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

[worstblogever]

People do realize the next step is Conservative owned businesses refusing service to liberals and then all hell breaks lose because people can't coexist? Just see the potential for this to become a shitshow. Oh well, good thing I only shop at liberal stores because I have good taste.

DC is predominantly populated by Democrats. All of the working class there, even more so.

So yeah, let's see how many Democrats get refused service for being so "horrible" around DC.

[PunishedFire]

Roseanne's full of s***, plain and simple.

Also, you realize you're claiming her defense of not being racist is, "Well, she didn't look black to me, just like an ape!"

Because that really doesn't make it better, does it?

Well, it makes it not racially motivated and is instead solely based on the woman's looks.

That makes it mean spirited but not racist because it isn't based on any prejudice related to the woman's race (which Roseanne wasn't aware of).

"Better" is subjective depending on whether or not you think making fun of a woman's looks is worse than something racial.

Political commentary, for instance, does not seem worried about attacking someones looks. It seems pretty common actually. So, in that regard, I guess it's socially "better" for whatever that's worth.

[numberthirty]

Well, it makes it not racially motivated and is instead solely based on the woman's looks.

That makes it mean spirited but not racist because it isn't based on any prejudice related to the woman's race (which Roseanne wasn't aware of).

"Better" is subjective depending on whether or not you think making fun of a woman's looks is worse than something racial.

Political commentary, for instance, does not seem worried about attacking someones looks. It seems pretty common actually. So, in that regard, I guess it's socially "better" for whatever that's worth.

According to who? Someone who is making an attempt at saving their own neck?

[worstblogever]

Well, it makes it not racially motivated and is instead solely based on the woman's looks.

That makes it mean spirited but not racist because it isn't based on any prejudice related to the woman's race (which Roseanne wasn't aware of).

"Better" is subjective depending on whether or not you think making fun of a woman's looks is worse than something racial.

Political commentary, for instance, does not seem worried about attacking someones looks. It seems pretty common actually. So, in that regard, I guess it's socially "better" for whatever that's worth.

You're new. I've seen your posts.

I'd seen enough already. And that was before you continued an immediate pattern by trying to explain why it wasn't racist to call a woman of color an ape.

I've definitely seen enough.

[worstblogever]

It was two years ago we shared our original "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profile of Paul Blair, a radical anti-gay pastor from Oklahoma, and a big ally of State Rep. Sally Kern, who proudly spoke of her political credentials (i.e. her dedication to oppressing the LGBT community) at the “Rally for Sally” back in 2008. You see, he was all lathered up after she said that gays represent a bigger threat to America than terrorism (since gay rights made people like Blair and Kern victims). Blair is a former player for the Chicago Bears (and could easily be operating under the effects of long term head injuries), the pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, the founder of Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ, head of the Reclaiming America For Christ organization. He's also appeared at an anti-hate crimes “Rally for Religious Freedom” where he and anti-gay activists vowed never to stop fighting homosexuality and challenged the Justice Department to prosecute them. Blair was the driving force behind a video called “The Criminalization of Christianity” in which he warns that hate crimes legislation is actually a “Pedophile Protection Act”, would “make it possible for a pastor to be prosecuted for doing nothing more than preaching a Biblical sermon on Sunday”. Which would be breaking a commandment about bearing false witness, because hate crime legislation does nothing to criminalize free speech (because that would be an unconstitutional violation of the 1st Amendment now, wouldn't it?) But it would seem that lying is a frequent habit of Pastor Blair, who claims he receives death threats from the gay community over his stance (that are repeatedly unfounded). And that's when Blair tried saying the unsubstantiated death threats were his motivation for making himself a 2012 candidate for the Oklahoma State Senate (endorsed by that anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council), where he lost in the Republican Primary, earning a shockingly impressive 43% of the vote. Some of the more disturbing and/or homophobic quotes from Paul Blair's most bats*** speeches include that "The Devil is behind gay rights and gay culture", before whining how America has gone from "Ozzie and Harriet to Desperate Housewives" and "from True Grit to Brokeback Mountain", claiming that the “communists” are trying to “inculcate homosexual values, or lack of values, into the American culture” in order “to destroy the family” and create “a global utopia", adding that "Satan is the source and ultimate conspirator” behind “the force of communism, the force of the radical homosexual agenda, the secularist movement in America.", and of course, comparing his battle against gay marriage to be similar to “the fight against slavery and Nazi Germany”.


