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

[numberthirty]

Respectfully disagree, Michael O'reilly and Brendan Carr (appointed by Trump and who I believe worked for Comcast) were just as big of corporate shills as Ajit, this was the Republican game plan and was inevitable once a Republican became president.

Not disagree on the outcome.

Disagreeing on if Obama had to hire one of the biggest idiots he could find.

[numberthirty]

I get the feeling you could have hired anything except this...

[Kusanagi]

Not disagree on the outcome.

Disagreeing on if Obama had to hire one of the biggest idiots he could find.

Fair enough, I can see it like a Pence/Trump view. Pence will still screw you over, but would just look more respectable while doing it. Net Neutraility was doomed the second Trump took office, but it might have had a less clownish face to it.

[Tami]

No, Manchin and Daou didn't learn. Period. The fact a Democrat won in Alabama, a state that's been red since about forever is a tremendous victory, a victory that wouldn't have happened at all if Moore hadn't been such a incredible sack of shit. What the hell did you expect, given the circumstances? Meanwhile....

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White Evangelicals Voted En Masse For Roy Moore In Alabama, To No One’s Surprise

Exit polls suggest 80 percent of white Christians who self-identified as born-again or evangelical voted for Moore. So, holy rollers were okay with a kiddie diddler. Good to know. Yet another reason I have little use for religion.

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Rupert Murdoch Bashes As ‘Nonsense’ Concerns About Sexual Harassment At Fox

But there was “sort of” a problem with Roger Ailes, he acknowledged. Mighty white of that old geezer to admit that much.

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Trump Judicial Nominee Can’t Answer Basic Questions About The Law In Disastrous Hearing

Matthew Spencer Petersen admits to “the challenge that would be ahead of me.” What on earth was this clown doing being a nominee in the first place?

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Alex Jones Is Making Roy Moore Election Conspiracy Theories Even Nuttier

“It really is biblical.” I was wondering when that fool would crawl out from under his rock to throw in his two cents worth on the election.

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How Net Neutrality Repeal Could Silence Women And People Of Color

The FCC voted Thursday to overturn rules that ensured ISPs couldn’t play favorites with websites and services.

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121 Members Of Congress Call For End Of Restrictions On Gun Violence Research

I've been waiting forever to see an article like this.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Fair enough, I can see it like a Pence/Trump view. Pence will still screw you over, but would just look more respectable while doing it. Net Neutraility was doomed the second Trump took office, but it might have had a less clownish face to it.

The reason I call this guy "Idjit" Pai. I wonder if this fool knew that bots provided most of the comments favoring neutrality repeal, or if he was just too damn stupid to know any better?

[TheInvisibleMan]

The reason I call this guy "Idjit" Pai. I wonder if this fool knew that bots provided most of the comments favoring neutrality repeal, or if he was just too damn stupid to know any better?

Im sure he knew, he just didn't care

he has a mandate from the Idiot In Chief - "Net Neutrality goes away, or you do"

[worstblogever]

I'm starting to wonder are Democrats going to learn the wrong lesson from the Doug Jones win.

Yeah The right side won, but we BARELY beat a Pedophile by 1.7%.
Now Morons like Manchin and Peter Daou are crying that Centrism won the day, LMAO!!

Democrats never learn, WTF!!

Alabama is a deep red state. It went for Trump by twenty points. Anyone who says 'lol, the dems only beat Moore by one point' is already drawing the wrong lesson from it.

Meanwhile, one can look at Iowa, where a pedophile hasn't been in all the races, and the average swing in special elections there from 2016 until now is +30% swing in the favor of all the Democrats who have run. See also, the Virginia and New Jersey Election. See also the Monmouth poll out yesterday that has generic Democrats being favored by 15 points over a generic Republican, which is almost double what that number was when the Blue Wave hit in the 2006 mid-terms.

Try as one might to not see it, but the Democratic Party have the momentum. The only question now is if they can avoid stepping on their collective d***s in 11 months. They are winning in spite of themselves. And yeah, I'll admit that last part. I don't think they're doing anything remarkable to win, except just to not be complete ***holes and make people believe they care more than the people who obviously don't.

[worstblogever]

It was on this day in both 2014, as well as 2015, that we published our original "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiles of former Michigan Congressman Dan Benishek, a three term Congressman who has repeatedly come under investigation for FEC violations during his three campaigns for office. He caught plenty of heat in for trying to continue to accept his Congressional paychecks during the 2013 Government Shutdown, only caving after a week of complaints from his district, and is one of the many Republicans who voted against relief aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Benishek is also a prolific denier of climate change, trying to claim he was a climate change scientist, himself, because he had taken biology courses in college, and denying any peer-reviewed evidence of man-made climate change exists (in spite of 97% of peer reviews saying it does). Since Benishek reluctantly retired after promising to do so after serving three terms in Congress



On this date last year, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted our first profile of Marty Knollenberg, a member of the Michigan State Senate since 2014, after he elevated himself from the Michigan House of Representatives after serving on that body from 2007 through 2013. Back in December of 2015, where a discussion was being held about educational disparities between different demographics in the state when it was noted that the date showed students who were struggling were students of color (whose predominantly minority school districts are coincidentally also provided less funding), Marty Knollenberg shrugged it off, saying "You mention why these schools districts fail, and you mention economically disadvantaged and non-white population are contributors to that. And we can’t fix that. We can’t make an African-American white. That’s just, it is what it is.”

