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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Newsmax attacked Champ Biden and it is not going well for them.

Being German, I take attacks on German shepherds very personally.

My guess: NewsMax is attacking Biden's pooch as payback for all the insults hurled at Trump's presidential dog:

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of Bill Zedler, a member of the Texas House of Representatives and a man who has been trying to get creationism taught not just in public schools, but insists that institutions of higher education should be doing so, as well. He also sponsored Birther legislation, and another bill to prevent “foreign laws” from being considered from judges, which is about the nicest way to describe what was actually an anti-Sharia bill. Zedler also tried to defund all LGBTQ resource centers in Texas based on his logic that they “promote and support high risk behavior for AIDS, HIV, Hepatitis B, and any sexually transmitted disease”, as if those diseases can’t be contracted heterosexually. He currently has begun trying to circumvent the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling by way of submitting “religious freedom” legislation, as well. Zedler is also a joke on women’s issues, proposing legislation to have doctors violate patient confidentiality and report to the state of Texas whatever information they have on their patients who are suffering from complications due to abortions, and calling the protesters who railed against SB 5 in Texas during State Senator Wendy Davis’ filibuster “terrorists”. Zedler’s other fine suggestions for laws include trying to force strippers to carry a physical license on themselves while working, and trying to force married couples to enter special “covenant marriages” where they were forced to be married for two years while undergoing mandatory state marriage counseling… because that’s exactly what screams smaller government ideas, right? In May of 2017, Zedler proposed an amendment to a bill aimed on getting doctors in foster care to examine children suspected of being abused or neglected... following the lead of fellow CSGOPOTD Tony Tinderholt’s paranoia over vaccines, Zedler’s amendment wanted to make it illegal for doctors in foster care to vaccinate children during these exams, with Zedler insisting vaccines are “dangerous” to children. But that hardly is the only insane quest Zedler has been undertaking… only two months later in July of 2017, Zedler began making moves to try and oust the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, Joe Straus, who was nominated to his position by a bi-partisan 150-0 vote only months earlier. The reason? Straus paid attention to what happened to the state of North Carolina after it passed its anti-LGBTQ bill, HB 2, and refused to allow a bill similar to it to come to a vote in the Texas House, because he didn’t want his state to face boycotts and lose trillions of dollars like North Carolina did. Well, Bill Zedler has no patience for people who aren’t zealots, and wanted to vote to oust Straus from office. All because he doesn’t want to dictate to transgender citizens what bathroom they use… that’s Zedler’s reasoning, In 2019, he submitted a bill to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which is something that state legislators can’t do, anyway. Now, there’s been a big swing to the left in Texas politics, and Democrats have begun winning in places all over the state after decades of Republican dominance. Zedler barely got back into office in 2018, and he’s seen the writing on the wall and opted to not run for re-election in 2020. As such, we’ll set aside his profile at this time and take a look at another kooky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 967-45, since this was established in July 2014.


Samuel Williams

Welcome to what is the 967th profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Samuel Williams, who was a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’ 16th Congressional District in both 2018 and 2020, and the latest in our cavalcade of Qanon cultist dips***s who tried to get elected to Congress.

Some examples of Q content from Williams included:

• He once posted that Sharia Law could happen in the United States at the hands of Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
• Williams, during protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, retweeted a warning about a race war, and claimed it was suspicious that he had a closed casket at his funeral, casting doubt on whether Floyd actually died..
• He claimed that during a a protest in El Paso that Congresswoman Veronica Escobar was “calling the shots”.
• He once retweeted a claim that Hillary Clinton lost a court appeal “over emails about child molestation, torture (and) trafficking” with a reference to Pizzagate, the part of Qanon’s content that led a believer to fire an assault rifle in a pizzeria in Washington, D.C.,
• He shared a tweet from an account with a Q avatar and wrote in a CAPS LOCK post that “many, many” will be executed for their crimes against humanity, such as murdering children to obtain adrenochrome, a chemical compound that QAnon theorists believe is extracted from kids (it’s scientifically insane stuff more worthy of the Maze Runner trilogy than reality).

