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

[worstblogever]

A friend told me about that but I have never been able to find the clip. His description always made me think the doc was played by Will Farrell in Alex Trebek mode.

There's not a clip anywhere I can find. It's like you have to find the whole damned episode somewhere on a torrent site.

Andy Kaufman wrestled women.

You realize that Kaufman was gaslighting everyone, and that was the point of the bit, right? He loved heel wrestlers, and the entire "intergender championship" was a build on him as a wrestling heel? It's a major plot point covered in the biopic "Man in the Moon", etc.

That's why I mentioned him in this... unless Chappelle reveals out of nowhere this has been a bit to pull the rug out of truly intolerant people, a la Kaufman posthumously, or say, Sasha Baron Cohen tricking conservatives into being themselves and saying what they really think as Borat... it's just not a joke.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled former Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Scott Lively, who hits particularly insane levels of anti-gay rhetoric, possibly beyond any of the many terrible examples of it we have discussed in CSGOPOTD profiles. You see, Lively wrote a whole book about how the Nazi party was populated by “butch” gays who wanted to wipe out the “femmes” and all of the other undesirables in the Holocaust. Lively also runs Abiding Truth Ministries, which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as an anti-gay hate group, and was sued in a lawsuit for his involvement in pressuring Uganda to pass their rigid anti-gay laws that criminalize homosexuality to be punishable by death. Lively also referred to President Obama the Anti-Christ, claimed he’s secretly married to a gay Pakistani man, claims that God once smote a Scores strip joint that burned down, and insists that a cadre of gay rights activists are plotting to assassinate him. For whatever reason, Lively decided to run for Governor of Massachusetts again in 2018, and proving how insane Republican voters are becoming, 36% of them voted for Scott Lively in the GOP Primary against incumbent Republican Governor Charlie Baker. Still, it remains highly unlikely that Lively will ever be elected to any office.

It was on this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, that we published our first two "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Idaho's 1st Congressional District, Raul Labrador, who pretends to support Latino voters and immigration reform, but does nothing of consequence on the issue to actually make those reforms happen. Less than nothing, really, when you consider he also has defended some of the more racist and xenophobic remarks of Iowa Congressman Steve King. Labrador also whipped up sentiment against Hillary Clinton, particularly by spreading conspiracies about the Benghazi investigation. As numerous reports from investigators surfaced to indicate the GOP were trying to direct the investigators to harangue Sec. Clinton specifically, Labrador denied any and all partisan bias the Republicans in the House Oversight Committee had. Labrador also isn’t above throwing out red meat to Republican voters, like the time he spoke at CPAC and made a irther joke, saying he was "born in Puerto Rico, is an American citizen AND HAS THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE TO PROVE IT". Labrador has consistently moved to defund Planned Parenthood, and long before the Center for Medical Progress released their bogus "sting" video to whip up outrage, Labrador was claiming that Planned Parenthood's "main business" was abortion (when it's less than 3% of their actual budget). Rep. Labrador has appeared publicly with ACT! for America, an anti-Muslim group, at rallies where Islamophobia has been whipped up to the point of warning of Sharia Law takeovers, has made it a point to remind people on social media that Sept. 11th is also a time to "Remember Benghazi, too", and after voting for the 2013 Government Shutdown, then voting to not reopen the government, telling the astounding lie that the Republicans “never asked for a full repeal of Obamacare”. Labrador has argued against the minimum wage during the greatest era of income inequality our country has seen in almost a century, arguing that if people feel like they aren't being paid enough, they should "apply for a manager's job instead". Adding to his own legacy, Raul Labrador had quite possibly one of THE WORST sound bites at what few GOP town halls that have been hosted in 2017. On March 7th, Rep. Labrador was trying to quiet an already testy group of constituents who were grilling him over his vote for Trumpcare, when he gave the positively ludicrous response that “Nobody dies because they don’t have access to healthcare!” The boos. THE BOOS that drowned him out. Good lord, that was the dumbest possible thing he could have said. And yet… Raul Labrador thought that he should move on from serving Idaho in Congress for a fifth term, and instead, announced a run for Governor of Idaho to repla-ce the departing Butch Otter in the governor’s mansion... three days after he embarrassed himself completely. It did not pay off, as Labrador was defeated in the Republican Primary in that race by Brad Little, the Lieutenant Governor of Idaho by 9,000 votes. He is, for now, out of elected office, and we hope he remains so.

