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

[TheInvisibleMan]

ugh

she's no Patti Anne Browne, I tell ya

[Rob Allen]

Here's one Republican's opinion:

There hasn’t been a period since the 1850’s in which one of the two major parties has weakened to the point that it could not field a credible contender for the Presidency. Modern Republicans are flirting with this distinction. It is already clear that the GOP is effectively locked out of a credible shot at the 2016 Election and probably also the 2020 race by virtue of basic demographics. Republicans have built a political platform so skewed toward the interests of a dying, rural, Southern white base that it cannot be adapted to compete nationally.
[...]
Trump’s campaign is unleashing forces that will make it impossible for the GOP to nominate a nationally competitive candidate for the foreseeable future. His campaign threatens to weld together interests that will force any Republican Presidential nominee to embrace a white supremacist message that cannot sell in a national election.

http://goplifer.com/

[Tendrin]

link? what newspaper?

Apparently, it's from this article according to the source I got it from. I haven't searched all the comments, though, for it specifically.

http://www.chron.com/chrontv/this-fo...on-6309198.php

[CSTowle]

Here's one Republican's opinion:



http://goplifer.com/

To be fair to the Republican Party (and I'm a near-commie lefty) they had the Reagan legacy to work with from '80-'91, had a clear guy waiting "his turn" with Dole in the mid '90s, and then a continuation of that legacy with the son of Reagan's Veep and also a(n at the time) respected by all sides "maverick" in McCain. They rode W. for 8 years, reheated old McCain (though he'd grown stale and bitter waiting 8 years), and now there's no clear successor. They can continue that Reagan/Bush legacy with Jeb, but run the risk of people's memories not being quite that short, or look to young conservatives like Rubio or Walker. Either way I think they'll find their candidate soon enough, and Trump will go back/continue to be a cartoon character.

[Tendrin]

Flags at the Dent County Courthouse and Judicial Building will now fly at “below half-staff” on the 26th day of every month from July 2015 until July 2016, the Salem News reported, to mark the day SCOTUS handed down the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...rriage-protest

[Paradox]

I'm so sick of these people acting as if there's been a "death of marriage" now that it has been extended to same-sex couples. Nothing has changed for "traditional marriage". It's still available. It's still legal. No changes have been made. But, no, now that "those people" can have cookies, all cookies are forever tainted. Grow the hell up, will ya?

[7thangel]

Apparently, it's from this article according to the source I got it from. I haven't searched all the comments, though, for it specifically.

http://www.chron.com/chrontv/this-fo...on-6309198.php

if it's the houston chronicle then i'm assuming it's either a letter to the editor or they have a wingnut in their opinion pieces since the rag is supposed to be somewhat to the left

[Tendrin]

if it's the houston chronicle then i'm assuming it's either a letter to the editor or they have a wingnut in their opinion pieces since the rag is supposed to be somewhat to the left

No, no. It was a comment. I shared it because it was hilarious.

[7thangel]

No, no. It was a comment. I shared it because it was hilarious.

oh, okay, my bad. lol

[WestPhillyPunisher]

New York City Pays Eric Garner's Family $5.9 Million Settlement To Avoid Lawsuit

[worstblogever]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewir...rriage-protest

Man, that honor guard is totally gonna get ripped from raising and lowering that thing so often.

[worstblogever]

It's our latest reminder of what a crock the statement "Nuh uh. Both parties are just as bad," actually is...

It’s Your Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day!
One year ago on this date, we looked at disgraced former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, the man who introduced the anti-immigrant SB 1070 bill, and had been training a former Neo-Nazi militiaman to be his heir apparent until that guy committed mass murder (Good times). As Pearce was successfully removed from office in a recall election and unable to weasel his way back into the state legislature in a different district after redistricting, I'm going to skip updating his profile, and giving this day to another member of the party to focus on at this time.(Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 368-12, since this was established in July 2014.)


