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

[worstblogever]

It was on this day in both 2015, as well as 2016, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Steve Martin, a former member of the Virginia legislature from 1988, serving five years in the General Assembly before moving to the Virginia State Senate from 1993 through 2016. The more famous silver-haired Steve Martin took to social media to ask that no one ever mixed him up with the Republican politician in February 2014 after the latter took to social media to argue against abortion, and in his anti-choice rant, he referred to pregnant mothers as "hosts". That's not all from Virginia's Martin, who was so in favor of torture said that it was justified no matter how many body parts the interrogated party loses, and that "Christ himself would have advocated for torture". Martin (again, the Republican one) believes that Constitutional rights don't apply to practitioners of Islam, because their religion "requires them to kill others to get into Heaven". Yes, somehow, a man with disgusting opinions like that can serve over a quarter century in politics. He was defeated in the GOP Primary for his Virginia State Senate seat in 2015, and has yet to reemerge in another run for office, if he ever will.

On this date in 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of Josh Moore, a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who finished eighth in the general election for his seat, and voters were right that he should barely qualify for office, if at all. You see, there was debate over a public nudity bill sponsored by Josh Moore in the New Hampshire House of Representatives back in December of 2015, HB 1525, which was oddly specific about women’s nipples being an offending thing (but not men’s) and State Rep. Amanda Bouldin was one of the Democrats opposed to the bill because she thought it might potentially make public breastfeeding a crime, and she posted her frustration over it on Facebook. While all any of her fellow legislators had to do was point out that the bill actually did have a written exemption in it for breastfeeding mothers… Josh Moore decided to argue with her by taking a slightly different, and really stupid angle, writing “Who doesn’t support a mother’s right to feed? Don’t give me the liberal talking points Amanda. If it’s a woman’s natural inclination to pull her nipple out in public and you support that. Than you should have no problem with a mans inclantion [sic] to stare at it and grab it. After all... It’s ALL relative and natural, right?” So it seems Josh Moore feels that at the first sign of areola, he’s been given a free pass to grope anyone he likes. Which isn’t true, incidentally, and would actually be a form of sexual assault. Moore then closed his discussion with Amanda Bouldin by telling her, “I’ll see you on the House floor. I obviously have more respect for women and her innocence and decency than women who are support public nudity.” Yeah, that’s pretty much a response of, “I’m not a disrespectful sexist, you are for believing your nips aren’t filthy and need to be covered up.” Two off-kilter comments aren’t enough to consider someone touched in the head here at FRED, but when we look at his voting record, we also take note of how much of an extremist he’s been while in office, what with a vote to repeal the buffer zone for protesters around abortion clinics. Y’know, so they can actually BLOCK THE DOOR. Moore also voted for SB 116, one of the many bills he’s supported to attempt to do away with the requirement of needing a license required to be able to have a concealed carry handgun, and voted against HB 1661, an attempt to ban the practice of gay conversion therapy upon minors. With the Blue Wave on the horizon in 2018, Josh Moore opted to not run for re-election.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Jeffrey Pierce, a former member of the Maine House of Representatives from District 53 who served in office from 2015-2018. After failing to be elected in 2012, Pierce won in 2014 by about 280 votes, and proceeded to head to the capitol to prove himself dedicated loyalist of highly insane GOP Gov. Paul LePage, as evidenced by his voting record. Where things got interesting was just prior to the 2018 elections, when Maine Democrats made it a point to note that four GOP candidates for office in the election were in possession of criminal records. And one of them was sitting state legislator Jeffrey Pierce, who was arrested for trying to sell cocaine back in 1981, earning probation and in 1983, had a felony drug trafficking conviction. Even more interesting was that somehow, Pierce owned a firearm and had a hunting license, which should have been impossible for him to own as a felon. While Pierce trying claiming that was just when he was a “stupid kid”, he apparently didn’t get much smarter, and also had DUI arrests from 2004-2006. But still, for a time, Pierce was indicted for having that hunting license fraudulently until charges were dropped. With the momentum of the Blue Wave in 2018, Jeffrey Pierce lost to Democrat Allison Hepler, garnering just 48% of the vote. He attempted to avenge that loss in 2020, but again lost with only 48% of the vote. The one thing that he had going for him? He was pardoned of all crimes on his record by Paul LePage as he bitterly left office in January of 2019, against the recommendations of the state’s clemency board.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Patrice Kimbler, a failed 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 36th Congressional District, who wanted to challenge Rep. Raul Ruiz but was probably undone by the fact that she’s a kook who believes in the Qanon conspiracy theory while running for Congress. Her Twitter account posted the Qanon hashtag and motto, but because as we approached the insurrection in the capitol on 1/6 and the inauguration of Joe Biden, she was warning about the “demonic forces of the Deep State”, raving about “Obamagate” (with no concept of what it was), accusing Hillary Clinton of “suiciding” people (likely a reference to the Vince Foster conspiracy), and outright accused the incoming president of molesting children, per the conspiracy theory. Feel free to further scan her Twitter feed for other conspiracy theory nonsense and slander of the BlackLivesMatter movement supposedly invading churches, if you want to go down the rabbit hole of this kook. Patrice Kimbler finished fourth in the open primary for the seat, getting just 7.6% of the vote. She went mostly silent after the failed coup attempt by Donald Trump and his conspiracy theory-obsessed ilk and Joe Biden was sworn in as president.

