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

[Steel Inquisitor]

We're posting on a public forum, you're making uninformed statements and I feel like I have the responsibility to correct them so that your views don't influence the rest of the people here. Block me if you want, I have no intention of PMing you, but keep on commenting on issues that you know nothing about and I'll keep on responding to them.

This is so debatable.

And seriously, how do you expect people to live in multicultural harmony when someone like you who considers himself a liberal can't even withstand the slightest bit of criticism without throwing a hissy fit and threatening to call the mods? Just about every minority communities has plenty of legitimate gripes about how they've been treated by white people, and would express it in much harsher terms than anything I've said, are you just going to lump all those people in with white supremacists and pretend that all the "good" minorities are perfectly happy with how things are?

There is no "slight" here. Please stop weaponising marginalised groups for the agenda you're extolling.

[The no face guy]

We're posting on a public forum, you're making uninformed statements and I feel like I have the responsibility to correct them so that your views don't influence the rest of the people here. Block me if you want, I have no intention of PMing you, but keep on commenting on issues that you know nothing about and I'll keep on responding to them.

And seriously, how do you expect people to live in multicultural harmony when someone like you who considers himself a liberal can't even withstand the slightest bit of criticism without throwing a hissy fit and threatening to call the mods? Just about every minority communities has plenty of legitimate gripes about how they've been treated by white people, and would express it in much harsher terms than anything I've said, are you just going to lump all those people in with white supremacists and pretend that all the "good" minorities are perfectly happy with how things are?

No it's simply because I do not want to converse with a racist. Racists come from all different religious and ethnic backgrounds. I'm sick of comments like this...

white people will resort to every dirty trick in the book to retain their status, principles be damned.

you should try to connect with some people of color outside the usual whitewashed yuppie set,

Your history of comments is filled with these, and the only political issue you ever wish to discuss is racial. It's depressing. As for uniformed statements, I have sent you packing on every debate we've had, which is another reason I don't want to converse.

[PwrdOn]

No it's simply because I do not want to converse with a racist. Racists come from all different religious and ethnic backgrounds. I'm sick of comments like this...

Your history of comments is filled with these, and the only political issue you ever wish to discuss is racial. It's depressing. As for uniformed statements, I have sent you packing on every debate we've had, which is another reason I don't want to converse.

Oh, what I would give to live in a world where the kind of stuff I said to you were the most "racist" things I would ever have to hear...

[JackDaw]

Oh, what I would give to live in a world where the kind of stuff I said to you were the most "racist" things I would ever have to hear...

Yes.

But have you ever thought that you would be a more effective advocate for a better world if you amended the tone of your language slightly?

Statements like “white people will resort to every trick in the book...” are inherently racist.

Would it really hurt you to say “some white people...”?

[Tendrin]

Yes.

But have you ever thought that you would be a more effective advocate for a better world if you amended the tone of your language slightly?

Statements like “white people will resort to every trick in the book...” are inherently racist.

Would it really hurt you to say “some white people...”?

A majority of white people elected Trump. If you're one of the white folks who didn't, if it doesn't apply, let it fly.

[JackDaw]

A majority of white people elected Trump. If you're one of the white folks who didn't, if it doesn't apply, let it fly.

I didn’t vote for Trump.

But why should I “let it fly”?

[Tendrin]

I didn’t vote for Trump.

But why should I “let it fly”?

Because it doesn't apply to you, but it does apply to the majority of American white people, and we all know racial animus and misogyny was absolutely a massive reason for that.

[Username taken]

Because it doesn't apply to you, but it does apply to the majority of American white people, and we all know racial animus and misogyny was absolutely a massive reason for that.

Which is very very scary because Trump still leads among white people to this day.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Federal Agents, Local Streets: A ‘Red Flag’ In Oregon

Constitutional law experts said the federal officers’ actions are a “red flag” in what could become a test case of states’ rights.

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Democratic Mayors Urge Congress To Stop Federal Agents’ Use Of Force During Protests

The mayors, including Portland, Oregon, Mayor Ted Wheeler, say the Trump administration is violating constitutional rights by dispatching the squads.

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Gun-Wielding St. Louis Couple Hit With Felony Charge

Mark and Patricia McCloskey threatened a group of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters with their weapons late last month.

====================

In coronavirus news:

Oxford Coronavirus Vaccine ‘Safe’ And Showing ‘Promising Results’

A clinical trial of the vaccine against COVID-19 found it induces an immune reaction.

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‘He Has No Idea What To Do’: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton Hit Trump’s COVID-19 Response

“This guy has no sense of empathy or concern for people,” Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, told MSNBC’s Joy Reid.

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Conservative Columnist Lists All The ‘Nonsense’ Trump Must Quit To Save Lives

“Winter is coming, yet Trump and his acolytes continue with their nonsensical words and acts,” warned Max Boot in The Washington Post.

[sammy_hansen]

Re: the fascism in Portland, I wonder what the narrative would be if this were happening in Middle Eastern countries or those south of the Panama Canal.

I’d be really curious to see a poll of law enforcement officers and whether they support such tactics.

