All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[Mecegirl]

Weird weather in NJ happens, but frequent extremes are rare. Lately the weather has been fluctuating far more than usual. This winter was one of the coldest in decades.

We got snow in the city that I live in this January. The first time since the mid 80's and it stayed for a week. Crazy stuff. But I think the Hurricanes from 17 were really something. FOr all the controversy about facebook I'm glad it(or more specifically something like it) exists. My roommate was only able to connect to her family from St. Thomas because of a facebook group.

[numberthirty]

Might be gauche to state this publicly, but I have Knight blocked. Others here might just have weird personalities, but he mostly seems to troll and make things personal.

Kinda wish I could not see quoted posts by people on my block list.

Not really that. From "Standards & Rules" post...

NO FLAMEBAITING

Do not inform someone when you are reporting their post, or that they’re going on (or are on) your ignore list. Simply do it or don’t, the audience doesn’t need to know. Do not create threads to deliberately target, ridicule, or mock other users, they will be deleted and action will be taken.

Just a quickie "Public Service" note.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

We got snow in the city that I live in this January. The first time since the mid 80's and it stayed for a week. Crazy stuff. But I think the Hurricanes from 17 were really something. FOr all the controversy about facebook I'm glad it(or more specifically something like it) exists. My roommate was only able to connect to her family from St. Thomas because of a facebook group.

Yesterday, it was sunny here in Philadelphia with temps around 84. Today, it was cloudy and damp while the Mercury barely cracked 40. The temperature drop over a 24 hour period was astonishing.

[Tami]

Ethics office: Congressman may have misused $100,000 in campaign funds: Tennessee Rep. John Duncan, a Republican, may have spent $100,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, including a trip to a luxury resort.

WASHINGTON — A Republican congressman from Tennessee may have improperly converted more than $100,000 from his campaign committee and leadership political action committee into personal use over the past decade, according to an independent ethics office that asked the House Ethics Committee to review the matter.

The conclusions from the Office of Congressional Ethics on Rep. John Duncan Jr. were released Wednesday by the House Ethics Committee, which says it's continuing to review the matter.

The office says about one-quarter of the questionable spending came in the form of travel, including a three-night trip to West Virginia's Greenbrier resort by Duncan, his family and campaign supporters who were personal friends. The Office of Congressional Ethics found that the 2014 trip primarily was recreational. The office investigates complaints from the public, but only the House Ethics Committee has the power to punish a lawmaker for wrongdoing.

Duncan, 70, has already announced that he will not seek re-election. He is in his 16th term representing a Knoxville-based congressional district that is considered a safe Republican seat.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Ethics office: Congressman may have misused $100,000 in campaign funds: Tennessee Rep. John Duncan, a Republican, may have spent $100,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, including a trip to a luxury resort.

Well, of course it was a Republican who stole that money. He should be made to pay back every last damn cent he stole from taxpayers before leaving office.

[InformationGeek]

So, why did the original ambassador to Vietnam leave? Wellllllllll...

As deportations and detentions continue to rock the Vietnamese community in the U.S., the former ambassador to Vietnam has revealed that those “repatriations” were the reason for his October departure.

Writing in the April issue of Foreign Service Journal, Ted Osius said he was instructed to press the Vietnamese government to repatriate more than 8,000 people ― most of whom were refugees who had “fled South Vietnam on boats and through the jungle” after the Vietnam War.

“The majority targeted for deportation — sometimes for minor infractions — were war refugees who had sided with the United States, whose loyalty was to the flag of a nation that no longer exists,” Osius wrote. “And they were to be ‘returned’ decades later to a nation ruled by a communist regime with which they had never reconciled. I feared many would become human rights cases, and our government would be culpable.”

The former diplomat said a number of the Trump administration’s foreign policy decisions didn’t sit right with those in the foreign relations field. Among those moves, he said, were the United States’ exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, its “abdication of responsibility” on climate change, and the travel ban targeting mostly Muslim-majority countries.

