be well on his way to re-election until just a few weeks prior to the 2016 elections, he took his own life rather to go to jail on federal fraud and other white collar criminal charges he was facing (he actually won his primary days after he died). Months after his suicide, the FBI were still trying to sort out his criminal activities, which involved business dealings though out multiple countries across the globe, reached well into the seven-figure range, and were committed even years prior to his first run for office. In fact, it is believed that much of the money donated to a SuperPAC for Nojay’s first run for office was $91,000 looted from an escrow account on a construction project that was never completed for the King of Jordan. Perhaps not coincidentally given all the money the Trump Corporation and Paul Manafort are being investigated for grifting their way through in foreign real estate deals… Bill Nojay endorsed Donald Trump pretty early on in the 2016 elections, gave him advice on where his “lane” would have to be given he had no prior office or military service, urging him to run for Governor of New York instead, and eventually served as the Trump campaign’s New York Co-Chairman. Democrats were respectful following Nojay’s death, unlike their GOP counterparts who when placed in similar situations like with Seth Rich or Vince Foster, would start whipping up conspiracy theories about how the head of the ticket were responsible for his death.

On this date in both 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled the U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 22nd District, Pete Olson, who has been in office now since 2008, and prior to that he spent a decade serving as aide to Texas Senator Phil Gramm for four years, and then as Texas Senator John Cornyn’s chief of staff from 2002-2007. And yes, he’s a Republican Texas Congressman, so obviously Rep. Olson’s going to have a long voting record that shows he’s anti-immigrant, anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ (Olson was actually the sponsor of the anti-transgender “Civil Rights Uniformity Act” that would have defined citizens by the gender of their birth), pro-gun, and the whole myriad of extremist ideas that come with it. What sets him apart from the rest, though? Well, our hands-down greatest WTF from Pete Olson is easily that during the 2016 presidential campaign, Olson was chatting on the radio with conservative talk show host Sam Malone, and straight up started theorizing that when Bill Clinton met Attorney General Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac, the former president “must have threatened to kill her like the Clintons did to Vince Foster” to gain her loyalty and get FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating Hillary’s e-mails. Alright, so… first up, the Clintons didn’t kill Vince Foster, that was a suicide, and Foster’s family REPEATEDLY keep telling Republicans to stop spreading conspiracy theories about his death, because that’s just f***ed up. Second… that would be some brazen and stupid obstruction of justice attempts, and if there’s something Bill Clinton knows about, it’s having to endure bulls*** investigations without doing anything that gets you charged with obstruction of justice. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sat down with investigators during the Lewinsky debacle, or stopped the Starr investigation from looking into his taxes… etc. (Which seems to be quite the opposite of how the current occupant of the Oval Office handles things…) Anyway, Pete Olson is a conspiracy spreading moron. This wouldn’t be a one-off, as Olson also “misspoke” during a speech in August of 2018 in front of the India House in Houston, when he claimed that the 9/11 hijackers were Pakistani in origin. Because, y’know, there’s not enough tensions between India and Pakistan, so let’s just start telling Indians that the Pakistanis did 9/11. Nice one, Pete. Back in November of 2013, though, Pete Olson was also one of 19 Republicans in Congress who were calling for the impeachment of Eric Holder for not enforcing laws related to the Defense of Marriage Act. Now, it is the Attorney General’s duty to enforce the laws in our country, however, we’ve got to side with holder on this, because the Defense of Marriage Act was overturned by the Supreme Court about four or five months prior to Olson and company’s little tantrums. Rounding things out, yes, Pete Olson is a climate change denier, citing that it’s obviously not man made because “our climate has been changing since God created Earth”. You see? That’s scientific, when you mention an invisible man in a sky to back up the science. But by all means, take a look at his decade-long voting record during his career in Congress to get an idea of how bad he is, while he votes against equal pay for women, against Wall Street reform after the banks almost imploded the global economy in 2007, against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", or Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy or against the Zadroga Act to provide healthcare for First Responders of 9/11. What he will vote for includes trying to defund Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio, numerous attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, an attempt to weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act, the past two government shutdowns, and 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. Texas’ 22nd Congressional District, representing the Houston suburbs, has had a shift in its partisan makeup over the past decade, trending bluer all the time. Pete Olson seems all too aware of what the portents are showing, as he opted to retire rather than face a potential loss in 2020.