[worstblogever]

Back in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published our profile of the former shamed Speaker of the House and 2012 Presidential Candidate, Newt Gingrich, a race-baiting, egomaniacal hypocrite who was the poster-child of the Republican Red Wave back in 1994 that took over Congress, and immediately went about setting standards for partisanship that we’ve come to see from the GOP today. Under his watch there were two separate government shutdowns, and after a series of witch hunts against President Clinton, Newt finally thought Clinton’s dishonesty about cheating on his wife was enough to wield a hammer to try and impeach him. This from a supposed “Family Values Republican “ who himself has been married 3 times, and handed his second wife divorce paperwork while she was in a hospital bed with cancer, and his mistress (now third wife) waited in the hall. Newt’s 2012 campaign had several bizarre moments, like when he said he was “bit by a penguin”, or how he promised that America would colonize the moon by the end of his second term in office, and in spite of that, for a time he actually managed to pull ahead of Mitt Romney in the polls. In the end, Newt not only came up short in votes, but in cash, as of April 2015, his long-deceased presidential campaign from three years earlier still was $4-5 million in debt (no word on where that number is these days).

In 2015, in 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Greg Heartsill, a member of the Iowa House of Representatives who has represented District 28 in Iowa now since 2012. We noted that Heartsill was also making some noise as a member of Ted Cruz’s leadership team in his bid to win the 2016 Presidential election, and how in his first term in office, he had filed legislation to allow a doctor performing an abortion to be sued for malpractice if their patient simply felt regret over the entire decade following the procedure. Heartsill also demanded school conferences for LGBTQ Youth regarding bullying be cancelled, because he claimed “obscene” materials would be passed out to students, and speakers might use profanity. However, when quizzed by the media as to what the LGBTQ acronym even stood for, Heartsill was unable to do so. This embarrassing gaffe still did not deter him, and Heartsill sent a letter out to all school superintendents in Iowa to gather the attendance numbers for all faculty, staff, and students in attendance, as well as a list of the costs so he could work towards defunding the event in the future. We covered Heartsill’s issue positions, including his support for Fetal Personhood, so there’s also that. As much as he was terrified of the thought of school children being exposed to lectures about being more accepting of fellow youths who were LGBTQ, what Heartsill isn’t afraid of is letting those same children start packing heat. That’s right, Greg Heartsill voted for Iowa’s HF 2281, a bill to authorize kids under 14 to be allowed to possess a handgun. We’re sure no kids will be hit by a stray bullet, but hopefully they’ll be able to dodge all those dreaded kind words about gay kids, though. That’s what you’ve really got to watch out for. Heartsill spent his last term in office on his Evangelical crusade attacking a woman’s right to choose, voting to strip funding from Iowa Planned Parenthood clinics, and trying to place a ban on abortion at 20 weeks. We do, however, have some great news… Heartsill announced he wouldn’t run for office again in March of 2018, and Iowa is far better off without this homophobe in its legislature.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Janice Arnold-Jones, former four-term member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, a failed candidate for Governor of New Mexico in 2010 who only got 3% of the vote in that race, and failed in her first attempt to get elected to Congress in 2012 against Democratic Congresswoman Michelle Lujan-Grisham. Arnold-Jones went mostly quiet for six years, but emerged as Republican candidate who ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Mexico’s 1st Congressoinal District in 2018, in the hopes that she could flip the district after Lujan-Grisham would run for Governor of New Mexico. Her opponent, coming out of the Democratic primary, was Deb Haaland, who was seeking to become the first Native American woman to serve in Congress. Honestly, there isn’t a lot of extremism in Arnold-Jones’ record as a legislator, save for the times she voted against bills aimed at curbing domestic violence, not just in terms of creating a commission to decrease it, but a bill that would block domestic abusers from becoming members of New Mexico law enforcement. We will note, however, she also voted against just domestic partnerships, let alone her opinion on same sex marriage. The worst rhetoric you would see coming from her direction would be standard GOP lies about the Affordable Care Act “killing jobs”, Of course, the election did not go well because Janice Arnold-Jones decided the best way to chip into the lead that Deb Haaland had in the early polls would be to go on Fox News “correct the record” about Haaland’s heritage, and insinuate that she wasn’t actually a Native American and instead, “belonged on a pueblo”. And for those not aware, New Mexico has one of the highest Native American populations in the country, so having a blonde, blue-eyed lady like Arnold-Jones go on Fox News to whine to another blonde, blue-eyed lady about if people “belong on a reservation or a pueblo” didn’t exactly sit well. She only ended up mustering 36% of the vote. We’ll set aside her profile at this time and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 891-45, since this was established in July 2014.)


