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

[PaulBullion]

On the bright side, it's said he's mulling early retirement.

Some say Newsmax, some say Supermax is his next destination.

Matt is managing to be the number 1 twitter trend on a big sports night.

He is also not making use of his right to remain silent. Not one bit.

[PaulBullion]

I'm not sure you've thought through the complaint that the Trump administration should have said more publicly about an active investigation.

If Gaetz committed the crime, announcing the investigation months before any charges are filed would only help him have more time to prepare for his legal defense. If he's capable of sex trafficking he's probably capable of bribing and intimidating witnesses.

The Barr justice department was sometimes quiet about investigations, even when it would have been politically convenient to leak more.

While I actually agree with that, did we see ANY move by Trump and his cronies to distance themselves from Gaetz after they found out?

Trump still invited Gaetz to at least one of his rallies very shortly before the elections, the one where he kept calling him the name of a former aide who was convicted - Rick Gates.

Paging Dr. Freud.

[Malvolio]

A little uncomfortable about attacking how a woman looks just because you (figurative you) don't like her politics. AND VERY UNCOMFORTABLE that someone comparing her to someone who is transgender.

Be better, guys and gals. Maybe reserve digs at how someone physically looks to just your head, it's NOT okay to mock someone for how they physically look. Ever. Doesn't matter who they are, what they do, or how they think. If we want to move to a world where digs at how someone looks is not okay, it starts with the good guys. If you consider yourselves 'the good guys' maybe look back over the last few posts and reconsider how bright your soul is shining right now.
#truthbombOFLOVE

Maybe it's never okay to mock someone's natural looks, but I'm going to disagree with you when it comes to the looks one chooses to have, whether it's an outlandish hairdo, garish make-up (as it is in this case) or loud mismatched clothing. When you make yourself up like that, you are screaming for attention, so you should accept that some of that attention is going to be negative or mocking.

[Tendrin]

Maybe it's never okay to mock someone's natural looks, but I'm going to disagree with you when it comes to the looks one chooses to have, whether it's an outlandish hairdo, garish make-up (as it is in this case) or loud mismatched clothing. When you make yourself up like that, you are screaming for attention, so you should accept that some of that attention is going to be negative or mocking.

There's a long history of men going after women like that so I try to advise restraint for anything that smacks of it, even if it feels earned.

[Tendrin]

France still trying to pass deeply islamaphobic laws.

On Feb. 16, France’s National Assembly passed a controversial bill meant to protect the country against the dangers of what the government deems “Islamist separatism,” the latest French effort to reinforce the country’s traditional embrace of a secular identity. The bill passed handily, by a vote of 347 to 151, though the left abstained and the far-right felt it didn’t go far enough. Next month, the bill will head to the Senate, dominated by conservatives, where the bill’s passage is pretty much guaranteed.

Despite plenty of centrist support, including from President Emmanuel Macron, the bill has proved controversial, especially with French Muslims, who feel the legislation—which doesn’t name Islam or Muslims—unfairly targets them. An official in the French president’s office said the bill “is not against Islam. It is against people who in the name of a wrong or reconstructed vision of a religion behave in a way contrary to the republic.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/23...rsy-extremism/

[worstblogever]

How am I defending Gaetz by pointing out that leaks in this case could help him bribe and intimidate witnesses?

You tried making excuses for the Trump DOJ.
You made it a point to go "if true" for Gaetz.

Seems pretty clear you were starting to lawyer why IOKIYAR. Like you do. Compulsively.

Honestly, ask yourself... Why?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

A man making a video about Philadelphia's gun violence was shot and killed on the job

The irony of that murder was both sad and terrible. While no motive was revealed, one rumor floating about was that Mr. Merriett was targeted because of those interviews he was doing. I know, sounds crazy, but I've heard of people getting shot and killed for being perceived as LOOKING at someone else the wrong way.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I just heard on my local all-news radio station that G. Gordon Liddy has taken the express elevator to hell:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/30/polit...ead/index.html

[worstblogever]

I just heard on my local all-news radio station that G. Gordon Liddy has taken the express elevator to hell:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/30/polit...ead/index.html

Kissinger is the last one left, isn't he? Well, him and Roger Stone.

