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

[Kevinroc]

"If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy." - David Frum

(We're seeing this statement was 100% true.)

[Anduinel]

Not "at the last minute" - after the fact. Republicans were consulted on curbside voting, they even made some requests that were accommodated. Then they wait until votes are cast and ask for them to be thrown out. It's not democracy.

Right, I meant with as little time left until the election as they could manage.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” we looked at former Tennessee state legislator Stacey Campfield, who once accused the Black caucus of the state legislature for being more racist for the KKK for not letting him join (because he's not African American) also wanted to pass a law requiring death certificates be printed for aborted fetuses, repeatedly tried to pass laws to make it illegal to even say "gay" let alone be gay, blamed the spread of AIDS on a gay flight attendant having sex with an African monkey (which is, of course, not just scientifically incorrect but insane), and compared Democrats touting the number of people signing up for the Affordable Care Act to "Nazis bragging about train rides for Jews". Yes, Campfield was that charming, and people noticed after a long enough stretch of his dumbassery to vote him out of office.


On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled the U.S. House Representative from California's 23rd Congressional District, Kevin McCarthy, who has served for it since 2007, and the man who was supposed to be the heir-apparent to become Speaker of the House after the resignation of John Boehner, until he botched his debut taking the spotlight by boasting about how he had done a great job as one of the Republicans who started the Benghazi hearings which had successfully driven down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers… which gave away the game the GOP were playing for three years with the topic. It also didn’t help that McCarthy is one of the WORST public speakers in all of Congress (highlights here, courtesy of Rachel Maddow), or that he was also rumored to be having an affair with his colleague, Rep. Renee Ellmers. Even prior to his catastrophic attempt at becoming House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy has a long, long history of dumbassery within his legislative career, including co-sponsoring legislation in 2007 to stop the “War on Christmas” by passing a bill to recognize the importance of Christmas and Christianity, and signing onto a letter from the Family Research Council pledging that he agrees with them that gay candidates should be barred from public office, and he will never support any of them. That should come as little surprise, as McCarthy and his wife have been interviewed together and have talked openly about how they feel how people "don't want them to have their right to be a Christian" in America today. Throw in twice voting to defund Planned Parenthood, voting against equal pay for women consistently, and voting against raising the debt ceiling, and you really start to get a big picture of how a box of rocks would get a higher SAT score than Kevin McCarthy. In the build-up to the 2016 election, McCarthy was trying to appease the lunatics in his party by promising publicly to turn a prospective Hillary Clinton administration into a never-ending line of hearings about faux-scandals, and teasing that they might vote on impeachment.

Kevin McCarthy was in the 2016 elections, coming from the most conservative district in California, and has proceeded to continue to shoot his mouth off and embarrass his party, including his admission that he was indifferent about a White Nationalist like Steve Bannon serving as an advisor to the President of the United States, or when audio of him laughing with Congressional colleagues about how he believes both Donald Trump (at the time of the recording, the GOP’s nominee for president), as well as a fellow California Congressman, Dana Rohrabacher, were both being paid by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

[worstblogever]

He has gone back to Washington to vote against the interests of his constituents, consistently:

• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. McCarthy voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 28th, 2019: McCarthy votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. McCarthy votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Kevin McCarthy is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 17th, 2019: McCarthy votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. McCarthy votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Kevin McCarthy votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• December 18th, 2019: McCarthy ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: McCarthy votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kevin McCarthy is quickly becoming one of the most egregious liars in Congress, like how in May of 2017, he was claiming Trumpcare wouldn’t cause anyone to lose their Medicaid coverage, in spite of the assessment from the CBO and every medical organization that predicted it would do precisely that. In May of 2018, McCarthy also tried perpetuating the myth that social media platforms were “censoring” the opinions of conservatives, lashing out at Twitter for the fact that he couldn’t read a post from Fox News’ useful idiot Laura Ingraham. This, however, just let House Minority House Leader Nancy Pelosi come along to point out McCarthy was a tech-illiterate boob who didn’t know how to adjust his settings to see the post.

