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

[CaptainEurope]

Yeah, it's just another Weird 30 Take that strains to make some kind of point about how Everyone Is Wrong But 30.

And Democrats are to blame for Republicans turning fascist. It's quite the show.

[Vakanai]

Yeah, it's just another Weird 30 Take that strains to make some kind of point about how Everyone Is Wrong But 30.

Felt like they're just trying to get a rise out of somebody than a point.

[worstblogever]

On this date one year ago, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled John Rose, the sitting U.S. House Representative for Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District, who was first elected in the 2018 elections to replace former Congresswoman Diane Black, who left office for a failed gubernatorial bid. But as much of a kook as Black was, John Rose is a far creepier case for us to cover.

You see, for a few years now, right-wingers have thrown out baseless accusations that people on the left are somehow “grooming” children to abuse, without any evidence. Meanwhile, a bunch of them have been drawing the attention of law enforcement for sex trafficking minors, rape, possession of child pornography, and… well, doing that which they accuse their foes of.

But meanwhile, nobody seemed to bat an eye that Congressman John Rose got his wife a paid scholarship when she was 15, and then started dating her before she was even 20, and married her at the age of 21. Ms. Rose is right about a quarter century younger than the hubby who potentially groomed her.

You may now pause from reading this article to take a shower if it helps you feel less dirty having even just read that.

Our other reason for looking into John Rose was regarding his actions regarding the January 6th attacks. Sure, he voted to not certify the election results after Donald Trump’s failed coup attempt… but we’ll note he was also one of the extreme minority of GOP caucus members so dedicated to the insurrectionists that he voted twice against honoring members of the Capitol Police with Congressional gold medals to honor their bravery.

Because make no mistake, he has chosen a side in the conflict, and it’s Team Sedition.

[worstblogever]

John Rose’s voting record looks a lot like you’d expect:

• January 27th, 2019: John Rose voted against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attacking our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
• January 22nd, 2019: Rose votes against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
• July 12th, 2019: Rose is one of 12 Republicans who vote against the re-authorization of the Zadroga Act to provide healthcare to 9/11 First Responders.
• October 17th, 2019: Rep. Rose 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: Rep. Rose 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: Rose 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: John Rose 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. Rose 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 police officers.
• February 25th, 2021: Rose votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Rose 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: John Rose votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Rose 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. Rose 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).
• March 17th, 2021: Rose is one of twelve Republicans who pick a side to have rooted for in the failed coup attempt on 1/6/21 and votes against awarding Congressional gold medals to members of the Capitol Police who bravely defended members of Congress during the attack.
• May 19th, 2021: John Rose votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• May 20th, 2021: Rose is one of 63 Republicans who vote against the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act.
• June 15th, 2021: Rep. Rose is one of twenty-one Republicans who pick a side to have rooted for in the failed coup attempt on 1/6/21 and votes against awarding Congressional gold medals to members of the Capitol Police who bravely defended members of Congress during the attack.
• June 29th, 2021: Rose is one of 8 Republicans who travel to the U.S./Mexico border to do photo-ops to stir up anti-immigrant furor, but also appear on camera with Capitol insurrectionist Anthony Aguero, as if he wasn’t a part of an attack on Congress less than six months prior.
• November 5th, 2021: John Rose votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• March 31st, 2022: Rose 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. John Rose would rather they be gouged by pharmaceutical giants and/or die.
• May 18th, 2022: John Rose 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. Rose 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: Rose votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
• July 13th, 2022: Rose 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 15th, 2022: John Rose 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 21st, 2022: Rose 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.
• December 1st, 2022: Rep. Rose is one of 90 Republicans who vote against HR 6878, meaning he is perfectly fine with pregnant women in prison being placed in solitary confinement while claiming to be “pro-life”.
• December 6th, 2022: Rose, 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.

Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District has a +26 Republican lean according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, which explains a lot of how he could win re-election to a third term in 2022 with about 66% of the vote.

His skeevy family-planning scenarios simply put a dent in that number… and even though he’s the groomiest groom that ever did the grooming in the House, the GOP have not bothered trying to primary him out of office. Maybe someone could compel Tennessee voters to go another direction, but then again, we’re talking about the state that keeps re-electing people like Scott DesJarlais, so they’ll likely overlook the grooming accusations and all the sedition.

