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

[InformationGeek]

Meanwhile, over in Wisconsin, my state, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has overturned Scott Evers Stay-At-Home Orders and declares that everyone has to get back to work.

BREAKING: Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down Gov. Tony Evers' order to stay home in a 4-3 decision.

The court is controlled by conservatives 5-2.

This decision was written by 4 conservative justices: Chief Justice Patience Roggensack, Rebecca Bradley, Daniel Kelly & Annette Ziegler.

Yep. The guy who demanded the polls remain open and who ended up losing his job has again demanded everything open up. You may want to note this down if you do a profile on Kelly WBE.

[skyvolt2000]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/da...ng/ar-BB142Bi7

Dallas ISD students voiced their frustrations Wednesday afternoon over the district’s decision to move ahead with virtual graduations for its Class of 2020.

Those students looked to hopefully change the minds of district officials in order to have in-person graduation ceremonies even as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

The group could be seen with face masks on and signs in hand in front of the the district’s administration building as the students wonder why they are forced to have virtual graduations while other North Texas districts are still able to hold in-person ones.

Many districts are holding in-person ceremonies at venues like Texas Motor Speedway and AT&T Stadium with strict social distancing guidelines. However, Dallas ISD will stick to virtual events for its 37 high schools.

The only time you will see POC protest.

Most of them being from Thomas Jefferson High School that had to be closed because a tornado destroyed it and it's middle school beyond repair.

[InformationGeek]

Remember how Republicans sold stock when they got briefed on the coronavirus? Well, update on that.

Breaking via LA Times: Federal agents seized a cellphone belonging to Republican Sen. Richard Burr as part of the Justice Department's investigation into controversial stock trades he made as the coronavirus struck the US, a law enforcement official said.
https://t.co/097WNuBWzs

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump Again Undermines Dr. Anthony Fauci, Pushes For Schools To Reopen

The president accused the NIH expert of playing “all sides of the equation” and called Fauci’s warnings about reopening too early “not an acceptable answer.” It's easy for Trump to demand kids go back to school since he wouldn't send Barron there. More proof of Trump's apathy towards the American people, old and young.

**********

‘Trump Death Clock’ In Times Square Is Grim Reminder Of Preventable Virus Deaths

The sign’s creator aims to show “the cost in human lives.”



**********

John Cornyn Encourages People To Sign Up For Obamacare After Fighting To Repeal It

“The good news is that if you lose your employer-provided coverage … [you are] eligible to sign up for the Affordable Care Act,” said the Republican senator. The irony here is astonishing.

**********

How Europe Is Getting People Back to Work

The offices, factories and workplaces that employees left before lockdown will look dramatically different when they return.

**********

World Health Organization Warns COVID-19 ‘May Never Go Away’

WHO Official Dr. Michael Ryan said it could take years to build global immunity levels if no vaccine is developed.

**********

Trump Cites Virus As Reason To Expel Migrant Youths, Asylum Seekers

Using an emergency declaration citing the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration expelled 600 minors in April alone. What? Did you think Trump had forgotten about his xenophobia and his jihad to expel people of color?

[worstblogever]

Remember how Republicans sold stock when they got briefed on the coronavirus? Well, update on that.

In any sane world, folks like Burr and Loeffler would resign in disgrace.

But Senate Majority Leader Turtle Face won't have that, he needs to confirm as many unqualified partisan judges as he can before he loses control of the Senate.

[Tendrin]

In any sane world, folks like Burr and Loeffler would resign in disgrace.

But Senate Majority Leader Turtle Face won't have that, he needs to confirm as many unqualified partisan judges as he can before he loses control of the Senate.

Josh Marshall is pointing out that its not inconceivable that this payback for Burr's relatively legitimate roll in the Senate's russia probe. That is, it's allowed to go forward as retribution.

WE can not discount the possibility, knowing what we know of Trump.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had a profile of Jeffrey Wood, a former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly who over the course of several years, was arrested for DUI on five separate occasions. In one incident, he flipped his vehicle, and police arriving on scene found him trapped inside, in possession of marijuana. That sort of hinders Wood’s argument made as Republican to support the drug testing of welfare recipients, when you think about it. At least he’s not a hypocrite on other legislation he supported, like stricter Voter ID laws or trying to ban same sex marriage, he’s just terrible for it. As Wood was charged and convicted of felony offenses and ended up with a 9 month prison sentence, a political comeback for him seems pretty unlikely.

