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

[Malvolio]

Exactly. Hillary Clinton had more baggage than a week's worth of Jerry Springer dating shows. Granted, a lot of that baggage was manufactured by the right-wing spin machine, but not all of it. Quite a bit of it was of her own making.

[worstblogever]

Exactly. Hillary Clinton had more baggage than a week's worth of Jerry Springer dating shows. Granted, a lot of that baggage was manufactured by the right-wing spin machine, but not all of it. Quite a bit of it was of her own making.

Right. Fair criticisms on her are out there.

"Shrill" was not one. "Pizzagate" definitely wasn't. Saying she "didn't have plans laid out" would be laughable, given the policy-wonk loaded website and ability to discuss any of them.

But if somebody said, "Hillary could have done better on minimum wage messaging", I wouldn't bat an eye.


But hey, guess what... we're letting folks beat the Hillary dead horse again, instead of, y'know, discussing 2018.

Stop looking back, guys. Look now, and look forward.

[numberthirty]

Stop looking back, guys. Look now, and look forward.

Should some of that be something you don't look back on? Sure.

That said, the whole "HRC/Burns Strider/Harasment" aspect isn't exactly something that's ready for a coffin. While she didn't really go into it, it seems like Kasie Hunt mentioned(maybe Meet The Press) that journalists know plenty of folks in Democratic staffs that are talking about that harassment isn't a thing of the past.

While I'm sure she could have been throwing that out because eyeballs on new is good for her making a living, that issue is likely a "Now/Forward" issue.

Edit: Said bit is at around 45:30 in this video -

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Brits Plan Massive Protest For Donald Trump’s Visit To London

Tens of thousand have already signed up for the demonstrations on Facebook. For certain the horribly thin-skinned Pissy POTUS won't like that. Excellent!!

**********

Trump Boasts The Ice Caps Are ‘Setting Records.’ But It’s For Melting.

And no one says “global warming” anymore because it’s “getting too cold all over,” he told Piers Morgan. Donald the Dotard continues flaunting his complete ignorance about climate change. No big surprise there. Absolutely pathetic.

**********

Trump May Have Wanted Him Gone, But Top Republicans Back Mueller

They also expressed concerns about political bias within the Justice Department. Good to know not every Republican is in lockstep with the "Fire Mueller Greek Chorus". Meanwhile....

**********

Susan Collins Says It Wouldn’t Hurt To Pass A Bill To Protect Robert Mueller

The Maine GOP senator previously said in she saw no need of such legislation. I'm sure Sunkist Satan will just love that notion.

**********

Lindsey Graham Urges RNC To Consider Returning Funds Steve Wynn Raised

The money should be returned if sexual misconduct allegations “have merit,” Graham says. Just like Republicans demanded Democrats return money donated to them by disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Tit for tat.

[worstblogever]

Meanwhile, Republicans have people committing sexual assault and harassment, they're trying to stay in office and even settle lawsuits with taxpayer dollars. Blake Farenthold remains in office. Mark Meadows remains in office.

But the guy who froths at the mouth about things Hillary did in his fever dreams 25 years ago would like to discuss an incident involving her? Color me shocked.

[numberthirty]

Meanwhile, Republicans have people committing sexual assault and harassment, they're trying to stay in office and even settle lawsuits with taxpayer dollars. Blake Farenthold remains in office. Mark Meadows remains in office.

But the guy who froths at the mouth about things Hillary did in his fever dreams 25 years ago would like to discuss an incident involving her? Color me shocked.

If you were to take a look at the clip, you'd see that the young woman in it pointed to that women are taking issue with almost exactly what you are doing here.

[worstblogever]