Lord only knows what McCarthy will do if he starts echoing the Trump White House’s attacks on Elizabeth Warren for proving her Native American heritage when McCarthy’s own in-laws are in legal trouble for signing up for government loans for Native Americans while claiming 1/8 Cherokee heritage (that they apparently don’t have). Meanwhile, as the 2018 election approached and anti-Semitic and racist conspiracy theories have been spread by several Republican candidates in a Trumpian effort, who else has followed up a mass shooting at a synagogue and a serial bomber’s attacks by continuing to demonize George Soros with the same ads? Kevin McCarthy.

Kevin McCarthy remains an awful public speaker, and cracks under almost zero pressure in interviews. Further proof would be his interview with CNN’s Dana Bash from August of 2018 when he froze up when asked about how frequently the Trump White House were caught in lies and we got quite an encore in September of 2019 as Kevin McCarthy’s defense of Trump’s actions in trying to force Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden and withhold military aid from them when he did was that Scott Pelley “added a word” into the transcript that changed the context and proved Trump’s innocence. (Note: Pelley didn’t add a word, he read what the Trump White House released verbatim, and even with an extra word… it did not make the situation any better.)

After spending the better part a year slandering Robert Mueller and the FBI agents who are investigating the same links to Trump and Russia that Kevin McCarthy was caught on audio establishing as a real thing… William Barr came along to try and end the Mueller Investigation, and almost immediately, Trump started doing new crimes openly with Ukraine. He’s stuck in a perpetual loop of being Trump’s b****, because McCarthy isn’t smart enough to realize this cycle of Trump being lawless and him having to defend the indefensible will never end.

It’s almost fitting that Kevin McCarthy had to be the one to tell Donald Trump to stop attacking vote-by-mail because Republican’s reliable voters are older, and at-risk, so if in-person voting is supposedly “unsafe” or “unreliable”… the GOP would have its voters afraid of catching Covid-19 and staying home on election day to avoid catching it at the polls. Trump didn’t listen, because of course that f***ing moron didn’t, and the word outside of DC is that McCarthy has eyeballed the GOP’s chances in two days and declared, “We’re screwed.”

We don’t know how long Kevin McCarthy continues to mouth-breathe his way around Washington, D.C., but he is sitting in California’s most conservative district… at least until redistricting could change that for him in 2022.

[PaulBullion]

Right, I meant with as little time left until the election as they could manage.

That's also not what they did, but I get what you mean.

Fact is, the election is not 2 days from now. It ends 2 days from now.

[worstblogever]

[WestPhillyPunisher]

"If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy." - David Frum

(We're seeing this statement was 100% true.)

Republicans are desperate. They know if they lose the presidency AND the Senate, it could be years before they return to power, if they do at all. For Trump and the GOP, it's the last stand, so they're emptying the arsenal of dirty tricks to win.

[Robotman]

Mia really does have Kamala’s mannerisms and voice down. Glad they’re making fun of Ice Cube and Lil Wayne.

That was a good opening, but like so many Americans I’m too stressed to laugh at our current situation. The president celebrated an attack on one of his opponent’s buses and republicans are doing everything they can to eliminate hundreds of thousands of votes. Things will most likely get more violent and horrific as the week goes on.

[worstblogever]

Mia really does have Kamala’s mannerisms and voice down. Glad they’re making fun of Ice Cube and Lil Wayne.

That was a good opening, but like so many Americans I’m too stressed to laugh at our current situation. The president celebrated an attack on one of his opponent’s buses and republicans are doing everything they can to eliminate hundreds of thousands of votes. Things will most likely get more violent and horrific as the week goes on.

The best thing about it: No Trump.

Like, I'm exhausted. I want him gone, more than anything. But I really want even impressions of him to be irrelevant. I only need to see maybe 1 or 2 more Donalds on SNL. One the week after the election when he's lost, and one where he's being led out of the White House in a panic.

That's it. We're turning a corner to where he won't matter within the public consciousness already, and we'll be better for it.

[JackDaw]

Republicans are desperate. They know if they lose the presidency AND the Senate, it could be years before they return to power, if they do at all. For Trump and the GOP, it's the last stand, so they're emptying the arsenal of dirty tricks to win.

