All purpose news and politics thread part VII: News & Politics Total Landscaping

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, who ascended to that position after former Gov. Nikki Haley accepted the nomination to be the Trump administration’s original Ambassador to the United Nations in 2017. At the time, he became the oldest person to ever serve as South Carolina Governor. He then won re-election with only 52% of the vote in the GOP Primary, and only 54% in the general election in the 2018 elections.

But it’s the long-term political history of Henry McMaster that concerns us. When he was fresh out of law school, McMaster was hired as a Legislative Assistant to none other than legendary segregationalist U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond in the capitol. An interesting influence. Other than that, McMaster was appointed U.S. Attorney to South Carolina by Ronald Reagan in 1981, and then kicked around South Carolina politics for almost thirty years. Losing elections for everything from U.S. Senate in ’86, Lieutenant Governor in ’90, and then chairing the South Carolina GOP for a decade from ’93 to ’02. He finally won an election in 2002 as Attorney General in 2002, and 2006, and unsuccessfully ran for Governor in 2010, losing to Nikki Haley. Haley kept McMaster relevant by putting him in charge of the Ports Authority of the state until the 2014 elections, when he made a second successful bid to become Lieutenant Governor. Then, he just waited for Haley to step aside, and he could finally be governor.

And it’s when you achieve an office that prestigious that people start asking, “So who is this guy who’s running the state, anyway?”

And… it should come as little shock that the guy who got his first job out of college from Strom Thurmond is, in the 21st century, still a a member of an All Whites Country Club. How such an establishment can still exist is one thing, but that a politician would be a member… and refuse to give up membership when people noticed… yeah. Yeah, that’s a bit disturbing.

In his first year in office in 2017, McMaster—along with the University of South Carolina, BlueCross BlueShield, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, and a number of prominent SC legislators—was connected to Richard Quinn and Associates, a firm he employed for political consulting purposes. Richard Quinn himself, is a known Neo-Confederate, and Associates was named as part of a larger corruption probe within the South Carolina General Assembly conducted by Special Prosecutor David Pascoe, which had already ended the careers of then-House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, who resigned and pleaded guilty to public corruption charges in 2014 Four South Carolina state legislators were indicted as part of Pascoe's corruption probe as of May 2017. In spite of all that… McMaster again refused to step away from Quinn... who any normal politician would distance themselves from for being a Neo-Confederate, let alone corrupt for two whole months. Under pressure and losing momentum in the GOP Primary for Governor in 2018, McMaster finally relented and cut ties with Quinn.

As a Governor, McMaster has stated he would sign legislation, if passed by the General Assembly, that "would allow anyone who is legally allowed to buy a gun to do so without a state permit and carry it openly or concealed.”, which isn’t strange for a Republican governor nowadays. What is strange is when students did a walkout to protest gun violence and to call for stricter gun control only a month after the Parkland shooting, McMaster described the student walkout as "shameful" and said that it was a "tricky move" orchestrated by "left wing groups" which were using the students as "tools" to further their left wing agenda. David Hogg, one of the most politically active survivors of the Parkland shooting, criticized McMaster, saying in a tweet that "future voters will not reelect you and outlive you too. "

Adding to this racist old mummy’s disturbing extremism is his support of fetal heartbeat anti-choice bills. He spent 2020 mismanaging South Carolina’s Covid-19 restrictions, which maybe if he had reduced the number of infections, he wouldn’t have set up an environment to get himself infected.

When he wasn't fighting back against federal vaccine mandates, accusing public health experts of “hyperbole” and “exaggerating” the threat, and downplaed the threat of the Omicron variant, McMaster is declaring that any discussion of the existence of LGBTQ people in school libraries is “obscene material” and trying to ban it, since he’s so in line with the First Amendment.

McMaster regrettably won re-election to a second term in 2022, and has taken his party further down the toilet in terms of rhetoric, “joking” about how he would “hunt Democrats with dogs” in his state because “they’re so rare”. Just for optics… McMaster remains a member of a “whites only” club, and you’ll never believe what demographic group in South Carolina make up the bulk of the party’s Democrats… yeah, it’s African Americans. So this had the kind of coded rhetoric of somebody looking to start a lynching party.

