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

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I have one friend who keeps telling me how no way can the Extremists in the Republican controlled House force McCarthy out. That they need 2/3rd of it to happen. As I pointed to....it took McCarthy 15 rounds of votes to get the Speaker role.

Does anyone really believe Kevin McCarthy is safe from this given what some of these folks want ?

[Tami]

I have one friend who keeps telling me how no way can the Extremists in the Republican controlled House force McCarthy out. That they need 2/3rd of it to happen. As I pointed to....it took McCarthy 15 rounds of votes to get the Speaker role.

Does anyone really believe Kevin McCarthy is safe from this given what some of these folks want ?

Depends on who is in the wings to replace him. The Democrats will stick by McCarthy only as long as he is willing to negotiate. There are a few other Republicans who might de better suited to the Speaker role and a whole lot of them that would be a whole lot worse.

[Tami]

Debt deal would reduce IRS expansion, approve permits for W.Va. pipeline

With days to spare until a government default, President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Saturday evening announced a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling and fund the government for the next two years.

The deal now faces an uncertain path to passage through the House and Senate. Conservatives have already objected to a deal they say does not do enough to cut federal spending, while some liberals have worried it sacrifices funding for key priorities. The bill was released on Sunday evening.

The deal accomplishes much for both Biden and McCarthy, enabling them to claim a victory that appeared elusive just days ago. Biden can point to a deal that, at least temporarily, frees him from the headache of the debt ceiling, while staving off Republican demands for steep cuts to domestic spending. McCarthy gets a deal that curtails federal spending and increases some work requirements on federal aid programs, such as food stamps.

Here’s what’s in — and out — of the deal.

• Raises the debt ceiling beyond the 2024 election
• Largely holds funding flat for domestic programs
• Claws back some money for the IRS
• Slight funding boosts for the military, veterans affairs
• New work requirements on federal programs
• Major natural gas pipeline in West Virginia
• Out of the deal: Closing tax loopholes, cutting student debt relief

[Tendrin]

Bettin' securing that pipeline is a way to keep Joe Manchin off a no-labels ticket.

[CaptainEurope]

Well, looks like Turkey got 5 more years of Erdogan. Or however much his health will allow him, he collapsed during a TV appearance a few weeks ago.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Bettin' securing that pipeline is a way to keep Joe Manchin off a no-labels ticket.

Yeah, that's my guess.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Russian state TV host calls for assassinating Lindsey Graham

The head of Russia’s premium news channel has called for the assassination of Lindsey Graham after the Republican met with Ukraine’s president in Kiev Friday.

A spliced video of Graham speaking to Volodymyr Zelensky showed the senator saying that the fact “Russians are dying” is “the best money we’ve ever spent,” according to a report by the Daily Beast.

The out-of-context recording – he actually called U.S. investment in Ukraine important for global security – was broadcast in Russia, and caused outrage.

The head of the news channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, said: “If Lady Graham really said that the money for the killing of Russians is the best money the U.S. ever spent... I hope that in our country, the sons or grandchildren of Sudoplatov are alive, his pupils, or the descendants of his pupils. It’s not even hard. We have his address.”

Well, now, THAT sure doesn't sound good. If I'm Lindsey, I make a note to avoid windows on high floors in hotels, and hire a food tester.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Russian state TV host calls for assassinating Lindsey Graham



Well, now, THAT sure doesn't sound good. If I'm Lindsey, I make a note to avoid windows on high floors in hotels, and hire a food tester.

"We have his address. Trump was kind enough to share it."

[Spike-X]

I'm looking for the worse things he's done.

The main responses I'm getting tend to combine a lot of stuff, some of which isn't too bad, but I'm looking for quality (or lack thereof) rather than quantity.

You have access to the same Internet that the rest of us do.

[Tami]

Trump's last-minute Merrick Garland letter is a desperate pre-emptive strike

Beware of private correspondence posted on public websites.

Last week, lawyers for Donald Trump sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting a meeting to discuss the special counsel’s investigation into the former president. The letter comes as The Wall Street Journal reports that special counsel Jack Smith is nearing the end of his investigation into Trump’s possession of government documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence. The letter is a gimmick, a piece of propaganda designed to inflame passions and control the narrative. How do I know? The letter quite literally tells on itself.

