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

[Jack Dracula]

I'd love to start a movement or something similar and I think I have a name for it: Americans for Restoring Common Sense (ARCS)

It would be an organized effort to get Americans to understand the difference between rational, logical, reasonable thought/behavior and irrational, impracticable, unreasonable, and off the deep end thought and behavior. Maybe even, if possible, make rational thought popular enough to get more people to use it.

Tami, you might like the Rationally Speaking podcast hosted by Julia Galef. I’ve been a listener for a couple of years.


Rationallyspeakingpodcast.org

[Tami]

Tami, you might like the Rationally Speaking podcast hosted by Julia Galef. I’ve been a listener for a couple of years.


Rationallyspeakingpodcast.org

When I have the time I'll check it out. Thanks.

[Robotman]

Science is revealing why American politics are so intensely polarized

Obviously humans are a tribal species and we’ve been following and identifying with totems for ages, but we also live in a time where it’s profitable to make people scared and angry. People can make a good living by getting clicks and “influencing” others. Social media has helped polarize the country and made it a lot easier for use to be fooled by misinformation from at home and abroad.

If JFK was the first president of the TV age then I guess Trump is the first toxic social media president.

[Jack Dracula]

Obviously humans are a tribal species and we’ve been following and identifying with totems for ages, but we also live in a time where it’s profitable to make people scared and angry. People can make a good living by getting clicks and “influencing” others. Social media has helped polarize the country and made it a lot easier for use to be fooled by misinformation from at home and abroad.

If JFK was the first president of the TV age then I guess Trump is the first toxic social media president.

Agreed. Trump ushered in the post-truth era of “alternative facts”.

[worstblogever]

Obviously humans are a tribal species and we’ve been following and identifying with totems for ages, but we also live in a time where it’s profitable to make people scared and angry. People can make a good living by getting clicks and “influencing” others. Social media has helped polarize the country and made it a lot easier for use to be fooled by misinformation from at home and abroad.

If JFK was the first president of the TV age then I guess Trump is the first toxic social media president.

Amplified with the aid of Russian bots.

[Username taken]

Nikki Haley questions whether Trump is ‘mentally fit’ after he confuses her with Nancy Pelosi

I am still baffled how people question Biden's mental abilities when Trump keeps making gaffe after gaffe.

It's just crazy.

[Tami]

I am still baffled how people question Biden's mental abilities when Trump keeps making gaffe after gaffe.

It's just crazy.

They believe with their eyes and not their ears, since they only hear what they want to hear. To them, Biden looks old, maybe if he died his hair he would get a higher approval rating.

Trump is the actor, like Reagan, Trump paints himself to appear younger. He colors his hair, his skin, he wears lifts and and he presents as a man younger than his years...and many people buy it.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” ran a profile of Ed Martin, a not-so-lovable loser in Missouri elections who has lost every election he’s run for any office since 2005. In fact, his political high water mark was still when he was appointed to be former Gov. Matt Blunt’s chief of staff, but was forced to resign for sending out anti-abortion e-mails from his government e-mail account, and when caught, violated Missouri’s Sunshine Laws by trying to delete any evidence of his wrongdoing and was forced to resign. During his 2010 campaign against Congressman Russ Carnahan, he spread as many lies as possible as he could about the Affordable Care Act, like that it funded abortions, and started launching attacks at both Carnahan’s wife, for working with Planned Parenthood, and Carnahan’s late father, while cheering on a crowd that burned a photo of Carnahan while chanting “death to the dictator”. He also said the 80% of the country who supported the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were “out of touch”, that “climate change science is garbage”, and on a local radio show, claimed that President Obama and Russ Carnahan wanted to “take away your chance to find the Lord,” in the ultimate example of a victimized Christian. While Martin didn’t win a trip to Washington, D.C., he did win the election to become the new leader of the Missouri Republican Party, in spite of all that for a stint, and currently is being surgically excised from Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum via lawsuit. When you’re too nutty for them, that says a lot.