Henry McMaster, barring any criminal activity, scandal, or visit from the Grim Reaper given he is a methusaleh, will be in office until 2026.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” ran a profile of the former U.S. Senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl, whose quarter century career in Congress finished rather distastefully, as during the GOP’s 2011 efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, he took to the floor to smear the organization, saying “abortions are 90% of what Planned Parenthood does”. When fact-checkers informed the Senator he was off by about, oh… 30 times what their annual budget is spent on (and none of the money they spend on abortion is government funded), Kyl offered no apologies and said that portion of his speech was “not intended to be a factual statement”. Kyl also justified the passage of SB 1070 by Arizona Republicans by saying illegal immigration had led to Phoenix becoming “the kidnapping capitol of the United States”, which was also false. He also tried claiming eliminating the Bush era tax cuts would not help close the annual budget deficit of the U.S., so it really was a bit of a habit. He was always terribly partisan, including his vote to impeach Bill Clinton during that administration as a member of the House, and in the Senate during the Obama administration, he compared the president’s remarks about the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi to “a judge telling a woman she deserved to be raped for how she was dressed”. Which is shocking, but also doesn’t make a lick of sense. Jon Kyl retired, only to come out of retirement to be appointed to the Senate again for a few months for the privilege of voting for Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, only to skulk back to Arizona and into retirement again. Thus, his blatant lies are no longer a part of the Senate (the rest of the Republicans in it are more than making up for what dishonesty void he left).

In both 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as in 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published its profiles of Tom Morrison, an incredibly homophobic member of the Illinois House of Representatives, who first entered the fray in politics back in the Tea Party Wave of 2010. Back in March of 2013, where he began responding to e-mails from several constituents inquiring about forthcoming legislation that would legalize same sex marriage, and he felt the need to make a “slippery slope” argument beyond the pale. In one, Morrison suggested that legal gay marriage would open the door to also legalize bisexual polygamy. But that apparently wasn’t enough homophobic fear-mongering for Morrison, as a month later, he sent another response to a constituent that not only included the polygamy comparison, but also mentioned that legalizing same sex marriage could lead to marriages between a man and “a consenting 9-year-old girl”. After taking a beating when the public found out about it, Morrison apologized and claimed his e-mail was written “in haste” and he doesn’t actually equate gay marriage to statutory rape, even though it was pretty plain that’s exactly what he was doing. If supporting bans on same sex marriage weren't enough, Tom Morrison has also voted against bans on the practice of gay conversion therapy, so there's that, as well. Morrison didn’t back off of his anti-LGBTQ stances going into 2016, as he added transphobia to his resume, submitting HB 4474 back in January of 2016 to try and institute bathroom regulations on the transgendered to use the bathroom of the gender they were born as. It mercifully failed to pass without incident. In 2017, as he voted against HB 1785, a bill that allowed transgendered citizens in Illinois the right to change their gender on their birth certificate records. Of course, that wasn’t the only ridiculous vote he participated in, as he also voted against an increase in the minimum wage in Illinois (during the greatest period of income inequality in our nation’s history), and when a bill turned up to ban “bump” stocks that can turn a semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic one after the greatest mass shooting in American history occurred in Las Vegas, he voted against that as well. This intolerant twit got to run for re-election in 2016 unopposed in either the GOP Primary or the general election to allow for another two years of him continuing his narrow-minded crusade against the LGBTQ community. In 2018, we regret to inform you that he held onto his seat in the Illinois state legislature by a whopping 43 votes, out of almost 43,000 cast. This was in spite of Morrison being identified as a supporter of a pastor in Arizona convicted in court for physically abusing children. That’s right, the holier-than-thou Republican who’s convinced letting gay people get married would lead to them having sex with children is actually perfectly fine with the abuse of children, so long as you do it while preaching the gospel. And so, with another term in office, Morrison continued his transphobic crusade, sponsoring legislation in March of 2020 to punish doctors who treat transgendered youth with hormone treatments. Tom Morrison opted to not run for re-election in 2022.

On Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’re profiling the former U.S. Senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby, who just retired in 2022 after serving in office since 1986, and stabbing Democrats in the back by cravenly switching parties in 1994 after the Red Wave election of that year. Sen. Shelby was once, of course, brave enough to show extremists nominated by Republican presidents the door, like he did when Robert Bork was nominated and he was a Democrat, but he rubber-stamped in Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney-Barrett during his tenure, just falling into partisan territory to assure he’d be the longest serving Senator from Alabama. And of course, he supported replacing Ruth Bader-Ginsburg immediately following her death in 2020 while Trump was in office, reversing his position from four years earlier when Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace Antonin Scalia. He of course celebrated when the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was made. On guns, Sen. Shelby was in the NRA’s pocket for decades, going as far in 2016 to vote against a bill that would deny firearms sales to anyone on a terror watch list. When asked why he voted against it, he admitted he didn’t want terrorists to easily get guns… but hey, the 2nd Amendment being without limit means more to him, alright? Shelby was cowardly enough in his final term in office to sign off on Donald Trump’s policies on the U.S. border, and like most of his party, ran from reporters for four years rather than make excuses for the Orange Menace’s non-stop gaffes, failures, and outrages. A man who voted to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about a blowjob saw no problem with Donald Trump withholding Congressionally approved funds for Ukraine in exchange for political favors, or for literally staging a coup that centered on his workplace of 36 years. He also voted “abstain” on the creation of the Jan. 6th committee, because that would make certain people in his party face consequences. All the way back in 2001, he was in league with Fox News, leaking classified intercepted messages from Al Qaeda to them, but after an investigation confirmed he did it in 2004, the Bush administration’s Dept. of Justice looked the other way BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DID, they were using Fox News as a propaganda arm for the War on Terror the whole eight years they were in power. (Shelby’s actions could have, of course, led to agents in the field being revealed to the enemy as informants.) He should have been in jail two decades ago, but crimes don’t matter to Republicans, provided they’re the ones doing them with whatever power they’re given, rather than been pitching a flat tax in 2021 that would have imploded the American economy in an act of legislative malpractice, but hey, it would benefit him after he inflated his own wealth to $19 million by the time he retired. at the age of 87. We will retire his profile at this time and we will set aside his profile at this time to profile another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1281-60, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Mike Turzai
Welcome to what is the 1281st original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Mike Turzai, the former Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for two decades from 2001 to 2020, serving District 28 of that body. Of course, we can’t forget that in 1998, he challenged Democratic Congressman Ron Klink for his seat serving PA-4, and during that race Turzai was widely lambasted for hiring a helicopter to circle his opponent’s home, as well as sending a camera crew to attempt to ambush him.

But during his time as a Pennsylvania state legislator, he was noted to be so against legalizing even medical cannabis use that even debate over it would literally drive him to tears. Turzai was noted for his repeated attempts at voter suppression, especially in the wake of the 2010 Tea Party Wave. After passing a Voter ID law in 2012, Turzai went to give a speech at a Republican State Committee Meeting that it wasn’t meant to stop the voter fraud that the GOP are always baying about, but can never prove… no, the law was created to try and help Mitt Romney win the presidency. He’s Turzai, saying the quiet part out loud…

”Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation – abortion facility regulations – in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

In Turzai’s last year in office, he was suspected of deliberately covering up the Covid-19 positive diagnosis of fellow anti-mask Republicans, and then sending them into meetings with their Democratic counterparts… which if proven, could have resulted in charges of bio-terrorism. Which sounds like something that a douchebag willing to spread misinformation about coronavirus like it only threatens children in poor health, and try to reopen schools so everyone gets sick as early as two months into the pandemic.

Mike Turzai had an unsuccessful run for Governor in 2018, failing to get out of the GOP Primary, and after opting to not run for re-election in 2020, has moved on to become the general counsel for a natural gas company, which would probably explain why throughout his legislative career, he kept fighting to try and keep such entities from being taxed.

We would like to wish him our finest, “Good Riddance” salutes at this time, and hope this anti-democratic twit never re-emerges to run for higher office.

[scourge]

And now we have even more of the Republicans being vile and bigoted.

But I'm sure we'll have someone telling us how its not a big deal soon.

Meanwhile Florida...in a move that reminds me another place we might know...wants to protect homophobes and bigots more than anyone else.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

And now we have even more of the Republicans being vile and bigoted.

But I'm sure we'll have someone telling us how its not a big deal soon.

Meanwhile Florida...in a move that reminds me another place we might know...wants to protect homophobes and bigots more than anyone else.

Hardly surprising. I've said this here more than once: the LGBTQ community are the only group of people Qpublicans can safely attack and seek to legislate out of existence without any threat of blowback or political consequences.

[CaptainEurope]

Bill O’Reilly slams his books being banned by Florida school district as ‘preposterous’

Florida Freedom to Read Project obtained a list of over a thousand books that were currently pulled down by Florida’s Escambia County School District (ECPS). Two of O’Reilly’s books, “Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency” and “Killing Jesus: A History,” were on the list.

The books on the list were “pulled” for “further review” to comply with Florida’s HB 1069 bill that passed in July.

