All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

A War Against Climate Science, Waged by Washington’s Rank and File

WASHINGTON — Efforts to undermine climate change science in the federal government, once orchestrated largely by President Trump’s political appointees, are now increasingly driven by midlevel managers trying to protect their jobs and budgets and wary of the scrutiny of senior officials, according to interviews and newly revealed reports and surveys.

A case in point: When John Crusius, a research chemist at the United States Geological Survey, published an academic paper on natural solutions to climate change in April, his government affiliation never appeared on it. It couldn’t.

Publication of his study, after a month’s delay, was conditioned by his employer on Dr. Crusius not associating his research with the federal government.

“There is no doubt in my mind that my paper was denied government approval because it had to do with efforts to mitigate climate change,” Dr. Crusius said, making clear he also was speaking in his personal capacity because the agency required him to so. “If I were a seismologist and had written an analogous paper about reducing seismic risk, I’m sure the paper would have sailed through.”

An inspector general’s report at the Environmental Protection Agency made public in May found that almost 400 employees surveyed in 2018 believed a manager had interfered with or suppressed the release of scientific information, but they never reported the violations. A separate Union of Concerned Scientists survey in 2018 of more than 63,000 federal employees across 16 agencies identified the E.P.A. and Department of Interior as having the least trustworthy leadership in matters of scientific integrity.

Findings published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE in April on a subset of those agencies found that 631 workers agreed or strongly agreed that they had been asked to omit the phrase “climate change” from their work. In the same paper, 703 employees said they avoided working on climate change or using the phrase.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Supreme Court says gay, transgender workers are protected by federal law forbidding discrimination on the basis of sex



Some good news for a change.

The fact that Gorsuch, one of Trump's appointees authored the decision must have Sunkist Satan and Republicans seething.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who used her office to serve, alternatively as a puppet for Florida Governor Rick Scott, and to waste taxpayer money on failed lawsuits to try and overturn the Affordable Care Act, or same sex marriage. The latter case fascinating because she has been divorced multiple times, but is supposedly obsessed with “upholding the sanctity of marriage”. Among her more disturbing abuses of power include signing an amicus brief to provide support for Arizona's controversial anti-immigration law, SB 1070, trying to overturn laws to allow gun sales to 18 to 20 year olds (Note: This was in the wake of the trial of George Zimmerman in Florida after the death of Trayvon Martin.) asking Florida Governor Rick Scott to reschedule the execution of a death row inmate because it conflicted with her personal schedule so she could host her re-election fundraiser party, and an investigation that revealed that both Pam Bondi and Rick Scott had violated Florida's "Sunshine Laws" for transparency by destroying e-mails and failing to retain text messages. For someone in charge of ensuring the law is upheld, she’s remarkable for defying courts whenever possible and breaking the law quite a bit. After winning re-election in 2014, Bondi immediately used the power of her position to dig her heels in and try to do everything she could to keep same sex couples from getting married in Florida, even beyond the point where the Supreme Court ruled in the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, asking for delays before allowing gay marriage to happen for… reasons, and threatening to arrest individuals who performed marriage ceremonies during that would-be interim. Most could only guess as to her motivations, other than trying to make herself a martyr and later parlay that into running for higher office. Maybe she should have been more focused on the fact that up until April, unmarried couples in Florida were forbidden from living together since 1868. Convenient that she never bothered enforcing one edict about romantic partners, and hell bent about another one, right? She probably wished people didn’t remember that fact about her at one point… As tragedy struck in Orlando, Florida and the biggest mass shooting in the history of the United States took place at Pulse, a gay nightclub in the city that claimed the lives of 49 victims, Pam Bondi began After YEARS of fighting to file whatever lawsuits she could to prevent marriage equality and insisting that allowing it would cause “public harm” in the wake of the shooting, she began to posture herself as a champion of the LGBTQ community that would keep them safe. What she didn’t realize, though, was that she would be interviewed by the Silver Fox himself, Anderson Cooper, who was having none of it, and as professionally as a journalist can do so, effectively let her know, “I haven’t forgotten about you motherf***er.” Feel free to watch CNN’s Cooper remind her of all of her previous work with the LGBT community, and her hypocrisy at trying to play at being their friends now. It’s… breathtaking. So the good news is, love won, and Pam Bondi lost (as she frequently does in her quixotic quests, at taxpayer expense). But there’s a far more interesting news story involving her floating around, and it just so happens to also tied into the corruption scandals of one Donald Trump. There was talk about while Trump was being investigated for fraud in relation to Trump University, his online real-estate education program that most describe succinctly as “straight up fraud” that the New York Attorney general pursued several lawsuits on the behalf of individuals wronged by Trump’s business dealings. But as it turns out, New York wasn’t the only state to file a lawsuit on behalf of a large number of people defrauded… both Texas and Florida saw people file complaints as well. Pam Bondi received those complaints back in 2013, and shortly thereafter, Donald Trump, out of the kindness of his heart (yeah, right) decided to donate $25,000 to her re-election campaign. She never did anything to help the people he wronged, and effectively filed the case in the trash. Pam Bondi, of course, has not commented on her failure to do her job, and get $25,000 to sit on her hands by Trump (who she endorsed for president, of course). But it’s sure a disgusting bit of quid pro quo that amounts to bribery. Bondi continued her shady relationship with Cheeto Mussolini has seen her appointed to a White House position to serve on a commission to curtail our nation’s opioid abuse epidemic, serving under New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and doing… nothing except collecitng a paycheck.Considering most of Bondi’s career as an attorney general ended in her failing to execute her agenda, for the time being, we have been spared seeing her run for higher office.