On this date in 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published its profiles of Kansas State Senator Steve Fitzgerald, who back in 2012, was a guest at a forum where he was introduced by a Ernest Evans, a political science professor at Kansas City Community College, who opened up the question and answer session with a joke, of sorts, sarcastically asking the famous loaded question of, “When did you stop beating your wife?” to get a laugh from the audience. Y’know, it’s the classic “the media is out to get you” reference. Well, what Evans probably wasn’t expecting was Steve Fitzgerald took the bait, and joked back, “Who said I stopped?” and then was surprised when nobody thought making light of abusing your spouse was hilarious. Fitzgerald also once told a group of Catholics that “one cannot support the Democratic platform and be a true follower of Christ” because Democrats support gay marriage. When you consider Jesus never said anything about gays, and was pretty specific about feeding the hungry and aiding the poor, the GOP platform seems a lot more out of synch with his teachings. Just to nitpick. Fitzgerald also has a staunchly conservative legislative record, including showing his Pro-Life credentials by sponsoring the “Kansas Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act”, his vote to drug test welfare recipients, his attempts to nullify federal firearms laws, his cooperation with insane Kansas Governor Sam Brownback on his tax breaks for the rich at the expense of the poor, and his sponsorship of a bill to legalize concealed carry without a permit in Kansas. In March of 2017, Fitzgerald added to his extremist anti-abortion statements by, upon learning that someone made a donation to Planned Parenthood in his name, comparing Planned Parenthood to the Nazi concentration camp at Dauchau. When asked if he sent the letter by the media, Fitzgerald admitted he did, called the letter he received “harassment” and “political theatre”, but thought that people should be confused over who should be offended, saying, “I think the Nazis ought to be incensed by the comparison.” He went on to then compare Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, while he was at it. In July of 2018, Steve Fitzgerald decided to go full-on white nationalist in his talking points, when during a meeting of the Leavenworth County GOP, he spoke about how “Christendom is under attack”, and that “outside of Western civilization, there is barbarism”. For whatever reason, he thought that meant he’d be a great U.S. Congressman, and in 2018, ran for the U.S. House seat for Kansas 2nd Congressional District, to replace the retiring Congresswoman, Lynn Jenkins. After finishing fourth in the primary, Fitzgerald announced he was retiring from politics.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled the long-time U.S. Senator from Kansas, Pat Roberts, was in Congress since 1981, serving eight terms in the U.S. House of Representatives for Kansas’ 1st District before winning a seat in the upper chamber in 1997 and sticking around until 2020. During his 1996 campaign for Senate, Roberts was the only major party candidate for Senate that year to not sign an agreement to honor term limits. He did, however, pledge that he would only serve two terms in the Senate. (Spoiler alert, his second term started in 2003, and he still ran for re-election for a third and fourth term in 2008 and 2014.) And that’s how there was an 84 year old Senator Pat Roberts. Well, that and you don’t pay attention to the fact that he hasn’t actually lived in Kansas since 2014, and lists a rental property he never actually visits as a golf course as his “home” back there. Seriously, he never went back to Kansas. If you needed that underlined any more for you, consider that Sen. Roberts’ personal website used a sunflower field that isn’t, in fact, in Kansas, but is actually a stock photo from Ukraine. While for some time, Pat Roberts has been thought of as one of the “more responsible” Republican Senators as the Tea Party wave gave way to the GOP becoming the “Party of Trump”, he has, in his old age, caved to the extremists within his own party repeatedly. In 2014, he actually followed Sen. Ted Cruz’s lead and voted against the Farm Bill… even though Roberts is from Kansas… and was the one who wrote the Farm Bill. He also allied himself with the loons when Bob Dole begged the Republican Party to vote for the United Nations’ treaty with people with disabilities, which is even sadder given Dole campaigned for Roberts’ 1996 Senate campaign back in Kansas while he was running for president. In 2016, Sen. Roberts may have put the cherry on top of his long, long history of anti-LGBTQ votes (including against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and for the Defense of Marriage Act) when he unilaterally blocked Eric Fanning as a nominee for Secretary of the Army because Fanning was openly gay. Roberts tried claiming it was because Fanning wanted to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, but critics noted, he was full of s***, because he’d voted for other nominees who also wanted Gitmo shut down. Pat Roberts was, like most Republicans, opposed to federal healthcare. After serving as one of the most staunch critics of the Affordable Care Act or any of the early versions of it that were up for votes in 2009, he supported every repeal of the bill that came forth in its wake from Republicans. In 2017, Sen. Roberts made some headlines during debate on the AHCA, aka Trumpcare, when he was arguing against funding for it also covering maternity and women’s health coverage. When asked about it by Alice Olstein, Roberts sarcastically quipped, “I wouldn’t want to lose my mammograms.” After facing widespread criticism for mocking breast cancer screenings, he reluctantly apologized on social media. Go figure, he also resents women’s rights so much that he stated in 2014 that calling Roe V. Wade “settled law” was “unconscionable”, and celebrating the ruling in the Supreme Court case that allowed employers to reject the contraceptive coverage of women on “religious grounds”. Oh, and he also shrugged when asked about investigations into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh being accused by multiple women of sexual assault, arguing against the FBI investigating the claims because, “What else could we learn?” As far as gun control discussions go, how typical is Pat Roberts, and his “A” rating from the NRA? Even in the wake of the Las Vegas Shooting, where more people were killed in a single mass shooting in American history by a madman with modified semi-automatic rifles who used bump stocks to effectively turn them into automatic weapons… even then, in the wake of the shooting when people thought gun stocks should be banned, Roberts insisted “I think it’s too early for that,” regarding ANY measures that could be taken. Roberts retired in 2020.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled John Green, who was elected in 2018 to represent District 2 of Idaho’s House of Representatives, and we’re starting to wonder if there’s some sort of curse on that seat. Because Green was preceded in office by one Eric Redman, who we covered a short time ago for having ties to Islamophobic hate groups who were writing bills for him to submit. After Green’s tenure, well, he got Tim Remington, who we’re going to have to profile for being a pastor and big Ted Cruz ally who railed against Covid-19 restrictions because he might have to close his church. John Green… his campaign for office was almost solely based on his die-hard belief in the 2nd Amendment, his further obsession with the 10th Amendment, and his loathing for the 14th Amendment, thinking that state legislatures should choose U.S. Senators for the state, and not allow the voters to do so themselves. On domestic issues, he was over-the-top kooky, supporting Personhood in regards to reproductive rights, and as a state legislator, far and away the most revolting thing you might notice would be that he voted against a ban on child marriage in Idaho. But we profile John Green not because of that extremism as a state legislator, but because a year into his term, he was convicted of tax fraud in a case in Texas where he worked as an attorney for a couple and helped them hide their wealth from the IRS. Once he was convicted, the Idaho House of Representatives had a vote to expel him from his elected position, and that vote was unanimous. He is the only person to have ever been granted this dishonor in the history of the Gem State. Bizarrely, John Green decided that being a convicted felon appealing his tax fraud case would make him a great candidate for sheriff and wanted to run for that in 2020. He was of course not regarded as a credible candidate given his legal woes. Green ended up getting a light six month sentence for fraud, and began serving time in June of 2021.