Because goddamn it.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015 that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled a two-time loser in attempts to get into the U.S. Senate, World Wrestling Entertainment CEO and now former Cabinet Secretary of the Small Business Association, Linda McMahon, whose background as a recurring character within the WWE Universe (including storyline angles where she was cheated on, in a catatonic state, and “turning heel” by kicking announcers with medical ailments in the groin). Some of the shady business practices her company has made within the industry of professional wrestling over the past few decades include not just a widespread misuse of steroids distributed by company doctors in the 1980s, not just hiring wrestlers who had allegedly murdered their girlfriends, not just pressuring wrestlers to perform with concussions and likely exacerbating their progressive brain tissue’s destruction via CTE, not just permeated a culture of sexual harassment of female employees, but even allegedly covering up a sexual assault of a female wrestler on an overseas tour of Kuwait in 2007. Linda was a hopeless cause in multiple elections as she burned through millions of dollars of her own family’s fortune to try and win a Senate seat. After losses in both 2012 and 2014, both Linda and her outspoken husband, Vince McMahon seemed content to give up politics, but when WWE Hall of Fame member Donald Trump managed to win the White House, they called their old pal, and Linda was set up to run the Small Business Association, because he’s that insane and terrible at picking people for federal appointments. In any event, Linda McMahon was openly describing how chaotic and terrible it is working in the Trump administration and announced she would resign in May of 2019 from that position to run a Trump political PAC.


In 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” presented its original profile of the current U.S. House Representative from North Carolina’s 7thCongressional District, David Rouzer, whose resemblance to Saturday Night Live cast member Jon Lovitz still haunts us to this day. Rouzer had already established himself as a staunch conservative while he served in the North Carolina State Senate, aligning himself as a climate change denier who tried blocking studies of sea level change, showing he was downright archaic when it came to education, what with his support of corporal punishment without parental exemption in schools, and his homophobic streak was proven by both his opposition to anti-bullying measures that would protect LGBTQ students and his support for a state constitutional ban on same sex marriage. He hasn't mellowed out much since heading to Washington, D.C., like how he was willing to state his desire to have another government shutdown over the fact that the GOP was unable to defund Planned Parenthood, due to his viewing of the fraudulent video produced by the Center for Medical Progress (whose leaders were since been indicted for their deception). This was only two years after the last time Republicans shut the government down, and got nothing but costing millions upon million dollars for our country, and threatening government workers with being furloughed, Rouzer was ready to repeat that over a shoddy hoax.

Rouzer was trying to earn big points points as a freshman lawmaker for introducing his own written legislation, but then again, when you consider his bill was to drug test welfare recipients nationally, it becomes a lot less impressive. After all, when states have passed such laws and adopted them, they have lost a fortune on the cost of drug testing, and found statistically less drug use by those on government assistance, without any "savings" of throwing people off welfare. Even worse, the states have lost money on court cases when the same Republicans supporting these bills see their legislation challenged by ACLU lawsuits, and they get overturned as being violations of the 4th Amendment. But that's David Rouzer for you... take a failed, stupid idea at the state level and try to do it across the country.

In June of 2015: Rep. Rouzer released a statement after the Supreme Court rules in the Obergefell v. Hodges case in favor of marriage equality, saying it would be against the will of our Founding Fathers, and that it created a "slippery slope of shifting sand". Perhaps this would be a good time to point out to Rouzer that George Washington was cool with awarding a house to Continental Army General Baron von Steuben after the war, mmhm? When a guy with wooden teeth is more tolerant of gays than you are… you have problems.

David Rouzer has always been a vocal defender of Donald Trump, regardless of the blatant corruption of the administration, and whined about “the abuses of the FBI” and claiming “the truth has been trampled” as Republicans’ efforts to end the impeachment inquiry into the Ukraine scandal closed in around Trump in Congressional hearings. And, in the days after the attack on the Capitol, Rouzer was willing to admit the election wasn’t “stolen” but continued on to claim, without any proof, that there was widespread “fraud” that needed investigating, defending his decision to contest the results in the hours after the attack.

North Carolina’s 7th Congressional District has a +8 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, which was enough to help him get 58% of the vote in the 2022 elections.

[worstblogever]

Rouzer returned to Washington, D.C., and his long legislative pattern of being a partisan wanker:

• October 23rd, 2019: Rouzer is one of 41 Republicans who, while staring down the possibility of Donald Trump being impeached, stage a ridiculous publicity stunt in response by crashing a classified impeachment inquiry hearing for a “protest”.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Rouzer 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.
• May 15th, 2020: Rouzer votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• December 10th, 2020: Rouzer 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: David Rouzer 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. Rouzer 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 police officers.
• February 25th, 2021: Rouzer votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Rouzer 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: David Rouzer votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Rouzer 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. Rouzer 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).
• May 19th, 2021: David Rouzer votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
• May 20th, 2021: Rouzer is one of 63 Republicans who vote against the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act.
• November 5th, 2021: David Rouzer votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
• March 31st, 2022: Rouzer 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. David Rouzer would rather they be gouged by pharmaceutical giants and/or die.
• May 18th, 2022: David Rouzer 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. Rouzer 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: Rouzer votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
• July 13th, 2022: Rouzer 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 15th, 2022: David Rouzer 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 19th, 2022: Rep. Rouzer votes against the “Respect for Marriage Act”, which would codify same sex marriage into law nationally.
• July 21st, 2022: Rouzer 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.
• December 1st, 2022: Rep. Rouzer is one of 90 Republicans who vote against HR 6878, meaning he is perfectly fine with pregnant women in prison being placed in solitary confinement while claiming to be “pro-life”.
• December 6th, 2022: Rouzer, 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.