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Nick Moutos, who was a 2020 candidate who ran in Texas’ 35th Congressional District. His prior experience before running for office was working as an employee in the Texas Attorney General’s office from 2017, where he had the bad luck to Ken Paxton as his boss (Paxton being already a corrupt dumbass himself). We’re profiling Nick Moutos as yet another Qanon conspiracy theory devotee who was running for office as a Republican in 2020. How deep down the rabbit hole did Nick Moutos go? Well, it wasn’t just he would share content explicitly supporting QAnon, including other congressional candidates taking oaths supporting QAnon. When Twitter announced that it would take action against the spread of the QAnon conspiracy theory on the platform, Moutos responded angrily, posting,“#Q must be getting close to #OutingYou as a #Pedophile or #ChildTrafficker or perhaps involved with #PizzaGate.” So… yeah, I’m sure Jack Dorsey at Twitter liked being accused of being a pedophile for shutting down the insanity. Moutos ended up finishing third in the GOP Primary for Texas’ 35th, finishing with 28% of the vote. But then the truly good news happened. Moutos’ Twitter account ended up undoing his career as a prosecutor, though, as he frequently started posting racist tweets-where he would threaten Black Lives Matter protesters and call the group’s leaders “terrorists”, calling Islam a “virus”, referring to First Lady Michelle Obama as President Obama’s “husband” and trans people an “abomination.” Yes, he was racist enough that even Ken Paxton had him shown the door, getting fired in September of 2020. He stopped posting on Twitter, perhaps not coincidentally, two days after the attack of the Capitol by Trump supporters, and has yet to re-emerge on the platform, or anywhere in politics.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Irene Armendariz-Jackson, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’ 16th Congressional District, as a challenger to Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar. She is decidedly in the “Latinos for Trump” camp, constantly calling for the completion of a full useless border wall along the U.S./Mexico border. She’s also an adherent of the Qanon conspiracy theory. Texas Monthly saw her social media accounts linked to several Qanon accounts and would occasional use Qanon hashtags, so they decided to ask her what she knew about it… and she answered, “Conservatives know there is a conspiracy, a deep state conspiracy. The Democratic party is very much intertwined with the satanic church.” She continued that the bodies of aborted babies are used to promote satanic worship and then described once driving by a condemned building in Omaha, Nebraska, where politicians and celebrities had sex with children. Which of course, she never reported to anyone to shut it down and can’t remember where this building is today… but whatever, right? She insisted the longer Donald Trump was in power, the more Armendariz-Jackson believed these secrets will be exposed, adding, “I know a lot of Americans are waking up to understand the darkness behind everything going on right now.”She’s also spread conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden, as well as election fraud conspiracy theories in the year since the election. Irene Armendariz-Jackson lost to Congresswoman Escobar badly in 2020, getting just 35% of the vote. She has since been banned from Facebook, but somehow thinks being removed from social media platforms will help her win office in 2022, where she’s filed to get wrecked by Escobar again. As we think she has little chance of ever being elected, we will set aside his profile at this time to cover another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1148-55, since this was established in July 2014.


Cliff Bentz

Welcome to what is the 1148th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’re profiling the U.S. House Rep. for the Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District, Cliff Bentz, who prior to reaching office, spent a dozen kicking around the Oregon state legislature, most infamously as a member of the Oregon GOP “walk out” where they refused to show up and give the Oregon State Senate a quorum to pass a climate change bill in 2019. We suppose not showing up to do his job gave him more than enough time to campaign for the Congressional seat being left abandoned by Craig Walden, who no longer wanted to govern over the eastern two thirds of Oregon, noted to be the redder, rural part that resents the far bluer western third that sits along the Pacific Ocean.

Bentz was only days into his tenure when the stubborn extremism he demonstrated back at home was clearly brought with him, when he not only voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election, but in an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting after doing so, refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden was going to be the duly elected President of the United States.

When he refused to do his job and govern as a Oregon State Senator, people should have believed him about who he was.

