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

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

You'd think that Trump would have developed the balls to fire/demote people face to face after making an entire show about it

Rumor is he was getting it on with a Hope Hicks and Trump got jelly

[The Cool Thatguy]

OH he's great at pretending to be a tough guy. Until **** pops then it's all bone spurs and I didn't make that decision.

Yeah, he's a paper tiger who couldn't outsmart an actual paper tiger

[Ragged Maw]

The only way Trump wins this election is if he announces Obama as his VP

I’m not assuming **** until the moment of truth.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I’m not assuming **** until the moment of truth.

Agreed. Projections look good now, but Trump is a special kind of crazy.

[Surf]

The only way Trump wins this election is if he announces Obama as his VP

[worstblogever]

And he only stole 250 million from the GOP

Well, and also their future.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile on Christine O’Donnell, the former U.S. Senate candidate from Delaware who assured us all that SHE WAS NOT A WITCH. As if that isn’t enough of an explanation of her wackiness, we’ll remind everyone that she also seemed to be unable to explain any amendments of the Constitution after the Second, and her understanding of the First Amendment seemed to indicate she didn’t grasp that it also included a separation of church and state. The fact that she was anti-masturbation, and chalked up several campaign finance investigations added to her wide swath of dumbassery. She was, quite possibly, the most embarrassing candidate for Senate the Republicans have mustered in the past decade, and that’s saying something.

In 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of the now former U.S. House Representative from North Carolina’s 9th District, Robert Pittenger, who first won election in 2012, and has gone on to be one of the worst commenters on LGBTQ rights in Congress. In September of 2014, Pittenger discussed ENDA, and compared businesses having the ability to fire workers for their sexual orientation to also having the freedom to establish bans on smoking in the workplace. A month later, Pittenger was fretting over the threat of Ebola and calling for a travel ban to Africa (which experts only said would help spread the disease). In 2016, Pittinger discussed protesters in Charlotte upset about the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, and dismissed them by saying they just "hate white people because white people are successful and they're not", which is a nice blended cocktail of racism and insensitivity. In February of 2015, Pittenger also teased some Godwin’s Law potential when he gave his opinion on negotiations with Iran over their nuclear program, comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Winston Churchill, and President Obama to Neville Chamberlain. Within a few more months, he went full-on Godwin’s Law, and declared Iran to be “Hitler with nuclear arms”, which is amazing because partly in thanks to a nuclear treaty that Pittinger himself opposed, Iran wasn’t planning on having any. At a July 2015 prayer rally featuring such CSGOPOTD luminaries as Louis Gohmert, Dave Daubenmire, Trent Franks, and E.W. Jackson, Pittenger declared that his “primary mission in Congress is to be an Emissary of Christ”, which probably means he’s not too keen on that whole separation of church and state thing we’ve got. Other than that, Pittenger has had a conservative record that is one of the hardest to the right in all of Congress, including a vote for the 2013 Government Shutdown, attempts to ban abortion at 20 weeks without rape or incest exceptions, and an attempt at defunding Planned Parenthood that saw him take to the floor of the house to claim they profit from the “sale of little baby body parts”. Which were the key words that are believed to have served as a stochastic terror trigger to make Robert Lewis Dear snap and shoot up a Planned Parenthood clinic few months later. In his final term in Congress, Pittenger straight-up lied about the GOP’s new healthcare plans that would allow insurance companies to refuse to cover pre-existing conditions at the state level, justifying that because “People can go to the state that they want to live in. States have all kinds of different policies and there are disparities among states for many things: driving restrictions, alcohol, whatever. We’re putting choices back in the hands of the states.” See? It’s easy… just pack up and move to whatever state is left to provide you with good healthcare. He also praised Donald Trump and derided the media, even only days after Donald Trump, Jr. posted proof he colluded with Russians on Twitter, writing “It’s “just another story in the media’s neurotic, weekly tabloid obsession of Trump-Russian collusion.” Robert Pittenger, however, will no longer darken the doors of Congress, ironically being beaten in a tainted election by fellow Republican Mark Harris.