Marco Rubio

Back in 2010, the Marco Rubio was elected to the United States Senate in Florida, and seemed very different going into that race than most GOP Tea Party Wave candidates. A lot of pundits immediately began trumpeting him as the solution the Republican Party's wavering support amongst Latino voters in polls, and the Republican Party hot-shotted him into delivering the 2013 GOP response to President Obama's State of the Union speech (where he became noteworthy for being so damned thirsty). I mean, his family story was harrowing... his parents fled the Castro regime in Cuba to make a better life for themselves in America, only to give birth to a son who would go into politics and rise to such high echelons of power like the embodiment of the American dream!

Well, the problem was, Rubio's own family story was a fabrication. People researched his family history, and found out his parents emigrated in May of 1956. That's three whole years before the Cuban Revolution in 1959. They didn't flee Castro or communism... they left before any of that happened. Senator Rubio, when called out on this, blamed it on his family by saying he was just "repeating family lore".

Uh huh.

But unlike most Republicans, Marco Rubio was chock full of legislative ideas! That's right, unlike his "smaller government" compatriots, he wrote a book about 100 ideas to improve Florida while he was a state legislator. He even bragged about how 57 of his ideas were made into law. The problem with that? Politifact checked his count, and found less than half that, 24, were actually made into law and there were 10 more they could argue "maybe". Even with those 10, he still fell at least 23 short of his claim. So... way to exaggerate to pad your resume, Marco.

Politically, since that point, Rubio has turned into a complete cypher, and has changed positions on several key issues. When he was in the Florida legislature in 2007, he helped move a bill through the state legislature to limit carbon emissions and seemed like he was environmentally a lot more liberal than most Republicans. But by 2010, he was attacking Charlie Crist in the Republican Senate Primary for being too environmentally conscious while denying the science behind climate change and stumping for pro-oil campaigns like "Drill Here, Drill Now". That's a pretty glaring shift.

More importantly, Rubio campaigned hard during his 2010 campaign and was supposedly the guy who was going to get to Washington and make sure that the GOP made comprehensive immigration reform a top priority. His favorability amongst Latino voters was easily the highest of any Republican. At least... it WAS. Since arriving in the Senate, nothing has been done on immigration reform, at all, and nothing has come from Rubio but empty talk. Hell, he might have seemed moderate when he criticized Arizona's SB 1070 law when it was passed in 2010, but within a week, he turned around and verbally supported it, instead. Rubio also spoke out against the DREAM Act. That's... hardly a moderate outlook on the issue.

Rubio even can catch heat for being an enigma on his choice of religion, as he tried burying the little known detail that his family moved to Nevada for a few years, and he and his siblings were baptized by the Mormon church (a cousin revealed that, as well as what a mark he was for Donny & Marie Osmond). He then converted back to Catholicism, but is often seen pandering to a Southern Baptist megachurch in Boston. Now, there's nothing wrong with having faith, but it's a bit unsettling to see someone transition between different ones in such a mercurial way.

And he's definitely not moderate on LGBT rights, repeatedly speaking out not only against same-sex marriage, but even gay couples adopting children. When Indiana made headlines in a bad way by passing a "religious freedom" law last year, Senator Rubio voiced his support for it. Which really shouldn't be a surprise, since he supported ENDA, believing businesses should be able to fire people for being gay. And when he spoke at Catholic University in July 2014, Rubio said that Americans who don't support traditional marriage... THEY'RE the intolerant ones. He resents anybody that anyone might think his fervently anti-gay beliefs are bigotry, at all.

[worstblogever]

Some other fun moments from Senator Rubio:

• In September 2008, Rubio was one of the first Republicans to start claiming that then Sen. Barack Obama was a socialist:
  

  "I love what Barack Obama's candidacy says about America. I just fear what his candidacy would do to America. To leave our children with a centrally planned socialist economy is not a better plan."

• On March 4th, 2011, Sen. Rubio puts out a press release to state his support for the Defense of Marriage Act after learning the Obama administration would no longer support it.
• On June 9th, 2012, Marco Rubio voted to cut eligibility to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, taking away food stamps from some of America's poorest citizens.
• In November 2012, Rubio gives an interview to GQ Magazine, where he is asked how old he thinks the Earth is. Rubio tries to skirt annoying Fundamentalist Republicans who believe in Creationism, and the bulk of Americans who understand science by giving a particularly cowardly and ignorant answer for a U.S. Senator:
  

  "I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries."