On this date in both 2019, as well as 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had its original profile of John James, a 2020 challenger for the U.S. Senate seat in Michigan held by Senator Gary Peters. This is only a year removed from James’ unsuccessful 2018 U.S. Senate campaign against Debbie Stabenow, where he lost after getting a respectable 46% of the vote. In July of 2018, James campaigned along side conservative radio personality, fanatical NRA supporter, alleged pedophile, and admitted draft dodger Ted Nugent, who referred to James as his “blood brother”. Meanwhile, Donald Trump endorsed him because “he saw him on TV and said ‘HE’S A STAR!’” Fast forward to October of 2018, the Trump-endorsed James ran an ad that featured a shot of a school bulletin board, and for whatever reason… there was a swastika on it. He was forced to apologize, but folks began to have some serious questions about what was going on with the James campaign… which led to a Detroit Metroit Times investigation that showed that his campaign had taken cash from anti-immigrant white supremacIsts and hate group leaders. Which, as he was promoting himself as an African-American candidate kind of starts to establish a pattern that he’s either oblivious to the fact that he’s being propped up by bigots, or that he just doesn’t care. As 2020 approached, and the Trump administration’s Covid-19 response kept getting worse, l John James began trying to scrub his social media accounts from any association he’s previously had with Donald Trump. While in some, it was cropping out Trump logos, in others, he’s deleted videos where he promised to “support the Trump administration 2000%”.This double-turn is especially sad, given that as of February of 2019, Trump was considering nominating John James to be the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. (even though he has zero foreign policy or diplomacy experience). As the election approached, James was being supported by a completely DIFFERENT kind of hate group, the anti-gay Family Research Council. It might also help his case if Michigan wasn’t trending left, particularly after the public has rallied around Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during the Covid-19 outbreak, especially after a group of domestic terrorists just got arrested plotting to kidnap her for daring to infringe upon their “freedom” to run around in public without masks spreading the disease. Meanwhile, John James was bumbling about Michigan without a mask ALL THE TIME and ignoring the edict. He also waited four days to come out and make a statement to criticize the right-wing terrorists who were prepared to stage a violent takeover of the Michigan state government. Another thing not helping James in his quest to unseat Gary Peters? He won’t even refute that his company received tax breaks dependent on job creation… and they never created jobs. John James lost to Senator Gary Peters by about 90,000 votes, and it’s unclear if and when he attempts another run for office. As such, we will set aside her profile at this time, however, to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1034-50, since this was established in July 2014.


Matthew Morris

Welcome to what is the 1034th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Matthew Morris, who as a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Delaware’s “At-Large” District. Morris was running as a “second chances” candidate, as he’s a convicted felon who committed a violent assault in Philadelphia back in 2013, and was an admitted alcoholic and former substance abuser who had trouble getting hired in ophthalmology clinics because of that criminal past, so he opted to run for office instead.

If that wasn’t a rough start to a resume for a political candidate, Matthew Morris also was yet the latest candidate we’ve profiled who was a supporter of the Qanon conspiracy theory, claiming that Qanon supporters had “been right all along”, and encouraged others on social media to follow Qanon accounts.

Matthew Morris ended up losing in the GOP Primary, getting just 26% of the vote. It’s up for debate of whether or not he didn’t get support from his party because he’s got a criminal background or conspiracy theory support, or that he’s openly gay. Based on the current state of the Republican Party, the sexual identity is probably the reason.

[Gray Lensman]

There's not a clip anywhere I can find. It's like you have to find the whole damned episode somewhere on a torrent site.



You realize that Kaufman was gaslighting everyone, and that was the point of the bit, right? He loved heel wrestlers, and the entire "intergender championship" was a build on him as a wrestling heel? It's a major plot point covered in the biopic "Man in the Moon", etc.

That's why I mentioned him in this... unless Chappelle reveals out of nowhere this has been a bit to pull the rug out of truly intolerant people, a la Kaufman posthumously, or say, Sasha Baron Cohen tricking conservatives into being themselves and saying what they really think as Borat... it's just not a joke.

Slate went over Chappelle a few days ago - their take was that Chappelle's PoV hasn't really changed from his Comedy Central show, it's just now that we are seeing his perspective has always been myopic.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Texas school official tells teachers that Holocaust books should be countered with ‘opposing’ views

The writer makes it sound like these things are new for Clapton. He's been defending is racist comments for years and was even part of the keep Britain white movement.

[achilles]

Former President Bill Clinton is said to be improving at UCI Medical Center, (seriously, good luck with that Bill, I've been a patient there, you'll be lucky to leave there alive; I left with two added souvenirs, infections I didn't have when I went in. Response, "Sorry").

