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

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Also an underrated aspect of the race is that Pelosi showed her ass a bit to support Joe Kennedy and basically removed any credibility in progressive primaries after she’d been trying to snuff them out under the guise of unity to support incumbents. AOC played that perfectly too.

[Gray Lensman]

If Kennedy had won the senate seat, he probably would have used it as a stepping stone to try climbing up to the White House as JFK, RFK and Ted Kennedy did. Only JFK was successful.

Using the Kennedy name won't get you everything after all.

Although in RFK's case, it was an assassin who derailed his ambitions rather than any political miscalculation. Which is a shame, IMO. He might have been the best of his family, but that could also be the luster of an untimely death preventing him from having had the opportunity to disappoint anyone.

[AnakinFlair]

I think that actually happened with one of the presidents. Woodrow Wilson, maybe? Or Ronald Reagan?

Ah ... it was Wilson
https://www.historynet.com/big-lie-w...presidency.htm

Wow. So the first female President was actually Edith Wilson. Never knew that.

Although in RFK's case, it was an assassin who derailed his ambitions rather than any political miscalculation. Which is a shame, IMO. He might have been the best of his family, but that could also be the luster of an untimely death preventing him from having had the opportunity to disappoint anyone.

I think his assassination put a permanent halo over RFK's head. Maybe he was the best of the Kennedy's, but I've also heard he was a right bastard as well and had a vicious mean streak to anyone he considered an enemy.


A question for someone who doesn't live in Massachusetts: are the Kennedy's still a big deal there? It doesn't feel like they should be to me, but I'm not from that area.

[BeastieRunner]

Robert fought for the farmers, the farm workers, the Mexicans, and the Filipinos.

He was pretty well regarded.

[Zauriel]

Joe Jr., John, Bobby and Ted were probably the only members of the Kennedy family who served their country. Three of them fought in the WWII and one of them was killed in action. Strangely, I don't remember whether their children and grandchildren ever joined the US military and served their country. Also the Kennedy brothers' father, grandfather (the 1st American-born Kennedy) and great-grandfather (an immigrant) also never joined the US military. (Foreign-born immigrants are allowed to serve in the US military, if they became naturalized citizens)

It is hard to believe that John and Bobby were the children of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., the US ambassador who fled to the countryside while the Germans were raining bombs on London. The other ambassadors remained in London during the bombings. It prompted a British official to comment, "I thought dandelions were yellow until I met Joseph Kennedy". Joe Senior's apparent cowardice ruined his chances of becoming President of the US, so he groomed his eldest son to seek the presidency. Joe Jr. was expected to enter the politics after the war but didn't live to do so. So Senior's expectations turned to his second son John for a run for the presidency..

[Steel Inquisitor]

Also an underrated aspect of the race is that Pelosi showed her ass a bit to support Joe Kennedy and basically removed any credibility in progressive primaries after she’d been trying to snuff them out under the guise of unity to support incumbents. AOC played that perfectly too.

Pelosi endorsed AOC and Omar. She's not obligated to support every progressive politician, just like AOC didn't support Sharice Davids in the '16 primaries. AOC's just playing for the crowd, she's really good at riling up her base while balancing the act so she won't burn bridges with leadership.

[Tendrin]

https://twitter.com/tylerpager/statu...538194432?s=21

The DNC, which has previously been cash strapped...

... raised more than 350 million in August. that's more than double what Obama took in this same time frame in 2008.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Pelosi endorsed AOC and Omar. She's not obligated to support every progressive politician, just like AOC didn't support Sharice Davids in the '16 primaries. AOC's just playing for the crowd, she's really good at riling up her base while balancing the act so she won't burn bridges with leadership.

Haha way to miss the point. Has nothing to do with an obligation to support progressives. She made a big deal about not endorsing primary challenges. Then the first high profile moderate to challenge a progressive (one she worked with for 25 years) she makes an uncharacteristic endorsement for. Yeah she open the floodgates to people not caring what she thinks on primary challenges.

[Robotman]

Wow. So the first female President was actually Edith Wilson. Never knew that.

There’s a really great episode of Drunk History that details this event. I can’t recommend that show enough. Whether you’re a history buff or not, it’s very entertaining.

[The no face guy]

I've been tracking the polls on 538 and some new polls do show some serious tightening. Crazy as Trump's strategy is, it's getting traction.