“The 1,000+ books they reference have not been banned or removed from the school district; rather, they have simply been pulled for further review to ensure compliance with the new legislation,” ECPS spokesperson Cody Strother told Pensacola News Journal.

“It’s absurd,” O’Reilly told Newsweek when reacting to the decision. “Preposterous.”

The legislation intends to limit books in the state’s schools that are “alleged to contain pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct.” It was signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Now O’Reilly, who initially supported the legislation, saying “abuse” was going on in the state, now says that the law needs to be “tightened up.”

“When DeSantis signed the book law, I supported the theme because there was abuse going on in Florida. There were far-left progressive people trying to impose an agenda on children, there’s no doubt about it. And the state has an obligation to protect children. But the wording of the law was far too nebulous in Tallahassee,” O’Reilly told Newsweek on Friday.

“So, that law needs to be tightened up, DeSantis needs to come out publicly and say ‘this is insane, we’re not going to cooperate with this and we’re going to investigate the people who did it,'” O’Reilly said.

Prediction: DeSantis will not.

[Kirby101]

Though I feel bad about him getting sick, President Biden will probably have no choice but to ask Secretary Austin to resign.

I don't think so. He had an acute infection from prostate cancer surgery. The cancer is very survivable (well over 90%) and the hospitalization was short.

[aja_christopher]

"Texas "physically barred" Border Patrol agents from trying to rescue migrants who drowned, federal officials say"

"A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday while trying to enter the U.S. near a section of the southern border where Texas National Guard soldiers have prevented federal Border Patrol agents from processing and rescuing migrants.

Federal officials and a Texas congressman said National Guard soldiers deployed by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not allow Border Patrol agents to attempt to rescue the migrants. Earlier this week, Texas National Guard soldiers abruptly seized control of a public park in Eagle Pass that Border Patrol had been using to hold migrants, marking the latest escalation in an intensifying political and legal feud between Abbott and President Biden over U.S. border policy.

On Friday night, Border Patrol identified six migrants in the Rio Grande who were in distress near the park, known as Shelby Park, Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar said in a statement Saturday. Federal agents, Cuellar added, unsuccessfully attempted to contact Texas state officials about the emergency by phone. Then, when Border Patrol agents went to the park and asked to be allowed to render aid to the migrants, they were denied entry, according to Cuellar.

"Texas Military Department soldiers stated they would not grant access to the migrants — even in the event of an emergency — and that they would send a soldier to investigate the situation," Cuellar said, noting that Mexican officials recovered three bodies on Saturday."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-migra...border-agents/

[thwhtGuardian]

"Texas "physically barred" Border Patrol agents from trying to rescue migrants who drowned, federal officials say"

"A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday while trying to enter the U.S. near a section of the southern border where Texas National Guard soldiers have prevented federal Border Patrol agents from processing and rescuing migrants.

Federal officials and a Texas congressman said National Guard soldiers deployed by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not allow Border Patrol agents to attempt to rescue the migrants. Earlier this week, Texas National Guard soldiers abruptly seized control of a public park in Eagle Pass that Border Patrol had been using to hold migrants, marking the latest escalation in an intensifying political and legal feud between Abbott and President Biden over U.S. border policy.

On Friday night, Border Patrol identified six migrants in the Rio Grande who were in distress near the park, known as Shelby Park, Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar said in a statement Saturday. Federal agents, Cuellar added, unsuccessfully attempted to contact Texas state officials about the emergency by phone. Then, when Border Patrol agents went to the park and asked to be allowed to render aid to the migrants, they were denied entry, according to Cuellar.

"Texas Military Department soldiers stated they would not grant access to the migrants — even in the event of an emergency — and that they would send a soldier to investigate the situation," Cuellar said, noting that Mexican officials recovered three bodies on Saturday."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-migra...border-agents/

But you have to understand, they were brown so it means they were probably rapists, drug mules, violent gang members, Muslim terrorists...or more possibly even all of those at the same time, so what happened was totally acceptable. Gotta have strong borders.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

"Texas "physically barred" Border Patrol agents from trying to rescue migrants who drowned, federal officials say"

"A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday while trying to enter the U.S. near a section of the southern border where Texas National Guard soldiers have prevented federal Border Patrol agents from processing and rescuing migrants.

Federal officials and a Texas congressman said National Guard soldiers deployed by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not allow Border Patrol agents to attempt to rescue the migrants. Earlier this week, Texas National Guard soldiers abruptly seized control of a public park in Eagle Pass that Border Patrol had been using to hold migrants, marking the latest escalation in an intensifying political and legal feud between Abbott and President Biden over U.S. border policy.