On this date in 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Joe Collins, who was a 2020 candidate fpr U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 43rd Congressional District, hoping to upset legendary Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a frequent target of ire during the Trump era in particular. Collins gives the impression he will line up on any party’s ticket for any office for campaign contributions, considering he was originally a 2020 presidential candidate running for the Green Party nomination. By switching his party affiliation to the GOP and challenging Waters, he started getting way more campaign cash to play with, much of which he spent funneling back into the same Trump businesses who were helping promote him in his doomed campaign. What definitely confirmed suspicions that Joe Collins was never going to win in a highly Democratic district was when Collins responded to the death of George Floyd by claiming that “Democratic policies killed George Floyd”, and not, y’know, Derek Chauvin putting his knee on his neck until he was choked to death. In the wake of the killing of Dijon Kizzee getting shot 20 times by LAPD officers and camera footage at the scene not at all jibing with the deputies’ stories… well, that’s in the district Collins was running for, so he came out and blamed “outside influences” for protests after the LAPD’s attempted coverup of the incident resulted in protests. Joe Collins only beat absolute kook and convicted felon Omar Navarro in the GOP Primary by 250 votes, and got 28% of the vote in the general election, because Auntie Maxine is no joke and he definitely is.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2023, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Richard Martin, a former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from District 40 who was first elected to office back in 2016, and whose voting record we’ll sum up as terrible, what with his co-sponsorship of a fetal heartbeat bill, the hypocritical “pro-life” spice to that of voting against the repeal of the death penalty in the state, and that he’s so “pro-life” he also voted to declare churches an “essential service” during the Covid-19 pandemic so people could go on Sunday to sit indoors and catch a preventable virus that could get them killed. While we’re pointing out the hypocrisy of that, it’s really the overall hypocrisy of Republicans that led us to profile Richard Martin. Hearing Republicans bang on endlessly about “groomers” over the past few years, it’s a frequent occurrence that the news breaks of one of their own being caught being creepy with minors. And lo, so it also has developed with Richard Martin, who was originally just reported for providing alcohol for his teenage foster daughter while his wife was out of town, but tried using his position as a legislator to insolate himself from inquiry… and perhaps it’s easy to understand why he was trying to wield whatever power he had to cover-up that investigation, as the police report states his sixteen-year-old foster daughter blacked out and woke up with soreness that indicated she may sexually assaulted while unconscious. The text messages to his foster daughter where he referred to his penis as a shrimp followed by numerous times he texted her shrimp emojis were also some big red flags. Richard Martin never resigned in spite of all of his legal woes, but finished third in the GOP Primary for his seat behind the only two other challengers, because with a bar being as low as “be better than the guy who tried to allegedly get his foster daughter drunk to creep on her”, he was going to be vulnerable. We can only hope he ends up in jail, and/or on a sex offenders list after he serves his time for being a predatory monster, but as he is no longer in office, we will set aside his profile at this time to profile another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1285-60, since this was established in July 2014.


