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

[master of read]

Cadbury cream eggs are....not great tbh.

good. more for me.

[jetengine]

Well, I was specifically talking about people, like the guy in this thread, maintaining that snowflake libs need safespaces because they can't....wait, who cares, what are you arguing with me about? I don't get it.

Ok, fine, Donald Trump, you win. Libs are all snowflakes who can't handle any dissenting opinions and must have hot cocoa available to them instead. Are you happy, now, Jet?

Not particularly. I'm just pointing out that as bad as the right wing media is (and yes there incredibly fucking awful) just because the left wing media does better doesnt mean they've never needlessly sensationalised a meaningless story for profit.

[ZombieHavoc]

Not particularly. I'm just pointing out that as bad as the right wing media is (and yes there incredibly fucking awful) just because the left wing media does better doesnt mean they've never needlessly sensationalised a meaningless story for profit.

Okay, cool. Nonsequitor, but cool anyway.

[Cimmerian]

I'd be interested in hearing what his positive major accomplishments have been since taking office?

- Pulled out of TPP
- Pulled out of the ridiculous Paris Accords deal
- Banished the Obamacare mandate
- Tax reform (which despite what CNN may tell you, benefits tons of lower and middle class Americans. I’m not close to rich and it’s benefitted myself and my family)
- Established real progressive dialogue with NK (Obama would’ve won a Nobel prize for this)
- ISIS has been all but eliminated during his presidency
- Signed a new NAFTA deal that is much more beneficial for America
- Criminal Justice Reform


I’d say he’s accomplished a fair bit in two years. Has he made good on every promise? No, not really. But I’d love for someone to show me a president who has.

[Tuck]

Really?

Show me

No.

I could write out how the next ten posts go here. Whatever extended semantic rabbit hole you want to take this down, it will never end up at a place where "Trump called Mexicans murderers and rapists" is a radical interpretation of the verbatim statement.

[ZombieHavoc]

The tax cuts and the ISIS thing deserve astrixes.

[Cimmerian]

No.

I could write out how the next ten posts go here. Whatever extended semantic rabbit hole you want to take this down, it will never end up at a place where "Trump called Mexicans murderers and rapists" is a radical interpretation of the verbatim statement.

So in other words, he didn’t say that.

[jetengine]

The tax cuts and the ISIS thing deserve astrixes.

North Korea doesn't even deserve to be there frankly.

[ZombieHavoc]

North Korea doesn't even deserve to be there frankly.

True...most of his accomplishments are specious at best.

[jetengine]

True...most of his accomplishments are specious at best.

I meant more in that nothing has actually been acomplished with North Korea. It stopped its tests because the mountain it tests in is liable to collapse sending radioactive winds across China which will result in China destroying NK. Then Kim charmed Trump with vague promises of peace which will never be fufilled because as soon as the Nukes go its regime change time

[ZombieHavoc]

I meant more in that nothing has actually been acomplished with North Korea. It stopped its tests because the mountain it tests in is liable to collapse sending radioactive winds across China which will result in China destroying NK. Then Kim charmed Trump with vague promises of peace which will never be fufilled because as soon as the Nukes go its regime change time

I know, that's why I agreed with you.

Trump has done exactly one thing with NK: given them the legitmacy they wanted and could not get from any other administration.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" ran a profile of Cathie Adams, a former National Republican Committee member, and Chairwoman of the Texas Republican Party who compared President Obama to Hitler, warning of the United Nations taking over the planet, refusing to support cancer research for fear it could lead to human cloning experiments, and that she blamed the high teenage pregnancy rate in Texas on illegal immigrants (and not her party's campaign against sex education unless it's abstinence only). She also was convinced extreme conservative Grover Norquist is a secret Muslim infiltrator... because he grew a beard. Rounding out Adams' kookiness was her belief that people were leaving states that had legalized marriage for ones that opposed it in droves, her quote that anti-abortion protesters screaming in the Texas capitol were "what evil must sound like emanating from the Pit of Hell", and that Muslim Americans were prepping for a "stealth jihad" and are waiting to "shoot you in the back". Adams is, and this is really saying something... too insane for even the Texas Republican Party, who jettisoned her after less than a year after her election, leaving her .


On this date in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted a profile of Lee Terry, the former eight-term Congressman who represented Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999-2015. Who responded to a reporter's question during the 2013 Government Shutdown as to whether he was keeping his paycheck by saying, “Dang straight. I've got a nice house and a kid in college, and I'll tell you we cannot handle it. Giving our paycheck away when you still worked and earned it? That's just not going to fly.”Less than a year later, Rep. Terry voted against a minimum wage increase, then justified it by saying he "hadn't earned a pay raise since 2008." Make sure the guy with a six figure salary gets his first, right? Through his sixteen years in office, Terry's voting record included support for a constitutional amendment to allow government buildings to erect monuments of the Ten Commandments, voting for the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill, co-sponsoring a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, voting against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and even the Zadroga Bill, to provide healthcare for first responders from 9/11. Among many other heartless conservative stances. Even in his Republican-leaning district and in a year that strongly favored Republicans, Lee Terry was enough of a selfish tool that he was jettisoned from office in 2014, moving on to work as a lobbyist.