It was on this date in 2019 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Loretta Miller, a 2018 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives for Florida’s 15th Congressional District who was, for a brief time, the only Republican on the ballot in the race after long time Republican Congressman Dennis Ross abruptly announced his retirement in April of 2018. The Republican Party quickly scrambled to find someone… ANYONE else to get on their primary ballot, because Loretta Miller was really into spreading conspiracy theories, including the legendary “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory about the Clinton family running a child sex ring out of the basement of a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. that doesn’t actually have anything below the ground floor of it. The former member of the Israeli Defense Force also was advocating for the xenophobic policy of “English only” to be the only language spoken by U.S. citizens, which is, of course, unconstitutional. The Florida GOP managed to keep Loretta Miller off the ballot in 2018, and she passed away in April of 2020. As such, we will retire her profile at this time and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 879-45, since this was established in July 2014.)


Irina Vilarino

Welcome to what is the 879th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Irina Vilarino, who was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 26th Congressional District. Yes, Vilarino had designs on upsetting Congresswoman Debbie Murcasel-Powell, and was so eager to fundraise to take her down, she didn’t bother discriminating on where she was accepting donations from, getting caught taking donations that had been funneled to her from Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro.

But that’s not even the beginning of the problems that Vilarino would have had as a candidate. She has promoted several conspiracy theories on social media through the past several years, including the Birther Conspiracy about Barack Obama, a conspiracy started by Dinesh D’Souza that Obama’s academic history at Columbia University is false, and an anti-Semitic conspiracy claiming that George Soros was behind a secret campaign to tank Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. And boy, did she dig in hard to support an accused sexual predator in Kavanaugh. Vilarino was one of five Republican women who excused him in a CNN interview, and was questioning why Christine Blasey Ford was “still stuck on that” because it was 36 years ago. Meanwhile online, she continued promoting Qanon conspiracy theory member accounts that were slandering the victim, and accusing her of promiscuity in high school.

So of course Vilarino had become a darling favorite of Donald Trump. She was invited to the White House for Hispanic Heritage Month as a Cuban immigrant… and proceeded to call for an “American Heritage Month”, because she’s apparently got some self-loathing.

