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

[worstblogever]

When this is all over, WBE is going to be so exhausted that he'll end up crawling into some ancient sarcophagus for 1000 years to regenerate his power.

Aye, he shall require the Odin-sleep.

I will enjoy the time when I may embrace the nappy-naps.

[Tendrin]

I will enjoy the time when I may embrace the nappy-naps.

Make sure you get a colonoscopy or two first.

[worstblogever]

Make sure you get a colonoscopy or two first.

Guaranteed to make you sleep peacefully thereafter for the ultimate in Odinsleep/Nappy Naps.

[worstblogever]

On this day in 2015 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Nan Hayworth, the former U.S. House Representative who served New York’s 19th District for one term from 2011-2013. During her Tea Party campaign, she was noted for stammering and getting nervous and stammering whenever asked complicated policy questions about Social Security, and once in her 2012 campaign, fled from a constituent who asked if she supported minimum wage increases, only answering that she would make sure we “grow the economy”. While in office, she voted against all women’s issues, including supporting the Hyde Amendment, voting to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, but during her 2012 campaign, she tried claiming she “voted with Obama”, which was patently false. Hayworth was also frequently plagued by her tendency to hire idiots in key campaign staff positions, including their eventual admission that they broke election laws to gain enough signatures to put her on the 2010 ballot in the first place. She also had her 2012 re-election campaign spokesman talk about committing acid attacks against female Democratic Senators (right out of the Taliban playbook), and for whatever reason, Hayworth and her campaign tried defending his remarks for a time. She also had the revelation that her campaign manager, Karl Brabenec make the news for being revealed to have hosted a Young Republicans event in 2003 where he promised attendees “liquor and sex to go around all evening”, and that female attendees should “wear as little clothing as possible”. At least Hayworth didn’t defend that. After losing in both 2012 and 2014 to Patrick Maloney, Hayworth has apparently given up on running for office, and only cameos on Fox News every now and again these days.

It was on this date in 2016 that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Drew Turiano, a Tea Party Republican from Montana who was a 2014 candidate for Congress to represent the state’s “At Large” District, and in 2012, thought about running for governor, but instead, chose to be a candidate for Montana Secretary of State. He didn’t fare well in that race, finishing fourth with 6.7% of the vote. Now, in that first election, what slipped by most of the media was the fact that Turiano had sent out mailers regarding immigration where he claimed that not just undocumented immigrants were “rapists, murders, and thieves”, but he didn’t seem to make the distinction and thought that legal immigrants were part of the problem, too, and called for an end to ALL immigration. As Turiano was prepping for his Congressional run in 2013, he gave a delightful interview with a local TV station, and gave some interesting opinions regarding immigration policy. Like say, to bring back “Operation Wetback”. It would be four months until anyone in the Montana Republican Party or Montana Tea Party batted an eye, and they actually let him file as a candidate again, as he went around the state campaigning on what they eventually even deemed as “racist views”. In February 2014, even prior to registering as a candidate, Turiano posted on his campaign website that he supported states’ rights to nullify or reject any federal law or judicial mandate, citing Roe v. Wade and Obamacare as prime examples, and his belief that President Barack Obama should be impeached. Drew Turiano ended up finishing a distant fifth in the GOP Primary, getting but 1.7% of the votes. The Montana GOP have abandoned him as a candidate for his overt racism, which by today’s Republican standards, is ironic, considering Donald Trump has almost the same ideas on immigration as Turiano.



On this date in 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had its original profile to discuss Tommy Benton, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives who has held office since 2004. There was some doubt if he was going to be re-elected to a seventh term in 2016, though, after the uproar he caused (more on that in a second), but he lucked out the same way most state legislators do when nobody failed to register to run against him before the deadline to enter the race, and he was allowed to run unopposed. Which is a real shame, considering that only a few weeks before the deadline for candidates to register to challenge him, he was interviewed by the Atlanta Journal Constitution to discuss his support of Confederate landmarks, whose removal he considered “cultural terrorism” that the topic turned to the Confederate monument at Stone Mountain, Georgia, where the Ku Klux Klan was reborn in 1915. At that point, Benton decided to pontificate on the positive things that the Ku Klux Klan did for this country:

”The Klan was not so much a racist thing but a vigilante thing to keep law and order. It made a lot of people straighten up. I’m not saying what they did was right. It’s just the way things were.”