After repeatedly sending out social media posts where he would link with Qanon hashtags and slogans, he was confronted by Texas Monthly if he supported the Qanon conspiracy, and denied it, because of how insane it all is. Probably because he threw Qanon under the bus about two weeks prior to Texas GOP voters making the call, realizing he was never going to win against Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar in a left-leaning district with an albatross like Q around his neck . While he finished first in the GOP Primary in March, he failed to clear the 50% threshold and had a runoff election to contend with. After throwing Qanon supporters under the bus and saying he only was posting Qanon hashtags to sucker the real true believers into following him, the number of votes he got from Republicans in his district was halved, and he was defeated by the “still not rejecting Qanon” candidate, Irene Armendariz-Jackson, who we should get around to profiling at some point as well. But we’re going to point out.. that difference in support? Going from over 5,000 votes in a crowded primary to 2,500 in a runoff only two weeks after rejecting Qanon? That’s what’s scary. Republican voters abandoned this guy when he rejected the insanity. This is a lesson that seems to have impacted Republicans in Washington, who seem to be doubling-down again, and again on Qanon, and why they would give a nutcase like Marjorie Taylor-Greene a standing ovation. 

[Marvell2100]

my guess: Newsmax is attacking biden's pooch as payback for all the insults hurled at trump's presidential dog:

Dude!!! Lol!!!!

[Gray Lensman]

My guess: NewsMax is attacking Biden's pooch as payback for all the insults hurled at Trump's presidential dog:

I thought Trump was the presidential dog, for Vladimir....

[shooshoomanjoe]

AOC raised $2M for Texas and is, or will be, helping at a Houston food bank.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Newsmax attacked Champ Biden and it is not going well for them.

Being German, I take attacks on German shepherds very personally.

All Biden has to do is go on national TV and say, "release the hounds" and then we'll see how these news channels feel about it.

AOC raised $2M for Texas and is, or will be, helping at a Houston food bank.

She continues to number among the best of us.

[Amadeus Arkham]

AOC raised two million for Texas and pathetic idiot conservative losers like this still find some way to trash her.



lol, how is raising 2 million dollars to help people suffering “performative charity?” What the f*** even mean?

[MindofShadow]

Some of the older folks...

When did it become normal to know other states senators, governors, and house representatives?

Is this a social media thing? Or was I simply too young to notice back in the day?

Back in the dizzay, I only remember the names of house/senate leaders and maybe the mayor of NYC... not some random rep from NY or some random dousche in Texas or the governor or Michigan lol

[worstblogever]

AOC raised two million for Texas and pathetic idiot conservative losers like this still find some way to trash her.

lol, how is raising 2 million dollars to help people suffering “performative charity?” What the f*** even mean?

The GOP is demeaning victims of gun violence, trashing dogs, and people raising money to help disaster victims.

Cruelty is their brand. Domestic terror is their brand. Anything the "other side" (anyone not them) does is to be attacked out of hand.

They're just f***ing spiteful pricks now. Like, that's their idea of domestic policy. "F*** YOU, THAT'S WHY!"

[Kirby101]

Some of the older folks...

When did it become normal to know other states senators, governors, and house representatives?

Is this a social media thing? Or was I simply too young to notice back in the day?

Back in the dizzay, I only remember the names of house/senate leaders and maybe the mayor of NYC... not some random rep from NY or some random dousche in Texas or the governor or Michigan lol

The internet has made that info much more prevalent. So politically aware and interested people read about politicians throughout the country. In earlier times we only saw them when they were on the evening News or in the local paper.
But just Google "percent Americans know their Senators". Most Americans don't even know who their own Senators and Reps are. They know their Governor and Mayor, but no other State official.
In fact, hereis a poll that says only 46% know each State has just two Senators.
https://www.masslive.com/politics/20...itute_pol.html

[Marvell2100]

AOC raised $2M for Texas and is, or will be, helping at a Houston food bank.

And yet some Conservatives keeping saying that there was nothing that Cruz could have done to help the situation.

[Tami]

Griddy customers face $5,000 electric bills for 5 freezing days in Texas

Some Texans are facing yet another crisis: how to pay enormous electric bills.

