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

[Tazirai]

The Senate confirmed Gina Haspel on Thursday as the first female director of the CIA following the previous director Mike Pompeo's confirmation as the Secretary of State.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...or-senate-vote

6 Cowardly and Torture approving Democrats voted for her... they should be primaried for that alone.

[worstblogever]

It was three years ago that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had a profile of Randy Rives, a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives who has gained infamy more as the board president of the Ector County School Board, doing his best to turn public school lessons into Fundamentalist indoctrination. Among his more heinous works in that role include making sex education abstinence-only, getting the school district sued for trying to make Bible study a part of the course curriculum, and throwing a tantrum because textbooks had recognized Christians’ role in committing some atrocities during the Crusades, but in his mind, giving Muslims a free pass for far greater ones. Being a Texas Republican, of course, means he’s also opposed to gay marriage and LGBT rights, as well as a big proponent of the death penalty. In any event, it seems like he’s never going to win any office higher than the school board (one would hope).



In both 2016, and 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of Arkansas State Senator Bart Hester, who represents District 1 in the state, was first elected in 2012 with a lot of help from funding from the Koch Brothers and their Americans for Prosperity SUPERPAC. But that, ironically, is not the alliance Hester maintains that draws our attention to him. You see, since he arrived on the political scene, Bart Hester has been a staunch ally of anti-LGBT groups in Arkansas, particularly the Duggar Family, and by extension, the Family Research Council. Back in November of 2014, the duo appeared together at an event in Little Rock scheduled to “protect same sex marriage” from those pesky gays, and protest a judge’s decision to overturn Arkansas’ same sex marriage ban. If you’re curious what Hester said, exactly, feel free to take a look at his rant against “homosexual marriage” on Youtube.

Now, here’s where things get a bit hypocritical for Bart Hester… his boy, Josh Duggar, was protesting same sex marriage while cheating on his wife, which he in no way finds problematic. And in fact, when news broke that Josh Duggar had been investigated by Arkansas police back in 2006 for molesting five girls, the majority of whom were his own sisters… Bart Hester had an interesting reaction… he called for the police chief of Rock Springs to be fired for releasing the report. Never mind that the chief and his staff were simply complying with freedom of information laws and no laws were broken, Hester still thought that records release was a greater crime than the actual child molestation by his homophobic brother in arms. Which is pretty disgusting, really.

But that’s not where Bart Hester’s revolting ideas end, by a long shot. In February of 2015, he sponsored a bill to try and prevent any individual municipality in Arkansas from passing civil rights protections unless the federal government already had them. While he named it the “Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act”, critics were quick to appropriately nicknamed it the “Right to Discriminate Bill”, and the big one that Bart Hester talked about, of course, was LGBT protections. As he put it, to have protections for sexual identity or sexual orientation would grant gays “special rights” that he doesn’t have, and he tried explaining that HE is the actual true victim of discrimination, claiming that HE is “singled out for being married to one woman”. It was only a few weeks later that Hester sponsored Arkansas’ “Religious Freedom Restoration Act”, which yes, was one of those “religious freedom” laws that Republicans were pushing for at the state level around the country so that they could discriminate against LGBT citizens, and claim that preventing them from doing so was infringing upon their “deeply held faith” (which some will recall was also the argument used by some Southerners to argue why they should be able to discriminate against African Americans, once upon a time).

Well, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson refused to sign the bill, afraid Arkansas would face similar repercussions like Indiana did after signing one into place, and Bart Hester was invited to go on CNN to be interviewed by Jake Tapper about it. During a four minute interview, Hester did not seem smart enough to understand that his bill even allowed discrimination to take place, and Tapper didn’t let up on him… for four whole minutes of glorious journalism.

Regrettably, Hester’s fanaticism is not limited to one issue. He’s also dedicated to stripping women of their right to choose, because it is his personal belief that life begins at conception. This would mean he not only believes all abortion is murder, but so are the majority of forms of birth control. And it’s not just talk, either, as Hester has sponsored fetal heartbeat bills that would effectively ban all abortion at 6 weeks.