As I've said earlier, Biden's campaign needs to get out it's "voice" a lot more. He needs to start running like he's actually campaigning for President.

The Democrats can't lose this opportunity. Seriously, a repeat of 2016 will be a disaster.

Yes it's been very effective strategy for Trump, recent polls have him winning in Michigan.

The democratic governor of Oregon finally did what the inept mayor of Portland could not do though, brought in the riot squad, and cracked down on the protestors by sweeping them off the street through mass arrests.

Perhaps that will drive the point home that once you engage in property damage, and continually set things on fire, you lose the right to protest.

Once Portland is out of play, Trump will have to find a new point of reference for leftist lawlessness, if Democratic governors are smart, they'll crack down on any unruly mobs, so the media attention goes back onto the Republican States who have failed to keep COVID under control, because of their own will full irresponsibility. The person who wins this election will be the one who controls the narrative.

[Tendrin]

Yes it's been very effective strategy for Trump, recent polls have him winning in Michigan.

One poll from the Trafalgar Group shows that.

The ASSUMPTION is that this is good for Trump has not actually been borne out in actually reputable polls, which the Trafalgar group isn't, despite their luck in 2016 they are a below average accuracy firm.

Also, as someone who lives in Portland, people outside the city such as yourself have an incredibly distorted view of what's happening here.

Trump is the guy fanning the flames. It's pretty obvious. Law and order only works when you aren't holding the matchbook in plain view.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Yes it's been very effective strategy for Trump, recent polls have him winning in Michigan.

The democratic governor of Oregon finally did what the inept mayor of Portland could not do though, brought in the riot squad, and cracked down on the protestors by sweeping them off the street through mass arrests.

Perhaps that will drive the point home that once you engage in property damage, and continually set things on fire, you lose the right to protest.

Once Portland is out of play, Trump will have to find a new point of reference for leftist lawlessness, if Democratic governors are smart, they'll crack down on any unruly mobs, so the media attention goes back onto the Republican States who have failed to keep COVID under control, because of their own will full irresponsibility. The person who wins this election will be the one who controls the narrative.

Yeah as much as it sucks if you people think the protests and riots are going to come to their neighborhood and Trump is selling himself as the tough guy who will crackdown, it’s going to win over people who just want to have security. Comfort is big in this country. It was the same issue with the economy. When it was good about 6 months ago, Trump always had a shot.

[Striderblack01]

Yes it's been very effective strategy for Trump, recent polls have him winning in Michigan.

The democratic governor of Oregon finally did what the inept mayor of Portland could not do though, brought in the riot squad, and cracked down on the protestors by sweeping them off the street through mass arrests.

Perhaps that will drive the point home that once you engage in property damage, and continually set things on fire, you lose the right to protest.

Once Portland is out of play, Trump will have to find a new point of reference for leftist lawlessness, if Democratic governors are smart, they'll crack down on any unruly mobs, so the media attention goes back onto the Republican States who have failed to keep COVID under control, because of their own will full irresponsibility. The person who wins this election will be the one who controls the narrative.

I've been thinking about the concept of political violence lately.

Haven't really come to any conclusions though. Just questions.
I think everyone knows that the rioting that we are experiencing counts as political violence.
It has a politically motivated cause - it may even have a goal.

Does Police Brutality against people of color count as political violence?

I think it does.

If so, does racial profiling count as political violence? Harsher sentences? Exclusion from jury selection? Gentrification?

Why are we, as a nation, so comfortable with all of that though?
Why do we let all of that slide?
Is it any wonder that when we do let it slide, that the victims would protest? Even riot?

There is a distinction between rioters and protesters.
The great thing about protesters is that they let you know who they are and what they want. They may inconvenience you to do so, but danger is not an explicit goal.
Rioters not so much.

Wanton destruction, while a mark of civil unrest, is politically impotent. It does not communicate your goals, nor does it engender the political will to achieve them.

Having said that, I think it's pretty easy to just condemn rioters.
It's even easier to not draw any distinction between a protester and a rioter, especially if you disagree with their goals.
But it's a lot harder to acknowledge the conditions, the violence if you will, that both groups are responding to.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump Stopped Going to Dover AFB To Receive Bodies After Getting Berated On First Visit

Vice President Pence attended “dignified transfer” ceremonies for two years by himself after the father of a slain SEAL “rattled” Trump In February 2017. So, President Snowflake couldn't handle a little criticism. What a surprise.