[Tendrin]

Kissinger is the last one left, isn't he? Well, him and Roger Stone.

Mantling a Batman villain has been key to Roger Stone's expanded lifespan. We all know those guys live forever.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Kissinger is the last one left, isn't he? Well, him and Roger Stone.

To be honest, I thought Kissinger kicked the bucket years ago. But, yeah, he's still around, ditto for John Dean, Nixon's White House Counsel.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Randy Brogdon, a conservative extremist who actually once challenged Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin by trying to run to her right, based on his record of voting for things like allowing medical staff to refuse to treat a patient seeking an abortion for any reason, even if their life is in danger, based on their spiritual beliefs, supporting stricter Voter ID laws to combat the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud, pushing for “Stand Your Ground” firearms laws, and trying to take the unconstitutional step of making English the official language of the Sooner State. All of that seems to get overlooked because of the fact that Brogdon was also a complete loon who would attend events based around nullifying federal law, and that he believed in conspiracy theories like NAFTA leading to an eventual North American Union. Before he faded from relevance, Brogdon also began to call for Oklahoma to form its own state militia to protect its sovereignity from the federal government, and in a terribly racist moment later, asked the Black Caucus of the Oklahoma state legislature if the Affordable Care Act would also cover the cost of meals of fried chicken they might eat. He never apologized for that. Brogdon challenged Mary Fallin for the second time in the 2014 elections, and failed to crack even 5% of the vote. He has not run for office since.



It was in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and in 2020, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled the sitting U.S. House Representative for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District, Barry Loudermilk, who after serving in the Georgia state legislature for about eight years, defeated a clown car full of several Republicans in the primary for his seat in the 2014 elections to replace Congressman Phil Gingrey. Before Loudermilk was even sworn in to serve in the House, he was hanging out with the Family Research Council on their program as well, being interviewed by the running joke about hypocrisy that is Josh Duggar, where Loudermilk lamented the suffering he and his fellow Christians have had to endure as “the left in America have so badly damaged the holiday of Christmas”. Loudermilk was quickly hot-shotted to be the GOP’s new head of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee after being sworn in. and became the latest in a list of Republicans who seemed like they were given the job ironically when at his first town hall, Rep. Loudermilk was asked by a constituent if vaccines are linked to autism and he began boasting that he hadn’t vaccinated his children. After this unprecedented gaffe, there were even Republican strategists calling for Loudermilk’s resignation. This was in his SECOND MONTH on the job.

The crazy part, though, is that isn’t even the weirdest exchange from the town hall. Oh, no. Because for whatever reason, Loudermilk started discussing immigration with another constituent, who suggested the United States should “learn something from Afghanistan and start putting IUDs in the ground”. Now, that’s a weird idea for two reasons… the first being that she probably didn’t mean IUDs, which are a form of birth control, but probably meant IEDs, or “improvised explosive devices”. That seemed to be how Loudermilk interpreted her suggestion, to which he only objected because AMERICANS might get hurt. Any Mexican children that might find one of these rigged charges? Serves ‘em right for sniffing a chunk of real estate in the land of the free, man! But in that disastrous town hall, Loudermilk clearly wasn’t misspeaking when he voiced his fears that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the American government enough that they have gained access to the White House. He went on to elaborate and say that the Republican caucus of the House looked at ways to arrest Attorney General Eric Holder, before insinuating that the Council on American-Islamic Relations was a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot.

In March 2016, right on the heels of the terror attacks in Brussels, Loudermilk spoke before the House and explained what the real problem in winning the war on terror was… “political correctness”, which he felt was somehow the cause of the deaths of Americans, because we are too afraid to hurt the feelings of terrorists. At Loudermilk’s next town hall in July of 2015, he responded to the news of the massacre at the Emanuel AME Church, and how as a result, the South Carolina state legislature had voted to take down the Confederate flag in their state capitol. Well, apparently David Barton’s tendency to re-write false histories is contagious, and Barry Loudermilk has also caught that disease. You see, as Loudermilk explained, he thought the shooting was motivated by anti-Christian hate (and not racism, like Dylann Roof actually was). Instead, Loudermilk pivoted the talk to being about gay marriage, comparing it to slavery by saying, “Hey, it was the Supreme Court’s opinion that Dred Scott and slavery was okay, did they get that right?” While his voting record might not stretch on that long, Loudermilk has already voted to defund the Department of Homeland Security over President Obama’s delayed deportation orders on immigration, voted to try and defund Planned Parenthood based on the “sting” videos provided by the Center for Medical Progress, voted to try and block Syrian refugees from being resettled in the United States by supporting the SAFE Act and enjoys hanging out with anti-Islamic lunatic Frank Gaffney on his radio show to fearmonger about Muslim refugees.