Knollenberg, after facing widespread criticism for saying something that racist, went with the typical and lazy response that his comments were taken out of context (even though there is video of his entire statement), and giving an even more pathetic defense against racism of the "I have a black friend" vein, noting that he had an African-American employee. Because, y'know, you just can't be racist if you actually pay a minority for work they actually do. Knollenberg then made headlines less than three months later when he was accused of assaulting an Oakland County clerk after a "State of the County" address, grabbing her arm and squeezing after she tried walking away from him. As a legislator, Knollenberg has voted to begin drug testing welfare recipients, voted for law enforcement to conduct roadside saliva drug tests if they feel, in their judgment, a driver might be under the influence of drugs (Nevermind the Fourth Amendment implications), voted for stricter Voter ID laws in Michigan, to combat the statistically nonexistent problem of "in person voter fraud", for stricter regulations on abortion clinics that would shut down most, if not all of the abortion clinics in Michigan.

Since we last left Marty Knollenberg, he’s been drafting legislation to handle the truly important issues, like trying to commission special license plates that say “Chose Life” on them. (Even Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed that stupid idea.) Which I'm sure is far more important than say... getting the people of Flint clean drinking water, right everybody?

Back in 2014, a year where Republicans dominated, Knollenberg brought in a respectable 58% of the vote, thanks in part to name recognition (his daddy was a former U.S. Congressman) campaigning about how atrocious pot holes are in Michigan's highways (there's bipartisan agreement on that). However, we're not so sure that he'll have as much luck the next time he's up for re-election in 2018.
https://ballotpedia.org/Marty_Knollenberg

[Tami]

Dem: Tax bill doesn't have measure allowing churches to endorse candidates

A Democratic senator says a proposal in the GOP tax bill allowing churches and charities to engage in partisan politics has been blocked by the Senate parliamentarian.

Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Ore.) office confirmed to The Hill on Thursday night that the Senate parliamentarian had blocked the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which would have let churches endorse political candidates.

"I will continue to fight all attempts to eliminate this critical provision that keeps the sanctity of our religious institutions intact, prevents the flow of dark money in politics, and keeps taxpayer dollars from advancing special interest biddings," Wyden said in a statement first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

[Tendrin]

Meanwhile, one can look at Iowa, where a pedophile hasn't been in all the races, and the average swing in special elections there from 2016 until now is +30% swing in the favor of all the Democrats who have run. See also, the Virginia and New Jersey Election. See also the Monmouth poll out yesterday that has generic Democrats being favored by 15 points over a generic Republican, which is almost double what that number was when the Blue Wave hit in the 2006 mid-terms.

Try as one might to not see it, but the Democratic Party have the momentum. The only question now is if they can avoid stepping on their collective d***s in 11 months. They are winning in spite of themselves. And yeah, I'll admit that last part. I don't think they're doing anything remarkable to win, except just to not be complete ***holes and make people believe they care more than the people who obviously don't.

Dem voters are absolutely enraged and energized in a way they haven't been. We have Trump to thank for this one thing. If it plays out like a reverse 2010, I'll be pleased.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Dem: Tax bill doesn't have measure allowing churches to endorse candidates

Works for me. I mean, there is supposed to be this thing called the separation of church and state. Bible thumpers and huckster televangelists are already sticking their noses into politics a hell of a lot more than I like, the dead last thing I want is for those loopjobs to have free rein to endorse candidates.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Dem voters are absolutely enraged and energized in a way they haven't been. We have Trump to thank for this one thing. If it plays out like a reverse 2010, I'll be pleased.

you have more women running for local and municipal offices than ever before

a lot of these local races where a Republican as run unopposed for years are getting blown out of their jobs

[TheInvisibleMan]

the mother of Heather Heyer, Susan Bro, has kept the location of her daughters grave secret, citing fear that white supremacists would vandalize it, or the people working at the grounds where her ashes are interred would be in danger as the family has been receiving constant threats from white supremacists groups

[Gray Lensman]

Im sure he knew, he just didn't care

he has a mandate from the Idiot In Chief - "Net Neutrality goes away, or you do"

It doesn't sound like he needed it. The guy had been practically masturbating to the thought of repeal since day one.

Hopefully a Dem congress (or enough Republican defectors) can just bypass the FCC and make Net Neutrality law. That's probably the best solution right now. And in the future, any Dem president needs to ask the Republicans he appoints to the FCC if they support Net Neutrality - if they don't answer yes (and long winded answer that doesn't begin with yes translates into no) then the interview ends and you look for a different one.

[SuperiorIronman]

I'm fascinated. Donald Trump put him on as chairman and what people knew beforehand has no bearing on knowing now and being outraged that this happened. Just because somebody found out day of, or after, does not excuse somebody from being angry.

What does it matter if somebody explains it to JR or not? Nobody at the FCC bothered to take 83% of Americans into consideration before going ahead with this repeal. If they didn't care in the first place, they wont care after which is only further evident at Pai and his new hires telling us nothing about the new law. You'd even think this would have a document allowing Americans to get an idea of what it was they had been voting on but to my knowledge one doesn't exist. While this may in fact be a nothing law, maybe it has so much redtape on service providers that nothing really changes. But they didn't address the concerns of the people in what the repeal has to offer us in the changed landscape.

I'm not taking sides here I'm remaining independent on this issue, but you think there would be talk on both sides about this considering internet speeds affect everyone. So far I haven't seen any Republican actually address the issue which is why I'm almost positive its going to get dragged out or destroyed in congress, it's far too vague. And even if it does pass, all it takes is for the Trump supporters on The Donald to get upset they can't get on and we are going to find a switch back.