Now, surely, such a pious Christian man such as Bart Hester would apply his Christian values to aiding the poor, right? HA! Of course not. Since he’s taken office, he’s gone out of his way to sponsor or co-sponsor legislation to reduce unemployment benefits, pushed for the failed conservative policy of drug-testing welfare recipients not just once but twice, and even tried to raise taxes on food. Hester has argued against them having the private option for health insurance by claiming families of four make an average of $96,000 a year, live comfortably, and don’t need the help (which is amazing considering the actual number is $36,000. Hester was talking casually about being “in a game of chicken” in a funding shutdown in Arkansas that would leave funding for over 100,000 elderly citizens in nursing homes, over a thousand blind citizens, hundreds of thousands of underprivileged children, and tens of thousands of the disabled without financial support to just survive. I mean, the least egregious things we have to say about Bart Hester include his support of strict Voter ID registration to combat the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud.

Our update on Bart Hester includes his fetish for firearms got really out of control in the past few months. Without realizing it, Hester voted for HB 1429 along with a lot of Arkansas Republicans, which would allow the concealed carry of firearms at bars, schools, and public universities. At some point, Hester and his fellow conservatives forgot that their wording of the bill would make it legal for people to bring guns into University of Arkansas football games with around 70,000 people present for potential mass shootings. Which, y'know, is a pretty big security risk, and ironic because the stadium won't let people bring in umbrellas or blankets. Gov. Asa Hutchison had to send them back to the drawing board to write a second bill to exempt the stadium, after the fact.

Since our last update on Bart Hester, he managed to embarrass himself with a post on Twitter that led to a former Miss America from Arkansas turning up in his feed to serve him his own ass. It all started in February of 2018, when Hester was driving around town, and saw a billboard advertising for for University of Arkansas at Little Rock that featured a dancer on it, and promoting the university’s school of dance, in particular. Hester was suddenly possessed with the fury of the preacher played by John Lithgow in Footloose, and enraged by dancing, he got on Twitter and wrote:

“Why higher ed does NOT need increase funding. They lease a sign to encourage computer science degrees or math teachers? No they push for dance majors. Lots of hardworking Arkansans subsidizing this! Not ok @UALR"

Former Miss America Savvy Shields came along to talk some sense, responding, “I disagree with this on so many levels. As an artist and a dancer, I have seen the arts influence, inspire, challenge, and transform society. Art education is crucial in the advancement of Arkansas.” Then the University of Arkansas Little Rock responded that this was an entire ad campaign, and various billboards were up with each one depicting a different major the school offers. And then Microsoft executives came along to point out that as much focus should be placed on the arts as math and science in education, and that they not only hold that opinion, but their chief competitor at Apple, Steve Jobs, used to say the same prior to his passing.

So… yeah, that backfired.

We're sad to report no one bothered to raise a challenge to Bart Hester in the 2016 elections, in the primary, or in the general election. He’ll be hanging around until at least 2020, trying to promote his twisted concept of “religious freedom” until somebody sends him packing, provided no one bothers with a recall election.

[numberthirty]

6 Cowardly and Torture approving Democrats voted for her... they should be primaried for that alone.

Someone tried to primary Manchin.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump’s ICE Is Increasingly Arresting Immigrants Without Criminal Convictions

The president often talks about criminals that his administration finds and deports. But a lot of noncriminals are being swept up too. Trump's personal Gestapo has clearly gotten out of hand and needs to be reined in.

**********

Mitch McConnell Taps Anti-LGBTQ Bigot For Religious Freedom Panel

Tony Perkins, who has warned of gay people waging an anti-Christian holocaust, is now on the Commission on International Religious Freedom. Heavy sigh. Why am I NOT surprised?

**********

Bill Gates Says Trump Didn’t Know The Difference Between HPV And HIV

“So I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other,” the tech mogul said. Not exactly a newsflash. Donnie Dumbass probably doesn't know the difference between a cold and the flu.

**********

Report: Manafort’s Former Son-In-Law Cuts Plea Deal, To Cooperate With Government

The guilty plea agreement could add to the legal pressure on Manafort. This is getting interesting.

**********

Hannity Flips Out: Mueller Probe ‘Is A Direct Threat To This American Republic’

“Mueller is causing irreparable damage to the rule of law in this country.” Oh, WAHHHHHHH! Somebody change Sean Hamhocks' diaper and give him a bottle!

[Carabas]

The Senate confirmed Gina Haspel on Thursday as the first female director of the CIA...

