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

[worstblogever]

And if Obama didn't donate money to any Civil War battle sites, does that mean he was pandering to the Alt-Left?

Kind of hard to pander to something that doesn't exist.

[worstblogever]

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/r...ress-in-idaho/

looks like we got a fresh one for WBE

Sigh. Added to the queue.

[kmeyers]

And if Obama didn't donate money to any Civil War battle sites, does that mean he was pandering to the Alt-Left?

What is the Alt-Left?

Also, how is not donating money to something a show of support for something else? You realize that makes no sense at all, right?

[ouroboros]

What is the Alt-Left?

Here's one writer's opinion on the subject.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/r...ress-in-idaho/

looks like we got a fresh one for WBE

Right wingers and bible thumpers never run out of nutbags to foist upon a weary republic.

[mojotastic]

Here's one writer's opinion on the subject.

I have seen better name than alt left, i have seen regressive left or control left, i have seen Majjid Nawaz post something like that on twitter.

As i understand that seems to be a label use on people who are far left or something.

[Tami]

Trump confronts Putin on election hacking in first meeting?

Waiting fro confirmation of this.

[ouroboros]

Here's one writer's opinion on the subject.

EDIT: I'm pointing out the absurdity of a person making conclusions about a politician's motives based purely on whether or not the person agrees with what he's doing, or even not doing. Certainly any number of politicians, including Obama, have been accused of not doing enough for particular group, and indeed Obama was publicly condemned by Farrakhan for not having done enough for inner city blacks.

Besides, when you have a president whose integrity has been compromised in so many other ways, why even bother with penny ante stuff like whether he's sucking up to neo-Confederates? The last time I looked, it's legal to be a neo-Confederate, so it's far less significant than Trump's contact (even through his minions) with Russian special interests.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump confronts Putin on election hacking in first meeting?

Waiting fro confirmation of this.

Cheeto Jesus can confront Putin until the cows come home, he's not going to learn jack ****, because Putin won't tell him squat.

[JCAll]

What is the Alt-Left?

Also, how is not donating money to something a show of support for something else? You realize that makes no sense at all, right?

I suppose that there's no real defined point where a far leaning political view becomes an alt political view. For me, I've always thought of it at the point where hurting people becomes a deliberate part of their policy. Take the Right. A Far-Right person may want to make deep spending cuts, even to programs I think need to be funded, but would do so because they legitimately want to save money. An Alt-Right person may want to make cuts to women's healthcare organizations to punish women for having sex like the godless heathens they are.

By my definition, there really isn't an Alt-Left, at least not yet. There's certainly a Far-Left, and their voice is getting louder, but they've not taken the turn towards revenge legislation. Of course, my definition only works in my head, and has no impact on the actual world.

[worstblogever]

EDIT: I'm pointing out the absurdity of a person making conclusions about a politician's motives based purely on whether or not the person agrees with what he's doing, or even not doing.

Besides, when you have a president whose integrity has been compromised in so many other ways, why even bother with penny ante stuff like whether he's sucking up to neo-Confederates? The last time I looked, it's legal to be a neo-Confederate, so it's far less significant than Trump's contact (even through his minions) with Russian special interests.

Oh, it's LEGAL, but pretty racist. And, that doesn't stop it from being revolting. And, oddly, you're defending that crowd as not being politically toxic, which is pretty telling. Only a few years ago, Republicans would resign if they were tied to Neo-Confederate groups. These days, they've given up the pretense.

Just like you should that Trump isn't pandering to them.

[worstblogever]

In both 2015, as well as 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Christopher Shank, a former Maryland State Senator who in his time in the Maryland State Assembly, opposed LGBT rights in every way, shape, and form, fighting against authorizing same sex marriages for years, even to the extent that he wanted same sex partners banned from being allowed to visit their loved ones in the hospital or be allowed decision making into their loved ones' well being. What got him special notice was arguing against a transgender discrimination bill because while he did acknowledge they were discriminated against... he thought that minority groups that faced discrimination would then start coming forward, and also want to be protected. He also voted numerous times over the past several years against minimum wage increases, and even voted against the repeal of an outdated part of the Maryland state Constitution that barred atheists from holding public office, saying that it was "a little offensive" him as a Christian to even suggest doing so. When we last reported on Shank, he was serving in Gov. Larry Hogan's administration in the Office of Crime Control and Prevention, and has not yet shown any sign that he will be running for an elected office in the near future, mercifully. As such, we'll move on and start profiling a different wacky Republican on this date instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 588-25, since this was established in July 2014.)