Scott Baldwin
Welcome to what is the 1285th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Indiana State Senator Scott Baldwin, who has served District 20 of that body since first winning election in 2020. And sure, we could point out that in his voting record, this guy has sponsored a bill to allow school teachers to bring their own guns into classrooms, he voted to ban abortion in Indiana in 2023, and he’s been another one of those Republicans assessed with bullying transgender teens by banning them from playing school sports unless it’s as the gender of their birth.

But no, we’re giving Baldwin the spotlight because in January of 2022, in the middle of a hearing on a bill to ban Critical Race Theory (which wasn’t being taught anyway), during testimony from Nate Bockenfeld, a public school teacher, Baldwin asked history teachers to consider teaching about Nazism and Marxism from an “impartial” point of view.

”Bockenfeld: “For example, it’s the second semester of U.S. history, so we're learning about the rise of fascism and the rise of Nazism right now. And I'm just not neutral on the political ideology of fascism. We condemn it, and we condemn it in full, and I tell my students the purpose, in a democracy, of understanding the traits of fascism is so that we can recognize it and we can combat it

Of course, we're neutral on political issues of the day. We don't stand up and say who we voted for or anything like that. But we're not neutral on Nazism. We take a stand in the classroom against it, and it matters that we do.”

Baldwin: “I have no problem with the education system providing instruction on the existence of those isms. I believe that we've gone too far when we take a position on those isms ... We need to be impartial.”

Impartial… to Nazis.

Nuh huh. Everyone needs to be taught proper Nazi protocol, and that is to punch them in the face, Scotty.

It bears watching of if being indifferent to the worst of humanity and trying to teach a “neutral” perspective on Nazis will allow Scott Baldwin to be booted from office in 2024, but we have to hope so. His commitment to white nationalism is a little too overt, even for a red state like Indiana.

[Catlady in training]

So it seems like Orban is not happy that Sweden and Turkiye basically ignored him and solved their issues and is now desperately trying to save face and look relevant. I wonder how long will it take for Hungary to approve Sweden's membership now. Putin will have "elections" soon and this won't look good on him.

More than 26K rape-related pregnancies estimated after Texas outlawed abortions, new study says





At least some quantifiable data showing the folly of "exemptions" in these bans.

___

Here’s Greg Abbott in September 2022 saying Texas doesn’t need an exception to the state’s abortion ban for rape—because his administration would “eliminate rape.”

There have been more than 26,000 rape-related pregnancies in Texas since.

Wow, that is way more rapes than I would have guessed and I'm a pessimist. Those poor women.

While the DJI is near its all time high today, Tesla stock lost a MASSIVE 12% today. It's down 29% in just one month now.

Is Elon even the richest man anymore? Much of his net worth is tied up in Tesla stock.

So Elon fought the woke and went broke? Just kidding, he is still far from broke, but this does look promising.

[numberthirty]

While the DJI is near its all time high today, Tesla stock lost a MASSIVE 12% today. It's down 29% in just one month now.

Is Elon even the richest man anymore? Much of his net worth is tied up in Tesla stock.

Tesla is a grossly overpriced stock. It sells like a tech stock instead of a car company. Iy's PR is near 70, while Toyota or GM are below 10. Tesla has to grow 10x what it is now to justify it's stock price.

This was what I heard on local news radio. Take it for whatever you think it is worth.

From the sound of what they discussed, the company will put a good part of the year into the "Charging Technology..." part of it's business.

That time/money may or may not eventually wind up turning a profit.

Clear potential profits from auto sales you most likely can do versus R&D that may or may not ever get the company anything of value.

[numberthirty]

Also, not exactly like the entire rest of the market is going over like gangbusters...

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/25/huma...cal-costs.html

Humana stock plunges on dismal 2024 forecast, as insurers face soaring medical costs

Shares of Humana plummeted Thursday after the health insurer issued dismal full-year earnings guidance, citing soaring medical costs that are dogging the broader insurance industry.

Those expenses have spiked as an increasing number of older adults return to hospitals to undergo procedures they had delayed during the pandemic, such as joint and hip replacements.

Humana, which primarily provides government-backed insurance through the Medicare Advantage program, said it expects adjusted earnings of about $16 per share for 2024. That’s a little more than half of the $29.10 per share that analysts expected, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.

The guidance adds to Wall Street’s concerns about health insurance company profits falling as medical costs jump. UnitedHealth

on Friday also reported its own jump in medical costs, though it was less extreme than Humana’s.

