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

[DrNewGod]

Actually, this makes sense and is the smartest thing she's done politically that I've seen. She's like Bernie Sanders. It takes her out of the primary and if Democrats run someone against her, Republicans likely win the seat given the razor-thin margins. So, it's her only way to stay around.

Viewing it from a ruthlessly Machiavellian/Ayn Randish paradigm, I'd have to agree, raise the bile to the top of my throat tho it does. However, if this is cleverness, rather than spite, Sinema would have to know that those who elected her will be looking to burn her to ash come her seat's next election: What would her play be? Exit for Big Buck$ somewhere, or push legislation in hopes of seizing the center from both parties?

[AnakinFlair]

Viewing it from a ruthlessly Machiavellian/Ayn Randish paradigm, I'd have to agree, raise the bile to the top of my throat tho it does. However, if this is cleverness, rather than spite, Sinema would have to know that those who elected her will be looking to burn her to ash come her seat's next election: What would her play be? Exit for Big Buck$ somewhere, or push legislation in hopes of seizing the center from both parties?

Maybe she hopes that the Republicans will run a weak(er) candidate from her, and as an Independent she could then siphon off Republican voters to get reelected?

[DrNewGod]

Maybe she hopes that the Republicans will run a weak(er) candidate from her, and as an Independent she could then siphon off Republican voters to get reelected?

Well, if Trump is still calling the shots, and putting obsequious idiots on the ballot, that might work.

[Gray Lensman]

Maybe she hopes that the Republicans will run a weak(er) candidate from her, and as an Independent she could then siphon off Republican voters to get reelected?

She might be angling for a committee chair in the short term. Whichever way she goes she now has leverage. If she flips to the other side of the aisle it's back to the previous power sharing agreement, so where she ends up decides which side is in charge of a lot of committees. Something she can use to try and end up in the big chair on one of them.

[scourge]

There's got to be a way for Arizona to recall her or something. She should not be allowed to infest that seat and cause trouble for the next 2 years.

[worstblogever]

It was on this day in both 2014, as well as 2015, that we published our original "Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day" profile of South Dakota State Senator Phil Jensen, a man who drew national headlines back in March of 2013 for producing legislation that would allow businesses to discriminate against whoever they want, Civil Rights Act be damned. Jensen actually tried claiming that if a bakery owned by the KKK tried discriminating against an African American, that the matter would take care of itself, because customers would be too offended to patronize such a place. This logic, of course then fails to understand everything about the Jim Crow era South. Anyway, South Dakota Republicans threw Jensen under the bus for his remarks, but have never said anything about other extreme legislation he's produced or supported, including drug testing welfare recipients, an unnecessary ban on Sharia Law in the United States, and an attempt to criminalize abortions as "attacks on a fetus". More recently, he has become obsessed with transgendered citizens, sponsoring as many transphobic bills as he can to limit their access to public bathrooms as well as high school locker rooms, while also co-sponsoring a "religious freedom" bill to try to make it legal to discriminate against the LGBT community. Believe it or not, Phil Jensen is enough of a crazy jerk that we accidentally profiled him twice within a year, on May 15th.

It was in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Jerry Sonnenberg, a member of the Colorado State Senate, representing District 1, in what is most of rural eastern Colorado. Sonnenberg was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives for eight years from 2007-2015, and when he was term-limited in 2014, he successfully got himself elected to the upper chamber. Sonnenberg drew some attention back in 2011, when he had a meltdown and began screaming profanities at a medical marijuana advocate at the state capitol, and literally shredded up the written amendment that legislators had been working on because he was outraged that someone had dared to film him while he was negotiating with lobbyists (which was their right). Sonnenberg then claimed the cameraman had spit on a lobbyist during their exchange with the cameraman (which was false, because DUH, they filmed their exchange). Through the years, Jerry Sonnenberg has developed a reputation as being staunchly anti-gay rights, and perhaps the best measuring stick to determine that would be that he has voted against bans on gay conversion therapy on minors when Colorado Democrats have attempted to do away with the ridiculous practice back in April of 2015. Sonnenberg is an anti-abortion radical as well, co-sponsoring a bill to attempt to redefine what a "person" is in the legal definition of assault and murder so that it included "fetus" as a person. Y'know, to just outlaw all abortions as "murder", because that's constitutional. Mind you, he's so "pro-life" that he voted against Colorado's attempts to repeal the death penalty in 2009. Sonnenberg even voted against a bill to set regulations in youth corrections facilities, because he’s apparently comfortable with abusive conditions being placed on minors in custody. He also co-sponsored legislation while in the Colorado House of Representatives to attempt to nullify the Affordable Care Act back in 2012, but hands down, perhaps the most disgusting moment from Jerry Sonnenberg came in January of 2016, not long after President Obama announced several executive orders on gun control, after seeing Republicans in the Senate block all gun control legislation since the Newtown Massacre. Reflecting on several mass shootings, the president thought of the victims, and became emotional, with a tear running down his face. Sonnenberg thought it was a great time to be a partisan troll, so he got on social media to share a picture of a gun being lubricated with "Obama tears". Jerry Sonnenberg is also an adherent of conservatives’ nihilitic cult that deny climate change, arguing that people who want to reduce carbon emissions would “kill all the trees and plants”: Mercifully, Jerry Sonnenberg was term-limited in 2022, and is now out of office. As he is now politically irrelevant, we’ll set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1162-55, since this was established in July 2014.