“What happened to the nation that welcomed ‘your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free?’” Osius asked.

But the former ambassador said he reached his limit when he was told to push for the repatriations. Not only did he feel this was a human rights issue, Osius said, but also that this “repulsive policy” would interfere with President Donald Trump’s other goals in Vietnam, like reducing the trade deficit and bolstering military relations.

“I voiced my objections, was instructed to remain silent, and decided there was an ethical line that I could not cross if I wished to retain my integrity,” he wrote. “I concluded that I could better serve my country from outside government, by helping to build a new, innovative university in Vietnam.”

[Tazirai]

It will still be a while before AI will catch up to being able to do that.

Meanwhile, the seeds for the simpler "Gundam" sort of a thing have been kicking around in an actual live action version since way back.

I'll be watching Johnny Sokko right now actually. Lol.

[Tazirai]

Damage control from Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/philade...eo-2018-04-14/

The cynic in me suspects Johnson is trying to head off possible lawsuits from those two men and growing calls for boycotts from an outraged public.

Considering that Starbucks TELLS YOU, that they are considered a Third Place, as long as you don't fall asleep inside you're good.

[Tazirai]

Connecticut? Yeah? New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania? Not so much.

When I visited my daughter in Colorado a couple years back it was July, and it snowed. /shrug Some areas are like that. The world is weird like this lol.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

When I visited my daughter in Colorado a couple years back it was July, and it snowed. /shrug Some areas are like that. The world is weird like this lol.

Snowed last May in Colorado and we just had some snow in April. But also Colorado is known for erratic weather, especially in the Denver area.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In Searing Interview, James Comey Unleashes Against ‘Morally Unfit’ Trump

“I don’t think he’s medically unfit to be president. I think he’s morally unfit to be president.” Given Trump's fast food diet and avoidance of exercise, I wouldn't rule out his being medically unfit. Then there's this....

Comey: Trump Wouldn’t Shut Up About The Inauguration Crowd To Me, Either

And, predictably....

**********

Trump Rages Against Comey Over Claims In New Book

Trump tweeted Sunday that the former FBI director “always ends up badly and out of whack.” But Comey was his best friend after having helped derail Hillary Clinton's campaign. Tsk! Trump falls in and out of love so easily.

**********

New York Times Calls On GOP To Protect Rule Of Law From Donald Trump

The president is “not a king, but a citizen.” Well put! Let's see if Republicans will put the American public before the president.

**********

Will Trump Fire Rosenstein? It May Not Matter.

But with Trump flirting with placing himself above the law, Republicans are not only in a moral bind, but in a political bind. Trump’s basic approval ratings still hover around 40 percent, and part of the conservative base will defend him no matter what. But many Republican leaders and voters consider firing Rosenstein and then Mueller to be a bright red line that Trump must not cross.

So Trump is damned either way. If he fires Rosenstein and Mueller, he hastens his own downfall. If he lets things play out, the waters keep rising and soon more details will come out one way or another — which will also hasten his demise. Impeachment is not yet explicitly on the political agenda, but it soon will be.

Trump’s impotent lashing out is a sign that he’s cornered, and he knows it.

**********

Paul Ryan Brushes Off Criticism That He Enabled Trump

The retiring House speaker wants to be remembered as the man who ushered in tax reform. Yeah, remembered for ultimately screwing over the American people while relentlessly kissing Trump's orange ass. Good job, Eddie.