On this date in 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Paul Romero, a failed candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District in both 2016 and 2018, a failed candidate for U.S. Senate in Oregon in 2020, and a failed candidate running for Governor of Oregon in 2022. Now, running for particularly progressive-leaning districts in a blue state twice might be a tall order for a political win, let alone state-wide office for a political outsider running as a Republican in that same blue state… but what’s really hurting Romero’s own chances is how casually he refers to any Democrats in office as “socialist”. It’s not hard to see how the guy got radicalized if you look at his Twitter feed and see him sharing the thoughts of white nationalists like Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk or Jack Posobiec, dedicated Islamophobic hatemongers like Brigette Gabriel, Covid-19 truthers pushing anti-mask or anti-vaccination propaganda, or reliable “intelligence” from ancient former game show host Chuck Woolery about Joe and Hunter Biden in a secret corruption scandal with the Chinese government. Y’know, just normal boiler-plate policy for Republicans these days. But what really got everyone’s attention about Paul Romero in 2020 was when while state authorities were battling wildfires, he thought it would be a good idea to put out an outlandish claim on Twitter that they were deliberately set by “Fascist Marxists and ANTIFA” who… would not be working together on anything, let alone environmental terrorism. Qanon idiots started sharing it, because of course, and that caused several right-wing loons to show up at the Douglas County Sheriff’s office looking for details the police had about the “Antifa suspects” (that didn’t exist), and then there were others in militia goons that believed Romero who went out and started pulling guns on reporters covering the fire to see if they were somehow “Antifa”. Anyway, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department had to put out a press release to debunk Paul Romero’s dumb, dumb post before some idiots went and killed “Antifa”. Someone might want to let Dominion Voting Systems they also have another politician to sue for libel/slander, as Romero is spreading conspiracy theories about “election fraud” in the 2020 election as well. Romero wants to eliminate all income and property taxes in Oregon, restrict the ability of Child Protection Services to remove children from homes (we’re thinking there’s some Qanon “child trafficking by the government” motivation on that policy plank), among a slew of other really “out there” things he wants to shake up.