Gregory Purdy
Welcome to what is the 1162nd original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’re profiling Gregory Purdy, who was a candidate back in 2016 for District 95 of the New York Assembly who ran for office at the age of 18. We’re profiling him because he, his brother, and his father were a part of Trump’s failed coup on January 6th.

Greg Purdy was arrested five years after his loss in the 2016 elections in November of 2021 for having attacked the barricades at the Capitol on January 6th, 2022. The younger Purdy tried claiming that all of his efforts that day were “peaceful pushes”, but when he also was posting earlier that he had a “war cry” and “it’s our job to do a (expletive) rebellion”, while admitting he got teargassed and was in the Capitol building itself.

What few young Republicans there are truly are flushing themselves down the toilet with Trump.

[Mister Mets]

Why is it that when the GOP and right wingers talk about gay marriage being legal that some how Bestiality always works it way into the mix?

I thought as a society we were past the "If the gays get married why cant people marry Horses?" crap.

One day I am going to have to stop giving humans the benefit of the doubt.

It is pretty amazing to see people are still so dumb they cant separate the difference between two consenting adults that love each other and a depraved sex act the GOP seems to use as their go to more often then not.

I'll try to give a good faith answer to your frustrated question based on my understanding of how other people feel.

We have to keep in mind that the changing opinion on gay marriage has been quite rapid. No one running for the Democratic nomination in 2008 was openly in favor of gay marriage.

Obviously some of the pushback comes from homophobia and a repulsion at same-sex relations.

There is also a concern that society is changing rapidly and that institutions should push back against this. We're having greater rates of divorce and children born out of wedlock, so one argument is that we should push for a norm of married parents as the ideal.

There is also the question of the limiting principle. What will prevent things that were once as outre as gay marriage from being accepted? Why not bigamy or beastiality?

But there hasn't been a major push for those things. One argument I've found compelling is that the spread of gay marriage shows that gay and bisexual people just want the same ability to formalize a long-term monogamous relationship with the person they love. Some percentage of the population is gay, but many of them still want an otherwise normal lifestyle, and marriage delivers that. There's less of a push for expanding marriage to throuples or for decriminalizing beastiality because most people don't want to fuck animals, share a spouse or deal with the emotional messiness of multiple spouses.

At teh same time, if she is frustrated with the Republican Party (as I suspect she is) now is the best time to do it. She has 6 years to serve as an Independent, she can't be removed from office, and if she caucuses with the Dems she will get to do more than she would sticking with a lame party.

It's a bit risky right now. It would be a hell of a way to alienate Republicans who may take back the Senate and White House in 2024.

She would be in a position of immense power in 2024 if Biden is reelected or Kamala Harris runs and wins. Then she can make immediately be very popular with Democrats, especially if the Senate results aren't too bad for Democrats.

The map is pretty bad for Democrats.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...da#post6262172

But if Democrats can keep their losses down to two in their worst states where they currently have Senators (Montana, West Virginia, Ohio, Nevada and Arizona) a flip from Murkowski is enough to give them the Senate.

Problem is Sanders is very popular with Democrats, they have no problem supporting him as an Independent in VT. Dems hate her and they will field a Senate candidate in 24. If Bernie ran as a Dem he would win the nomination unopposed. She would lose any primary in AZ, She is unpopular and this would only hand the State to the GOP and not by a razor thin margin. Her calculations are unrealistic, even delusional.

It's a bit like Sanders early on.

When he ran for Congress in 1988, he split the vote and a Republican won. Democrats got out of the way in 1990. In 2006, they got out of the way of his Senate bid (it is worth noting that Vermont wasn't seen as that obviously Democratic; Sanders ran to replace someone who had been reelected in 2000 as a Republican.)

This is a big deal with Sinema since it gives a sense of what she wants to do. It seems she wants to keep being an idiosyncratic mostly left-leaning Senator. There was speculation she might want to be a lobbyist or run for President, which didn't necessarily track with her efforts. Lobbyists tend to want to get along with members of Congress, and politicians who want to be President go out of their way to be interviewed on national media.

There's got to be a way for Arizona to recall her or something. She should not be allowed to infest that seat and cause trouble for the next 2 years.

You don't want to have recall elections for federal legislators. It would be abused if it were a way to change control of Congress, and Democrats have Senators in Ohio, West Virginia and Montana.