On this date in 2016, 2017, and 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of Jesse Kremer, a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly who, in spite of having first been elected in 2014, has quickly garnered our attention for the myriad of extremist bills he’s submitted. We’ve already seen him push for anti-choice extremism, in the form of a ban on abortion at 20 weeks, his push to allow for the concealed carry of firearms in schools to prevent hypothetical “terrorist attacks”, or his repeated calls for transphobic bathroom bills, which he has repeatedly submitted since being elected. Kremer is closely allied with Julaine Appling, the head of the Wisconsin Family Action group, a Pro-Life and anti-LGBT rights group that has warned the legalization of same sex marriage could lead to adult-child covenants. Kremer and Appling insist that transphobic bathroom bills are in no way discriminatory and have been caught exchanging e-mails that show they’re going out of their way to make more experienced legislators look like “the bad guy” if they’re afraid to push it forward based on their fear-mongering of transgender citizens. Kremer has gone far enough to insist that “the real war on women” is the fact that transgender attackers are being allowed to go into the wrong restroom and attack women and pretending that anyone who opposes the bills are allowing the attacks (which aren’t based in reality) to continue. After Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker failed to deliver on his promise that Wisconsin would see 250,000 new jobs produced under his leadership, critics took him to task for it. Rushing to his defense came Jesse Kremer, who explained that the real problem behind the job crisis wasn’t a failure of opportunities (which it is), but instead, the blame lies on “entitled graduating college students” seeking too much pay and those on public assistance who feel getting a job will “cut into their benefits”. Kremer has also supported the drug testing of welfare recipients, stricter Voter ID laws to combat the statistically non-existent problem of “in person voter fraud” at the cost of disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters and also decided there was too much “rampant fraud” happening with EBT cards by people on public assistance, so he sponsored legislation to require Photo Identification for when people want to use them to be able to buy food to curtail his imagined abuse. This in spite of the fact that the USDA warns that such measures would stop family members who the food is also supposed to go to can’t use the card. Y’know, say if a single mother sends a teen to the store on her behalf… no food for you, get out to the store yourself, mom! Kremer also tried to exploit the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, as proof that "Our country has been torn apart by President Obama's divisive racism, hatred of Christianity and lambasting of the military and law enforcement” In 2017, Kremer, he completely embarrassed himself by stating his “Biblical belief” that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. Kremer opted to not run for re-election in 2018, likely because the Wisconsin GOP preferred a candidate that wasn’t bats*** crazy.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Burt Minor, a candidate for the Illinois House of Representatives for District 42 in that body in 2018. His candidacy, however, was damaged from a member of his own party, as Erika Harold, a GOP candidate for Illinois Attorney general, went public with the fact that Minor had asked her if she was a “lesbo” and used the N-word around her (and yes, she is African-American) after she announced her own candidacy. Harold let Minor know, that no one should ever use that word to express her discomfort. He repeated it. So she repeated her warning, and he said it a third time, as if he was trying to summon some sort of racist Beetlejuice. Once Harold made Minor’s comments public knowledge, he claimed his comments were “misinterpreted” and tried to play the victim. Burt Minor lost in the GOP Primary, only getting 22% of the vote. We’re not sure if this will be his only run for the state legislature or not. As his career is likely over, we will retire his profile at this time and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 868-45, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Bill Cassidy

Welcome to what is the 868th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing the U.S. Senator from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, who is up for re-election in November, since he first got his Senate seat back in the 2014 elections, after serving three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives for Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District. Make no mistake, the timing of our release of this profile in 2020 is in the hopes that the people of Louisiana decide to go a different direction to help flip the Senate blue, because GEEZ, this guy.