In 2015, in 2016, and in 2017, “Crazy Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Sally Kern, who has voted in favor of every anti-choice bill in the Oklahoma legislature, no matter how extreme, voted for a ban on Sharia Law in the Sooner State, a bill to make it more difficult for people to get a divorce for incompatibility, and a bill to allow Creationists to teach “pure science” in class. In spite of being the wife of a pastor, and practitioner of a religion whose Savior was put to death, Kern is not just in favor of the death penalty, but would like it applied to second offense sex offenders (they’re scum and all, but come on, that’s a bit much). Kern had, on three separate occasions, sponsored or co-sponsored legislation to nullify federal law, and even sponsored a bill to prohibit compliance with the United Nations Agenda 21 conspiracy, presumably because she’s convinced it’s a plot for world domination. Even with all that, Sally Kern’s real bread and butter issue is LGBT rights, because she’s such a homophobic bigot that she’s said that homosexuals were destroying the United States and are more dangerous than terrorists (and vowed never to apologize for that statement), blamed the economic woes of ’07-’10 on same sex marriage, claimed gays are looking to exploit legalized gay marriage to also legalize polygamy and pedophilia, and longs for “the good old days when gays would get thrown in jail.” Kern has also commented on race and gender in the same speech in uncomfortable ways, saying that there is a larger percentage of African Americans than whites in prison because they “don’t work as hard in school” and that women don’t deserve equal pay to men because “they don’t work as hard”. In 2015 alone, she supported three radically anti-gay “religious freedom” bills, one to make it legal for businesses to discriminate against gay people, one that would prohibit judges and clerks in Oklahoma from issuing marriage certificates to same sex couples, despite federal court decisions that already struck down Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban, and a third to allow for the “freedom” for individuals to seek out gay conversion therapy. We are relieved, however, to report that Sally Kern faced term limits in 2016, and is no longer a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. To the end, she was a homophobic loon, as even in her farewell speech, she took time to insist that “the homosexual agenda is worse than terrorism”. She then called for homosexuality to be outlawed, and described herself, literally, as a “victim of anti-Christian persecution”. Thus, we will retire her 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 640-25, since this was established in July 2014.)


Randy Hultgren
Welcome to the 640th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing the elected U.S. House Representative from Illinois’ 14th Congressional District, Randy Hultgren, who first arrived in Washington D.C. in, yes, the Tea Party Wave in 2010 after he spent twelve years floating around the Illinois state legislature with a meager 51% of the vote. After redistricting, Illinois’ 14th garnered the more conservative portions of Illinois’ 8th District from the 2010 map, so by 2012, Hultgren’s incumbency was far more solid, currently standing at a +5 Republican lean. And that’s a shame, because the last thing the country needs is a man who consistently denies facts and science being given a leg up on being re-elected without effort.

Let us begin with this video from back in 2010, where candidate Hultgren states his belief in intelligent design and his desire to have it taught in schools. American courts have ruled as far back as 2005 that intelligent design was primarily religious and fostered unnecessary entanglement of church and state and further found that intelligent design is not science. But whatever, let’s start ingraining it into the minds of children so they’re true believers as adults and not thinking about the heresy that is evolution, right guys? Randy Hultgren wants that for ‘Murica!

Second, Randy Hultgren has been a personal guest of Tony Perkins, the leader of the anti-gay hate group Tony Perkins on his “Washington Watch” show on occasion, including back in 2013 when he was touting a bill he wrote that would allocate over half a billion dollars to grants to promote “abstinence only” education in schools. After claiming the Obama administration was enacting “dangerous and experimental” sex education programs for “younger and younger children” (because that isn’t a lie made to sound more sinister), Hultgren claimed that there are “incredible success records” for abstinence education. And… that’s completely false, as studies show precisely the opposite, and that abstinence only education is a failure.

Rounding things out, Randy Hultgren is a climate change denier, as he expressed in this interview back in late 2009, where against all evidence, he tried claiming that the Earth was entering a “cooling period”:

“The greatest impact on our climate clearly is the sun, and we have very little impact on the sun and how much energy and temperature the sun is sending to the earth. We have seen clearly over thousands of years that at different times more energy has come through and different times less energy has come through, and that variation has impacted climate change. Over the thousands of years that’s been recorded we’ve had both colder times and warmer times. It happens to be that we’ve recently come out of a warmer time and now actually we’re headed in to a little bit of a colder time, the impact of the sun is much different than impact that we could have had. So, I don’t believe we have a significant impact on climate change.”

[worstblogever]

If having a variety of science denial in his background isn’t disturbing enough, take a look at Hultgren’s voting record in his four terms in office, and realize there are depths of disappointment yet to be explored in a human being:

