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

[CSTowle]

This is the dumbest **** I have every heard! I am not even Jewish and this pisses me off.

I remember I was in prison. And there was a man in there that said there is no 100 percent proof that not only did the holocust happened but that there is no proof of World War 2 happening. I asked how they Hell he could even think this. he said Well I have never seen it. Videos can be faked and people can make up fake stories.

Every one in the prison thought he was a dumbass. I never thought I would live in a world where the dumbest man in prison would be the standard for the way a large group of people think.

Take a stroll through r/Conspiracy on Reddit and see how people are able to dismiss reality and ignore experts/expertise regularly if they haven't experienced it firsthand. From Flat Earth to the hidden history of Tartaria and mud-floods (crazy s@#t, check it out) to dozens of often contradictory Covid conspiracies. Reality is optional.

As to Clinton, he had a history of being a scumbag that was well established before schtupping an intern in her early 20s as the boss in the most important office in the world. Then he lied about it. Under oath. This isn't a "both sides" issue, and you can't lay blame at the feet of the whistle blower (though Bill and Hillary tried hard, as well as with his other victims).

That it's two decades past didn't stop those still willing to carry water for this scumbag from criticizing Trump or Kavanaugh. Wrong is wrong, whether you like someone or not.

[worstblogever]

Take a stroll through r/Conspiracy on Reddit and see how people are able to dismiss reality and ignore experts/expertise regularly if they haven't experienced it firsthand. From Flat Earth to the hidden history of Tartaria and mud-floods (crazy s@#t, check it out) to dozens of often contradictory Covid conspiracies. Reality is optional.

As to Clinton, he had a history of being a scumbag that was well established before schtupping an intern in her early 20s as the boss in the most important office in the world. Then he lied about it. Under oath. This isn't a "both sides" issue, and you can't lay blame at the feet of the whistle blower (though Bill and Hillary tried hard, as well as with his other victims).

That it's two decades past didn't stop those still willing to carry water for this scumbag from criticizing Trump or Kavanaugh. Wrong is wrong, whether you like someone or not.

The best summary in four words for Clinton: "Effective president, terrible person."

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The film Primary Colors is really about Bill Clinton. In it the character played by John Travolta really enjoys and clicks with people. He can work a room and learn everything about a group there. Wants to try and do the right thing.

But his personal life he's not a good person a lot.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Here's something truly infuriating:

After white students displayed Confederate flag at school, Black students suspended for planning protest

So much for presenting opposing views like down in Texas.

[Tami]

Biden commission releases research into possible Supreme Court expansion*

*looks like another bleeped url. Just take the article title and plug it into the url.

Commission on Supreme Court warns of political dangers in reform proposals

President Biden’s commission evaluating potential reform of the Supreme Court cautioned that increasing the size of the court might be perceived as partisan maneuvering, but noted there is widespread support for term limits on the justices, who enjoy life tenure.

The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States will meet Friday to begin writing a report to the president, likely to be presented next month. Mostly made up of academics, the draft materials that the commission has collected so far, released Thursday night, read much like a textbook on history and available options, rather than a manifesto for change.

The group is not charged with divining a direction. “It is an assessment. It is not a recommendation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.

And, at present, it is not even a report. The released material was compiled by subcommittees on the commission, and the group as a whole has not considered the material.

Biden named the commission in response to liberal demands that something be done to “balance” the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority. Liberals were particularly angry that a Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a hearing on President Barack Obama’s nominee to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. It then rushed through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to take the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, as the votes already were being cast to deny President Donald Trump a second term.

“Unmistakably, the overall trend over the last three decades has been toward more partisan conflict, which has affected nominations to the lower courts, as well as the Supreme Court,” the draft material says.

While a subcommittee said there was no “legal obstacle” to expanding the court — its size has varied over the centuries but has remained at nine since 1869 — its report said “the risks of Court expansion are considerable, including that it could undermine the very goal of some of its proponents of restoring the Court’s legitimacy.”

[Tendrin]

Well...

WBE, your liver is done for. I'm sorry.

https://twitter.com/pokerpolitics/st...870443531?s=21

[babyblob]

Here's something truly infuriating:

After white students displayed Confederate flag at school, Black students suspended for planning protest

So much for presenting opposing views like down in Texas.

A School in Ga. I very much doubt anything will come of this sadly. Where are all the cancel culture warriors who throw a fit about people being suspended or fired over protests. Pretty sure they will stay silent on this one.

[4saken1]

Biden commission releases research into possible Supreme Court expansion

Well, ****! Biden HAS to do it, now! The fact that he even considered this a possible option all but guarantees that Republicans will do this next time they hold the Presidency, using Biden's mere looking into it as all the justification they need to get it done.

[worstblogever]

Well...

WBE, your liver is done for. I'm sorry.

https://twitter.com/pokerpolitics/st...870443531?s=21

It's getting reeeealll hard for Republicans to make the "both sides are just as bad" argument when they aren't just running adherents to the Qanon conspiracy theory... they're putting people who created it and were at the insurrection on 1/6 up for elected office.

Disgraceful.