[ouroboros]

Oh, it's LEGAL, but pretty racist. And, that doesn't stop it from being revolting. And, oddly, you're defending that crowd as not being politically toxic, which is pretty telling. Only a few years ago, Republicans would resign if they were tied to Neo-Confederate groups. These days, they've given up the pretense.

Just like you should that Trump isn't pandering to them.

I don't agree with the Confederate/racist equation. At most I would agree that explicitly racist organizations may sometimes hitch their wagons to the Confederate star, but there's a long history of politics making strange bedfellows between moderates and extremists, and it's just *possible* that this is what we're seeing.

Define pandering as opposed to simply wooing special interests. Again, not seeing much difference between the usual practice of politics.

Are you by chance thinking of any particular Republican who resigned under those circumstances? If so, who?

[worstblogever]

Clay Higgins

Welcome to the 588th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be discussing a freshman Congressman, Clay Higgins, who now represents Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District after an improbable win in the 2016 elections where he finished second in the “jungle primary”, but came from behind to defeat fellow Republican Scott Angelle with 56% of the vote. That won Higgins, a guy nicknamed “the Cajun John Wayne”, the right to go to Washington, D.C. and replace Congressman Charles Boustany, (whose own bid for U.S. Senate failed, due to the unsavory rumors about him soliciting prostitutes that popped up).

Anyway, when we say that Clay Higgins’ victory in the 2016 elections was improbable, we aren’t joking around. Scott Angelle was considered a favorite in that race for months, and as of February of 2016, Higgins was still serving as a sheriff in St. Landry Parish, making appearances on the “Crime Stoppers” show where he would not just ask the community for help in finding felons, but would start berating and mocking them in segments on the show. That got him some notoriety, particularly from the right, because over time, Higgins’ rants started to get… well, a little alarming, and kind of racist. So, of course he had a few guest spots on Fox and Friends in 2015. But as Higgins continued to get more and more over-the-top in his segments on Crime Stoppers, he went viral when he asked for help with “The Gremlins gang”, seventeen individuals who just so happened to be African Americans who he referred to as “heathens”, “thugs” and “animals” while threatening them to turn themselves in with a contingent of officers in SWAT gear and with rifles because, "You will be hunted, you will be tracked. And if you raise your weapon to a man like me, we'll return fire with superior fire."

Making things even more troubling was that the seventeen men had their annoyed families come forward to wonder why the hell the Cajun John Wayne was threatening their loved ones, because they weren’t even aware of their family being in any “Gremlins” gang, saying that it may have been referring to an attempt by some of them to start a rap group years earlier. Higgins tried defending the police’s information on the “gang” by saying his department had “read it on the internet”, which sounds a lot like Donald Trump, come to think of it. Oh, he also insisted his video wasn’t racist because each of the officers in it also was standing near an African American community leader (similar to the “we have black friends” defense).

Well, after his boss let Higgins know he’d gone too far, he gave a public resignation, saying he “don’t do well reined in” and that he would “rather die” than sacrifice his principles by… I guess conducting himself professionally? Fox and Friends and other right-wing allies began to rally around poor, poor Clay Higgins for having his free speech quelled (even though the First Amendment doesn’t allow you the right to speak without punishment from your employer on television while representing them). He parlayed the criticism against him into being the victim, and started his campaign for Congress instead.

