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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump is telling us.

And has been saying that for quite some time now.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day posted profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District, Jim Sensenbrenner, who has been a member of Congress since 1979. Through the years, he has been involved in some of the more distasteful legislative acts in our country, such as the attempted impeachment of President Clinton, where he read the opening statement, the drafting of the original version of the Patriot Act (which he denies leaving loopholes in to allow for government surveillance of the civilian populace), and his vote against $50 billion in relief aid for Hurricane Katrina. Sensenbrenner has also been prone to tantrums, like when in 2005, he walked out of a meeting about human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay prison after demanding C-SPAN turn off all cameras in an attempt at a media blackout. This guy even fought against funding for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis prevention, and against stiffer penalties for people convicted of dogfighting, he’s so heartless. Sensenbrenner also has a long history of ridiculous quotes on climate change denial, including his insistence that there’s data to prove “global cooling” out there. That should come as little surprise, as Sensenbrenner owns stock in British Petroleum,and during the Congressional hearings after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, he actually refused to recuse himself from the proceedings, instead writing an angry letter to the White House to lay blame on them for the disaster. His disgust for the Obama White House goes a bit farther than that, as he actually tried criticizing Michelle Obama’s efforts to combat childhood obesity, because “she has a big butt” (because he himself is doing so much better in battling obesity). Sensenbrenner actually voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women act, and not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but voted against re-opening it when the time came. In 2015, Sensenbrenner was taking testimony in the hearings on Planned Parenthood, and asked witness Priscilla Smith why she prioritized Planned Parenthood over feeding hungry children, then cut her off to pretend to be baffled by her answer about how it helped mothers with cancer screenings so they could feed their healthy children, because they would still be alive to if it's caught early. So, it’s little surprise that when he hosted a town hall back in April of 2017, he didn’t seem too concerned with his constituents’ wealth of complaints. When asked about his vote for SJ Res 34, where internet providers would now be allowed to sell the data information of their users to businesses, and how that would violate all sense of privacy, his response was, “Well you know, nobody has got to use the internet.” The frequently yet impotently-enraged Sensenbrenner showed up at the Congressional hearings aimed at discrediting the Mueller investigation, and he spent a few minutes harassing Peter Strzok, failing to score any points in his partisan attack on the career FBI agent who investigated the massive corruption within the Trump campaign and its ties to Russia. During the Trump impeachment inquiry, telling Democratic counsel that “you have made Joe McCarthy look like a piker”, and seemingly because he can’t remember he doesn’t wield a gavel anymore, he used his time to accuse Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of losing control whenever Trump is simply accused of committing crimes, saying, “The committee is not in order and the chairman is not in order. We have to have some decorum in here.” Sensebrenner was in Congress for four decades, and in 2006 he finished second place in a Rolling Stone piece about “America’s Worst Congressmen”, only behind GOP colleague and child molester, Dennis Hastert. In that article, the assessment of the man representing Wisconsin’s 5th District was,”Sensenbrenner is an ever-sweating, fat-fingered beast who wields his gavel in a way that makes you think he might have used one before in some other arena, perhaps to beat prostitutes to death.” Sensebrenner retired in 2020.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Nikka Piterman, a candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 2020 elections in California’s 13th Congressional District who was looking to knock off Congresswoman Barbara Lee for her seat in the House. Because, y’know, taking a crack at someone who pulls down more than 80% of the vote in her district wasn’t a long shot campaign. Piterman’s policy platform centered around tax cuts, establishing a U.S. Space Force that would create colonies on the Moon and Mars (well, that’s up Trump’s ***), and included plans to attempt to split California into two states, implying on his website that splitting the state would help gain more representation on the federal level. (Yikes on that last thing). Nikka Piterman was yet another Republican who supported the completely mental Qanon conspiracy theory and ran for Congress in the 2020 elections. Piterman put out posts with the Qanon slogan. We don’t have much else to add, but to point out that no other candidates ran against Barbara Lee, so Piterman ended up on the final ballot in November. It probably would have been better if he hadn’t, as he only got 9.6% of the vote.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Buzz Patterson, a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 7th Congressional District who tried to unseat incumbent Democratic Representative Ami Bera. At one point during the build-up to the election, Patterson was asked on Twitter if he supported the Qanon conspiracy theory, and he gleefully responded, “Yep!” While he was at it, Patterson was also trying to spread the conspiracy theory that the Covid-19 virus was deliberately created in a lab in Wuhan, China, and frequently referred to the virus by the racist sobriquet, “kung flu”. As you might expect, his Twitter account is a hodge-podge of s***posts, JAQ-ing of, and right-wing lunacy, including but not limited to denying the science behind vaccines, and of course, a dash of anti-Semitism to spread other conspiracy theories about George Soros. Buzz Patterson only managed 43% of the vote.