And she'll muck it up so badly there isn't going to be another one till the 23rd century.

[Tami]

‘Unfair!’ Rudy Giuliani explodes when CNN’s Cuomo plays clip of him saying presidents must obey subpoenas

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani went on an angry tirade against Chris Cuomo on Friday after the CNN host played an old clip of him saying that presidents must comply with subpoenas to testify.

During the CNN interview, Giuliani claimed that back in the 1990s, he simply argued that former President Bill Clinton couldn’t ignore subpoenas to hand over documents as part of the Whitewater probe. The former New York mayor then said that he would never have argued that a sitting president must comply with a subpoena asking him to testify.

Cuomo then rolled the clip of Giuliani being interviewed by Charlie Rose in which Rose directly asked him about whether a president must obey a subpoena to testify — and Giuliani said he did.

Giuliani at this point began ranting at Cuomo and accused him of being “unfair” to him simply for playing back arguments he made 20 years ago.

“That’s really unfair!” Giuliani fumed. “That’s extremely unfair what you’re doing right now! This is the reason people don’t come on this show!”

Giuliani then attacked Cuomo for regularly inviting “ambulance chaser” Michael Avenatti onto his show, to which Cuomo replied, “What does that have to do with this?”

[InformationGeek]

Remember the girl with the assault rifle pic?

We have follow-up to that.

And also this.

[Tami]

Trump: Justice Dept. put a 'spy' in campaign to 'frame' him

President Donald Trump is alleging that the Department of Justice put a "spy" inside his presidential campaign as part of an effort to frame him for crimes he says "didn’t commit."

"'Apparently the DOJ put a Spy in the Trump Campaign. This has never been done before and by any means necessary, they are out to frame Donald Trump for crimes he didn't commit,'" Trump tweeted Friday, quoting Fox Business Network anchor David Asman. "Really bad stuff!"

Moments later, Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's lawyers, said on Friday that his legal team had been told "off the record" of an informant, but added that he didn't know if the information was correct.

"I don't know for sure, nor does the president, if there really was one," Giuliani told CNN. "For a long time we've been told by people that there was some kind of infiltration."

Trump's tweet Friday marked the second time in as many days that the president has claimed the government put a "spy" inside his campaign.

[Tami]

Remember the girl with the assault rifle pic?

We have follow-up to that.

And also this.

And there we have Trump's new Communications Director. That's how he hires people, through Fox&Friends recruiting.

[KOSLOX]

Remember the girl with the assault rifle pic?

We have follow-up to that.

And also this.

Not surprised at all.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

‘Unfair!’ Rudy Giuliani explodes when CNN’s Cuomo plays clip of him saying presidents must obey subpoenas

On one hand, we have a butthurt snowflake who's own words came back to bite him in his wrinkled ass. Or was Rudy stupid enough to believe anyone NOT associated with Faux News WOULDN'T have brought up that clip? For a so-called legal eagle, Ghouliani is dumber than the proverbial box of hammers.

Trump: Justice Dept. put a 'spy' in campaign to 'frame' him

Then there's the Caramel Conspiracist who's in serious paranoia mode, thinking the world is out to get him. Or did Donnie Dumbass really think that being a politician would be as easy as being a businessman? Meanwhile, instead of disparaging the DOJ, Dolt45 should present definitive proof that there WAS a spy in his campaign instead of parroting bullshit he heard on a TV network overly sympathetic to him.

[MindofShadow]

Not surprised at all.

And it worked.

Moderately attractive young blonde got the attention she wanted + on Fox.

Just like I said earlier.

She won unless Twitter digs up something my demeaning than a liked article.

Sometimes it is better to ignore people....

[Kevinroc]

https://twitter.com/MichelleWRCB/sta...61125468913664

Someone asks Corker about fiscal responsibility. He answers, “Yeah, I’m just over it. Nobody cares. The President isn’t going to deal with it, he made it clear in the campaign.” @WRCB

[Duskman]

Remember the girl with the assault rifle pic?

We have follow-up to that.

And also this.

Now that's job security!

[Iron Maiden]

‘Unfair!’ Rudy Giuliani explodes when CNN’s Cuomo plays clip of him saying presidents must obey subpoenas

LOL. That clip has been getting a lot of play on MSNBC too and Ghouliani was getting soundly ridiculed.