But not for nothing, we’re also talking about someone who’s transphobic and trying to dictate whether trans kids should be allowed to participate in school sports, or who is a believer in Personhood, believing life begins at conception, and thus wants not just abortion, but birth control to be illegal.

[worstblogever]

Not surprisingly, his voting record reflects his extremism:

• January 7th, 2021: Cliff Bentz 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. Bentz 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: Cliff Bentz 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: Bentz votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Bentz 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: Cliff Bentz votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Bentz 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. Bentz 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).
• November 5th, 2021: Cliff Bentz votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• March 31st, 2022: Bentz 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. Cliff Bentz would rather they be gouged by pharmaceutical giants and/or die.
• May 18th, 2022: Cliff Bentz is one of 192 Republicans who votes against HR 7790, to create supplemental funding for infant formula (while claiming to be pro- life).
• May 18th, 2022: Rep. Bentz 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: Bentz votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
• July 15th, 2022: Cliff Bentz votes against House Amendment 262, which would require the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary of Defense to publish a report on the infiltration of American law enforcement by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, offer measures to be taken to remove them from their ranks, and prevent further infiltration by others.
• July 13th, 2022: Bentz votes against the Honoring Our PACT Act, to provide healthcare to veterans affected by toxic burn pits while serving in the War on Terror that leave them more susceptible to forms of cancer.
• July 21st, 2022: Bentz is one of 195 Republicans who vote against the Right to Contraception Act, which codified the right of Americans to have access to birth control.

Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District has a +15 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, which means that Cliff Bentz’s Democratic challenger, Joseph Yetter, a retired Army doctor who has been calling out Cliff Bentz every time he votes against bills to support our veterans, as well as, y’know, being one of many sedition fans in the GOP. We know that’s a large hill to climb to flip a district, but honestly all bets are off as to what could happen in a few weeks.

[babyblob]

Unrelated but some interesting polls released between yesterday and today:

- Pennsylvania - Fetterman +2 Senate and Shapiro +11 Governor (Fabrizio/ Anzalone). The governor race isn't competitive but the Senate race is within the margin of error.
- Georgia - Tie to Warnock +2 Senate and Kemp +6 to +7 (two polls Landmark and Insider Advantage). Same comment as per PA.
- Arizona - Kelly +2 Senate and Hobbs +1 Governor (KPHO-TV/High Ground). Both within the margin of error.

It's cliche but every vote counts in these races, except GA and PA governor...

I would've thought the Georgia debate would've swung things a bit more in Warnock's favor. So apparently either the debate didn't have an effect or voters' expectations of Walker's debate performance were so low that it turned out he wasn't as egregiously bad as expected... even though he literally doesn't know what he's saying.

Walkers debate performance never mattered to the GOP. he could have stood up there and cried and pissed himself and the GOP voters will still vote for him. It is not about the man, what he says or does. He ahs an R next to his name and that means he will own dem libs!

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Unrelated but some interesting polls released between yesterday and today:

- Pennsylvania - Fetterman +2 Senate and Shapiro +11 Governor (Fabrizio/ Anzalone). The governor race isn't competitive but the Senate race is within the margin of error.
- Georgia - Tie to Warnock +2 Senate and Kemp +6 to +7 (two polls Landmark and Insider Advantage). Same comment as per PA.
- Arizona - Kelly +2 Senate and Hobbs +1 Governor (KPHO-TV/High Ground). Both within the margin of error.

It's cliche but every vote counts in these races, except GA and PA governor...

I would've thought the Georgia debate would've swung things a bit more in Warnock's favor. So apparently either the debate didn't have an effect or voters' expectations of Walker's debate performance were so low that it turned out he wasn't as egregiously bad as expected... even though he literally doesn't know what he's saying.

Walker could’ve said Klingons were responsible for 9/11 and his poll numbers wouldn’t have changed. The minds of Republicans were made up the day Walker declared his candidacy, they’re going to vote for him, come hell or high water and no matter how much stupid **** he says. Meanwhile, here in Pennsylvania, I don’t want Democrats to take anything lightly, I want them to fight like Fetterman and Shapiro are behind in the polls, not ahead, the last thing we can afford here is complacency, not when we’re a battleground state and so much is at stake.

