All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I seem to recall people still mentioning Watergate when Nixon passed, y'know? They still lauded him for going to China, but when presidents go, the good and the bad of their legacies are discussed. Reagan may have gotten an Iran/Contra pass because he was Saint Ronnie, but that's been about it.

Nixon's exploits were mentioned centuries from now....



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Midwestern Republicans Try To Kneecap New Democratic Governors

In Wisconsin and Michigan, GOP legislatures aren’t taking the party’s losses well. If the shoe were on the other foot, Republicans would scream bloody murder about underhanded tactics by Democrats.

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Congress Is Running Out Of Time To Pass Its Sexual Harassment Bill

How many creepy male lawmakers have to resign before Congress confronts its Me Too problem? Damn good question. These bastards should be made to face the music for being scumbags.

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George Conway Suggests New Donald Trump Tweet May Break The Law

Kellyanne Conway’s husband was criticizing the president for his fawning praise of Roger Stone. For the umpteenth time, how in hell do George and Sewer Rat Barbie get along?

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Tells Mike Huckabee To Leave ‘False Statements To Sarah’

The congresswoman-elect said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is “much better” at lying than her father. Two words----SICK BURN!! I'm liking Ms. Ocasio-Cortez more and more!

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High School Students Singing A Racist KKK-Themed ‘Jingle Bells’ Spark Outrage

The New Hampshire 11th-graders sung lyrics such as “KKK, KKK, let’s kill all the blacks” after being assigned to create a jingle based on Reconstruction. Short and sweet: heads needs to roll over that vile ****!

[numberthirty]

See, the thing is, it's looking like they did th4e same thing in the GOP primary. And it went by uinnoticed there. So, who knows how many edge cases there are? It's like what geographic profling of criminality tells us: criminals frequetly strike further from home to minimize their potentail exposure, but as they grow in confidence, tend to move closer and closer (and get sloppier and sloppier) due to their certainty they'll go uncaught.

One guy's take...

While the profile on there even being the possibility of Voter Fraud/Election Tampering/Whatever is higher than it's been in a while, I tend to believe that folks might be looking for "They Will Do It To Us" but not really be on the lookout for "We Will Do It To Us".

I can almost buy into it going under the radar during a primary, even if the plays were this blatant.

[numberthirty]

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Congress Is Running Out Of Time To Pass Its Sexual Harassment Bill

How many creepy male lawmakers have to resign before Congress confronts its Me Too problem? Damn good question. These bastards should be made to face the music for being scumbags.

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Good question.

You'd think that the folks who will be in Congress come the new year might be discussing that very thing.

[worstblogever]

Good question.

You'd think that the folks who will be in Congress come the new year might be discussing that very thing.

You'd think someone might realize that it speaks volumes about their hypocrisy that they are already laying blame on a party yet to come into power for what they MIGHT not do with hollow words, and you've been silent about the party in power who has done f*** all with their majority on this issue for the past 18 months.

Nobody thought Pelosi and the Democrats were going to do things like Equal Pay or repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell with the majority in '09, but they got it done with the window they had. Let's let them actually take control of the gavel before we start armchair quarterbacking them, you know?

[worstblogever]

On this date, in 2014, in 2015, and in 2016, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of Greg Brannon, a former OBGYN who moved to the Tar Heel State because he idolized its famous senator and proud segregationalist, Sen. Jesse Helms. Brannon, in spite of being a doctor, argues against vaccinations, and claims there is a link that shows women getting abortions end up at higher risk for breast cancer (that link doesn’t exist). Brannon has compared food stamps to slavery, property taxes to the Holocaust, claims that the Affordable Care Act created death panels (it didn’t) and that the ACA is somehow a part of the New World Order that will be established in the United Nations Agenda 21 conspiracy theory. That should come as little surprise considering he was once president of an organization called “Founder’s Truth” that believed the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado and the Boston Marathon bombing were “false flag” attacks and that water fluoridation is a plot to control the populace. Brannon also has gone on record to say that the Founding Fathers believed in Fetal Personhood, stated his support for nullification of fedreal laws at the state level, and refuses to acknowledge the authority of the Supreme Court, saying, “Just because nine people in black robes and seven of them say that abortion is in the Constitution doesn’t make it law.” For the third consecutive election, Brannon failed to reach office in 2016, finishing third in the GOP primary while trying to challenge Renee Ellmers for his seat in Congress.