Alas, once better candidates joined the race who started to do a better job of fundraising than her (without accepting money from dictators, even), she dropped out of the race on April 23rd, 2020, and Florida’s 26th will be better for that fact. Here’s hoping her conspiracy-loving dumbass stays out of any election going forward.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who used her office to serve, alternatively as a puppet for Florida Governor Rick Scott, and to waste taxpayer money on failed lawsuits to try and overturn the Affordable Care Act, or same sex marriage. The latter case fascinating because she has been divorced multiple times, but is supposedly obsessed with “upholding the sanctity of marriage”. Among her more disturbing abuses of power include signing an amicus brief to provide support for Arizona's controversial anti-immigration law, SB 1070, trying to overturn laws to allow gun sales to 18 to 20 year olds (Note: This was in the wake of the trial of George Zimmerman in Florida after the death of Trayvon Martin.) asking Florida Governor Rick Scott to reschedule the execution of a death row inmate because it conflicted with her personal schedule so she could host her re-election fundraiser party, and an investigation that revealed that both Pam Bondi and Rick Scott had violated Florida's "Sunshine Laws" for transparency by destroying e-mails and failing to retain text messages. For someone in charge of ensuring the law is upheld, she’s remarkable for defying courts whenever possible and breaking the law quite a bit. After winning re-election in 2014, Bondi immediately used the power of her position to dig her heels in and try to do everything she could to keep same sex couples from getting married in Florida, even beyond the point where the Supreme Court ruled in the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, asking for delays before allowing gay marriage to happen for… reasons, and threatening to arrest individuals who performed marriage ceremonies during that would-be interim. Most could only guess as to her motivations, other than trying to make herself a martyr and later parlay that into running for higher office. Maybe she should have been more focused on the fact that up until April, unmarried couples in Florida were forbidden from living together since 1868. Convenient that she never bothered enforcing one edict about romantic partners, and hell bent about another one, right? She probably wished people didn’t remember that fact about her at one point… As tragedy struck in Orlando, Florida and the biggest mass shooting in the history of the United States took place at Pulse, a gay nightclub in the city that claimed the lives of 49 victims, Pam Bondi began After YEARS of fighting to file whatever lawsuits she could to prevent marriage equality and insisting that allowing it would cause “public harm” in the wake of the shooting, she began to posture herself as a champion of the LGBTQ community that would keep them safe. What she didn’t realize, though, was that she would be interviewed by the Silver Fox himself, Anderson Cooper, who was having none of it, and as professionally as a journalist can do so, effectively let her know, “I haven’t forgotten about you motherf***er.” Feel free to watch CNN’s Cooper remind her of all of her previous work with the LGBT community, and her hypocrisy at trying to play at being their friends now. It’s… breathtaking. So the good news is, love won, and Pam Bondi lost (as she frequently does in her quixotic quests, at taxpayer expense). But there’s a far more interesting news story involving her floating around, and it just so happens to also tied into the corruption scandals of one Donald Trump. There was talk about while Trump was being investigated for fraud in relation to Trump University, his online real-estate education program that most describe succinctly as “straight up fraud” that the New York Attorney general pursued several lawsuits on the behalf of individuals wronged by Trump’s business dealings. But as it turns out, New York wasn’t the only state to file a lawsuit on behalf of a large number of people defrauded… both Texas and Florida saw people file complaints as well. Pam Bondi received those complaints back in 2013, and shortly thereafter, Donald Trump, out of the kindness of his heart (yeah, right) decided to donate $25,000 to her re-election campaign. She never did anything to help the people he wronged, and effectively filed the case in the trash. Pam Bondi, of course, has not commented on her failure to do her job, and get $25,000 to sit on her hands by Trump (who she endorsed for president, of course). But it’s sure a disgusting bit of quid pro quo that amounts to bribery. Bondi continued her shady relationship with Cheeto Mussolini has seen her appointed to a White House position to serve on a commission to curtail our nation’s opioid abuse epidemic, serving under New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and doing… nothing except collecitng a paycheck.Considering most of Bondi’s career as an attorney general ended in her failing to execute her agenda, for the time being, we have been spared seeing her run for higher office.