Meanwhile, British MP Sir David Amess was murdered by an Islamic terrorist, an apparent Somali refuge. Stabbed to death multiple times, evidently. There are several articles on the latter over at the BBC, so just go there if you're interested and have a look; it seems he was quite well liked over there; across the aisles so to speak, I don't know anything about him apart from that.

[worstblogever]

The writer makes it sound like these things are new for Clapton. He's been defending is racist comments for years and was even part of the keep Britain white movement.

Eric Clapton: Great Guitarist. Garbage human.

[Tendrin]

You realize that Kaufman was gaslighting everyone, and that was the point of the bit, right? He loved heel wrestlers, and the entire "intergender championship" was a build on him as a wrestling heel? It's a major plot point covered in the biopic "Man in the Moon", etc.

That's why I mentioned him in this... unless Chappelle reveals out of nowhere this has been a bit to pull the rug out of truly intolerant people, a la Kaufman posthumously, or say, Sasha Baron Cohen tricking conservatives into being themselves and saying what they really think as Borat... it's just not a joke.

Even then, how does that example comparet in any way to holding a show during a pandemic that is actively KILLING people? Geeze.

Former President Bill Clinton is said to be improving at UCI Medical Center, (seriously, good luck with that Bill, I've been a patient there, you'll be lucky to leave there alive; I left with two added souvenirs, infections I didn't have when I went in. Response, "Sorry").

Sepsis from urological conditions is one of the big threats my dad runs. I'm entirely familiar with what this looks like and it's no fun at all.

Meanwhile, British MP Sir David Amess was murdered by an Islamic terrorist, an apparent Somali refuge. Stabbed to death multiple times, evidently. There are several articles on the latter over at the BBC, so just go there if you're interested and have a look; it seems he was quite well liked over there; across the aisles so to speak, I don't know anything about him apart from that.

Yeah, this was a terrible bit of news. Sadly, it'll receive a lot more play in the British press than the murder of Jo Cox due to the nature of the assailant.

[JackDaw]

Meanwhile, British MP Sir David Amess was murdered by an Islamic terrorist, an apparent Somali refuge. Stabbed to death multiple times, evidently. There are several articles on the latter over at the BBC, so just go there if you're interested and have a look; it seems he was quite well liked over there; across the aisles so to speak, I don't know anything about him apart from that.

It looks certain that he was one of those MP’s who took representing his neighbourhood seriously…attending many local events, and making sure it was easy for anyone to talk to him face to face.

To be fair although I’m pretty cynical on high level politics, I think that’s true for most of our Members of Parliament…they make it easy to talk to them directly. Hope this doesn’t change…though obviously it would be hard to criticise any MP tightening up his or her personal security.

[JackDaw]

Yeah, this was a terrible bit of news. Sadly, it'll receive a lot more play in the British press than the murder of Jo Cox due to the nature of the assailant.

My gut feeling so far is that Jo Cox case attracted even more attention.

It (Jo Cox case) was mentioned today quite a lot, of course…because there was a review after her death to see how security arrangements could be improved for members of Parliament.

There’s been no very obvious changes made as a result of the review (most MP’s still walk around their local areas without protection, and have frequent local sessions where their constituents can just turn up to speak to them face to face)…but I guess behind the scenes changes were made. (Certainly spend on security increased very substantially after the review!)

[Jack Dracula]

Jon Stewart recently went on a 30-minute rant on Colbert about how COVID was probably manufactured in a Wuhan lab. It was unexpected and very disappointing. Colbert was obviously surprised and taken aback but Stewart just wouldn't shut up about it.

I still love Jon, but unfortunately comic genius doesn't necessarily translate into actual genius.

[Malvolio]

Matthew Morris

Welcome to what is the 1034th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Matthew Morris, who as a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Delaware’s “At-Large” District. Morris was running as a “second chances” candidate, as he’s a convicted felon who committed a violent assault in Philadelphia back in 2013, and was an admitted alcoholic and former substance abuser who had trouble getting hired in ophthalmology clinics because of that criminal past, so he opted to run for office instead.

If that wasn’t a rough start to a resume for a political candidate, Matthew Morris also was yet the latest candidate we’ve profiled who was a supporter of the Qanon conspiracy theory, claiming that Qanon supporters had “been right all along”, and encouraged others on social media to follow Qanon accounts.

Matthew Morris ended up losing in the GOP Primary, getting just 26% of the vote. It’s up for debate of whether or not he didn’t get support from his party because he’s got a criminal background or conspiracy theory support, or that he’s openly gay. Based on the current state of the Republican Party, the sexual identity is probably the reason.