• On January 5th, 2011, Rep. Hultgren votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has voted for almost every attempt to do so since.
• On February 18th, 2011, Randy Hultgren votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
• March 17th, 2011: Rep. Hultgren votes to cut funding to National Public Radio.
• September 15th, 2012: Rep. Hultgren votes for the "No More Solyndras Act".
• September 21st, 2012: Hultgren votes for the "Stop the War on Coal Act".
• January 15th, 2013: Randy Hultgren votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
  (*]February 28th, 2013: Rep. Hultgren votes against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.
• June 19th, 2013: Randy Hultgren votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
• September 30th, 2013: Rep. Hultgren votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown.
• Feb 26th, 2014: Randy Hultgren goes "all in" on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the "Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act".
• July 10th, 2014: Hultgren votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
• January 22nd, 2015: Randy Hultgren votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
• February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Hultgren votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
• March 3rd, 2015: Hultgren votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
• September 11th, 2015: Hultgren votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
• September 18th, 2015: Rep. Hultgren co-sponsors and votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
• November 19th, 2015: Hultgren votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
• February 2nd, 2016: Randy Hultgren votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
• February 16th, 2017: Hultgren 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.
• March 16th, 2017: Randy Hultgren 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. Hultgren votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers' internet usage to businesses.
• May 4th, 2017: Hultgren votes for the GOP's healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, postpartum depression, and sexual assault as "pre-existing conditions". Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Hultgren 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: Randy Hultgren 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.
• September 8th, 2017: Rep. Hultgren chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey.
• October 3rd, 2017: Hultgren votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
• December 19th, 2017: Randy Hultgren votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.

Going into the 2018 elections, Randy Hultgren has no less than seven people facing off in the Democratic primary to take a crack at him. Considering his district only has a +5 Republican lean in a year where polls show Democrats with, even by mild assessments, a +8 advantage, unless the GOP’s fortunes change, Hultgren could find himself bounced out of office. Especially when he’s ignored his constituents’ requests to have a town hall, and instead, accused them of having a “playbook” to be disruptive. It really sets the stage for Illinois’ 14th District being one of many flipped in a Democratic blue wave.

[numberthirty]

On Hultgren....

It's probably also worth noting that his "High" percentage was in 2014. Last time out, it dropped back to just above his 2012 percentage. That said, Jim Walz didn't do as well as Dennis Anderson back in 2012.

[JBatmanFan05]

New York values are back, this time with Democratic senator Manchin and New York talk:

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin defended Trump’s reported firing of the man investigating his campaign’s alleged Russia ties as “New York talk,” and said it only showed that the real estate mogul is still struggling to adjust to life in Washington.

“That’s New York Talk,” Manchin said on NBC News’ Meet the Press about Trump’s notorious order. “I look at it strictly as the New York language they have that’s different than most other people.”

Manchin added in an interview with CNN’s State of the Union that “people from New York have a different way of talking and speaking” and that he believed Trump had only meant to “blow off about some things.”

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-fire-m...manchin-793334

[Kirby101]

New York values are back, this time with Democratic senator Manchin and New York talk:


http://www.newsweek.com/trump-fire-m...manchin-793334

What dog doodoo. It's obstruction in any State, and we don't need this clown from WV to explain how we talk in NYC. Trump has always been an embarrassment to us and we know what a con artist/criminal he has always been.

Stay on your on turf Joe.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

New York values are back, this time with Democratic senator Manchin and New York talk:


http://www.newsweek.com/trump-fire-m...manchin-793334

Boy, you must've been happier than a pig in slop to have found ONE Democrat who agreed with Trump's "New York way of talking". No surprise said Democrat was Joe Manchin who's a horse's ass. Tell me, JBat, do you get backaches from constantly twisting yourself into a pretzel defending Dolt45? Will the day ever come when you'll swallow whatever's left of your pride and admit Donnie Doughboy can actually be wrong about something? Even fellow Republicans have made that admission, it won't hurt you to follow suit from time to time.

[JBatmanFan05]

Even fellow Republicans have made that admission, it won't hurt you to follow suit from time to time.

I've already said Trump makes all sorts of mistakes on messaging and optics. And his staff of advisors has had issues, with leaks and poor behavior and all. Kelly has brough a little more discipline. Bannon's ouster I see now has helped things.

Donnie Doughboy

I know this is just West Philly talk for loving President Trump and his policies. I get it, you pick on someone you like.

[ZombieHavoc]

I'm sure we can find a republican to refer to is as obstruction of justice so...big deal.

Plus Manchin is like, 97% bootlicker to begin with.

[Kirby101]

I've already said Trump makes all sorts of mistakes on messaging and optics. And his staff of advisors has had issues, with leaks and poor behavior and all. Kelly has brough a little more discipline. Bannon's ouster I see now has helped things.

You just approve of his racist, anti-science, anti environment, anti-worker agenda.

Is "mistakes on messaging" your excuse for his constant lies?