On this date in 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Neil Parrott, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates since winning office back in the 2010 Tea Party Wave, and in 2022, decided to run to be the next U.S. House Represenative from Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, hoping to knock off sitting Democratic Congressman David Trone. That career as a state legislator has involved Parrott not just doing his best to try and obstruct any progressive legislation put forth with his votes, but trying to sidestep Democrats in the legislature by putting ballot referendums in place to do things like repeal the legalization of same-sex marriage, strip documented immigrants of in-state tuition, or create his own redistricting map… and all were rejected by voters. He also failed to get enough signatures on a petition to try to overturn the repeal of the death penalty in Maryland, and wanted a ballot initiative to harass transgender citizens in public bathrooms. It isn’t his legislative history that made Parrott stand out to us, it’s also that he’s on record as having defended the insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on January 6th, saying, “The vast majority of people were simply there to support fair elections. They had no idea that some people were going to try to take over the rally and make it violent.” Rounding this entry out, we’re going to be frank… Neil Parrott has some absolutely bonkers ideas for how to “solve problems” that just involve harassing people with sex lives different from his own. In 2005, he wrote an opinion editorial that all HIV positive people should be forced to be tattooed to identify themselves as infected, preferably somewhere “a bathing suit would cover” to warn any prospective partners they have. Nevermind that this would be an incredible violation of their body autonomy, it would actually put the people delivering the tattoos at risk for the blood-borne disease. After the Trone campaign seized on his deranged plan, Neil Parrott lost to David Trone in 2022 by about 2400 votes, getting 49.4% of the vote. He will be out of office come 2023, and we sincerely hope he stays that way. We will set aside his profile at this time to profile another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1271-60, since this was established in July 2014.

[worstblogever]

Bud May
Welcome to what is the 1271st original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Bud May, a 2022 candidate for District of the South Dakota House of Representatives. We only recently became aware of Bud May’s story, and that might be because we glanced over the title of the story about a Republican candidate for office in South Dakota whose aspirations were undone by rape charges being filed against them, and we must have thought it was just another story about Joel Koskan. There’s no way the GOP would try to elect two rapists in one state in the same election, right?

Hoo boy. It’s becoming that common. Bud May’s story is as revoltingly brazen as you might think. He was charged with second-degree rape, allegedly attacking a woman in the bathroom of a local bar. He already had criminal charges on his record prior to this for traffic violations, driving without insurance and with expired plates as well as three other warrants out for his arrest from the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety.

At the scene during his arrest, he told the arresting officers:

”I am 6’8, white… it is all consensual.”

His eye says different, doesn’t it?

The victim ended up not pursuing charges. We would say that this effectively has ended his career, but at this point, allegations of sexual assault are becoming something that makes Republican voters like to rally around a candidate (See Trump, Donald for a noteworthy example).

Anyway, Bud May only missed still being elected to office by less than 500 votes, because he had an "R" next to his name, and that's enough for a certain political party to vote for him no matter what.

[worstblogever]

Trump is telling us.

"Revenge". Against whom?

Over half the country. The half who didn't vote for him in the two elections where he lost the popular vote.

He's owning up to the fact that he's a domestic terrorist. And not just on 1/6/21. He wants to inflict pain, suffering, and death on the majority of Americans. Full stop.

[Jack Dracula]

Trump is telling us.