So it's now the Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day. That makes for a nice acronym: FRED. Maybe we can make that the male equivalent of Karen.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

You realize that Kaufman was gaslighting everyone, and that was the point of the bit, right? He loved heel wrestlers, and the entire "intergender championship" was a build on him as a wrestling heel? It's a major plot point covered in the biopic "Man in the Moon", etc.

That's why I mentioned him in this... unless Chappelle reveals out of nowhere this has been a bit to pull the rug out of truly intolerant people, a la Kaufman posthumously, or say, Sasha Baron Cohen tricking conservatives into being themselves and saying what they really think as Borat... it's just not a joke.

Kaufman himself took a ton of flack and anger then. Its wild but he sadly was "cancelled" by a lot of people who didn't understand bad guy wrestling heel actions like he was doing. He himself managed to cancel himself off Saturday Night Live as we saw with a poll. Its sad but when people don't understand something like with Kaufman they did this.

Chappelle himself in a prior special brought up his anger at "cancel culture" and how it will go back years and find something. He even joked about it with the Chappelle's Show and how an Asian lady with her husband tried to cancel him from a venue sending a promoter a letter as he basically didn't give a sh-t. Here was the kicker line if people can find it on YouTube.

"Dave Chappelle violated the sanctuary of our inter-racial marriage !" "Guess you didn't research this one , I'm in an Inter-racial marriage."

Slate went over Chappelle a few days ago - their take was that Chappelle's PoV hasn't really changed from his Comedy Central show, it's just now that we are seeing his perspective has always been myopic.

As he detailed on PBS interview , people laughed at his comedy as he went after others. That everyone laughs til its their turn on the joke. Its almost weirdly like were seeing an Issac Hayes situation with South Park. If no one remembers that , Hayes was a big part of South Park for years as Chef. He was there as the guys mocked other religions etc. But once it came to Scientology things changed and he with the group there wasn't happy. (Its why he finally was wrote off the series..) . As Parker & Stone brought up , we have mocked every other religion and everything was ok ?

Again with comedians like Chappelle and others...they hit that edge. They are here to make you think at times , challenge you and get you to laugh or be angry. As someone said either half the audience is laughing at your jokes and half aren't.

Jon Stewart recently went on a 30-minute rant on Colbert about how COVID was probably manufactured in a Wuhan lab. It was unexpected and very disappointing. Colbert was obviously surprised and taken aback but Stewart just wouldn't shut up about it.

I still love Jon, but unfortunately comic genius doesn't necessarily translate into actual genius.

Stewart doing this really hurts in a way. Like Stewart as well due to his years on Daily Show but the rant hurt him a lot as he was seen as America's Most trusted Newsman for years without being a serious news guy. Just....well...its hard to watch as I stopped halfway in. Not believing this was Jon Stewart. (I was hoping he was riffing on some conspiracy folks...but saw it wasn't)

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Speaking of Dave Chappelle and Netflix. The streamer service fired the employee who spent time leaking sensitive information from e-mails about Chappelle's salary and more for his specials. The service didn't care about the planned walk out planned but drew the line once the employee started leaking information.

https://nypost.com/2021/10/16/netfli...or-the-closer/

[numberthirty]

...

You realize that Kaufman was gaslighting everyone, and that was the point of the bit, right? He loved heel wrestlers, and the entire "intergender championship" was a build on him as a wrestling heel? It's a major plot point covered in the biopic "Man in the Moon", etc.

That's why I mentioned him in this... unless Chappelle reveals out of nowhere this has been a bit to pull the rug out of truly intolerant people, a la Kaufman posthumously, or say, Sasha Baron Cohen tricking conservatives into being themselves and saying what they really think as Borat... it's just not a joke.

From the objective "Outside..." that was stupid because it was the bit. It was absolutely stupid. Dude could have wound up getting sued rather easily. That said, the dumb risk doesn't mean the man himself was a dummy. That the bit was a tune up with the potential for serious downside doesn't mean that the guy was too dumb ever to consider said downside.

When it comes to Chapelle, I wouldn't discount the possibility that having shows during, while seemingly objectively stupid, is a part of the sort of bits this guy is usually on.

The disappointing stuff you mentioned during that second half? Different deal(barring the possibility you brought up somehow coming to pass...)

[numberthirty]

Even then, how does that example comparet in any way to holding a show during a pandemic that is actively KILLING people? Geeze.

...

The guy thrives on the tune up.

How would a guy who isn't backing down from tuning up the folks we are discussing back down from tuning up folks he things are scared of something that is not as dangerous as they believe.

To me, dumb play.

To this guy, I could see it and I don't think it would reflect him being "Dumb..." overall. Just committed to the tune up.