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Melania Trump Used Private Email While In White House, Former Adviser Claims

President Donald Trump has continued to attack his former rival, Hillary Clinton, for her own use of a private email server while in office. Tell us again how what Hillary allegedly had done was seen as treason by Republicans?

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Trump Repeats Conspiracy Theory About Super-Scary Antifa-Laden Planes

The president’s latest unproven fearmongering involves groups of left-wing extremists allegedly flying commercial to wreak havoc on ordinary Americans. Which leads to this:

CNN Fact-Checker: Trump’s ‘Dark Shadows’ Claim Is ‘Almost Too Stupid’ To Debunk

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Trump Insists Portland Is ‘Ablaze All The Time’; Fire Department Says No, It Really Isn’t

“WE ARE NOT ABLAZE IN PORTLAND,” a spokesperson for the Oregon city’s fire department told CNN, saying fires had occurred only in an “isolated pocket.” Wow! Trump lied! Who saw THAT coming?

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Sanjay Gupta Points Out Just How Unusual Trump’s Walter Reed Visit Really Was

The president repeatedly denied that he had a “mini-stroke,” even though no news agency claimed he had suffered one. I'm guessing the people will NEVER know just what happened during that hospital visit.

**********

Court Blocks Release Of Trump Tax Returns Amid Latest Appeal

Trump is the only modern president who has refused to release his tax returns. Before he was elected, he had promised to do so. At this point, I don't give a shit anymore. Let's just vote Trump out come November.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Troy King, the former Attorney General of Alabama who led unsuccessful witch hunts to root out voter fraud, and was a vocal opponent against pornography and sexual deviancy, including an attempt to outlaw sex toys in his state. Amongst his definition of sexual deviancy was homosexuality, and King, who argued against gay rights, was apparently caught in bed with a young male intern he hired out of Troy University and gave a $60,000 salary by his wife, and was quietly swept under the rug by the Alabama GOP, who highly funded a primary opponent against him in the next election cycle. After a decade of laying low, Troy King made a 2020 bid for U.S. House of Representatives in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District, finishing 4th among 7 candidates with 14.5% of the vote.

It was on this date in 2015 that we published our original "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Chris Lee, the former New York Congressman who was trolling for sexual encounters on Craigslist one day, until an uninterested woman recognized him as her Congressman and outed him to Gawker.com (RIP). Gawker then dug a little deeper and found out not just that Rep. Lee was running around on his wife online, he was also frequently attempting to solicit sex from transgender or cross-dressing prostitutes. Not a good look for a guy who consistently voted against LGBTQ rights, y’know? Chris Lee (who is still not related to the legendary actor) has been out of office almost six years now, and probably won’t be back.

On this date this date in 2016 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published a profile about Mike Pryor, a candidate to serve District 16 in the Iowa State Senate. Where things get interesting, is in Pryor’s biography and introduction to the world of politics. Mike Pryor is a rarity… he’s a GOP candidate who openly identifies as gay. However, it would be perhaps misleading to say he’s “out and proud”, based on his own description of himself as a candidate, where he admitted to also having gone to jail for disturbing the peace, and been through personal bankruptcy. But, in spite of himself being gay, Mike Pryor is decidedly anti-gay when he can say things like, ”That issue is an intersection of civil rights, r-i-g-h-t-s, and religious rites, r-i-t-e. It’s the unhappy intersection of both. For the community, I certainly believe everybody needs to be equal. Has gay marriage necessarily benefited our community? It certainly has benefited some folks. Others, not so much. We joke that the only people making any money off of gay marriage are divorce lawyers.” Mike Pryor is also admirably, a longtime foster parent who in spite of having a child he formerly cared for killed in 2009 in a drive-by shooting still is an advocate of interpreting the Second Amendment right to bear arms in absolute terms. Pryor lost his bid for office in 2016 by 25 points.