First, the letter requests a meeting with Garland, even though he has named Smith as special counsel to handle the case. Garland appointed the special counsel in November after Trump announced his candidacy for president in 2024 in order to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. A request for a meeting to discuss the investigation is therefore properly directed to Smith, not Garland. Trump’s legal team, which includes former Justice Department lawyer James Trusty, certainly knows that. As former Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley has explained, “Merrick Garland will not meet with Trusty or any of the other Trump lawyers. Jack Smith is running this investigation, not Merrick Garland.”

Why, then, would Trump’s team ask for such a meeting? Because they know Garland will decline. And when he does, you can bet Trump’s lawyers will wave around the refusal as proof of injustice. Trump will wail that this rejection proves once again that he is a victim of witch hunts and hoaxes. The predictability of Trump’s game would be tiresome if it were not so harmful to public trust in government institutions.

The second tell is the tone. The letter states, “No President of the United States has ever, in the history of our country, been baselessly investigated in such an outrageous and unlawful fashion.” No serious lawyer seeking a meeting with opposing counsel would make the request while attacking their integrity. That line was written for, if not dictated by, Donald Trump himself.

he letter also contains gratuitous references to Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, complaining about different treatment. Of course, a special counsel has already been appointed to investigate Joe Biden for what appears to be an inadvertent retention of government documents. The Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Delaware is reportedly investigating Hunter Biden on tax charges. Both of those investigations are proceeding. By invoking the Bidens, the letter engages in “whataboutism,” the tactic of deflecting attention from oneself by pointing to the alleged misconduct of others. Trump’s guilt or innocence has nothing to do with these other investigations, but drawing the false equivalency provides a talking point for Trump’s supporters. This authoritarian trick seeks not to convince people that he is innocent, but that everyone is corrupt, so support the leader who shares your values.

[Vakanai]

I appreciate the response here.

I wonder how much people really mind that the legislature changed the law to let him run for President just as many sitting Governors have done. Legislatures have the power to change the law, they've done it before in Florida (to make it possible for Charlie Crist to be consdiered for Vice President.) Legislatures in other states make similar changes, including Massachusetts Democrats making it so a Republican Governor couldn't select the replacement of a Senator unable to complete his term, when Kerry ran for President.

This was an article on stifling reporting. The specifics were exaggerated.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fl...bfdc69164&ei=8

I personally don't like when either party passes "stay in power" laws just because I personally always feel like it's a slippery slope to eventually doing away with term limits, but it might not register that way to you.

It's still stifling - the free press is meant to be "free" and DeSantis' continued efforts to destroy transparency and hide things is chilling whether the effects are exaggerated or not. Imagine how it'll go if he has the power of the presidency?

But the biggest thing that is not up for debate, what makes him an extremist and thus no one who votes for him can in good conscience still reclaim to be a moderate, is his attacks on minority communities, his legislation against the LGBTQ+ community especially, but also his attacks on African American history education, as well as his attacks on those who speak against him like Disney. The man treats trans people and gay people extremely poorly to put it insanely mildly, tries to have schools pretend like systemic racism has never existed never mind still exists, and uses his power to punish anyone who disagrees. Do you have a defense for his anti-LGBTQ laws and rhetoric? Do you have a defense for uses political power to punish corporations that speak against such laws and rhetoric? Basically, if you can't give me or anyone else a defense for those particular actions, then I think you have to know deep down that those actions are indefensible. Moderates don't vote for the indefensible, that's part of what makes them moderates, they can't support the extremes like that.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that ‘Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted a profile of Jay Townsend, a former candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010 who tried challenging Sen. Chuck Schumer… by claiming he didn’t actually support Israel enough(Chuck Schumer of all people!). Part of his campaign to do so involved him appearing with known anti-Islamic hate-monger Pamela Geller near the 9/11 site, as she raved about Muslims trying to build a “Ground Zero Mosque”. During protests in Wisconsin against Gov. Scott Walker by union workers, Townsend referred to the unions as “pigs needing to be slaughtered”. When he became a campaign advisor for former Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, he went way, way over the line when he suggested that conservatives should “hurl some acid” at female Democratic Senators who voted for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a move that typically is used by psychos in the Taliban to silence women they don’t agree with. Townsend’s political career has gone from being a terrible candidate, to a liability as an adviser, to not even rating headlines.