It was on this date in 2019 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Stacey Dash, who you may remember as “that actress who was the best friend in the movie Clueless”, a minor bit of fame which Dash used to get on Fox News as their main guest pundit to kick the discussion to when they want to have a discussion on race and have someone willing to sell out their own. And, we’re lucky enough to not have to watch every minute of her appearances as a pundit, but among her ridicilous and offensive statements, she has said the Democratic Party has a “plantation mentality” and that this “mentality” kept African-Americans “on entitlements”, that government assistance is the “Democratic Party’s new version of slavery”, the time she attributed a rise in divorce rates to women not knowing “how to take care of their men”, while discussing a rise in sexual assault on college campuses, Dash intimated that some sexual assaults are the result of “bad girls … who like to be naughty”,during a 2015 discussion about the gender pay-gap in Hollywood, Dash blamed the women, saying they needed to “be better negotiators”, and the time she said actresses facing pay discrimination should “be grateful” for opportunities to star alongside famous men. In 2015, Dash was briefly suspended from Fox News after she suggested that President Barack Obama didn’t “give a ****” about terrorism. And in 2016, when #OscarsSoWhite was trending on Twitter, Dash hopped onto Fox News to respond to that that “either we want to have segregation or integration” and claiming that “there is no need” for the NAACP or BET Awards. She also said that “there shouldn’t be a black history month” because there isn’t a white history month. Stacey Dash used her Fox News fame to run for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 44th Congressional District. Even with that high profile, it is a very blue district, and most predicted she was only doing it to be a troll and stay relevant for another few years. That seems accurate, because Dash actually finished fourth in the primary, not even coming close to qualifying for the general election with only 7% of the vote. As she is highly unlikely to ever be elected to political office and that her fifteen minutes of fame outside of Fox News ran out at least a decade ago… we’re going to we will set aside her profile at this time and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 890-45, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Tom Rice

Welcome to what is the 890th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing the U.S. House Representative from South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District, Tom Rice, who has served in that role since the district was first created back in 2012 after redistricting. Our reason for hot-shotting Tom Rice up the queue is related to his outlook on Covid-19. You see, on May 28th, 2020, he was interviewed by CNN’s Manu Raju, and asked why in the midst of the public health crisis and with other members of Congress already ending up testing positive, why Rice was refusing to wear a mask. Rep. Rice defended it by claiming he was social distancing and standing six feet away from others and would only wear a mask when he couldn’t be apart from others…

Fast forward two weeks later, and Rep. Rice’s refusal to wear a mask apparently led to him, and his entire family testing positive for Covid-19, because he’s a stubborn jackass. Oh, and he had a healthy reaction to becoming infected, as in his announcement of his condition, he referred to it in the racist terms of being the “Wuhan flu”.

We’ll add that he supports the expensive, ineffective, stupid, and xenophobic idea that is DonaldTrump’s border wall along the U.S./Mexico border, and that he’s also a climate change denier, before taking a long, hard look at his voting record:

[The Cool Thatguy]

Well, and also their future.

Wasn't like they swerved into him. They were going his way regardless, they just got there a little faster than anyone expected

[Tami]

Anyone with a Twitter Account, I suggest changing your password. Better safe than sorry.

[worstblogever]

x

• January 15th, 2013: Tom Rice votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
• February 28th, 2013: Rice votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
• June 19th, 2013: Tom Rice votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Rice votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the vote came up seventeen days later to re-open the government, Rice voted to keep it closed.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Tom Rice goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
• July 10th, 2014: Rice votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• January 22nd, 2015: Tom Rice 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. Rice votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that by this point, the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• March 3rd, 2015: Rice 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: Rice votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• September 18th, 2015: Rep. Rice 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: Rice 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: Tom Rice 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: Rice 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: Tom Rice 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: Rice 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 Rice 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: Tom Rice 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: Rice 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: Tom Rice 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. Rice 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. Rice voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: Rice 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. Rice 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: Tom Rice 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.
• May 17th, 2019: Rice votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Rice votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Tom Rice 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”.
• October 17th, 2019: Rice is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
• December 18th, 2019: Rice ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: Rice votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District only has a +9 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, and Tom Rice faces off against first time candidate Melissa Watson, a teacher and 2016 delegate at the DNC looking to pull an upset against someone who has shown himself unable t lead by example during the current crisis our nation is going through.