Benton was just warming up, as he continued on, comparing a Democratic colleague, Vincent Fort, who sponsored a bill to remove Confederate monuments to ISIS:

“That’s no better than what ISIS is doing, destroying museums and monuments,” he said. “I feel very strongly about this. I think it has gone far enough. There is some idea out there that certain parts of history out there don’t matter anymore and that’s a bunch of bunk.”

This came on the heels of Benton having sponsored his own opposing bill to preserve Confederate monuments, as well as one to celebrate General Robert E. Lee’s birthday, as well as Confederate Memorial Day. Oh, and he sponsored a third bill that would revert street names that honored Confederate war heroes back to their original names, which would turn Atlanta’s Martin Luther King Blvd. back into Gordon Road, named after former Confederate officer John B. Gordon, an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan. (Benton certainly is “all in” on a failed rebellion over slavery from a century and a half ago, that’s for sure.)

Over Benton’s career, there are more than a few conservative votes, and a few that would seem to fit into the mindset of a guy who likes to look on the bright side of the KKK, what with his support for stricter Voter ID laws that disproportionately suppress the votes of minorities, the time he sponsored multiple unconstitutional bills to make English the official language of the state of Georgia, as well as his support of Georgia’s disastrous anti-immigrant bill, HB 87, which ended up decimating the population of immigrant farmers in the state enough that crops were left to rot in the fields, unpicked, to the cost of $140 million in lost revenue for the industry. He also voted for a monument of the Ten Commandments to be built at the state capitol building (which have been overturned as violations of the First Amendment in previous rulings like in the Roy Moore case in Alabama), and the failed conservative policy to drug test welfare recipients.

Again, his deep affection for the Confederacy again reared its ugly head, when he sent out a campaign mailer that denied that the Civil War started over slavery. If Benton would pull his head out of his ***, he would know that five Confederate states, GEORGIA AMONG THEM, literally wrote letters to the Union stating, plainly, that they were fighting a war against the federal government because they refused to accept that they wouldn't be able to keep slaves. So… yeah, Benton is full of s***, and we’re glad that the Georgia GOP stripped him of all of his placements on Committees in the legislature for being a deranged bigot.

In 2018, Tommy Benton was up for re-election again, and the Georgia GOP were tired enough of his Neo-Confederate antics from the past few years that they found a primary challenger in Samuel Thomas to take a crack at him. Alas, the effort failed by a large margin, and Benton was not only re-elected, but the Georgia GOP shrugged off his past offensive statements, and placed him back in a leadership role on the Retirement Committee in the George state legislature. Because of course supporting the Klan should only be a temporary setback in your political career, or so modern Republicans seem content to believe.

He’s running for re-election in 2020, and we can only hope that the slow turn towards Georgia getting more blue this year can also include seeing Democrat Peter Fuller flipping Georgia’s District 31 this fall.

[Tendrin]

Oi. WBE, have you seen this?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-l...rties?ref=wrap

A House Republican freshman and steadfast ally of President Donald Trump has introduced legislation that would inadvertently ban the president’s reelection campaign from spending money at Trump-owned businesses.
It’s almost certain that Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) did not intend to prohibit the president from steering campaign funds to his own hotels, resorts, and golf clubs. He introduced a bill this month explicitly designed to target campaign spending by a House colleague, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Steube even appears to have taken steps to insulate the president from his bill’s prohibitions. But the language of his legislation would very likely bar Trump campaign payments to Trump businesses as well, and his office could not muster an explanation otherwise.

He also...

On January 17, Rep. Gregory Steube (R-FL) introduced HR 5657 — the “Religious Insignia on Dog Tags Act” — a bill intended to aid one specific for-profit Christian jewelry company by ordering the Secretary of Defense to change military regulations to allow this Christian jewelry company to produce and sell Bible verse dog tags with official trademarked military emblems on them under official license from the military. That is your tax dollars at work when religious zealots are among the members of our Congress!

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/202...Verse-Dog-Tags

[worstblogever]

Oi. WBE, have you seen this?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-l...rties?ref=wrap



He also...



https://www.dailykos.com/stories/202...Verse-Dog-Tags

Did you see the other ten stupid bills he submitted back in 2017?

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/o...e-laws-9182125

I had him in the queue for late July.

[Tendrin]

Did you see the other ten stupid bills he submitted back in 2017?

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/o...e-laws-9182125

I had him in the queue for late July.