On this date in 2016, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted a profile of Spencer Bachus, a former eleven term U.S. House Representative from Alabama's 6th Congressional District from 1993 through 2015, Bachus easily won office in that district, mostly because of redistricting prior to his 1992 run, most of the African American parts of Birhingham, Alabama, were shunted off into Alabama's 7th, and brought most of the white wealthy districts from the 7th to the 6th, making it a much friendlier district to him, as a member of the GOP. While Bachus was often associated with his role from 2006 to 2012 as the head of the House Financial Services Committee, he was certainly a figure not without other controversy. Back in May of 2005, when it was rather easy for conservatives to chastise critics or anyone that had the nerve to not just nod their head and agree, comedian Bill Maher was using his First Amendment right of satire on his show to joke about how the U.S. military began falling short of recruiting goals by saying, "More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club. We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies." Spencer Bachus didn’t take that sort of talk in stride, and had the levelheaded response of accusing Maher of straight-up treason. He eventually was kind enough to backpedal and say that he at least wasn’t going to call for Maher to be prosecuted for this capital crime, instead settling to have him off the air (alas, he would not get that wish). But that’s not the only time Bachus went over the top to demonize dissenting opinions. On April 9th, 2009, he started going the Joe McCarthy route in rhetoric and complaining to local Alabama officials that there were a supposed 17 socialists in the U.S. House. We’ll at least give him credit for Bernie Sanders, at least. Bachus just called it a career perhaps not coincidentally around the time it was revealed he was the most prolific member of Congress to perform legal insider trading (at the time), benefit from knowledge about the collapsing financial industry of the time to manipulate his own personal stock portfolio to profit from the crisis, as many citizens were losing their own homes and retirement funds. He helped get himself richer by betting against the U.S. economy. As Elizabeth Warren began moving to step in and regulate the big banks after that crisis, and close the kinds of loopholes that allowed Bachus' behavior to continue, he responded by saying that she and President Obama were "violating the Constitution". His overall voting record including voting to try and impeach Bill Clinton back in 1998, voted to repeal the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act that led to the 2007 financial crash, voted against Dodd-Frank financial reform that would prevent the next one, voted to allow government buildings to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments, the Iraq War, and was a staunch anti-abortion and pro-gun vote. Since Bachus has moved on to predictably start working as a lobbyist for K Street.

In both 2017, as well 2018, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of the eleven-term U.S. House Representative from New Jersey’s 11th District, Rodney Frelinghuysen, who arrived in Congress all the way back in the 1994 Red Wave Election. Quite literally, he is a part of one of the oldest political families in the history of the United States, that goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War, that has had seven generations serve as politicians from New Jersey at the state and federal level. The family name has intimidated enough within New Jersey that many pundits note that for two decades, Rodney hasn’t had to face much in the way of a challenger at the polls. Frelinghuysen made a variety of controversial ethical decisions through the years like accepting donations from military contractors while sitting on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, often getting those donations on the same days he voted to get the same companies lucrative government contracts. Eventually, he decided it would be more prudent to stop pretending he represents his constituents at all, dodging town halls altogether. This of course would have a lot to do over the outrage surrounding his endorsement (albeit reluctant) of Donald Trump during the 2016 elections, and in his final term of Congress, his flip-flopping over support for repealing the Affordable Care Act in 2017. He insisted he wouldn’t vote to repeal… and then he did. So almost immediately, disgruntled constituents began calling his Washington, D.C. office, and staking him out if possible. One of the main grassroots activists working against him was Saily Avelenda, a banking executive from his district. And that was unacceptable to Congressman Frelinghuysen, who responded by writing a poison pen letter in the form of an e-mail to Avelenda’s boss, outing Avelenda’s out of work activities to him as a “ringleader”, which yet again made him the target of an ethics investigation, because WOW that is beyond the pale. Through his career, Frelinghuysen was a co-sponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act, voted for the impeachment of President Clinton for lying about the Monica Lewinsky affair, voted against Equal Pay for women, against Wall Street reform after the global economy tanked in 2007, against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and voted for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood. He is retired, and we hope that it’s not to groom his son to take his place in a few years.