It was originally in July of 2014, and then on this date in both 2016, and 2017, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” presented profiles of the sitting U.S. House Representative from Wyoming’s At-Large Congressional District, Liz Cheney, the carpet-bagging daughter of former Vice-President Dick Cheney who after spending several years during President Obama’s first term as a Fox News Correspondent fomenting fear and anger towards Muslims to try and justify bigotry towards Muslim Americans, the use of torture in the War on Terror, and to keep our troops in combat in the Middle East, even if it means going to war into completely new quagmires there. She has defended the paranoid ramblings of Birther conspiracy theorists, rallied against the “Ground Zero Mosque” (that was actually an Islamic cultural center located blocks away), and had said that Republican obstructionism of any Democratic effort to do anything was “patriotism”. But the real comedy started once Liz Cheney challenged Senator Mike Enzi, where her campaign took one disastrous turn after another, from being caught falsifying information on her Wyoming hunting license application (to try and make it look like she was a resident for longer than she was), having her husband caught on voter rolls in both Virginia and Wyoming, when she attacked the print media for investigating her carpet-bagging by saying, “newspapers are dying, and that’s not a bad thing”, to ending up feuding with her own sister-in-law on Facebook after she reversed her stance on gay marriage. It was a comedy of errors. When we first created our Liz Cheney entry, back around July of 2014, we wondered if she would ever re-emerge to try for another run in politics. A year passed, and we had no new updates in 2015… but now, in 2016, she is in fact running for Congress in Wyoming again, to replace the retiring Cynthia Lummis. Liz learned so much from her first run for office that she managed to send out a Facebook post to announce her run for office, it was listed from… Alexandria, Virginia, in the home she supposedly left to go back and live in Wyoming and totally not be a carpet-bagger. Name recognition helped Liz Cheney get a victory over EIGHT other Republicans in the GOP Primary for this seat, and in a state that leans as far right as Wyoming, she coasted to victory in November of 2016. Afterwards, she also hasn’t hesitated in making some headlines for being an awful human being. Whether it’s her eagerness in killing endangered wolves, her completely partisan insults directed at Barack Obama while he was leaving office, or her desire to get the Trump administration the ability to start torturing detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cheney still has still demonstrated that she’s a hollow puppet being used by her father to continue his twisted policies in the world. However, Liz also shows that she’s not smart enough to pick the right horse, as she excitedly posted to Twitter her support for Donald Trump when he fired the FBI Director James Comey, writing, “Best. Termination. Letter. Ever.” Considering it was this move that those who could see the basics of cause and effect in Washington, D.C. knew could be a potential impeachment charge for Trump because of how obstruction of justice works. Liz hurridly rushed to delete her own post once the media reported on her reaction, but it’s far too late for her to pretend it didn’t happen now, and it just became her latest political misstep.

[worstblogever]

And then, there's Liz's voting record thus far as a member of Congress to consider:

• February 16th, 2017: Cheney 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: Liz Cheney 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. Cheney 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: Cheney 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, post-partem depression, and sexual assault as "pre-existing conditions". Oh, and a provision in the Liz would make sure that Cheney would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. She and her 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: Liz Cheney 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. Cheney chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey.
• October 3rd, 2017: Cheney 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).

We know that Wyoming has a +25 Republican lean, meaning that all Liz Cheney has to do to win, practically, is advance out of the GOP Primary for her seat. Her opposition, Rod Miller, has been hammering her over her support of torture, including Cheney’s endorsement of Gina Haspel, a fellow torture maven, as CIA Director. Which, considering Rep. Cheney is willing to accuse even fellow Republicans like Rand Paul of “sympathizing with terrorists” for opposing Haspel, it could be interesting to see how that plays out against Miller in a debate. Still, there are two courageous Democrats looking to take down Liz Cheney in the general election in November, in both Travis Helm, and Greg Hunter. Helm is an immigration lawyer, and Hunter, a consultant who specializes in public lands and water quality. We know it’s a tall order to pry Cheneys out of office… but maybe 2018 can pleasantly surprise us.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Well, it makes it not racially motivated and is instead solely based on the woman's looks.