Perhaps it’s now, during a pandemic, that we should take a look at Sen. Cassidy’s passion for denying health insurance to the American people. He opposed the passage of the Affordable Care Act, supported repealing it once the GOP retook the House in 2011, and as a senator in 2017, worked hand in hand with Sen. Lindsey Graham to try and repeal the Affordable Care Act with the Graham-Cassidy Bill. Now, the public debate on this bill was what really told you everything you needed to know about Bill Cassidy. He appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live, likely expecting a softball interview, only to be surprised when Kimmel pitched him a healthcare situation that was absolutely not hypothetical. Kimmel’s son was born with a congenital heart disease, and he asked Cassidy if such a child born with a pre-existing condition would be able to get everything he or she would need in that first year of life under Cassidy’s plan, and if their parents would have the surgeries required to keep their infant alive paid for under it. Cassidy, in front of a national audience, lied and said it would. However, after experts and analysts took a hard look at Cassidy’s bill, they determined that the bill would cut healthcare by just shy of $300 billion in the year 2027 and leave 32 million more Americans not covered… and oh yeah… it would have not covered Jimmy Kimmel’s kid. Kimmel, in a monologue, called Cassidy a liar, and Cassidy responded that Kimmel just “doesn’t understand” his bill, and went on to double down and claim it would cover MORE people than the ACA, which was utter bulls***.

But that’s Bill Cassidy. There’s a pathological nature to his mendacity and cruelty… he just doesn’t care who lives or dies, as long as he can avoid tax dollars going towards paying for the poor, and money staying in the pockets of the rich. He was even bored during the hearings on his doomed piece of legislation, lazily yawning as protesters in wheelchairs were carried out by capitol police in front of him.

We should also note that after Donald Trump made national headlines for his “s***hole countries” comments regarding African nations and Haiti, that Bill Cassidy had some harsh words of criticism… for Senator Dick Durbin, for telling the media how much of a disgusting racist the president is. Yup, he didn’t seem to object that Trump said it, just that the public found out, thanks to Durbin.

And that’s not the only moment where Senator Cassidy chose the side of bigots in our national political discussion. As white nationalists repeatedly were making the news for carrying out mass shootings and other domestic terror attacks over the summer of 2019, Cassidy and Senator Ted Cruz thought it was a great time to draft a resolution to criticize the real problem…antifa. Only a few weeks later, he used the Senate's time to address the very important problem that he was upset about the New Orleans Saints getting hosed by referees in the NFL playoffs six months earlier.

Your tax dollars at work.

[worstblogever]

Taking a look at Cassidy’s worst moments as a legislator… well, there’s a lot to choose from:

• January 9th, 2009: Cassidy votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
• April 29th, 2009: Bill Cassidy votes against the Hate Crimes Expansion that would provide protections to LGBTQ citizens.
• July 31st, 2009: Cassidy votes against the widely successful "Cash for Clunkers" program that helped save the American auto industry.
• June 30th, 2010: After Wall Street bankers taking unnecessary risks nearly imploded the global economy in 2007, legislation finally comes forward to prevent the same behaviors from being permitted in the future. The signature piece of legislation to prevent another financial meltdown was Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, which Bill Cassidy voted against.
• July 30th, 2010: Months after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a bill comes to the floor to better regulate off-shore drilling. Cassidy is apparently alright with ecological disasters continuing in the future, as he votes against it.
• December 8th, 2010: Rep. Cassidy votes against the DREAM Act.
• December 15th, 2010: Cassidy votes against the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
• On January 5th, 2011, Rep. Cassidy votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has voted for almost every attempt to do so since.
• On February 18th, 2011, Bill Cassidy votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
• March 17th, 2011: Rep. Cassidy votes to cut funding to National Public Radio.
• September 15th, 2012: Rep. Cassidy votes for the "No More Solyndras Act".
• September 21st, 2012: Cassidy co-sponsors and votes for the "Stop the War on Coal Act".
• January 15th, 2013: Bill Cassidy votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
• February 28th, 2013: Cassidy votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
• June 19th, 2013: Bill Cassidy votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Cassidy votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the vote came up seventeen days later to re-open the government, Cassidy voted to keep it closed.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Bill Cassidy 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: Cassidy 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 6th, 2015: Bill Cassidy’ first act in the Senate is to vote for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
• Sept. 24th, 2015: Cassidy votes to defund Planned Parenthood, based on conservative outrage over a video concocted by the Center for Medical Progress that had been repeatedly debunked by investigators, and eventually resulted in the CMP being hit with criminal charges.
• December 3rd, 2015: Sen. Cassidy votes to protect the right of people on terror watch lists to still buy guns and explosives.
• June 20th, 2016: Bill Cassidy votes to protect the right for people to transfer their guns and explosives to people on terror watch lists.
• July 25th, 2017: Cassidy votes for the BCRA, aka Trumpcare.
• December 20th, 2017: Sen. Cassidy votes for the GOP Tax Plan/Scam, that places the burden of taxation upon the working class and almost none upon our country’s billionaires.
• October 6th, 2018: Bill Cassidy votes to put accused rapist Brett Kavanaugh onto the Supreme Court.
• February 14th, 2019: Cassidy votes to approve the nomination of William Barr to be the country’s Attorney General, even though he was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s. (SPOILER ALERT: He’s still crooked as a snake with scoliosis).
• January 31st, 2020: Sen. Cassidy votes against witnesses being allowed in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, effectively making it a “trial”.
• February 5th, 2020: Bill Cassidy votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump, in spite of the mountain of evidence showing that he solicited foreign assistance in the 2020 elections.
• February 25th, 2020: Cassidy co-sponsors and votes for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, an insane piece of anti-choice legislation that would ask abortion providers to try to admit aborted fetuses to a hospital if they were “alive” after the procedure, which is medically impossible given the age that abortions can be performed at.