It was one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Ed Henry, a former radiology technician (X-rays) and member of the Alabama House of Representatives since… wait for it… the 2010 Tea Party Wave. Henry’s name came to the fore in 2016 in a big way, because he was one of the first Alabama Republicans to file articles of impeachment against Gov. Robert Bentley who you might remember from the CSGOPOTD profile where he talked about how Robert Bentley went and done goofed by sleeping with one of his top aides, who was drawing a six-figure state salary, which is all sorts of “conflict of interests”, to say nothing of the moral failure of cheating on one’s spouse. But hey, this profile is about Ed Henry, and not a creepy old guy like Bentley so let’s get back on task. Or at least, try to.

Because Ed Henry’s hypocrisy on being staunchly against creepy old dudes went out the window, considering some of his awful reactions to CSGOPOTD legend, U.S. Senate candidate and former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore being a pedophile with multiple victims coming forward to accuse him, and a mall, YMCA, and local police departments coming forward to say that they banned Moore from places where teenage girls were when he was in his 30s and trolling for jailbait. (Not that he ever intended to go to jail, he was the city prosecutor). It might be one thing if he was only one of the Alabama Republicans who denied that the accusers who came forward were telling the truth, but instead, Ed Henry suggested that the women coming forward “should be prosecuted” because they failed to report on Roy Moore’s pedophilia decades earlier, and keep him off the streets forty years. Gee, I wonder why women wouldn’t want to come forward to accuse the man who tried to prey upon them as teenagers when he was a district attorney? Maybe it’s because ***holes are out there that would threaten them with jail for doing so. Crazy thought, that.

Anyway, Ed Henry went on record that he didn’t feel like Roy Moore being accused of being a sexual predator/pedophile combination should end his campaign, that those withdrawing support for Moore were “cowards”, and that Roy Moore was the actual “victim” in all of it. There’s tone deaf, and then there’s Ed Henry takes.

Then again, maybe there’s a bright side to Ed Henry’s hypocrisy. Back in 2015, Ed Henry was campaigning hard for a bill he submitted to restrict abortion clinics from operating within 2,000 feet of a school (presumably, Alabama Republicans could shut down clinics by just putting money towards building a new school across the street). He argued at the time that his idea was not unlike how sex offenders aren’t allowed within that distance of school, and that it wasn’t unreasonable to treat abortion providers like sex offenders. Which, after his defense of Roy Moore means that should be trying to get more abortion providers elected to the U.S. Senate.

That sort of legislative extremism is par for the course for Ed Henry though, as one of his first sponsored pieces of legislation was an attempt to nullify the Affordable Care Act. He also supported an obviously unconstitutional bill that shows why he liked Roy Moore, proposing a monument of the Ten Commandments built on state property, and supported legislation to protect confederate monuments. He voted for a bill to outlaw abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before most women even realize they are pregnant., an attempt at drug testing welfare recipients, a bill to re-establish the electric chair as a means of execution in the state of Alabama, a bill to make it legal for officials to refuse to perform marriage ceremonies, a last ditch effort to try and stop same sex marriage that wouldn’t work, and even a bill to allow child placement agencies to deny services based on their religious beliefs, which translates to Henry would like orphanages to be able to tell gay people they’re not allowed to provide a loving home to a child on account of their sexual orientation.

Well, we’re going to be honest. We thought we’d never be seeing the end of Ed Henry’s career for some time, but were proven wrong this past summer. On June 7th, 2018, he was arrested and indicted on 14 corruption charges for accepting kickbacks from a medical clinic that was being investigated for being a “pill mill” that overprescribed opiates. Henry’s legal woes seem to have ended his career, and he currently is trying to avoid going to prison. We’ll note that we shouldn’t really be surprised, given that he was a co-chair for the 2016 Donald Trump campaign for president in Alabama, which is a title we’re not unaccustomed to seeing people being brought up on charges for (See Ralph Shortey and Bill Nojay).

