"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Another Gay Hater Caught With The Meat-- Almost-- In His Mouth
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Evangelicals must believe that Satan sent Grindr to test them-- and what a test it is! I remember the first time I ever experienced it. I was driving through Hollywood and my friend was in the passenger seat. His cell phone kept going off every 30-40 seconds. What the hell is that, I asked. "Oh, it's Grindr," he said. "It buzzes whenever we pass a gay guy." For a typical evangelical pastor that must be like the First Temptation of Christ writ large. Barry Poyner is an elder at the Kirksville Church of Christ, an anti-LGBTQ hate group, where Poyner gives rapidly anti-gay sermons that are unrelated to Jesus or his message. You might think anti-Jesus "Christians" deserve this but, unfortunately, Poyner is also a communications professor at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri and he's been using Grindr to offer your boys money to allow him to blow them. Some complained and the police set up a fake "would love to have a sugar daddy relationship" account on Grindr. Poyner told an undercover officer he would buy him a tank of gas and "might throw in an Arby’s gift card" in exchange for sex. They agreed to meet at the gas station on December 3 but when the cops showed up, Poyner sped away. The cops caught him and Poyner claimed he doesn't so anything with minors and that he wasn't going to really have sex with the "kid," just give him some gas to help him out. He's not allowed on the campus and could wind up serving 6 months in prison if found guilty. Kirksville is the county seat of Adair County in northeastern Missouri and is home to around 17,500 people, including a relatively large population of Congolese refugees. The county is part of Sam Graves' very backward, very red 6th congressional district (R+16).Obama lost it both times he ran and Trump beat Hillary 63.1% to 31.7% district-wide. In Adair County Trump's victory was 59.4% to 34.5%. The primary however, showed people were looking for change. And Bernie beat the Democratic Party establishment's status quo candidate 58.8% to 40.7%. Last year Adair's performance in the congressional race was R+31. His rate my professor page didn't report him trying to rape anyone, but it does sound kind of creepy; lots of stuff like this:
Not that it matters. He's fired-- from the university. Not sure how the anti-Jesus church is handling the whole sticky wicket.
Citizen Mike-- A Child Molester... Republican State Senator Was Arrested Yesterday
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UPDATE: State Senator Citizen Mike (R-PA) resigned today. Lebanon, Pennsylvania sits in the Lebanon Valley and is the county seat of Lebanon County. It's a red hellhole and part of Pennsylvania Dutch country. In the 2016 primaries, Trump scored more votes (13,490) than Hillary (4,529) and Bernie (4,482) combined. In the general, Lebanon County was landslide country for Trump: 65.9% to 30.3%. Two years later, the Lebanese were as stupid and bigoted as they were in 2016 and all in for Trumpism. Neo-fascist candidate for senator, Lou Barletta, beat incumbent Bob Casey there-- 60.7% to 37.4%-- and Scott Wagner, who barely won 40% statewide, beat Gov. Tom Wolf 57.2% to 41.1%. Entirely within the 9th congressional district, Lebanon was all in for Republican Dan Meuser with an R+28 performance. Since 1888, the only time is backed a Democrats was in 1936 (FDR). Lebanon County was one of only four counties in Pennsylvania to vote for Barry Goldwater in 1964. There are 44,228 registered Republicans (53.68%) and 27,646 registered Democrats (33.55%). Lebanon County is 94.46% white. You get the picture, right? Last year, state Senator Mike Folmer was reelected in district 48 against Democrat Lois Herr 60,357 (62.9%) to 35,545 (37.1%). The district includes all of Lebanon County and small parts of Dauphin and York counties. Since the district's creation in the 1960s, it has only elected Republicans. Folmer was arrested on sexual abuse and child pornography charges yesterday. "We are shocked to learn tonight of the allegations made against Sen. Folmer," Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman said in a joint statement. "We will fully cooperate with law enforcement regarding this deeply disturbing matter. Given the severity of these charges, Senator Folmer is immediately being removed as Chair of the Senate State Government Committee. Further action in response to these charges will be taken up by the Senate Leadership in the coming days."