On this date in 2023, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Van Taylor, the former U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 3rd Congressional District who served from 2019 through 2022, and prior to that, spent eight years bouncing around the Texas state legislature. He had a failed bid for office in 2006 in Texas’ 17th Congressional District, but made no headway in general election due to the Democratic wave election of that year. His career was undone during the 2022 primary for his seat, when he missed the 50% cutoff for his seat and knew going into the runoff he would be branded as the guy who was cheating on his wife with the widow of an ISIS Jihadist. Really, as much as Republicans demonize Muslims, the fact that when no one’s looking, one of their own ended up shtupping a woman The Atlantic once referred to as “The First Lady of ISIS” (she has since started offering reprogramming therapy to Islamic extremists, regrettably, also bumping uglies with Republicans)… the hypocrisy of a party that invents conspiracy theories about what Democrats are doing behind closed doors with rumors about a “Muslim Brotherhood”, they just keep getting caught doing worse things. The hypocrisy of a supposed “family man” who opposed same sex marriage getting caught in an affair of his own is a story we just keep seeing told about members of the GOP year, after year, after year… so we will set aside his profile at this time to profile another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1284-60, since this was established in July 2014.


Dan Huberty
Welcome to what is the 1284th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Dan Huberty, a former member of the Texas House of Representatives who was first elected in the Tea Party Wave in 2010, and who in six terms in office, racked up another one of those “definitely a Texas Republican” voting records, where he was trying to ban abortion, eliminate as much gun control as he could to maximize deaths from firearms, force welfare recipients to be drug tested for the drugs they can’t afford, suppress the voting rights of Texas citizens, and harass the LGBTQ community. Particularly of note on that last item was his support of legislation to consider providing gender-affirming therapy to minors as “child abuse”.

He however, had trouble sponsoring that bill in the Texas House, though, on account of having been arrested around the same time for DWI after parking his Corvette under a minivan. That crime was enough to see him choose to not run for re-election.

We wish this transphobic piece of garbage are finest “GOOD RIDDANCE” salutes.

[Malvolio]

Obviously humans are a tribal species and we’ve been following and identifying with totems for ages, but we also live in a time where it’s profitable to make people scared and angry. People can make a good living by getting clicks and “influencing” others. Social media has helped polarize the country and made it a lot easier for use to be fooled by misinformation from at home and abroad.

If JFK was the first president of the TV age then I guess Trump is the first toxic social media president.

Let's hope he's also the last.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Agreed. Trump ushered in the post-truth era of “alternative facts”.

Kellyanne Conway coined the term "alternative facts" on day 1 after Sean Spicer claimed trumps inauguration was attended by more people than previous inaugurationssl.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I am still baffled how people question Biden's mental abilities when Trump keeps making gaffe after gaffe.

It's just crazy.

There should be a cap, octogenarians shouldn't be running the nation.

[Tami]

There should be a cap, octogenarians shouldn't be running the nation.

What's the worse that can happen? Some 80+ are still as healthy as they were in their 60's and still as mentally sharp. There are those in Congress under the age of 60 who should be examined by mental health professionals.

[Kirby101]

There should be a cap, octogenarians shouldn't be running the nation.

Where have you seen Biden not effective?

[Tendrin]

This is not only a hilarious roast of Steven Seagal, but also a good introduction to orientialism.