[DrNewGod]

She might be angling for a committee chair in the short term. Whichever way she goes she now has leverage. If she flips to the other side of the aisle it's back to the previous power sharing agreement, so where she ends up decides which side is in charge of a lot of committees. Something she can use to try and end up in the big chair on one of them.

If either side gives her even a shot glass of power it would shock me. Not saying it's impossible (I gave that up in 2016), just that it would shock me.

[kidfresh512]

Viewing it from a ruthlessly Machiavellian/Ayn Randish paradigm, I'd have to agree, raise the bile to the top of my throat tho it does. However, if this is cleverness, rather than spite, Sinema would have to know that those who elected her will be looking to burn her to ash come her seat's next election: What would her play be? Exit for Big Buck$ somewhere, or push legislation in hopes of seizing the center from both parties?

Well she says she will be voting the same, and she doesnt expect her committee seats to change, which sounded like a threat to me reading it but I digress. She barely talks to her constituents she played no part in the midterms at all helping out any of the candidates.

She might just be assuming that with 20+ seats to defend next time vs the 11 seats GOP has to defend. If she threatens to run as independent Dems will think twice about pouring too much money and effort into the race when they have to fight on so many other fronts next time.

Even if she is unpopular a fight with her or having her run against a Dem challenger will split votes even a little. These battleground races are tight.

[babyblob]

My aunt is going on like crazy about Tweets and Emails that Musk has released that proves the FBI and all these judges and the Democrats rigged the election. And people are all thanking Musk and this is the end of Biden.

I have heard nothing about it. Does anyone know what The hell she is talking about?

[worstblogever]

She might be angling for a committee chair in the short term. Whichever way she goes she now has leverage. If she flips to the other side of the aisle it's back to the previous power sharing agreement, so where she ends up decides which side is in charge of a lot of committees. Something she can use to try and end up in the big chair on one of them.

There's got to be a way for Arizona to recall her or something. She should not be allowed to infest that seat and cause trouble for the next 2 years.

Arizona election law requires a higher signature threshold to get on the ballot than registered party members. Sinema has to get 45,000K signatures from independents. It's going to be hard to find people to do that given how she's voted the past four years in the Senate, that she's openly bisexual and that might turn off right-leaning independents, and the left sure as hell isn't down with her cosplaying a Senator.

She might not make it back on the ballot for 2024 at all.

[worstblogever]

My aunt is going on like crazy about Tweets and Emails that Musk has released that proves the FBI and all these judges and the Democrats rigged the election. And people are all thanking Musk and this is the end of Biden.

I have heard nothing about it. Does anyone know what The hell she is talking about?

Twitter got asked by the Biden campaign, "Hey, there's pictures of the former VP's junk that you might want to take down, given penis shots don't belong on the internet."

Twitter was like, "Y'know, valid point. We'll take those out of the whole 'Hunter Biden's laptop' story."

Musk bought Twitter, and made this exchange, between what is not-the-government and a private company, public knowledge.

It's a nothingburger, unless you're an idiot. The kind you've described your aunt to be.

[babyblob]

Twitter got asked by the Biden campaign, "Hey, there's pictures of the former VP's junk that you might want to take down, given penis shots don't belong on the internet."

Twitter was like, "Y'know, valid point. We'll take those out of the whole 'Hunter Biden's laptop' story."

Musk bought Twitter, and made this exchange, between what is not-the-government and a private company, public knowledge.

It's a nothingburger, unless you're an idiot. The kind you've described your aunt to be.

I figured it was nothing. But the way she is going on about emails and Tweets that prove the FBI stole the election I thought there was more to it then the nude picture thing. She is making it sound like he is releasing hundreds of tweets and emails and stuff.

[scourge]

Twitter got asked by the Biden campaign, "Hey, there's pictures of the former VP's junk that you might want to take down, given penis shots don't belong on the internet."

Twitter was like, "Y'know, valid point. We'll take those out of the whole 'Hunter Biden's laptop' story."

Musk bought Twitter, and made this exchange, between what is not-the-government and a private company, public knowledge.

It's a nothingburger, unless you're an idiot. The kind you've described your aunt to be.

There's also the recent batch of stupidity where a lot of Right-wing bullshit like openly transphobic, racist, and homophobic tweets...outright LIES about things like Covid, the elections, etc...you know, generally stuff no sane and reasonable person would ever believe or want to see on their timelines...Twitter banned some of the people making those tweets and pushed some into "not able to trend" territory (to keep the hate-bots from forcing it to trend)...

And the whiny, vile crowd just found out about it.

Oh yeah...Musk also let a Right wing blogger have access to Twitter DMs in general apparently.

[DrNewGod]

Arizona election law requires a higher signature threshold to get on the ballot than registered party members. Sinema has to get 45,000K signatures from independents. It's going to be hard to find people to do that given how she's voted the past four years in the Senate, that she's openly bisexual and that might turn off right-leaning independents, and the left sure as hell isn't down with her cosplaying a Senator.

She might not make it back on the ballot for 2024 at all.

So, assuming she's not simply batshit crazy, what's her plan?