So, aside from being a garden variety, family values Republican, who is Folmer? Well... born and raised in Lebanon, he went away for college and graduated from Grace College & Seminary, an evangelical Christian "college" in Winona Lake, Indiana. He started in politics as a Democrat but soon saw the light and joined the GOP. Last year he opposed a bill to lift a legal block preventing victims of child abuse from suing their abusers or the churches they were part of. He's also an anti-Choice fanatic and gets an "A" rating from the NRA. His excuse for sending and receiving child porn? He says he's been dealing with some personal problems/issues. He's been freed on $25,000 bail.
Serious Question: Marco Rubio Knows EXACTLY What Trump Is-- Why Why Is His Head Still Up Trump's Ass?
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You don't usually see major newspapers calling sitting senior senators in their own cities a "reliable sycophant" in an headline. But Sunday, the Miami Herald decided an editorial about Marco Rubio and Señor Trumpanzee needed just that: As Trump’s reliable sycophant, Rubio drags us further into the president’s swamp. For all his huffing and puffing about Trump, Rubio rarely over votes against him. His Trump adhesion score is 90.9%, even higher than Rick Scott's! Besides Scott, Cory Gardner (R-CO), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Patrick Toomey (R-PA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Todd Young (R-FL), John Kennedy (R-LA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ben Sasse (R-NE), James Lankford (R-OK), Michael Enzi (R-WY), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY) have all voted less in lockstep with Trump than Rubio has. The editors of Rubio's hometown paper went to town on him because Rubio refused to denounce Trump as a racist for the barrage iff attacks he's been making against 4 congresswomen of color, AOC, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. They called his weak response "pathetic" and laughed at Time Magazine's long ago assertion that Rubio could be "The Savior of the Republican Party." The Herald editors wrote that "He was supposed to be a rising star who would help shake the party up after the disastrous election of 2012. The son of immigrants, he would help the party overcome its long-term demographic challenge as its older base shrinks and America becomes ever more diverse. But Rubio flamed out in the 2016 presidential election, among the last victims of Donald Trump’s brutal, degrading, slash-and-burn campaign-- though not before lowering himself by trying to beat Trump at his own game, ridiculing the size of his opponent’s hands, suggesting that it reflected on other aspects of Trump’s physiology."
Rubio tried to regain a bit of dignity when he left the race. “America needs a vibrant conservative movement,” he said. “But one that’s built on principles and ideals, not on fear, not on anger and not on preying on people’s frustrations.” But during the first two-and-a-half years of Trump’s presidency, Rubio abandoned the pretense of idealism or principles, except, perhaps, in his on-target approach to the crisis in Venezuela. Otherwise, he has transformed from Trump critic to a sycophantic cheerleader-- derided by former adviser and Washington Post columnist Max Boot as a “Trump fan-boy”-- to the point that he’s willing to kill Obamacare even though his own state leads the nation in enrollment. The Miami native who some, including us, thought could lead the Republican Party in finding a reasonable path on comprehensive immigration reform and help it broaden its appeal to minorities in America could not find the spine to do more than mildly criticize Trump after his blatantly racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen. Trump told the women that they should “go back” to the countries they came from instead of complaining about his policies-- never mind that three of the women were born in America and the fourth has been a U.S. citizen longer than Trump’s own wife. Rubio wouldn’t say if he thought Trump’s racist tweet was racist. He only conceded that, “The president shouldn’t have written that.” Even after Trump whipped a crowd in Greensville, North Carolina, into a hateful froth against U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar that erupted in chilling chants of “Send her back! Send her back!”-- Rubio couldn’t muster the courage to truly object to the horrifying display of blatant racism. He called the chant “grotesque,” which it was, but he reserved most of his vitriol for “left wing politicians and many in the media.” How disappointing. Obviously, he was not the only Republican to punt or remain silent last week. But, Rubio, in particular, should know the dangers of this moment and the path down which Trump is taking his followers, his party and the nation. He should have a deeper understanding of America’s tortured racial history and comprehensive knowledge of the animosity once faced by Cuban immigrants like his parents. He can do better. It leads us to ask whether he thinks his Senate bill, filed Thursday, to extend TPS for Haitians is compensation for his timidity in the face of Trump’s “go back” tweets. Rubio, far from the Republicans’ savior, seems just another slick politician with his finger in the wind-- pushing the party deeper into Trump’s swamp.