On this date in 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Missouri state legislator Bob Dixon, a Missouri state legislator who served 8 years in the Missouri House and moved up to the Missouri State Senate in the 2010 Tea Party wave who at one point during the 2016 elections, had designs on trying to win the GOP Primary to become the next Governor of Missouri. Now, while at first, hearing someone was running as a Republican with the platform of supporting smaller government and “traditional marriage” while opposing abortion might sound pretty par for the course, Bob Dixon turned a lot of heads when he claimed that he had been sexually abused as a teenager, and that it made him have “teenage confusion” that made him question his sexuality so he was gay for a years until a religious experience in 1988 convinced him he should be straight and marry a woman and live out his days as such. Alright, there’s a lot to unpack here. First off, being gay isn’t a choice. (Dixon’s by all demonstrated history, bisexual, and just hasn’t had any sex with any men in awhile.) Second, can’t say we’re thrilled about Dixon implying that being molested is a gateway to experimenting with a gay lifestyle. Perhaps the real cause for the disclosure was that a newspaper article from over a quarter century ago turned up where Bob Dixon’s mother, former state legislature Jean Dixon, outed him. By 1992, as far as the Dixon’s were concerned, Bob had just decided he was straight, and that was that. He popped into the Missouri House of Representatives in 2002 without anyone really thinking much about it, because by that point, he had a wife and a couple kids. Well, needless to say, Republican primary voters didn’t exactly rally around the idea of an ex-gay candidate, and four months into Bob Dixon’s bid to win Missouri’s Governor’s mansion in 2016, he bailed on his campaign, opting to stay in the State Senate. And even if that story weren’t to be an obstacle for him, Dixon had quite the quote during a bill discussing prescription drug monitoring in 2016, saying, “Liberty, schmiberty… I’ve heard enough about people’s liberty being taken away… I am tired of hearing these arguments over and over again, they just don’t hold any water for me.” Bob Dixon is term-limited in 2018, and his admissions about his sexual orientation would likely divide GOP voters, half of whom would not vote for him for admitting he was gay at any point in his life, and even if he made it out of a primary, he would have trouble being elected against a Democrat, even in Missouri for his belief that gay conversion therapy somehow “corrected” him. Dixon is running for Greene County Commissioner in 2018, which seems to indicate that his upward mobility in Missouri politics is coming to a screeching halt, all right.

On this date in 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled about former Ohio state legislator Wesley Goodman, a staunch social conservative who was first elected to office back in 2014. In the tradition of hypocritial Republicans who are secretly gay with anti gay voting records… Goodman was outed when he chose to go about sexin’ in his office in the state legislature with another dude and someone walked in on him. If there were any sympathy that might have been had for a man forced to live a lie in his politics… it sure went out the door even faster when over 30 people came forward admitting that Goodman had sent them unsolicited dick pics or sexually harassed them, including gents as young as 17, or, y’know, half Goodman’s age. And wouldn’t you know it, while in Washington, D.C., prior to becoming a state legislator, Goodman was a Congressional aide for Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan. The same Jim Jordan who is currently being accused of participating in a cover-up of young men being sexually assaulted by a trainer while working as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University. If this all didn’t seem to be a nexus of anti-gay hatemongers being secret sexual predators, well, it gets even crazier. Back in 2015, Wesley Goodman was hanging around the anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council, when at one of their retreats, he let himself into the hotel room of an 18 year old boy and sexually assaulted him while he was sleeping, and THAT sexual assault was covered up by CSGOPOTD alum Tony Perkins. So… yes, Wesley Goodman resigned, his wife left him, and he’s almost certainly not going to turn up in the news again, assuming he doesn’t try to prey on an underaged male again. We’ll retire his profile at this time and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Mike Yenni, who was the Mayor of Kenner, Louisiana from 2010-2016, and was elected President of Jefferson Parish in the 2015 election. As a Republican touting his family values and his marriage to his wife and being the father of two children, it should come as little surprise that in his first year on the job, he was caught sexting a 17 year-old boy. Yenni tried assuring everyone of the fact that he “wasn’t gay”, but didn’t make any explanation for the fact that the boy he exchanged sexts with was, y’know, a boy, and not 18. That meant the FBI also opened an investigation, but for whatever reason, Yenni wasn’t charged with a crime. This wasn’t the first time Yenni was busted for sexting, either, as he did so as the chief administrative officer in Kenner, back before he was mayor, with both male and female members of his staff. He chose not to run for re-election in 2019, because he doesn’t think his marriage would do well with his predilections coming up as a topic while campaigning. (To say nothing about how it might do with it just being a thing that happened.) As he seems to be done with politics, we’ll set aside his profile at this time, and take a look at another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 908-45, since this was established in July 2014.