Bill Cassidy is currently trying to leverage his experience as a doctor prior to being in office into an easy path to re-election during the COVID-19 outbreak, hoping that the malfeasance of the White House and the GOP overall demanding the country reopen doesn’t blow up in his face, and harm his own chances in November. However, we would recommend that voters in Louisiana might want to look at his history of trying to strip people of healthcare before they just rubber stamp him in again. Frankly, we’re interested to see if Cassidy can continue to ignore the Hippocratic oath he once took about “doing no harm” or if he’s going to jump in line behind Donald Trump and the rest of the idiots in his party about “reopening the country to save the economy” even as tens of thousands of people die from coronavirus.

Sadly, we’re predicting the latter.

[Tami]

Trump Feared Testing Too Many People for Virus Would Spook Stock Markets, Says Report

President Trump was wary of making preparations for the coronavirus pandemic because he was concerned doing so would sent the stock market into a panic, the Financial Times reports. In a quote attributed to an unnamed Trump confidant who is said to speak to the president frequently, it’s claimed: “Jared [Kushner] had been arguing that testing too many people, or ordering too many ventilators, would spook the markets and so we just shouldn’t do it... That advice worked far more powerfully on [Trump] than what the scientists were saying. He thinks they always exaggerate.” Elsewhere in the FT investigation into Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, an unnamed administration official is reported to have told the paper that trying to advise the president is like “bringing fruits to the volcano... You’re trying to appease a great force that’s impervious to reason.”

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump Feared Testing Too Many People for Virus Would Spook Stock Markets, Says Report

So, by choosing to avoid testing, cases of the virus skyrocketed and the markets tanked anyway after the country was forced to shut down. To quote the esteemed Bugs Bunny...wotta maroon!

[Tami]

So, by choosing to avoid testing, cases of the virus skyrocketed and the markets tanked anyway after the country was forced to shut down. To quote the esteemed Bugs Bunny...wotta maroon!

Trump has shot himself or screwed himself so many times, he should be more see through than a slice of Swiss cheese. How it is that he's still standing, and still continuing his descent into hell without reaching bottom, is beyond me.

[kidfresh512]

Trump has shot himself or screwed himself so many times, he should be more see through than a slice of Swiss cheese. How it is that he's still standing, and still continuing his descent into hell without reaching bottom, is beyond me.

Right? The lack of true leadership could be more glaring in the midst of the crisis. But, I still hear people here at the office going on and on about Democrats than focusing on what the President isn't doing.

I don't care what the polls are saying. If we don't get out to vote in November somehow even with Covid still in play we shouldn't be shocked to still see this same mismanagement and worse for 4 more years.

[The Cool Thatguy]

So, by choosing to avoid testing, cases of the virus skyrocketed and the markets tanked anyway after the country was forced to shut down. To quote the esteemed Bugs Bunny...wotta maroon!

The only way out of this mess is through, and that's probably something Trump has never done. He keeps trying to find a way to dodge reality

[Tami]

Right? The lack of true leadership could be more glaring in the midst of the crisis. But, I still hear people here at the office going on and on about Democrats than focusing on what the President isn't doing.

I don't care what the polls are saying. If we don't get out to vote in November somehow even with Covid still in play we shouldn't be shocked to still see this same mismanagement and worse for 4 more years.

Speaking of which

Screenshot_2020-05-14 Andrew Desiderio on Twitter Asked Graham about this tweet just now He reit.jpg

Twitter Link