And then, once Clay Higgins advanced to the final two in the GOP Primary, partially due to receiving a large campaign contribution from fellow fascist-lunatic and former Congressman Allen West, the local media started doing its job, and digging at the sudden political star that could end up in Washington, D.C. They noted that back in 2007, Clay Higgins previously had resigned from the Opelousas Police Department to avoid receiving disciplinary measures after he was accused of using excessive force, and giving false statements in the ensuing investigation.

But even more damning was when a public records request was made with the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office that discovered Higgins wasn’t just dismissed because of the “Gremlins Gang” video… his superiors had become appalled at how Higgins had begun trying to exploit his appearances on Crime Stoppers as a new means of getting revenue, using government e-mail to sell mugs and t-shirts with his likeness to fans of the show, and book himself on whatever talk shows would have him on to appear… as long as they paid him in cash. The “cash preferred” nature of his bookings was because Higgins had the IRS garnishing money from his wages to pay back taxes, and keeping payments off the books would prevent the IRS from getting their hands on it. Higgins even had dreams of appearing on his own reality show called “American Justice” where they would carry out SWAT raids, with him leading the charge, and talking trash to the crooks as they brought them in.

Okay… so that’s a month before the election. There’s Scott Angelle, a moderate Republican, and Clay Higgins, an arguably pretty racist, over-aggressive, fame-seeking, wannabe-fascist nut who seems to want to evade paying taxes. In 2016… that’s the same formula that got Donald Trump elected, and Louisiana’s 3rd followed suit when presented with the same kind of candidate to represent them in the U.S. House of Representatives. Higgins’ website featured issue stances that were a hot bed of crazy, including an argument against all gun control because it didn’t really exist prior to the 1960s (it did, an a need from rifles available to the public tending more towards the semi-automatic and automatic), and referring to the Affordable Care Act as follows:

”2,800 pages of unintelligible psychobabble. It’s the most egregious seizure of power and treasure from the American people in history. It’s the worst idea in an elaborate history of bad ideas. It’s a book of lies, based on lies, sold by liars. Obamacare must be repealed. Period.”

[worstblogever]

Choosing an “outsider” has not served them well:

• February 16th, 2017: Higgins votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
• March 16th, 2017: Clay Higgins votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge's written order. We feel safer already.
• March 28th, 2017: Rep. Higgins votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers' internet usage to businesses.
  Well, so much for privacy.
• May 4th, 2017: Higgins votes for the House GOP's healthcare plan, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, leaving some 24 million people without insurance and would allow 24,000 more people to die a year. Oh, and a provision in the Clay would make sure that Higgins would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
• June 8th, 2017: Clay Higgins votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.

Now, here’s the thing… the “Gremlins gang” video was a pretty clear indicator that Clay Higgins might be a bit of a bigot, and that he would overreact to threats. Well, if anyone had any doubts of if that was a fluke, we can be pretty sure it isn’t now, because after a terror attack in London in June 2017, Clay Higgins responded a day later by calling for Christendom to go to war against “Radical Islam”, and giving the level-headed assessment that we should just “kill them all”.

"The free world... all of Christendom... is at war with Islamic horror. Not one penny of American treasure should be granted to any nation who harbors these heathen animals. Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be granted any measure of quarter. Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied. Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down. Hunt them, identity them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all."

Rep. Higgins made no apologies after people were shocked, and blamed the negativity on his comments on “political correctness”. Because of course he did. He’s still not done, though. As of three days ago, he drew the ire of Jewish groups by filming a political video in the Auschwitz gas chambers without the permission of the museum, using the symbol of the Holocaust as a prop to defend his desire to increase United States military spending. Jewish leaders are, predictably, not pleased.

On the upside, for all their long-standing grievances, at least Muslims and Jews can come together and agree, Clay Higgins is an ***hole.

We at CSGOPOTD have a pretty substantial queue of Republicans to profile, and we’re not going to mince words, this guy is a delusional, narcisscistic, barking mad ideologue who never should have been on a ballot in the first place, let alone found his way into office. His comments above are insane enough that we moved him to he front of the queue, because if anyone missed the fact that this how sitting Republican Congressman speak without any admonishment from their colleagues… that something is very, very wrong in this country.