• On December 4th, 2012, with legendary former Senator Bob Dole present, pleading with his fellow Republicans to pass it, Marco Rubio votes against The Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
• On January 28th, 2013, Rubio votes against disaster relief funding for Hurricane Sandy victims.
• In February 2013, Sen. Rubio votes against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.
• On March 13th, 2013, Marco Rubio co-sponsored legislation in the Senate to defund the Affordable Care Act.
• On June 14th, 2013, Rubio states in two separate interviews in a 24-hour span that he will vote against his own immigration reform legislation if anyone adds an amendment to also provide same-sex bi-national legally same couples the same as opposite-sex bi-national legally married couples.
• Senator Rubio voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the time came to reopen it, he was one of 18 GOP Senators who voted to keep it closed.
• On November 7th, 2013, Rubio participates in a GOP filibuster of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
• On November 18th, 2013, Rubio spoke before the Florida Family Planning Council, telling the crowd of his agenda as a legislator:
  

  "The moral well-being of our nation is our business. It's everybody's business.The debate we should be having isn't whether or not we have a right to talk about values and morals in the public square, the debate we should be having instead is which values and morals our nation should focus on."

• In February 2014, Rubio expressed support for Arizona's SB 1062, a religious freedom bill that would be vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer:
  

  "Well, I don't believe that gay Americans should be denied services at a restaurant or a hotel or anything of that nature. I also don't believe, however, that a caterer or a photographer should be punished by the state for refusing to provide services for a gay wedding because of their religious-held beliefs. So we've got to figure out a way to protect that as well."

• On April 9th, 2014, Marco Rubio takes part in a GOP filibuster of the Paycheck Fairness Act, denying women a chance at equal pay for equal work.
• On April 30th, 2014, Rubio takes part in a GOP filibuster of the Minimum Wage Fairness Act. This at a time when income inequality is at the worst levels it has been in America since the Great Depression.
• On May 12th, 2014, Sen. Rubio goes on ABC News' This Week, where he denies that climate change is man-made:
  

  “Our climate is always changing. I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it and I do not believe that the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it, except it will destroy our economy.”

• On February 25th, 2015, Sen. Rubio votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security, attempting to defund it to protest President Obama's executive orders on immigration (for a supposed immigration reformer, this is staggering hypocrisy).
• On March 9th, 2015 Marco Rubio became one of the 47 Senators who were potentially in violation of the Logan Act when they jeopardized negotiations between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian diplomats over their nuclear program by signing on to the letter penned to them by Sen. Tom Cotton. Rubio then used that fact to raise money for his presidential campaign.
• Two days later on March 11th, 2015, Sen. Rubio had Secretary of State Kerry testifying before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee and embarrasses himself by asking Kerry if the Obama Administration was letting ISIS win to appease Iran, because they support ISIS.
  
  That's... beyond stupid. ISIS militants practice Sunni Islam (and a bastardized interpretation of it, at that). Iran's practitioners of Shia Islam. They're just as keen on ISIS getting wiped out as we are, and view them as a threat.
• In one interview with Bob Schieffer on CBS' Face the Nation, Rubio manages to go for a hat trick, denying climate change science, argued against same-sex marriage, and say that war with Iran was an "option on the table" within a matter of minutes.

This... is a candidate for president, who thus far, can claim his greatest achievement as a Senator has been to polish off a bottle of water in the middle of a nationally-televised rebuttal speech. I wish I was joking about that, but seriously, if you could name an achievement by Senator Rubio of note that isn't just "participated in a filibuster" or utterly embarrassing, I'd be grateful. I'd like to think someone could accomplish something over a five year span in the Senate.

[Tendrin]

Man, that honor guard is totally gonna get ripped from raising and lowering that thing so often.

Maybe ripped enough that they'll earn some gay admirers.

[Tendrin]

So there's an Iran deal.

And, naturally, conservatives are apoplectic.