Humana shares closed 10% lower Thursday.

Its forecast dragged down other health insurance stocks. Shares of both UnitedHealth and CVS Health closed around 4% and 3% lower, respectively. Cigna’s stock closed almost 2% lower, and Centene shares ended more than 2% lower.

[worstblogever]

Also, not exactly like the entire rest of the market is going over like gangbusters...

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/25/huma...cal-costs.html

Hey, the news looks good for Biden, so how we just cherry pick a few negatives so we don't have to stop slagging the current administration, and enable Trump to win a second term by ignoring factual evidence.

On brand.

[numberthirty]

Hey, the news looks good for Biden, so how we just cherry pick a few negatives so we don't have to stop slagging the current administration, and enable Trump to win a second term by ignoring factual evidence.

On brand.

Let's go on ahead, and roll tape on exactly where that kicked off...

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post6708453

While the DJI is near its all time high today, Tesla stock lost a MASSIVE 12% today. It's down 29% in just one month now.

Is Elon even the richest man anymore? Much of his net worth is tied up in Tesla stock.

[scourge]

Republicans only believe in laws for others.

Abbott belongs in a jail cell.
As do all the other republicans supporting his treasonous bs.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Not sure if it was mentioned yet, but McConnell is pitching doubt on any immigration bill now. Apparently, his lord and master Orange Julius wants to keep it an issue to hammer Biden with. That said, I can't see how the Republicans wouldn't get hammered as well, as now they are the ones obstructing any legislation.

Democrats, including Biden need to take to the airwaves, stick their faces in front the nearest camera at every opportunity and type their fingers raw on any and all social media platforms until the cows come home and hammer Qpublicans about their blatant obstruction tactics. Put the blame solely on the GQP for killing an immigration bill that would help alleviate the situation at the border. And they need to do that 24/7 if necessary.

[Mister Mets]

More than 26K rape-related pregnancies estimated after Texas outlawed abortions, new study says



At least some quantifiable data showing the folly of "exemptions" in these bans.

___

Here’s Greg Abbott in September 2022 saying Texas doesn’t need an exception to the state’s abortion ban for rape—because his administration would “eliminate rape.”

There have been more than 26,000 rape-related pregnancies in Texas since.

The number is an estimate, although obviously Abbott was wrong to say that Texas will be able to eliminate any particular felony.

This is a sensitive topic, although the numbers seem to imply causation, which isn't quite the case.

I'm only interested in the RNC/GOP having to deal with a situation where Trump Can Not become President for whatever reason. Call this a hypothetical. I have already seen on Cable TV the same question posed in terms of the RNC trying to push Haley out of the race. In which case they might find themselves with No candidate.

If he's not allowed to become President, they'll replace him with someone else. There are multiple mechanisms to do so. Trump will get to claim he's a martyr to the deep state, and someone else would govern.

[Mister Mets]

But what about how bad the economy is for average Americans. We need more and more stories that find someone not doing well to tell us "the voters" don't like what Biden is doing.

The average American is comparing how they are now to how they remember feeling in January 2020. So it's not about quarterly growth.

[Tami]

Sharing an interesting video I just found

[worstblogever]

Let's go on ahead, and roll tape on exactly where that kicked off...

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post6708453

Pointing and laughing at Elon Musk for being an anti-Semitic douche and how that effected his company line is a slightly different narrative.

It's also an attempt to deflect on being justifiably called out with "whataboutism".

Again, on brand.

[Kirby101]

The average American is comparing how they are now to how they remember feeling in January 2020. So it's not about quarterly growth.

Is it about cutting unemployment in half? Curbing inflation? Wage growth the highest in a decade.

But I am sure the media can always find those who are unhappy to interview.

[numberthirty]

Pointing and laughing at Elon Musk for being an anti-Semitic douche and how that effected his company line is a slightly different narrative.

It's also an attempt to deflect on being justifiably called out with "whataboutism".

Again, on brand.

Or...

There was a discussion about if only Tesla stock took a double digit hit in the last couple of days. Which was not the case.

I get that some of the regulars need their "Versus..." component when it comes to this thread, and it seems like you are bound and determined to go on ahead and make this into something it is not.

I'll leave you to it.