On this date in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled former Ohio State Senator Cliff Hite, who was first appointed to office back in 2011 by Governor John Kasich after serving four years on the Ohio House of Representatives. After a decade schlepping around the Ohio state legislature, Hite suddenly resigned in October of 2017, citing “health reasons”.Turns out, Hite has that medical condition a lot of Republicans around the country have had forcing their resignation, of “being a skeevy scumbag”. Because there’s sexual harassment, and then there’s just practically stalking. The 63-year-old Hite was revealed to have actually spent two months pleading with a female legislative employee to have sex with him despite her repeated refusals. Details included he admitted to previous extramarital affairs, he had a condo and no one would ever know, and on one specific day, he pestered her to have sex with him for more than an hour. Hite would shared intimate details of his sex life with his wife, and would plead, "I'm a grown man with needs," including (but not limited to) oral sex, according to the allegations. The woman refused eight or nine times. Cliff Hite’s voting record also was terrible for women (amazing coincidence, that), including support for anti-choice measures as extreme as fetal heartbeat bills. We’ll also note that he voted for legislation to allow guns in bars, tried to nullify the Affordable Care Act, and supported every Voter ID measure he could to try and rig our democracy so that Republicans would win in Ohio going forward.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”profiled Jamie Byers, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 4th District and presumably from his campaign photo above, a parole officer and Pomeranian wrangler. While all of that description is ridiculous… it gets more so when we point out that Byers is a Qanon conspiracy theorist, who tweeted the slogan, “Where we go one, we go all” at Donald Trump on Twitter to show that loyalty, as well as support for Trump’s stupid f***ing border wall. Jamie Byers was defeated in the open primary for California’s 4th, finishing fifth out of six candidates and less than 2% of the vote. He has spent the pandemic raving like a madman over any Covid-19 restrictions being enforced by California Governor Gavin Newsom and repeatedly insisting, per the Qanon conspiracy theory that almost every living former member of the Obama administration are about to be taken to jail.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Scott Stone, who served one term in the North Carolina House of Representatives in District 105 from 2016 to 2018, following in the footsteps of fellow FRED Jaqueline Schaffer after being appointed to his place by dumbass former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory. Stone was unseated in the 2018 Blue Wave by Democrat Wesley Harris, sent packing with 48% of the vote. During his brief career as a state legislator, Stone supported numerous GOP voter suppression bills, including his co-sponsorship of HB 1092. Perhaps the most galling vote he had was his “YEA” on HB 330 in April of 2017, a bill that would have limited the liability of any motorist who should drive their car into a crowd of protestors, which was exactly the sort of signal of tacit approval for such a thing that shouldn’t have been sent a the bastard who did exactly that at Charlottesville only months later. After being unceremoniously booted from office by the public, Stone was hoping that a run for statewide office in 2020 to replace another Tar Heel State FRED we looked at, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, might be his way back into elected office. Stone thought wrong. About a great many things. Like how in May of 2020, of all things, he put Pottery Barn on blast on his Twitter account for doing sales at a location in his area by appointment only for pickups because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Because nothing is more of an “essential business” during a pandemic than a company that would provide you the right pot to plant tulips in. And he missed their posted store hours by mere minutes. After getting skewered by others on Twitter for his spoiled, clueless post, not for nothing, Stone also tried to become a Covid-19 truther and claim that not as many people were dying as reported. Scott Stone finished eighth out of a possible nine candidates in the GOP Primary for Lieutenant Governor, earning just 6% of the vote.



On this date one year ago, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled Bruce Westerman, the sitting U.S. House Representative from Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District since winning office in the 2014 elections, sliding into the House seat formerly held by 21st century fascist Tom Cotton. For four years prior to that, Westerman was poking around the Arkansas state legislature, first achieving elected office as a beneficiary of the 2010 Tea Party Wave. Westerman is best known as the man who has become infamous as the cowardly wanker who fled to a bathroom after swiping a sword he yanked off a Civil War memorial in Kevin McCarthy’s office, and spending the Capitol Attack hiding on the toilet. The Republican Party, truly profiles in courage, cowering from the mob they incited in the first place.

Anyway, we’ll also note that Bruce Westerman is regarded as a climate change denier, especially given this quote:

"Climate change happens. The question is, what causes it to happen? You have natural vents… Forest fires put millions of tons of carbon into the air every year. Volcanic eruptions put millions of tons of carbon in the air. And when it happens, it's minute changes. So, you can't deny the fact that climate change happens. The question is, what causes climate change to happen?… It's a very complicated subject you hear talked about a lot in platitudes, and not as much in details of science."