Oh dear god.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Guaranteed to make you sleep peacefully thereafter for the ultimate in Odinsleep/Nappy Naps.

I've had three colonoscopies (age 50, 55 and 60), all came back negative. It's the prep that's the real bitch!

====================

Coronavirus Live Updates: Read The Latest About The COVID-19 Outbreak

Stay up to date as we cover the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its effects across the world.

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Fauci Testifies U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Is Likely Underreported

“I don’t know the exact percent that it’s higher, but certainly, it’s higher,” the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases told the Senate health committee.

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CDC Reopen Document Vastly Differs From White House’s Plan

The Associated Press obtained a 63-page document from the CDC which stresses planning for future virus flareups.

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Trump Administration Tells States To Yank Benefits From Those Who Won’t Return To Work

New Labor Department guidance encourages states to get employers to report on people refusing job offers.

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Tests Are Readily Available At The White House. America Doesn’t Have The Same Luxury.

“People close to the president are getting tested every day. No wonder the president thinks testing is widely available,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said.

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Activists Leave Body Bags In State Capitals To Protest Reopenings

The demonstrations occurred in states where Republican governors have started reopening businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Welp Republicans just won back the Katie Hill seat. Unforced errors here. They never should have let her resign early

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Howard Stern Tells Trump Voters What The President Really Thinks Of Them

The radio host also names the most “patriotic” thing the president could do. That "patriotic" thing is for Trump to admit he's in over his head and resign. Unfortunately, that AIN'T happening. Trump's ego won't let him quit, and staying in office keeps him from that date in court for his dirty dealings from the Mueller Report and possible (if not probable) prison time if found guilty. Short and sweet: Trump will LITERALLY have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the White House.

[Tendrin]

Welp Republicans just won back the Katie Hill seat. Unforced errors here. They never should have let her resign early

It's not certain yet. While the GOP has a lead at the moment, California ballots will still be being counted for days yet.

[worstblogever]

It's not certain yet. While the GOP has a lead at the moment, California ballots will still be being counted for days yet.

It would be a hell of a turnaround. She's down 56-44, and down 17K votes.

At this time, yes, too close to call. But I'd LOL if Smith makes a comeback over Garcia.

[Tami]

Acting intelligence chief Grenell gave DOJ list of Obama officials who ‘unmasked’ Michael Flynn

President Trump’s top intelligence adviser has given the Justice Department the names of Obama administration officials who “unmasked” then-national security adviser Michael Flynn following his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States in 2016, according to U.S. officials.

That action, which has been a cornerstone of Trump’s long-standing allegations of criminality by his predecessor, identified Flynn as the person urging Russia not to respond to punitive sanctions that the Obama administration had imposed after the Kremlin’s interference in the presidential election.

Unmasking is a routine practice used to identify a U.S. person who is anonymously referred to in an intelligence document — in this case the intercepted conversations of Sergey Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador, who was a target of U.S. surveillance. Current and former officials said unmasking can be a vital tool for identifying potential spies or terrorists.

Grenell’s office “delivered information related to unmasking to the department, and to the extent it’s relevant to any investigation, the department will take a look at it,” the official said, adding that the Justice Department “does not intend to release the list” of those who directed unmaskings.

It was not clear if Grenell would release the names on his own. A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence referred questions on the matter to the Justice Department.

Releasing the names would be an unprecedented action and risk turning powerful authorities to declassify intelligence toward political ends, current and former intelligence officials said.

“Unmasking is common — literally hundreds of times a year across multiple administrations,” said Michael Morell, the former deputy director of the CIA and host of the “Intelligence Matters” podcast.

“In general, senior officials make the requests when necessary to understand the underlying intelligence,” Morell said. “I myself did it several times a month. You can’t do your job without it.”

Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has long described the use of the authority as abusive.

But in late 2016, when Nunes served as chairman, the committee engaged in the same practice, asking U.S. intelligence agencies to reveal the names of U.S. individuals or organizations contained in classified intelligence on Russia’s election interference, The Washington Post has previously reported.

[Tendrin]

It would be a hell of a turnaround. She's down 56-44, and down 17K votes.

At this time, yes, too close to call. But I'd LOL if Smith makes a comeback over Garcia.

Yeah, I'm not saying it's *likely*. Just, you know, not *certain*.

[Kevinroc]

Welp Republicans just won back the Katie Hill seat. Unforced errors here. They never should have let her resign early

I wouldn't be surprised if Democrats take it back in November.