On Friday night, Border Patrol identified six migrants in the Rio Grande who were in distress near the park, known as Shelby Park, Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar said in a statement Saturday. Federal agents, Cuellar added, unsuccessfully attempted to contact Texas state officials about the emergency by phone. Then, when Border Patrol agents went to the park and asked to be allowed to render aid to the migrants, they were denied entry, according to Cuellar.

"Texas Military Department soldiers stated they would not grant access to the migrants — even in the event of an emergency — and that they would send a soldier to investigate the situation," Cuellar said, noting that Mexican officials recovered three bodies on Saturday."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/3-migra...border-agents/

And yet, that won’t stop migrants from trying crossing the border. Like I’ve already said in a previous post, these are desperate people seeking to escape the one-two gut punch of unimaginable poverty and rampant violence from drug cartels. These are people more than willing to risk the possibility of death at the border over the mortal lock certainty of same in their home countries. Until those issues are addressed, nothing will change.

[Tami]

I don't think so. He had an acute infection from prostate cancer surgery. The cancer is very survivable (well over 90%) and the hospitalization was short.

Maybe, but it will take a lot of effort on Secretary Austin's part to prove that he is trustworthy and knows now never to do anything like that again.

[thwhtGuardian]

And yet, that won’t stop migrants from trying crossing the border. Like I’ve already said in a previous post, these are desperate people seeking to escape the one-two gut punch of unimaginable poverty and rampant violence from drug cartels. These are people more than willing to risk the possibility of death at the border over the mortal lock certainty of same in their home countries. Until those issues are addressed, nothing will change.

On top of that, border actions like this one don't even put a dent on illegal immigration as most people here illegally didn't cross our southern border like the poor people in this situation: they came here by boat or commercial airlines and they did so legally and then over stayed their visas.

You really want to see a decline in illegal immigration? Get tough on the companies that employ people on temporary visas...but we won't see that because big businesses are people too and we shouldn't burden them.

[Jack Dracula]

On top of that, border actions like this one don't even put a dent on illegal immigration as most people here illegally didn't cross our southern border like the poor people in this situation: they came here by boat or commercial airlines and they did so legally and then over stayed their visas.

You really want to see a decline in illegal immigration? Get tough on the companies that employ people on temporary visas...but we won't see that because big businesses are people too and we shouldn't burden them.

We can do that while also funding the ATF and tightening gun laws to stop the flow of weapons from the U.S. into those countries.
The drug gangs aren’t making their own guns. They’re getting them from crooked gun dealers and thieves stealing from owners here in the states.

[Mister Mets]

And yet, that won’t stop migrants from trying crossing the border. Like I’ve already said in a previous post, these are desperate people seeking to escape the one-two gut punch of unimaginable poverty and rampant violence from drug cartels. These are people more than willing to risk the possibility of death at the border over the mortal lock certainty of same in their home countries. Until those issues are addressed, nothing will change.

It should be possible to secure the border even if some people really want to come to the United States.

We could also process asylum claims faster.

We need to have immigration enforcement independent of conditions in other countries. It can't be that the only solution is the uncertain task of making other countries better.

On top of that, border actions like this one don't even put a dent on illegal immigration as most people here illegally didn't cross our southern border like the poor people in this situation: they came here by boat or commercial airlines and they did so legally and then over stayed their visas.

You really want to see a decline in illegal immigration? Get tough on the companies that employ people on temporary visas...but we won't see that because big businesses are people too and we shouldn't burden them.

Right now, there's an increase in people crossing through the southern border.

The United States can always go after visa overstays in addition to securing the border. In those cases, there's a record of the people.

I don't think so. He had an acute infection from prostate cancer surgery. The cancer is very survivable (well over 90%) and the hospitalization was short.

The problem isn't his illness; it's that he was out of commission for several days without telling others in the White House or in his department.

Personally, I want every presidential primary to be held in either May and/or June.

I'm okay with this. It allows for a later start to the primaries, and a shorter general election campaign.

[Panfoot]

https://www.advocate.com/politics/tr...-west-virginia

Multiple draconian bills were introduced in the state’s legislature this week, with advocates drawing attention to their severe implications. One forces mental health professionals to “cure” transgender people from their gender identity, and another categorizes transgender people as “obscene material,” essentially making transgender individuals’ existence in many public spaces illegal, independent journalist Erin Reed, who specializes in transgender-related legal coverage, reports. Yet another criminalizes their presence near schools.

And yet another one