William Figlesthaler

Welcome to what is the 891st original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing William Figlesthaler, who is a urologist and one of nine Republicans (three of whom that we will be profiling) running for U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 19th Congressional District in 2020. He has the best funded campaign of the nine Republicans in the race, but that’s mostly by pooling his own money (and his Russian-born wife…interesting) into his campaign in the six-figure range. Still, he has turned some heads by going with the unique strategy of advertising his campaign at urinals… meaning he definitely won’t be getting a large chunk of the votes of women. Now, while we’re not sure if a guy who checks prostates would necessarily be a good addition to the Republican caucus unless he was running on the concept of removing members of his party from Donald Trump’s ass (he has directed his own proctology “jokes” at Adam Schiff to defend Trump during his impeachment), we have some definite concerns with Figlesthaler. And it’s not just that he looks like he’s whatever preceded Donald Trump’s doctor in a Pokemon evolution.

You see, on June 14th, 2020, Figlesthaler referred to the Democratic Party as a “criminal enterprise that is destroying our country from within”, which are bold words from a man whose party just spent the past four years looking the other way at the long, long trail of evidence of criminal behavior from its president.

But maybe if Dr. Fig (his nickname for himself, we didn’t give it to him) actually gave a fig about criminal behavior, he wouldn’t have been caught lying about one of his campaign employees having a criminal record when being asked about it by the press. Or, y’know, that he had a business partner back in 2012 at his urology office who was busted for child pornography.

We should also point out that Figlesthaler married his Russian born wife, but supports Trump’s stupid border wall on the U.S./Mexico border and echoes his comments about “criminals and rapists” coming across it.

Florida’s 19th Congressional District has a +13 Republican lean, so it’s risky to hope for a kook like William Figlesthaler to win… because with that much of a lean, it will still be a challenge to flip this seat blue in November.

[JackDaw]

Because it doesn't apply to you, but it does apply to the majority of American white people, and we all know racial animus and misogyny was absolutely a massive reason for that.

But you seem to have completely missed my point.

I was effectively making the suggestion that making sweeping statements along the lines “white people are...” is helpful to no one. Indeed I think they are harmful. (But yes... I know less harmful that equivalent statements attributed to more vulnerable groups.)

It’s really not difficult to avoid...if what is meant is “most White Americans...” why not say that?


Do you disagree? If so...please explain why you believe such statements are helpful.

[PwrdOn]

Yes.

But have you ever thought that you would be a more effective advocate for a better world if you amended the tone of your language slightly?

Statements like “white people will resort to every trick in the book...” are inherently racist.

Would it really hurt you to say “some white people...”?

I mean that was a response to another post that was asking why a majority of white voters continue to support Trump, it wasn't just an unprompted comment shitting on white people for no reason. If another other demographic threw a hissy fit every time one of us were mildly stereotyped in some way, we'd really be here all day.

But you seem to have completely missed my point.

I was effectively making the suggestion that making sweeping statements along the lines “white people are...” is helpful to no one. Indeed I think they are harmful. (But yes... I know less harmful that equivalent statements attributed to more vulnerable groups.)

It’s really not difficult to avoid...if what is meant is “most White Americans...” why not say that?

The thing is, singling out Trump supporting white Americans, who have frankly been called out enough at this point, misses the fact that

1) Many Trump opponents are just as racist and detrimental to the well-being of minorities, just because they refuse to recognize or acknowledge this doesn't make it not so
2) White Europeans, Canadians, Australians, etc. are usually just as bad if not worse than Americans, their superiority complex over America doesn't seem to translate much into actually treating people better when it matters

[Malvolio]

Well no, because I think your a political extremist, who doesn't seem to grasp that people can live together in multicultural harmony without prescribing to hateful ideologies like whiteness theory and white nationalism, unfortunately you do not.

I've never claimed to be a victim of anything, and if I have friends who are Asian who inform me that people work longer hours in Korea and China, and they happen to be technologically astute, I wouldn't count that as second hand well worn stereotypes, which again is just repulsive that you make that assumption.

I have asked you politely time and time again to please not to converse with me, find someone else to stalk, or I will be going to the moderators. Thank you.

So why do you keep responding to his comments? It's like a little kid screaming, "DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME? I SAID I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU!"

[JackDaw]

I mean that was a response to another post that was asking why a majority of white voters continue to support Trump, it wasn't just an unprompted comment shitting on white people for no reason. If another other demographic threw a hissy fit every time one of us were mildly stereotyped in some way, we'd really be here all day.



The thing is, singling out Trump supporting white Americans, who have frankly been called out enough at this point, misses the fact that

1) Many Trump opponents are just as racist and detrimental to the well-being of minorities, just because they refuse to recognize or acknowledge this doesn't make it not so
2) White Europeans, Canadians, Australians, etc. are usually just as bad if not worse than Americans, their superiority complex over America doesn't seem to translate much into actually treating people better when it matters

Thanks for that. It’s given me a lot to think about...I can certainly relate to tending to be over-sensitive. (A personal weakness, alas...).

I have in recent weeks been wondering about extent of racism in my own country (I’m a Brit).

I started with bias that it was less prevalent and less extreme than in USA. There are reasons I think this...I think it’s hard for any openly racist politician to get elected, for example. And the police are generally less heavy handed (there are exceptions, alas).

But then you look at things like educational opportunities, employment opportunities, etc...and nagging thought occurs: “is the racism just better hidden?”