Instilling a grievance-based mentality in their followers is a common tactic among populist strongmen as they rise to power.
“I am your revenge.”
“I am your retribution.”
He’s saying these things to his base to make them believe they were cheated in the last election, further eroding their lack of trust in the democratic process and reinforcing the idea that he is the only one who can return the power they think they’ve lost.

[worstblogever]

Instilling a grievance-based mentality in their followers is a common tactic among populist strongmen as they rise to power.
“I am your revenge.”
“I am your retribution.”
He’s saying these things to his base to make them believe they were cheated in the last election, further eroding their lack of trust in the democratic process and reinforcing the idea that he is the only one who can return the power they think they’ve lost.

Y'know, Hitler also ran on a "revenge/retribution" platform, so there's another ding for that checklist of Trump being a s(Hitler).

[ed2962]

Lauren Bobert will be abandoning her current Dist in CO to run in a different one cuz I guess she's afraid she's going to lose re-election next year.

https://www.meidastouch.com/news/lau...to-win-in-2024

[worstblogever]

Lauren Bobert will be abandoning her current Dist in CO to run in a different one cuz I guess she's afraid she's going to lose re-election next year.

https://www.meidastouch.com/news/lau...to-win-in-2024

Every GOP opportunist in Colorado has designs on Ken Buck's old seat, as it's the most conservative-leaning (safest R) in the state. Boebert will have to emerge from a primary as "the lady who was trying to give a Democrat a handy at Beetlejuice".

Seems still a tall order.

[JackDaw]

Y'know, Hitler also ran on a "revenge/retribution" platform, so there's another ding for that checklist of Trump being a s(Hitler).

You really think that’s a remotely valid comparison??

Obviously hope he won’t win the next election, but if that came to pass I think idea he would cause damage on a Hitler type level is profoundly unlikely.

[Malvolio]

You really think that’s a remotely valid comparison??

Obviously hope he won’t win the next election, but if that came to pass I think idea he would cause damage on a Hitler type level is profoundly unlikely.

Remember, even after Hitler came to power, most people didn't think he would cause that much damage.

[numberthirty]

While it is still a ways out, the actual numbers in this piece are not exactly comforting...

https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-f...-biden-1855129

Democrats Are Flipping to Republican in Key Swing State

President Joe Biden may be getting a warning sign from Pennsylvania, where a growing number of voters are switching their party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

The most up-to-date voter registration data from the Pennsylvania Department of State shows that 35,589 registered Democrats have switched to their party affiliation Republican this year, as of December 18, 2023. Comparably, 15,622 registered Republicans have switched their party affiliation to Democrat. There were also 20,908 former Democrats and 18,927 former Republicans who are now unaffiliated with either party.

The departure of voters and the net loss of 19,967 Democrats signals bad news for Biden, who only won Pennsylvania by some 80,000 votes in the 2020 election.

"Current voter registration trends and polling in Pennsylvania should be setting off alarms for President Biden and Democrats at the state and national level, with pocketbook issues remaining the top concern of voters who overwhelmingly feel that things are headed in the wrong direction," Erik Telford, a senior vice president of public affairs at the Commonwealth Foundation, told Newsweek.

[kidfresh512]

Lauren Bobert will be abandoning her current Dist in CO to run in a different one cuz I guess she's afraid she's going to lose re-election next year.

https://www.meidastouch.com/news/lau...to-win-in-2024

Running scared clearly. But, might allow GOP to keep both seats now if a more appealing GOP Rep runs in her old seat.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

While it is still a ways out, the actual numbers in this piece are not exactly comforting...

https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-f...-biden-1855129

And voting for Qpublicans will turn things around when it comes to pocketbook issues? Let's not forget that while the GQP was running the show, Trump sent the National Debt soaring with his damnable tax cuts which so far, only helped the wealthy. Give me a break!

[Tami]

While it is still a ways out, the actual numbers in this piece are not exactly comforting...

https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-f...-biden-1855129

Unless you consider the possibility that there is a silent movement to make sure that Trump loses votes by placing democrats in a position to vote against him. Could be....

[worstblogever]

So... wrong thread.