On this date in 2017, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" profiled Tom Hooker, a former teacher and former three-term member of the Michigan House of Representatives who was swept into office with the help of the 2010 Tea Party Wave, and went out of office in a homophobic blaze of glory during his final term serving the Great Lakes State, who went from just being opposed to same sex couples adopting children and sponsoring a resolution in the Michigan state legislature to ignore the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling on same-sex marriage in December of 2015. He even led a rally at the state capitol where hundreds railed against the idea of marriage equality, and during his speech to the crowd, Tom Hooker showed the people of Michigan that he is in desperate need of a civics lesson, because he doesn't understand the point of the judicial branch, saying, “The Supreme Court is not a Legislature. Courts do not substitute their social and economic beliefs for the judgement of legislative bodies or elected and passed laws.” All right, that first sentence, at least, is true. But what Hooker seemed to be failing to understand is... Obergefell v. Hodges was not the passage of a same sex marriage law, but overturning any bans that were on it nationally, and thus legalizing it. It's... not complicated. Fighting a crusade that was going positively nowhere must have been frustrating for Hooker, because only a month later, he submitted a bill to attempt to defund Planned Parenthood clinics in Michigan. The proposed bill, however, was not written so well by Hooker (go figure) and would not have affected Planned Parenthood services in Michigan, because its funding comes from the federal government. Still, Hooker refused to admit his quest was in vain, telling the press, “I’ve voted against four state budgets where any state taxpayer funding went to an organization whose primary purpose is aborting unborn children… the goal of HB 4145 is to make this permanent.” Maybe, however, it should have been clear that Tom Hooker's hatred of Planned Parenthood had a poor basis in reality a few months earlier in September of 2015 when he claimed that Planned Parenthood teaches sex education "so they can drum up more abortion business". We'll note, of course that failure rates for condoms are actually much higher when people aren't educated on how to use them properly, and shake our heads in frustration that his man was ever allowed to teach. Looking at the rest of Tom Hooker's voting record, you can see how his Christian values taught him not only to fight against abortion and LGBT rights, but to help the poor and hungry... WE'RE JUST JOKING, HE'S AWFUL. Yeah, throughout his legislative career, Hooker voted against minimum wage increases, and voted to drug test welfare recipients. Hooker was sent packing by term limits in 2016.



It was on this date one year ago today that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” first profiled Jim Lucas, who has served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from District 69 since 2012 (he would not be challenged for his seat by a Democrat in either 2014 or 2016). In the six years he’s been in office, he has become synonymous in the Hoosier State with conservative douchebaggery. And it would be one thing if he was infamous for his voting record, but it’s honestly Lucas’ social media presence that tends to be what defines him as an unrepentant ***hole.

Not long after the 2016 election, Lucas twice made headlines for extremely misogynistic posts, the first when on Dec. 19, 2016 Lucas shared on his page the photo of a woman in a car trunk with the words, "Wanna know who loves you more your wife or your dog? Lock them both in your trunk and see who's happy to see you when you let them out". A month later in January of 2017, Lucas was criticized for a Facebook post he shared that showed a police officer in riot gear pepper spraying a woman in the face, with the words: “Participation trophies, now in liquid form.” The Indiana GOP chose to not punish him for pushing the boundaries of good taste in spite of numerous complaints, and thus, Lucas didn’t learn his lesson to keep his stupid mouth shut about how much he resents women. So five months later, he took to Facebook again to attack a reporter from the Indianapolis Star, and wrote about how women who get raped are at fault for not doing enough to prevent their assault:

“After reading your front page article in the Sunday Star about the tragedy of rape, it would be nice to see a follow up article about the thousands of Hoosier women that are taking steps & learning how not to be a victim.”

Itt isn’t just that Jim Lucas has issues with women that’s a bother, it’s his fascist ideas to attack the media by demanding that all journalists be licensed by state police to do their jobs. And of course, the guy who wants licensing of the press and wants the First Amendment restricted so much believes there should be zero restrictions on the Second Amendment.

Then there's Lucas' legislative record... He has co-sponsored, and frequently votes for attempts by the Indiana GOP to drug test welfare recipients (even though when enacted, it catches next to no one on drugs on government assistance before courts overturn the laws as violations of the 4th Amendment), and didn’t just vote for a state constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between “one man and one woman” back in 2014, but was a sponsor of Indiana’s SB 101, the disastrous “religious freedom” bill that was written poorly enough that it amounted to legal discrimination.

Sadly, Lucas coasted to re-election in 2018, getting 60% of the votes in a three-way GOP Primary, and 69% against Democratic challenger Steve Schoettmer. We’ll have to wait at least another two years to see if the Hoosier state might be rid of this gobshite.

[Cimmerian]

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/statu...882346496?s=20

[ZombieHavoc]

Ha, I feel like people on the right believe that since Trump's hand-picked and totally in-the-pocket-of-Trump AG said it's all good, we are supposed to all now say, okay, all your shitty president-ing since Jan 2017 is now good president-ing.

The possible/probably collusion was not what made him a bad president. That was just the funny part to watch while the bad president-ing was going on.

He's still a terrible president.

[BeastieRunner]

Well, Avenatti is in big doo doo now.

Trump got his distraction.