In any event, we’re relieved that Ed Henry will no longer be a danger to democracy in Alabama.

[numberthirty]

You'd think someone might realize that it speaks volumes about their hypocrisy that they are already laying blame on a party yet to come into power for what they MIGHT not do with hollow words, and you've been silent about the party in power who has done f*** all with their majority on this issue for the past 18 months.

Nobody thought Pelosi and the Democrats were going to do things like Equal Pay or repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell with the majority in '09, but they got it done with the window they had. Let's let them actually take control of the gavel before we start armchair quarterbacking them, you know?

There is no "What They Might Do..." in regards to trying to apply pressure to get something done before the end of the year.

You either will or you won't. How the party that is currently in the driver's seat will respond is a non-issue.

With less than thirty days left in the year and almost a month since they knew they would be taking control of the House, Democrats have kept their collective lips zipped on the issue.

No "Might". It is what they have done up to this point.

[Tendrin]

There is no "What They Might Do..." in regards to trying to apply pressure to get something done before the end of the year.

You either will or you won't. How the party that is currently in the driver's seat will respond is a non-issue.

With less than thirty days left in the year and almost a month since they knew they would be taking control of the House, Democrats have kept their collective lips zipped on the issue.

No "Might". It is what they have done up to this point.

Oh brother.

[worstblogever]

There is no "What They Might Do..." in regards to trying to apply pressure to get something done before the end of the year.

You either will or you won't. How the party that is currently in the driver's seat will respond is a non-issue.

With less than thirty days left in the year and almost a month since they knew they would be taking control of the House, Democrats have kept their collective lips zipped on the issue.

No "Might". It is what they have done up to this point.

They. Are. The. Minority. Party. They can't even call a vote on this unless Paul Ryan agrees to it, and enough Republicans cross party lines to vote for it.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

There is no "What They Might Do..." in regards to trying to apply pressure to get something done before the end of the year.

You either will or you won't. How the party that is currently in the driver's seat will respond is a non-issue.

With less than thirty days left in the year and almost a month since they knew they would be taking control of the House, Democrats have kept their collective lips zipped on the issue.

No "Might". It is what they have done up to this point.

Christ on a crutch. Seriously, dude?

[numberthirty]

They. Are. The. Minority. Party. They can't even call a vote on this unless Paul Ryan agrees to it, and enough Republicans cross party lines to vote for it.

They also are not in a current position to do anything about Ivanka's e-mail issues.

That hasn't stopped them from bringing up what they might do about it.

That you are not in a position to make it happen does not mean that you lack the means to increase the chance that it could happen.

[jetengine]

There is no "What They Might Do..." in regards to trying to apply pressure to get something done before the end of the year.

You either will or you won't. How the party that is currently in the driver's seat will respond is a non-issue.

With less than thirty days left in the year and almost a month since they knew they would be taking control of the House, Democrats have kept their collective lips zipped on the issue.

No "Might". It is what they have done up to this point.

Somebody clearly doesn't understand politics or has incredibly unrealistic expectations.

[Kirby101]

Somebody clearly doesn't understand politics or has incredibly unrealistic expectations.

Somebody decided to hone in on one issue that the incoming Dems haven't addresses yet and decided nothing else matters and unless they act now about it they have failed at everything.
But no worries, if they do address it, there will be another issue that they don't deal with to beat them up about.

[worstblogever]

Meanwhile, over the past two years, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, a Democrat, has sponsored or co-sponsored multiple versions of sexual harassment reforms for members of Congress, and been THE leading voice pulling for this to get done. She herself, is a sexual assault survivor and was harassed as a 28 year old Congressional aide. So, y'know, this is something she takes goddamned seriously.

If you think she's just packing it in once the new Congress gets sworn in, and won't be pressuring her caucus to do so... well, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you.

[ZombieHavoc]

*Sigh*

...the intercept...

The Intercept is one of my favorite outlets and I particularly like Jeremy Scahill.

[4saken1]

Good question.

You'd think that the folks who will be in Congress come the new year might be discussing that very thing.

I guess if you haven't heard they're doing it, they're probably not!