It was on this date in 2019 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Loretta Miller, a 2018 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives for Florida’s 15th Congressional District who was, for a brief time, the only Republican on the ballot in the race after long time Republican Congressman Dennis Ross abruptly announced his retirement in April of 2018. The Republican Party quickly scrambled to find someone… ANYONE else to get on their primary ballot, because Loretta Miller was really into spreading conspiracy theories, including the legendary “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory about the Clinton family running a child sex ring out of the basement of a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. that doesn’t actually have anything below the ground floor of it. The former member of the Israeli Defense Force also was advocating for the xenophobic policy of “English only” to be the only language spoken by U.S. citizens, which is, of course, unconstitutional. The Florida GOP managed to keep Loretta Miller off the ballot in 2018, and she passed away in April of 2020. As such, we will retire her profile at this time and take a look at another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 879-45, since this was established in July 2014.)


Ilrina Vilarino

Welcome to what is the 879th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Irina Vilarino, who was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 26th Congressional District. Yes, Vilarino had designs on upsetting Congresswoman Debbie Murcasel-Powell, and was so eager to fundraise to take her down, she didn’t bother discriminating on where she was accepting donations from, getting caught taking donations that had been funneled to her from Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro.

But that’s not even the beginning of the problems that Vilarino would have had as a candidate. She has promoted several conspiracy theories on social media through the past several years, including the Birther Conspiracy about Barack Obama, a conspiracy started by Dinesh D’Souza that Obama’s academic history at Columbia University is false, and an anti-Semitic conspiracy claiming that George Soros was behind a secret campaign to tank Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. And boy, did she dig in hard to support an accused sexual predator in Kavanaugh. Vilarino was one of five Republican women who excused him in a CNN interview, and was questioning why Christine Blasey Ford was “still stuck on that” because it was 36 years ago. Meanwhile online, she continued promoting Qanon conspiracy theory member accounts that were slandering the victim, and accusing her of promiscuity in high school.

So of course Vilarino had become a darling favorite of Donald Trump. She was invited to the White House for Hispanic Heritage Month as a Cuban immigrant… and proceeded to call for an “American Heritage Month”, because she’s apparently got some self-loathing.

Alas, once better candidates joined the race who started to do a better job of fundraising than her (without accepting money from dictators, even), she dropped out of the race on April 23rd, 2020, and Florida’s 26th will be better for that fact. Here’s hoping her conspiracy-loving dumbass stays out of any election going forward.

What the hell was Trump doing in that picture, copping a feel?

[Tami]

The fact that Gorsuch, one of Trump's appointees authored the decision must have Sunkist Satan and Republicans seething.

This is one of the reasons why I'm not as panicky about McConnell and Trump's plan to stuff the courts with Conservative judges. While I agree that the plan is sinister, it can so easily be undermined.

This is one example of how that happens. Even Conservative judges eventually have to choose between politics and the Constitution. If they value their job long-term, they will always side with the Law and the Constitution.

[Tendrin]

This is one example of how that happens. Even Conservative judges eventually have to choose between politics and the Constitution. If they value their job long-term, they will always side with the Law and the Constitution.

It depends on the 'conservative' of course. Most of them will choose their adherence to their ideology, as we've seen in countless other decisions, most of the time.

[worstblogever]

Seeing that Biden is polling with women 25% better than Trump.

What's telling about that figure? Hillary Clinton only polled 14% better than Trump with women. And still won the popular vote by 3 million votes.

November is really starting to look like a bloodbath.

[kidfresh512]

This is one of the reasons why I'm not as panicky about McConnell and Trump's plan to stuff the courts with Conservative judges. While I agree that the plan is sinister, it can so easily be undermined.

This is one example of how that happens. Even Conservative judges eventually have to choose between politics and the Constitution. If they value their job long-term, they will always side with the Law and the Constitution.

I disagree simply because we know the GOAL is to have them comply. That they "sometimes" have to disappoint their masters and vote against the wishes of the GOP is not a reason to let them off the hook.

Look at the renewed GOP platform for this year. They just cut and paste the same hate and homophobia from 2016. They are telling the world what they stand for and how they want to govern. They backed this horribly unfair Anti LGBT stance in this case. They wanted LGBT rights taken away here.
That Gorsuch bucked his bosses here isnt going to make me comfortable with mitch having another shot at getting someone who wont buck him if Ruth retires.

[worstblogever]

What the hell was Trump doing in that picture, copping a feel?

The context of this photo is all wrong, like even the "open for business" in front of Trump doing this makes it look like he PAID to cop a feel on Vilarino, who could be who's "open for business".