The Texas power supplier Griddy, which sells unusual plans with prices tied to the spot price of power on the Texas grid, warned its customers over the weekend that their bills would rise significantly during the storm and that they should switch providers.

Some quickly looked into doing that but found the actual changeover of service wouldn’t happen for days.

Now customers say they never dreamed they’d be billed in the four figures for five days of service.

Karen Cosby said her cost is $5,000 for usage since Saturday at her 2,700-square-foot house in Rockwall.

DeAndre Upshaw of Dallas said the electric bill for his 900-square-foot, two-story townhouse was also $5,000.

Other customers on social media expressed frustration with similar bills from Griddy, the power supplier that told its 29,000 customers on Saturday, after spot electricity prices soared, to quickly shift out of its network and find a new supplier.

Those spot prices hit $9,000 per megawatt-hour. That means $9 for a kilowatt-hour that usually costs Cosby around 7 cents, and sometimes as little as 2 cents.

[Kirby101]

Griddy customers face $5,000 electric bills for 5 freezing days in Texas

Enron all over again. Another Texas GOP debacle. But hey Texas, let's see if you ever learn.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Some of the older folks...

When did it become normal to know other states senators, governors, and house representatives?

Is this a social media thing? Or was I simply too young to notice back in the day?

Back in the dizzay, I only remember the names of house/senate leaders and maybe the mayor of NYC... not some random rep from NY or some random dousche in Texas or the governor or Michigan lol

There's a lot of reasons for that, some of it is as you suggest a social media thing. It's paradoxical that when times are bad, i.e. the Trumpistan years, you tend to be more civic minded. The Trump years were one of resistance so that meant a game of inches, so it meant focusing on state governments and so on, because even if Trump was President, if you lived in a blue state it still felt, more or less, like Obama was still in charge. Gun laws in NYS and CA were still a middle-finger raised against the NRA. So that meant that everything felt high stakes. Every federal court appointee made by Trump, every decision he made via ICE, the SCOTUS and so on, all felt dire and dangerous. Having a Republican or MAGAt as state comptroller or so on made you paranoid and worried. When the Pandemic happened, the nature of the crisis meant that it was down to the states to handle everything on the ground...and that would have been the case even if Obama was in charge. Since the pandemic happened on Trump's watch, that meant that local governors and mayors became national-level figures judged and criticized for their handling of the crisis. Since Trump essentially abdicated his office, that meant actual decisions, for better and for worse, were left to the states.

However, it's also the case that "some are more equal than others", the Mayor of NYC for instance is always going to have a lot more practical power and influence on a national and global scale, than say the Senior Senator of South Dakota (currently John Thune) who nominally outranks the office. More people across America know the name of Bill de Blasio than John Thune. The Governors of states with big populations and big economies -- CA, TX, FL, NYS -- are always going to be big important players in the "national conversation".

Some politicians can cultivate a personal brand based on ideology, personality, policy, and legacy of service. Bernie Sanders comes from Vermont, very tiny and marginal, and yet he's a globally renowned and respected and loved politician, even if he represents a state population of some 623,000 which is smaller than many house districts. Right now thanks to the 50-50 Senate split, someone like Joe Manchin, who represents a state population of 1.8 million (smaller than the population of the borough of Queens in NYC), is a national level political figure thanks to the "kingmaker" role he found himself in.

[Marvell2100]

Let's see...

Lt Gov Dan Patrick wants to let elderly people die so that we can re-open businesses.

TX AG sues other states because he doesn't like how they run their elections.

Colorado City, TX mayor Tim Boyd slams residents during snowstorm that knocks out power, heat and bursts pipes. Says "city and county owes you nothing!"

TX Rep Kyle Bierdermann wants to file a motion allowing Texas to secede from the Union. TX GOP Chair Alan West also wants TX to leave.

TX Gov Greg Abbott blames Green New Deal and windmills for power failure during winter storm. Texas gets the majority of it's energy from fossil fuels and the Green New Deal program doesn't exist in Texas.

Sen Ted Cruz of Texas blames daughter for fleeing to Cancun while his state suffers catastrophic failures during winter storm.

Texas, you have a problem.