[worstblogever]

Three years ago, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Stella Tremblay, a former member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives who resigned in 2013, but not after she spent one term and change in the state legislature wasting the people’s time and tax dollars on her salary to rave and actually try and pass legislation to investigate whatever the last conspiracy theory she heard was. Whether she wanted investigations into Agenda 21, Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate, and the “lost secret” 13th Amendment of the Constitution that denies office to anyone holding a title of nobility. She also claimed that former President Woodrow Wilson was sympathetic towards Hitler, which is pretty amazing considering he died in 1924, long before Hitler ever came to power. The New Hampshire GOP finally got sick of Tremblay’s antics in April 2013 after she started claiming that the Boston Marathon bombing was a “false flag” attack, and that “amputee actors” were set in place to make it look like people lost limbs, and the pain victims were feeling was just the work of those actors, linking to Alex Jones’ InfoWars website as “proof”. Since Tremblay has faded from view over the past four years, and that’s probably for the best.

Two years ago today, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Janet Adkins, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2008-2016, who had designs on winning the seat in Congress held by Rep. Corrine Brown when she was term-limited, but tried like hell with the Florida GOP to gerrymander Florida’s Congressional map so she could have a chance to do so, to the extent that a Florida Court overruled the map because it was blatantly unconstitutional. Janet Adkins was not satisfied, and unveiled her master plan to a gathering of a Northern Florida Republican Caucus after first asking, “Are there any reporters in here? Any reporters? OK. So, inside ball game.” When no reporter outed themselves, she then proceeded to talk a particularly devious gerrymander that would statistically leave the number of African Americans in Florida’s 5th Congressional District only slightly less, but assure that the numbers lie and several of the new minorities wouldn’t be able to vote, because they would be part of the population of a local prison. While there were no reporters in the room AT THE TIME, her comments were recorded, and the audio eventually found its way into the hands at reporters at Politico, who gladly informed the public of Adkins’ nefarious idea to purposely leave Corrine Brown with African American citizens with their right to vote already stripped as a means to flip her already ridiculously gerrymandered district. Adkins was forced to give a half-hearted apology, where she admitted to no intent to do wrong, but said she was sorry “if she offended anyone”. Y’know, just people who respect democracy, primarily. Adkins voting record featured support for mandatory ultrasounds where the woman was required to observe the fetus prior to getting an abortion, attempts to redefine “fetal viability”, the ability for adoption agencies to refuse services to people based on their own “deeply held religious beliefs” as well as officials to use the same justification for denying same-sex couples marriage services, and the failed policy of drug testing welfare recipients. She also co-sponsored HB 1209, another one of those bills to prevent the implementation of “foreign laws” like say, Sharia Law. Between hitting term limits in the Florida state legislature and her embarrassing “caught on tape” moment, she’s pretty much done in politics.