[Personamanx]

Looks like the border restrictions with the US will continue. Wish that we would commit to more, but I guess monthly renewals are more palatable for the US congress. 80% of Canadians want to keep the restrictions, with a significant portion not wanting them lessened until 2021.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Agreed. Projections look good now, but Trump is a special kind of crazy.

And he has the GOP at his back and ready to empty the arsenal of dirty tricks to help him. Democrats should act like Biden is down ten points and they have to fight like demons to get him across the finish line, because NOTHING is certain.

[Gray Lensman]

New York State Sheriffs Association proves they have learned NOTHING from police violence protests. I can't get to the end of their list of proposals without reading it in a German accent.

[worstblogever]

In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Art Robinson, the former Chairman of the Republican Party of Oregon who going into 2016, had challenged Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio for the seat to represent Oregon’s 4th District three times, and was about to make it a fourth one. Even with the Tea Party wave working for him back in 2010, Robinson still lost by double digits, and since, he’s gotten blasted by twenty whole points. The key factor why might be that Art Robinson has some of the weirdest opinions on science of any member of the GOP we’ve ever profiled. Like mad scientist levels of weird. It would be one thing if he just denied climate change (which he does), but Art Robinson has argued that the dangerous banned pesticide, DDT, was wrongly discontinued by environmentalist “opportunists”, and suggested we dilute nuclear waste and sprinkle it in the ocean, or even over the mainland as a means of its disposal. He’s even suggested it should be added to the water supply, specifically, and that such an action would “hermetically enhance our resistance to degenerative diseases”. Robinson also denies the link between the HIV virus and AIDS, and that it’s just “a natural consequence of the gay lifestyle”. Robinson has said public schooling is “tax-financed socialism” and “child abuse”. He has also argued against diversity in universities, because “difficult, total-immersion training in science is an experience few women and blacks desire”. That last comment might make sense when you consider that Robinson is a self-professed fan of G.A. Henty, an author he recommends in his own home-schooling curriculum whose books tend to say things like the average intelligence of an adult of African descent equates to a 10 year old white person, or that the plight of American slaves wasn’t that bad. In 2014, Art Robinson also sent out mailers asking his district’s constituents for five years of urine samples, without much explanation of what he was going to do with them, scientifically.

Now, maybe Art Robinson would have a chance to knock off Bill DeFaizo, what with Oregon’s 4th only having a +2 Democratic lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index…but on the other hand, DeFazio is a capable legislator, while Art Robinson is bats*** insane.

The good people of Oregon’s 4th are well aware of that, thankfully, and Art Robinson keeps losing to Peter DeFazio. Robinson has been propped up by the conservative billionaire Mercer family, who you may also know as the biggest donors to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. And, after Trump won the presidency but Robinson lost his latest bid for Congress, they were recommending he be brought on to Trump’s administration as a science advisor, because the Cabinet of Horrors that Trump assembled wasn’t deliberately meant to destroy the agencies they were placed in charge of enough as it is. Thankfully, Robinson didn’t get the gig, and is kept… skulking about Oregon. And at the age of 76, would you believe the Mercers have propped up Art Robinson again as a candidate in 2018, when by all estimations, Democratic voter turnout was predicted to be at its highest in a decade, and his candidacy would truly be a lost cause?

And… the same result. Art Robinson won the GOP Primary for Oregon’s 4th District, and lost for the fifth straight election cycle, get an ***-kicking courtesy of Peter DeFazio by double digits. The definition of insanity is considered by many to keep doing the same thing and expect different results, and at this point, Art Robinson’s persistence seems like one more point to prove he’s deranged.

Art Robinson announced his intention to get his ass kicked by Peter DeFazio for a SIXTH consecutive time in 2020… But instead, had to bail on that idea to run for District 2 of the Oregon State Senate, trying to hang on to a seat held for years by Herman Baertschiger, who opted to retire this year. So… it’s possible that Robinson, a complete kook in terms of science, could end up winning office, and if he does, we can only guess that he’ll be joining the obstructionist tactics of the Oregon GOP that are trying to win just enough seats to try to still disappear into the backwoods to avoid the Oregon State Senate from having a quorum.

They can’t afford to lose many more seats, or this little trick won’t work anymore. And it’s that sort of undemocratic bulls*** that we could see Art Robinson jumping into if he reaches office.