[hyped78]

Walkers debate performance never mattered to the GOP. he could have stood up there and cried and pissed himself and the GOP voters will still vote for him. It is not about the man, what he says or does. He ahs an R next to his name and that means he will own dem libs!

Walker could’ve said Klingons were responsible for 9/11 and his poll numbers wouldn’t have changed. The minds of Republicans were made up the day Walker declared his candidacy, they’re going to vote for him, come hell or high water and no matter how much stupid **** he says. Meanwhile, here in Pennsylvania, I don’t want Democrats to take anything lightly, I want them to fight like Fetterman and Shapiro are behind in the polls, not ahead, the last thing we can afford here is complacency, not when we’re a battleground state and so much is at stake.

If you guys are gonna treat Walker like that, I'm pretty sure he's gonna flash his toy badge at you and exercise his (non) police officer duties!

The way he took the question about insulin prices and spun it to talk about eating well --> food --> inflation incl. gas prices... oh man, this is a very limited guy

[CSTowle]

On asbestos, I blame capitalism because it's a system where the bottom line isn't the public good but for individual gain. It's why "running government like a business" and "having a balanced checkbook, like I do at home" are ridiculous/simplistic statements that appeal to the average Republican voter. There's nothing to be gained (monetarily) for anyone aside from construction companies and asbestos removal specialists in making schools (especially public ones, especially in poor and/or minority neighborhoods) safe from asbestos. I also did bring up the point previously about it being potentially hazardous and costly to do so.

Communist countries have certainly had issues with efficiency and resources (harder when your system isn't set up on impoverishing and exploiting much weaker countries to maintain a higher standard of living at home, stealing their resources while also often leveraging them into massive and inescapable debt cycles which prevents an interruption in the flow of said resources), but the public good was at least the stated goal (though, being run by human beings, corruption has also been a problem).

As to Latino voters moving to Team Red, probably a few reasons. Because not all Republican voters are monolithic MAGA-hat wearing white nationalists they, like white Republican voters, have varied interests and may not trust government in general. There's also a lot of small business owners who (as I've stated before) tend to view the government with mistrust because of taxes, fees, regulations, inspections, etc. and see the government as too often an obstacle to their success or at best a speedbump.

They also tend to have a higher percentage of religious folk, and more often Catholic (very anti-abortion, among other things). They also care less than one might think in general about immigration reform, and more often than one might think would like to see less immigration (especially illegal). Is the Republican Party openly courting white racists? Yes. But, like many white Republican voters who aren't they're probably calculating the benefits of less government in their lives will outweigh the bad that comes from giving these people power and a platform.

You or I may vehemently disagree, but these are some reasons that might help explain the shift. Again, if the Republicans weren't so gung-ho on chasing a dying demographic they could easily make in-roads among black and Latino populations who tend to be more religious and "traditional" than white leftists, hate abortion, and tend to be hostile to the idea of LGBTQ+ rights historically (though some progress has been made). It's the reason we don't see MLK's family very often at Democratic conventions or rallies, they vote on the abortion issue and are outspoken about it.

[hyped78]

On asbestos, I blame capitalism because it's a system where the bottom line isn't the public good but for individual gain. It's why "running government like a business" and "having a balanced checkbook, like I do at home" are ridiculous/simplistic statements that appeal to the average Republican voter. There's nothing to be gained (monetarily) for anyone aside from construction companies and asbestos removal specialists in making schools (especially public ones, especially in poor and/or minority neighborhoods) safe from asbestos. I also did bring up the point previously about it being potentially hazardous and costly to do so.

Communist countries have certainly had issues with efficiency and resources (harder when your system isn't set up on impoverishing and exploiting much weaker countries to maintain a higher standard of living at home, stealing their resources while also often leveraging them into massive and inescapable debt cycles which prevents an interruption in the flow of said resources), but the public good was at least the stated goal (though, being run by human beings, corruption has also been a problem).

As to Latino voters moving to Team Red, probably a few reasons. Because not all Republican voters are monolithic MAGA-hat wearing white nationalists they, like white Republican voters, have varied interests and may not trust government in general. There's also a lot of small business owners who (as I've stated before) tend to view the government with mistrust because of taxes, fees, regulations, inspections, etc. and see the government as too often an obstacle to their success or at best a speedbump.