One year ago, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Dan Bongino, a former member of the NYPD and Secret Service as well as a carpet-bagger extraordinaire who has, in each of the past three elections, lost in an effort to get elected to office. In his first back in 2012, he failed to get into the U.S. Senate in Maryland. In his second in 2014, he failed to get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District. And in 2016, Bongino decided to try his luck at running for U.S. House of Representatives again, but this time, way down in Florida’s 19th Congressional District. Now, it was pretty clear that Bongino was pretty hard to the right from the jump. After all, his campaign website through the years had his stance on abortion being that he defined life from “conception until natural death”, and he actually advocated for a “flat tax” that most economic experts would take one quick look at and know it would wreck the American economy as well as the budget deficit. I mean, those are extreme policies, it’s not like Bongino gave any other sign that he was off-kilter, right? I mean, other than him actually campaigning at the Heritage Foundation on wondering where President Obama was on the night of Benghazi (which Obama’s whereabouts are totally verifiable and all). Well, there how he responded to a story in the Naples Daily News as being “propaganda” and when he had Marc Caputo, a reporter from Politico contact him for a follow-up on that statement, Bongino decided to go ahead and level an extended, profanity-laced tirade while he was being recorded. All Caputo did so set him off was point out the fact that most of Bongino’s campaign donations were coming in from donors outside of his proposed district in Florida’s 19th, and the next thing you know, Bongino started raving like a maniac for over seventeen minutes, where Bongino berates Caputo non-stop, including telling him “you were the guy that got beat up a lot in high school, huh?” or “The Secret Service would fire people like you, because you were so pathetic and you’d have to go into journalism”, or “You’re a real disgusting piece of s***.” Towards the end of the phone call, Bongino realized that maybe this audio getting to the public would be a bad thing, and threatened to sue Caputo for recording him without his consent. Unfortunately for Bongino, Caputo has a message dialogue where he told him the call would be recorded, and Bongino agreeing… so Bongino was pretty boned on the PR front on this. At the 15:44 mark, it gets really real, and you get Bongino screaming, “SHUT THE F*** UP! GO F*** YOURSELF YOU PIECE OF S***! YOU DON’T KNOW WHY I MOVED TO FLORIDA YOU MOTHERF***ER! WAIT UNTIL I SHRED YOUR F***ING *** ON THE RADIO! LISTEN TO ME YOU PR***, I’M GOING TO EXPOSE YOU NOW. AND WHEN I TELL YOU THE REAL REASON I’M DOWN HERE? I’M GOING TO EXPOSE YOUR F***ING *** EVEN MORE.” As you might expect, the good people of Florida’s 19th District did not think having Capt. Sweary McSaltypants as their next Congressman was a good idea, and Bongino was defeated in his attempt to reach office, this time not even advancing out of the primary, finishing a distant third with only 15.7% of the vote. Perhaps after three straight election losses, Bongino and his supporters have run out of cash, and he might not resurface to run for any office in 2018, if ever again. In the meantime, he’s been a regular guest on InfoWars and the Alt-Right media to predict things like that Hillary Clinton will be indicted, and trying to back up Donald Trump’s claims that President Obama did the “wire-tapps” to Trump. Thus, we’ll set aside his CSGOPOTD profile at this time and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 667-30, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Terry Lynn Weaver

Welcome to the 667th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’re going to be discussing Terry Lynn Weaver, who has served the Tennessee House of Representatives for District 40 since first being elected back in 2008, and in 2016, she coasted to victory with 73% of the vote. Now, CSGOPOTD has definitely seen its fair share of right-wing nut jobs from the Volunteer State, but Weaver managed to raise herself above the pack in February of 2017, when she submitted a bizarre bill that would declare any child born through any form of artificial insemination with the help of a fertility clinic would be “illegitimate”.

Now, chances are you’re asking yourself, “Why the hell would a party renowned for being pro-life go out of their way to try and argue some children aren’t legitimate?”

Great question. The answer is, “To f*** with same sex married couples, of course.” Terry Lynn Weaver was one of 53 members of the Tennessee GOP beside themselves and who got involved in September of 2016 in a same-sex marriage divorce that dealt with the custody of a child born through artificial insemination. Weaver and the other lawmakers asserted that the lesbian wife of the child’s mother should not be considered a “legitimate” parent under the current statute. Now, Weaver doesn’t seem to care about the implications of what might happen if both women in a lesbian relationship had a baby, and both wanted custody… or she does and just wants to make sure same-sex couples can’t have custody of children, whatsoever. There are efforts to be cruel to LGBT couples, and then there’s what Weaver did.

Now, maybe Weaver is getting some really extreme and twisted views on Christianity, that she’d go out of her way to hate gay people that much. Then again, her pastor is such a pillar of sensitivity that there’s a photo of him with Weaver where he’s wearing blackface and pretending to be Aunt Jemima. We can’t believe we just typed that sentence, either, but there it is. Oh, and Weaver defended her pastor for it, to boot.

But anyway, it seems more that Terry Lynn Weaver is just obsessed with babies and pregnant mothers in general, even outside of your standard anti-abortion fanatical fervor. In 2014, she was the Tennessee state legislator behind a controversial bill to jail pregnant mothers found to be on drugs during their pregnancy. Critics pointed out there wasn’t accurate testing to determine of a baby was born “addicted” to a drug, and that even if it was easily diagnosed, the law would do little to prevent the problem, and might instead cause pregnant drug addicts to do even more desperate things to avoid getting caught, that they might not be more forthcoming with their doctors about being pregnant in the first place, or that it could lead to a lot of children being raised away from their birth mothers if so many were being thrown in jail for it.