David Rouzer, should he finish out this term in office, will have logged in a decade as a member of Congress, which is evidence enough of how bad a gerrymandered Congressional map in North Carolina truly is, to allow someone like him a virtual free pass to keep coming back every two years.

[CaptainEurope]

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is running for president. Here are 5 things you should know

[WestPhillyPunisher]

And Democrats are to blame for Republicans turning fascist. It's quite the show.

And, every now and then, Republicans, feeling the burn from being called racists will point out that Democrats were fans of slavery....back before the Civil War.

[Tendrin]

And, every now and then, Republicans, feeling the burn from being called racists will point out that Democrats were fans of slavery....back before the Civil War.

That one is right up there with 'the NAZis Were SOCIALISTS'.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Tim the Token makes a fool of himself. Clearly, that comes easy to him:

'Not a racist country': Tim Scott attacks Obama by making his point and downplaying racism

[babyblob]

Tim the Token makes a fool of himself. Clearly, that comes easy to him:

'Not a racist country': Tim Scott attacks Obama by making his point and downplaying racism

In reality we have people making rude comments about Junetenth and how angry some people are that it is a holiday.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In reality we have people making rude comments about Junetenth and how angry some people are that it is a holiday.

Probably the very same vermin who hated Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday having become a national holiday. But NOOOOOOOOOOOO! America isn’t at all a racist country. SMDH!

[Kirby101]

I'm sure folks like The Oath Keepers say that kinda stuff just about all of the time about folks they "Think..." are traitors.

What I "think" is that the top secret documents, that we KNOW were in Trump's possession for over a year, were given or shown to foreign powers, which seems highly likely. I do not "Think" this is traitorous,this would be traitorous. The only question is beyond the crimes he did commit with these documents in the current indictment, did he also betray his country. My opinion is he did.
Now unlike your off the mark statement. I am not calling out something my warped mind thinks is treason. I am speculating if Trump committed actual, factual treason according to the laws of the US.

Your equating this with what the Oath Keepers accused Pelosi or Pence of is inane, absurd and laughable.

[Tami]

Why Robert Kennedy Jr.’s 2024 Bid Is a Headache for Biden

President Biden might seem to be on cruise control until the heat of the 2024 general election. Nearly all of the nation’s top Democrats have lined up behind him, and the Republican nomination fight seems set to revolve around Donald J. Trump’s legal problems.

But he is nevertheless facing his own version of a primary: a campaign to shore up support among skeptical Democratic voters.

As much as the president wants to turn to his looming fight against a Republican — he has signaled he is itching for a rematch with Mr. Trump — his Democratic allies warn he has significant work to do with voters in his own party. He still has to find ways to promote his accomplishments, assuage voters wary of his age and dismiss the Democratic challengers he does have without any drama.

Those upstart rivals include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist with a celebrated Democratic lineage who has emerged with unexpected strength in early polls even as he spreads conspiracy theories and consorts with right-wing figures and billionaire donors. Mr. Kennedy’s support from Democrats, as high as 20 percent in some surveys, serves as a bracing reminder of left-leaning voters’ healthy appetite for a Biden alternative, and as a glaring symbol of the president’s weaknesses.

This month, his campaign began running online advertisements highlighting his record. The Biden team even paid for a billboard truck to circle the Capitol and park in front of the Republican National Committee headquarters.

Yet some of Mr. Biden’s allies say they worry that the president’s still-nascent campaign does not fully grasp the depth of its problems with Democratic voters, who have consistently told pollsters they would prefer that Mr. Biden not seek re-election. Voters remain uneasy about inflation and his stewardship of the economy.

This month, Mayor Paige Cognetti of Scranton, Pa., and three other Pennsylvania mayors hopped in a rented van for a road trip across the state to promote projects funded by the Biden administration because they were concerned voters didn’t know about them.

They met in Harrisburg with Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, a Democrat who won office last year. Mr. Davis said Mr. Biden had done “some tremendous things” but worried that voters were unaware. He recalled campaigning in Black barbershops in Philadelphia and hearing that voters felt the country was better off under Mr. Trump.

“They’ve done a pretty bad job of telling the American people and Pennsylvanians what they have done,” Mr. Davis said.

[JackDaw]

Tim the Token makes a fool of himself. Clearly, that comes easy to him:

'Not a racist country': Tim Scott attacks Obama by making his point and downplaying racism

It’s a moot point whether or not a non racist country exists anywhere in the world.

Obviously like practically any question it partly depends on exact definitions used…if it’s defined as strictly as “ones race having no impact on life outcomes” then clearly no country is non racist (I think..would be interested in any suggestions of a country that night qualify.)

There might be a few if a bit of latitude allowed and “non racist country” was defined as something like “a country where ones race has fairly minimal impact on life outcomes”??