Sometimes in elections I think it’s possible to predict whether it’s a good or bad one to win.

In UK, for example I think Margaret Thatcher (the Conservatives) and Tony Blair (for Labour) won their first elections at a really good time. Tony..for example..won just as the flood of North Sea oil revenues pumped into the treasury, and at a time when the county was disenchanted with Thatcherism...it was clear that he had an excellent chance to stay in power for more than one term.

But I actually can’t work out whether this is a good election to win in those terms. So much will depend on the progression of Covid...if Joe wins (as seems probable) it might be the equivalent of a “hospital pass” at rugby. (This is when a team mate passes you the ball, just when some 20 stone opponent is close to you and you get man and ball crashing into you at same time.)

[ChangingStation]

Sometimes in elections I think it’s possible to predict whether it’s a good or bad one to win.

In UK, for example I think Margaret Thatcher (the Conservatives) and Tony Blair (for Labour) won their first elections at a really good time. Tony..for example..won just as the flood of North Sea oil revenues pumped into the treasury, and at a time when the county was disenchanted with Thatcherism...it was clear that he had an excellent chance to stay in power for more than one term.

But I actually can’t work out whether this is a good election to win in those terms. So much will depend on the progression of Covid...if Joe wins (as seems probable) it might be the equivalent of a “hospital pass” at rugby. (This is when a team mate passes you the ball, just when some 20 stone opponent is close to you and you get man and ball crashing into you at same time.)

Of course, Trump being in power until Jan 27, means the "hospital pass" is going to take longer than in the UK. Meaning that the tackles will continue to target Trump for a little while longer.

[zinderel]

If it becomes obvious he has lost beyond any shadow of doubt (please, Thor...!), does anyone think he'll make a congratulatory call to Biden?

[PaulBullion]

If it becomes obvious he has lost beyond any shadow of doubt (please, Thor...!), does anyone think he'll make a congratulatory call to Biden?

Trump is more likely to leave a burning package of Mike Pence's shit outside Biden's door than congratulate him.

[worstblogever]

If it becomes obvious he has lost beyond any shadow of doubt (please, Thor...!), does anyone think he'll make a congratulatory call to Biden?

He's more likely to spend 10 weeks on the phone doing three things, screaming at Bill Barr demanding Biden be arrested for made up crimes, whining to the media that it's not a legitimate outcome and that Biden needs to be locked up, and then pandering to domestic terrorists and asking them as legally vaguely as he can to execute his enemies for him. That last one, he'll become less subtle about as January 20th looms.

He may also do a fourth thing and still hold rallies even though election season is over to try and stir up dissent and/or inspire domestic terrorists through that 10 weeks.

This might seem like a bleak outlook, but it's honestly what I think he's gonna do. I don't think he's just gonna lose and go away. And if the Cabinet had any sense among them (they don't) they'd call the 25th Amendment out to make sure he didn't spitefully harm the country once he starts this behavior.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

If it becomes obvious he has lost beyond any shadow of doubt (please, Thor...!), does anyone think he'll make a congratulatory call to Biden?

He's more likely to spend 10 weeks on the phone doing three things, screaming at Bill Barr demanding Biden be arrested for made up crimes, whining to the media that it's not a legitimate outcome and that Biden needs to be locked up, and then pandering to domestic terrorists and asking them as legally vaguely as he can to execute his enemies for him. That last one, he'll become less subtle about as January 20th looms.

He may also do a fourth thing and still hold rallies even though election season is over to try and stir up dissent and/or inspire domestic terrorists through that 10 weeks.

This might seem like a bleak outlook, but it's honestly what I think he's gonna do. I don't think he's just gonna lose and go away. And if the Cabinet had any sense among them (they don't) they'd call the 25th Amendment out to make sure he didn't spitefully harm the country once he starts this behavior.

One option is he has Donald Jr or someone make that call (if Biden wins...please ...please). He won't invite Biden to the White House to talk about things . He will openly tell people they won't get a Stimulus with him not being President and Biden will have to push that through.