Again, Terry Lynn Weaver seems indifferent about the details. That’s probably why her voting record looks like this:

• February 9th, 2011: Terry Lynn Weaver votes for HB 368, to limit teachers’ ability to challenge students who give “opposing viewpoints” on scientific theories in public school classrooms. (In other words, deny the existence of evolution, or the age of the Earth.)
• April 14th, 2011: Weaver votes for SB 16, a stricter Voter ID law aimed at suppressing the vote using the pretense of in-person voter fraud that is statistically non-existent.
• January 12th, 2012: Weaver co-sponsors HJR 587, a resolution against the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty, for fears from hard-right conspiracy theorists that it’s a plot to establish global domination.
• March 29th, 2012: Terry Lynn Weaver votes for HB 3808, a bill written to gather “abortion statistics” that made many critics realize the data could help identify women going to clinics to seek abortions.
• February 25th, 2013: Weaver co-sponsors and votes for HB 553, to prevent Civil War monuments from being renamed.
• February 21st, 2013: Weaver sponsors HB 1391, a bill aimed at imprisoning women who use illegal narcotics while pregnant.
• February 24th, 2014: Weaver co-sponsors and votes for HB 937, to block the Medicaid Expansion in Tennessee.
• April 13th, 2015: Weaver votes for HB 1110, an attempt to nullify the enforcement of federal gun laws.
• January 21st, 2016: Terry Lynn Weaver co-sponsors HB 2129, again to preserve Civil War monuments.
• March 3rd, 2016: Weaver votes for HJR 529, to express disagreement with the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling by the Supreme Court.
• April 20th, 2016: Weaver votes for HB 615, an attempt to name the Bible as Tennessee’s state book. (Hint: Obviously unconstitutional via the separation and church and state.)
• February 9th, 2017: Weaver sponsors HB 1406, her bill to declare children born via artificial insemination “illegitimate”.
• February 12th, 2018: Terry Lynn Weaver votes for HB 108, a mandatory ultrasound bill for women seeking abortions.

While Terry Lynn Weaver’s district is solidly Republican, what with her winning office by 45 points in 2016, she actually could be in trouble in the 2018 elections, as Chad Williams, a 21 year old who owns the Lebanon Antique Mall in her district, and is fresh out of Tennessee Tech University. He will be the first primary challenger she’s faced since she took office, and with any luck, he’ll take her place and almost certainly have to be a more calming influence in the legislature. Then again, that’s not saying much, given Weaver’s extremism. Hell, who knows, maybe a Democrat will jump into this race and completely upset things.

[InformationGeek]

I'm just going to put this here without comment:

President Donald Trump's senior counselor, Kellyanne Conway, slammed former FBI Director James Comey, suggesting an announcement he made about Hillary Clinton's emails during the 2016 election may have been a deciding factor.

"This guy swung an election," Conway told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" today. “He thought the wrong person would win.”

[Tami]

Trump, a reluctant hawk, has battled his top aides on Russia and lost

President Trump seemed distracted in March as his aides briefed him at his Mar-a-Lago resort on the administration’s plan to expel 60 Russian diplomats and suspected spies.

The United States, they explained, would be ousting roughly the same number of Russians as its European allies — part of a coordinated move to punish Moscow for the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil.

“We’ll match their numbers,” Trump instructed, according to a senior administration official. “We’re not taking the lead. We’re matching.”

The next day, when the expulsions were announced publicly, Trump erupted, officials said. To his shock and dismay, France and Germany were each expelling only four Russian officials — far fewer than the 60 his administration had decided on.

The president, who seemed to believe that other individual countries would largely equal the United States, was furious that his administration was being portrayed in the media as taking by far the toughest stance on Russia.