That makes it mean spirited but not racist because it isn't based on any prejudice related to the woman's race (which Roseanne wasn't aware of).

"Better" is subjective depending on whether or not you think making fun of a woman's looks is worse than something racial.

Political commentary, for instance, does not seem worried about attacking someones looks. It seems pretty common actually. So, in that regard, I guess it's socially "better" for whatever that's worth.

Considering black people myself have been called apes (i.e. Michelle Obama and the infamous "ape in heels" insult leveled at her), I'd definitely call that racist. If you want to make excuses for a disgusting, bigoted harridan like Barr, fine, that's your prerogative, I'd just as soon not converse with you.

[Username taken]

Racism is alive and well in the United States and the rhetoric being thrown around isn't helping out at all.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Question- should the Red Hen have been made to serve Sanders?

Oh and roseanne got thrown out for her mouth,and her show was at the top,but she still got dropped.

Roseanne did something that was going to have advertisers destroy her shows ability to make profits and make the network look terrible. She dug her own grave.

The Red Hen had the right to kick out Sanders. Not sure I would have that late in the game. But they had the right.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

DC is predominantly populated by Democrats. All of the working class there, even more so.

So yeah, let's see how many Democrats get refused service for being so "horrible" around DC.

DC should be the least concerning place. They all want access there and really don’t want one group or the other taking lines in the sand.

[GindyPosts]

Sorry, but if someone says "why force a racist to serve people he hates?" as a defense of denying service even with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of refusing service due to religious beliefs, then that doesn't exactly help one's argument, especially when you say it's okay to call black people "apes".

Not to go on a tangent, but I was a dumbass myself, among other things, during the 2nd Era of CBR Forums. Besides the obvious stuff like that avatar contest that was actually funny now that I remember and had that meltdown, I once discussed the problem with America's inability to develop young minds for more than just factory work by comparing to the Japanese, except I kept calling them "Japs", unaware of the historical aspect of that slur. Just because I didn't know didn't mean that it was okay. Playing dumb or coy about it is worse, because you know it's wrong, but it's still justification because you wanna sock it to those sub-human liberals who are the scourge of mankind.

And, yeah, Supes, all the Cult of MAGA cares about these days is pwning those damn dirty libs. I spend way too much time on Twitter seeing hashtags like #LiberalismIsAMentalDisorder, arguing that those who think differently need to be locked up or put down. Trump gave trolls and assholes too much power by defending them, and it emboldened these individuals.

[GindyPosts]

It's too bad there's going to be a lot of needless suffering because of such impotent white rage.

Hypermasculinity and "manspeak" were two things I could have gone my entire life not knowing about, but here we are.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Hypermasculinity and "manspeak" were two things I could have gone my entire life not knowing about, but here we are.

*toxic masculinity

[GindyPosts]

*toxic masculinity

I kinda prefer saying hypermasculinity but apparently there's being a "man" and there's being a "MAN!"

I discovered this by accident as when I was purging books at my store, I found a novel written, without irony or satire, about a dude who beat up women and blew up people different than him. I wish I remembered the title, but the guy basically put some of the many criticisms of his literature and personality in the back of the cover.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

House GOP struggles with immigration bill ahead of recess

Struggling to find the votes to pass an immigration overhaul, House Republicans are focusing on a slimmed-down bill to stem the crisis of separating immigrant families at the border.

But even that more modest measure hit uncertainty Monday. President Donald Trump rejected the idea of adding more immigration judges, insisting it would only lead to graft even though supporters say the step could help expedite the logjam of claims that can prolong detentions.

With Congress wavering on the next moves, it's uncertain if lawmakers will be able to swiftly act on any bills to address the border crisis despite an outpouring of public concern over reports of immigrant children being separated from their parents.

"We want a system where, when people come in illegally, they have to go out," Trump said Monday during an event at the White House. "A nice simple system that works."

House Republicans were set to meet Tuesday behind closed doors to map out their options for taking action before lawmakers leave town at the end of the week for the Fourth of July holiday recess. Votes may be scheduled for Wednesday. But with Trump's on-again, off-again support, the outlook for passage of the broader immigration overhaul was dimming.

Meanwhile, let's blame Democrats for the unholy, inhuman clusterfuck of a policy Trump and the craven and cowardly Republicans in Congress created. Yeah, that'll work. Astounding!