Only days before Christmas of 2019, Lourdermilk claimed that the treatment Democrats were giving Donald Trump during the impeachment trial was worse than Pontius Pilate treated Jesus. Last time we checked, nobody sized up the dumbass-in-chief for any crowns of thorns or anything, so this would be not just inappropriate, but very ill-timed hyperbole.

[worstblogever]

Back for another term in DC, Barry Loudermilk continued being downright awful as a legislator:

• January 27th, 2019: Barry Loudermilk refused to vote for HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attacking our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Loudermilk passes on voting for HR 648, completely uninterested in ending the longest government shutdown in history.
• February 15th, 2019: Loudermilk votes against HJR 46, deciding that Donald Trump’s “national emergency” on the U.S. Mexico border is a legitimate threat to the United States, even though border crossings are at their lowest point in decades.
• February 28th, 2019: Barry Loudermilk votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 7th, 2019: Loudermilk votes against HR 183, a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism as a hateful extension of intolerance. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/116-2019/h108
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Loudermilk 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.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Loudermilk can’t be arsed to vote for the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Barry Loudermilk 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”.
• October 17th, 2019: Loudermilk is one of 60 Republicans who vote against HJ Res 77, which opposed Donald Trump’s disastrous decision to abandon Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria to the mercies of a Turkish invasion.
• December 18th, 2019: Rep. Loudermilk ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: Loudermilk votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• January 6th, 2021: Barry Loudermilk votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Loudermilk votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because the Republican Party no longer feels like they should be accountable for anything, including failed coups that result in the deaths of both their participants and police officers.
• February 4th, 2021: Barry Loudermilk votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
• February 25th, 2021: Loudermilk votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Loudermilk votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
• March 3rd, 2021: Barry Loudermilk votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Loudermilk votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
• March 17th, 2021: Rep. Loudermilk is one of 172 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).

As Georgia’s 11th Congressional District has a +19 lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, Barry Loudermilk was re-elected in 2020 with 60% of the vote over Dana Barrett (no relation to Sigourney Weaver's character from the original Ghostbusters films), and has gone back to Washington to legislate based on lies that don’t track with any reality, including this moment on Twitter when he claimed illegal immigrants were getting Covid-19 stimulus checks (as the checks are tied to people paying taxes via the treasury, it’s just not possible). We expect Loudermilk to continue to incoherently bleat out whatever current outrage is being promoted by Fox News for at least the next year and a half when he’s up for re-election again.

[Starter Set]

France still trying to pass deeply islamaphobic laws.



https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/23...rsy-extremism/

Well, it's a tad more complex than just supposed islamophobia.

Now see the key word here is "separatism". We do no joke around with that here. Basques, Corsican, Catalans, Breton and so many more, we have lot of very strong local identities here and it took a lot of time and effort to develop a sens of national identity. I mean, not even 150 years ago French wasn't actually even spoken everywhere in the country. Most areas outside of Paris had their own languages. My own grand parents spoke more often in Occitan than in French.

All that to say that we tend to not have a lot of patience for people who don't want to play by the rules of the Republic.

[Tendrin]

Well, it's a tad more complex than just supposed islamophobia.

Now see the key word here is "separatism". We do no joke around with that here. Basques, Corsican, Catalans, Breton and so many more, we have lot of very strong local identities here and it took a lot of time and effort to develop a national identity. I mean, not even 150 years ago French wasn't actually even spoken everywhere in the country. Most areas outside of Paris had their own languages. My own grand parents spoke more often in Occitan than in French.

All that to say that we tend to not have a lot of patience for people who don't want to play by the rules of the Republic.

Hooooooooo boy.