They also tend to have a higher percentage of religious folk, and more often Catholic (very anti-abortion, among other things). They also care less than one might think in general about immigration reform, and more often than one might think would like to see less immigration (especially illegal). Is the Republican Party openly courting white racists? Yes. But, like many white Republican voters who aren't they're probably calculating the benefits of less government in their lives will outweigh the bad that comes from giving these people power and a platform.

You or I may vehemently disagree, but these are some reasons that might help explain the shift. Again, if the Republicans weren't so gung-ho on chasing a dying demographic they could easily make in-roads among black and Latino populations who tend to be more religious and "traditional" than white leftists, hate abortion, and tend to be hostile to the idea of LGBTQ+ rights historically (though some progress has been made). It's the reason we don't see MLK's family very often at Democratic conventions or rallies, they vote on the abortion issue and are outspoken about it.

Are you aware of many Communist countries success stories?

Agree with the points you make on Latino voters.

[babyblob]

DeSantis has 19 people arrested for Voter Fruad. These 19 people face up to 5 years in prison and have no idea what they did wrong.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022...-fraud-arrests

They were all felons (13 of Whom are black) voted because they thought they had their voting rights restored. But the change in the law that allows Felons to vote did not automatedly apply to those convicted of Murder or felony sex offenses.

[Rzerox21xx]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/18/polit...ews/index.html

[AnakinFlair]

CNN was bought by a right-wing billionaire not long ago, and he's changing the way they cover the news against a supposed "liberal bias" that CNN may have not had in the first place. Pay attention to the fact that nothing is set in stone, and stop acting like you are the only one who understands "bias" and somehow doesn't have any.

CNN had a story on Twitter about how Biden has spent a quarter of his Presidency so far working from Delaware- to which everyone replied "Yeah, he was WORKING. Not playing golf and overcharging the Secret Service to stay at his shitty hotels."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/18/polit...ews/index.html

I hope this gets transcribed and released as a written book as well. I refuse to listen to that orange SOB's voice.

It also amazes me how often Trump let himself be interviewed by Woodward. I know these interviews were used for 'Rage', but that was his second or third book about Trump? You'd think Trump wouldn't talk to him again after the first book came out.

[Jack Dracula]

I don't think this hypothetical moderate group would work that way.

You would need a group that's plausibly in the hundreds of thousands, if not larger. That's difficult to manufacture, especially it's limited to a segment of the right (a combination of moderates and people who care about process issues.) The main way something like this might happen would be with a cult of personality, although that would be a different type of movement. For example, if there were an outsider Republican who had Trump's willingness to pick fights with any critics within the party, and would be just as willing to take down the party if they go after him, but who consistently picked the moral side on an issue.

One immediate problem is that a lot of issues don't divide so neatly. A moderate group or cult of personality could easily splinter, which becomes a problem for any spokesman.

Their demands may also end up alienating other segments of the party who don't share the sensibilities of a group that isn't necessarily representative of the public (it's more educated, for one thing.).

A group needn’t be hundreds of thousands strong or surround a cult figure if it has a few billionaires like the Koch’s standing with it. Not sure why you’re arguing against restoring some sanity to your party.

[Matt Rat]

Chief Whip and Health Secretary in UK have resigned, and despite a 96% majority opposing a Fracking ban debate (which the PM abstained from), there have been accusations of senior MPs threatening and aggressively bullying other parliamentary members into voting.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...ion-pmqs-live/

[Reviresco]

DeSantis has 19 people arrested for Voter Fruad. These 19 people face up to 5 years in prison and have no idea what they did wrong.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022...-fraud-arrests

They were all felons (13 of Whom are black) voted because they thought they had their voting rights restored. But the change in the law that allows Felons to vote did not automatedly apply to those convicted of Murder or felony sex offenses.

Meanwhile, these white GOP voter fraud criminals in Florida's retirement community The Villages, who knowingly and on purpose voted twice for Trump in 2020 are getting a slap on the wrist and probation.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...fraud-1337352/

[AnakinFlair]

"I had no idea there were so many Socialists in the Republican Caucus."

-President Biden, just now speaking about the infrastructure bill, and how Republicans who voted against it are quietly calling him up begging for money for their districts.