The optics are so, so f***ed up. And yet...

It's the best botched campaign photo I've seen since the "R-O-M-N-E-Y" letter sign kids got mixed up so it read, "R-MONEY".

[Gray Lensman]

This is one of the reasons why I'm not as panicky about McConnell and Trump's plan to stuff the courts with Conservative judges. While I agree that the plan is sinister, it can so easily be undermined.

This is one example of how that happens. Even Conservative judges eventually have to choose between politics and the Constitution. If they value their job long-term, they will always side with the Law and the Constitution.

It depends on the judge. Gorsuch, like Scalia before him, will often take his conservative views to a logical conclusion that might not fall into Republican ideology. I consider him less dangerous than Alito and Thomas, who seem to get their desired conclusion first, then look for justification. I can tell how those two will vote by reading a single paragraph about the case.

[Tendrin]

In case you guys didn't see this bundle:

https://itch.io/b/520/bundle-for-rac...e-and-equality

It has 14 hours left on it, and it contains a truly staggering amount of video games with the proceeds going to the right places.

Grab it if you can!

[Tami]

Some SCOTUS bad news

Supreme Court Rules For Pipeline In Appalachian Trail Dispute

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) - Ruling against environmentalists, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday decided that the federal government has the authority to allow a proposed $7.5 billion natural gas pipeline to cross under the popular Appalachian Trail in rural Virginia.

The 7-2 ruling was a victory for Dominion Energy Inc and President Donald Trump’s administration, both of which appealed a lower court ruling that halted construction of the 600-mile (965-km) Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would run from West Virginia to North Carolina.

The decision, written by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, removes one of several obstacles facing the project. Two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, dissented.

Environmental groups including the Sierra Club and Southern Environmental Law Center had sued to stop the pipeline after the U.S. Forest Service gave the green light for the project to run through the George Washington National Forest. Dominion Energy leads a consortium of companies in the project that also includes Duke Energy Corp.

After a protracted application process involving multiple federal agencies, the Forest Service granted the consortium a right of way under the trail in 2018.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I disagree simply because we know the GOAL is to have them comply. That they "sometimes" have to disappoint their masters and vote against the wishes of the GOP is not a reason to let them off the hook.

Look at the renewed GOP platform for this year. They just cut and paste the same hate and homophobia from 2016. They are telling the world what they stand for and how they want to govern. They backed this horribly unfair Anti LGBT stance in this case. They wanted LGBT rights taken away here.
That Gorsuch bucked his bosses here isnt going to make me comfortable with mitch having another shot at getting someone who wont buck him if Ruth retires.

All the more reason to vote out Moscow Mitch and Republicans come November. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: reclaiming the Senate is just as important for Democrats as the presidency, if not moreso.

[Tami]

The SCOTUS is busy today

Supreme Court declines to hear legal battle over California sanctuary law

Washington — The Supreme Court declined Monday to wade into a legal battle over a California sanctuary law that restricts when state and local law enforcement can assist federal authorities with immigration enforcement activities.

In rejecting the Trump administration's request to hear the case and sidestepping another politically charged showdown over President Trump's immigration policies, the measure will remain intact. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have taken up the case.

The California law at the center of the dispute was enacted in 2017 and lays out the circumstances under which state and local authorities can assist with federal immigration enforcement actions. The statute, known as Senate Bill 54, prohibits state officials from notifying U.S. immigration officers of when immigrants are going to be released from custody and providing federal officials with other information.

[Tami]

FDA pulls emergency use authorization of hydroxy chloro quine for COVID-19

The Food and Drug Administration rescinded the emergency use authorization for hydroxy chloro quine to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients on Monday, saying the drug carries too many risks without any apparent benefit.

The authorization was first issued in March, and applied to patients hospitalized with the illness and those in clinical trials. In April, the FDA warned doctors against prescribing the drug to COVID-19 patients outside of those settings. Monday's action will not affect clinical trials, which are expected to continue.

The announcement covers both hydroxy chloro quine and a related compound, chloro quine phosphate.

note: The CBR forum really doesn't like a certain word, so I had to adjust it.