[Tami]

Well, ****! Biden HAS to do it, now! The fact that he even considered this a possible option all but guarantees that Republicans will do this next time they hold the Presidency, using Biden's mere looking into it as all the justification they need to get it done.

I bet that the Republicans probably want to do a Supreme Court Constriction instead. I mean, if there are only 3 members on the Supreme Court, the Republicans have better odds of make sure that only their nominees are siting there.

[thwhtGuardian]

In the "Republican's Doing Good" column Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (and the Conservative State Reps and Senators who helped to pass the Bill to the Governor's desk) expanded free and affordable school lunch programs in the Commonwealth and ended lunch debt collection penalties that punished students for unpaid lunches. I honestly don't get why it isn't free for anyone that wants it, and it looks like with this bill passing that's a little bit closer.

Sure, it was a Bill introduced by a Democrat but it had broad support among both parties so it seems fare to give Republicans a little credit here for the win.

[Tami]

QAnon figurehead announces run for Congress

Ron Watkins, the former 8chan administrator believed to be the origin of the QAnon conspiracy theory, has announced he plans to run for Congress in Arizona. In the video he used to announce his run, he claimed he was jumping into the race "to defeat the "dirtiest Democrat in the D.C. swamp," incumbent Congressman Tom O'Halleran, who has only been in office for four years. Tina Nguyen speaks with Hallie Jackson about what this could mean for the Republican party.

WBE....??

[worstblogever]

In the "Republican's Doing Good" column Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (and the Conservative State Reps and Senators who helped to pass the Bill to the Governor's desk) expanded free and affordable school lunch programs in the Commonwealth and ended lunch debt collection penalties that punished students for unpaid lunches. I honestly don't get why it isn't free for anyone that wants it, and it looks like with this bill passing that's a little bit closer.

Sure, it was a Bill introduced by a Democrat but it had broad support among both parties so it seems fare to give Republicans a little credit here for the win.

You're giving them credit for not vetoing something everyone wants. Like, that's the low bar you're applauding. Baker didn't spitefully sabotage something Democrats worked on, and everyone wants.

That's not revolutionary, that's how government should just operate.

QAnon figurehead announces run for Congress



WBE....??

I got him, and a fifth of scotch.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

You're giving them credit for not vetoing something everyone wants. Like, that's the low bar you're applauding. Baker didn't spitefully sabotage something Democrats worked on, and everyone wants.

That's not revolutionary, that's how government should just operate.



I got him, and a fifth of scotch.

Between you, James Bond and Tony Stark, who has the most damaged liver?

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Florida's 8th Congressional District, Bill Posey, the U.S. House Representative from Florida's 8th District, the author of HB 1503, aka “The Birther Bill” that would force all presidential candidates to submit their birth certificates. When asked if he believed President Obama was an American citizen in the wake of that, he refused to answer, calling the question “irrelevant”. Posey’s also obsessed with overturning the Affordable Care Act, having participated in every attempt to repeal it, and then voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown to attempt to stop it (also voting against re-opening the government when the time came). His one positive quality is that he wants to fund medical research into autism, but it comes with the caveat that he’s only doing so because he believes it's possible that vaccines cause autism (but not in climate change). He's also been a part of GOP efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, voted against the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, and voted to defund the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican temper tantrum over President Obama's executive orders on immigration.

Bill Posey dodged hosting a town hall in 2017 by instead, opting to call his constituents to let them know he was having a telephone town hall… WHILE IT WAS ALREADY UNDER WAY. He was apparently still distressed that upon learning this, ten thousand of his voters bombarded him with complaints, not only about his availability, but how the GOP was planning on exercising control of both Congress and the White House, and defended the move because “Gabby Giffords got shot at a town hall”. His constituents then further berated him, because Giffords herself called on all members of Congress to hold town halls, as their duty remains to the people.

In July of 2018, after Donald Trump gave a bizarre joint press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, where he denied Russians interfered in the 2016 election, effectively siding with the Russian dictator’s denials over his own intelligence community, Bill Posey offered his support to the president, arguing that maybe that foreign interference on our elections isn’t so bad, because “America has done it to other countries for the past 50 years”.

Posey has returned to Washington after being re-elected in 2020 with 61% of the vote, and resumed being a clueless moron as a legislator:

• December 3rd, 2019: Rep. Posey votes against a resolution to disallow Russia from re-entering the G7 and makes it the G8 until it leaves Ukraine.
• December 18th, 2019: Posey 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: Posey votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• January 13th, 2021: Rep. Posey 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: Bill Posey 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: Posey votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
• March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Posey 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: Bill Posey votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
• March 10th, 2021: Posey 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. Posey votes 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 19th, 2021: Rep. Posey votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.

Florida’s 8th Congressional District has a +11 lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_P...n_Voting_Index
which has helped prop Bill Posey up and keep him in place for the past decade. Odds are that the state of Florida being in Republican hands and their fan of gerrymandering, we should not expect this to be remedied to less of an advantage, and Posey is going to remain in power until he decides to retire, or shuffles off the mortal coil.

Which is unfortunate. As is the state of American politics.