He has no legislative achievements to speak of after 8 years in the House, but has made sure to cement himself on the wrong side of history by co-sponsoring an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban same sex marriage.

His recent voting record:

• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Westerman ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
• December 10th, 2020: Westerman signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
• January 6th, 2021: Bruce Westerman 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. Westerman votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, excusing his failed coup attempt.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Westerman votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 10th, 2021: Westerman votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• May 19th, 2021: Rep. Westerman votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• November 5th, 2021: Bruce Westerman votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• May 18th, 2022: Bruce Westerman is one of 192 Republicans who vote against HR 7790, to create supplemental funding for infant formula (while claiming to be pro- life).
• May 18th, 2022: Rep. Westerman 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: Westerman votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
• July 15th, 2022: Bruce Westerman 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: Westerman 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: Westerman 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.
• September 29th, 2022: Westerman is one of 49 Republicans who vote against HR 8888, the Food Security for All Veterans Act.
• December 6th, 2022: Westerman, embracing the GOP’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant sentiment votes against HR 7946, which was meant to honor the promise to grant citizenship to immigrants who served in the United States Armed Forces.

Upon our last check-in with Bruce Westerman, he was positively giddy that Target stores had supposedly “lost profits” for supporting the LGBTQ community during Pride month, and their decision to remove some merchandise in late May had him positively giddy, and celebrating them caving to pressure from bigots like him.

Based on Westerman’s support of “The Big Lie” by signing on to the Supreme Court challenge to Joe Biden’s victory, and his failure to certify the votes thereafter, we’re hoping when the GOP attempts another coup after the 2024 elections that Bruce Westerman runs back into a lavatory with the nearest melee weapon he can find, and this time, flushes himself down the commode to never be seen again. An utter waste of a seat in Congress.

[CaptainEurope]

Head of RT Calls for Lindsey Graham’s Assassination After Edited Video

In a video clip of the meeting, Graham’s comments were spliced in a way that made it seem that the Senator stated that the fact that Russians “are dying” in the invasion is “the best money we’ve ever spent.” In fact, Graham said that the U.S. aid to Ukraine—and not specifically the deaths of the Russians—was a valuable investment in global security for the United States.

“Senator [Lindsey] Graham has something to compare with. One of their [US] investments led to World War II and the Holocaust,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed in a statement on Telegram. State TV host Vladimir Solovyov followed Zakharova’s lead on his program, Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, as he angrily exclaimed: “Your dirty American money also fully supported the Nazi regime in Germany! You are a Nazi beast and you’re following in the footsteps of your predecessors. I’ll repeat it once again: you will croak, but the Russian people will live forever!”

On his Telegram account, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev called Graham, “an old fool” and resorted to thinly-veiled threats: “In his beloved America, not only ordinary people are regularly killed, but dirty money is also being spent on killing senators. He should recall the sad fate of Robert Kennedy, Huey Long, Clementa Carlos Pinckney, John Milton Elliott, Wayne Owens and other American politicians.”

Alleviating any doubt about the meaning of Medvedev’s comments, Simonyan went even further during her appearance on Solovyov’s Sunday show. After first acknowledging that Graham’s statements may have been portrayed in a video out of context, Simonyan said that she ordered her staff “to look into it.” She invoked the name of a Soviet Lieutenant General Pavel Sudoplatov, who was involved in several major intelligence operations, including the assassination of Leon Trotsky.

Simonyan ominously pointed out: “If Lady Graham really said that the money for the killing of Russians is the best money the US ever spent... I hope that in our country, the sons or grandchildren of Sudoplatov are alive, his pupils, or the descendants of his pupils. It’s not even hard. We have his address.”

...
The U.S. Senator told Zelensky that the Ukrainian resistance reminded him of “our better selves in America. There was a time in America that we were this way, fighting to the last person, we were going to be free or die.” Zelensky replied: “Now you are free—and we will be.” Graham added: “And the Russians are dying.”

Oops.

[Godzilla2099]

An Indian official has been suspended from his job for wasting hundreds of thousands of gallons of water after ordering a reservoir drained in a bid to find his cellphone.