Instead of calling Trump to task, Rubio decided to call Democrats "self-righteousness," "political bullies" and "hypocrites." Republican Party strategist (and co-host of The View) Ana Navarro responded by pointing out that Rubio's probably should have been more offended by Trump's "go back where you came from" posture towards the 4 congresswomen since Rubio knows his own "parents came here, fleeing poverty [and] who represents a community where they were told, 'We won’t rent to Cubans, to blacks or to dogs ... you can’t drink from this water fountain'-- I have seen him try to justify this." These days are long gone:
The Democrats ran the weakest imaginable candidate against Rubio in 2016, spoiled, conservative nothing Patrick Murphy, and Rubio still managed to beat him 4,822,182 (52.0%) to 4,105,251 (44.3%). But in the two massive counties serviced by The Herald, Murphy beat Rubio in Miami-Dade (54.6% to 43.3%) and 63.8% to 34.1% in Broward. Democrats don't get another swing at Rubio until 2022, likely to be a good Republican year if the Democrats don't accomplish any fundamental change-- which is basically what their frontrunner, Status Quo Joe, has promised his donors.
Yesterday, McTurtle read his carefully crafted "both sides" response to Trump's racism to the press: "From the president, to the speaker to freshmen members of the House, all of us have a responsibility to elevate the public discourse. Our words do matter. We all know politics is a combat sport, but it’s about time we lowered the temperature all across the board." You leave 'em laughing when you go... don't give yourself away. Ole Kellyanne, though, didn't take him up on it, going on Fox News to spout her canned lies about AOC, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. How does this stain on humanity look at herself in the mirror when she wakes up? "What the president is doing is, we are tired... sick and tired... of many people in this country. Forget these four. They represent a dark underbelly of people in this country of people who are not respecting our troops, are not giving them the resources and the respect that they deserve." I don't know how closely Kellyanne worked with Jason Miller, a top Trump campaign staffer. After all, he was the top communications official on the campaign, so he must have responded-- when Kellyanne, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Mercer family, so when they were still backing Cruz and before they donated her (and Bannon) to Trump-- to this kind of stuff during the campaign:
But however close they got eventually, we all have to worry when she figured out how representative he always was of a dark underbelly. After all, as Caleb Ecarma reported for Mediaite yesterday, Miller testified "he hired numerous prostitutes and visited 'hand job' massage parlors as recently as a few months ago."
Miller made the admission while testifying on May 30 in Washington D.C. in connection to his lawsuit against the digital media company Gizmodo-- a case that is being litigated in Southern Florida’s District Court. Despite Miller’s counsel calling for a protective order to make the deposition confidential, a redacted version was made public on July 11. The suit accuses Gizmodo of defaming Miller with a story citing an allegation he slipped an “abortion pill” to a Florida strip club dancer he impregnated. The story was based on a sealed court filing. Miller denies the allegation and claims the story is untrue. The lawsuit also names individual defendants Katherine Krueger, a reporter for Gizmodo’s political site Splinter, and Will Menaker, the host of the popular leftist podcast Chapo Trap House. (Menaker was dropped from the suit in the weeks after the deposition). In a written transcript of the deposition obtained by Mediaite, Miller describes the occasions he paid women for sex since 2001. Soliciting prostitution was, and still is, a crime in the cities where Miller admitted to hiring escorts. Miller said his most recent visit to a “happy ending” massage parlor came as recently as “a couple of months ago.” He said he recalled having sex with an escort as recently as the spring of 2017-- just a few months after quitting the Trump transition team, where he served as chief spokesman. Trump had named Miller communications director in his new administration, but Miller resigned from the job before the inauguration amid allegations of an affair. He went on to join CNN, where he worked as a commentator in the spring of 2017.
The May deposition details Miller’s multiple extramarital affairs, including his sexual relationships with two subordinates during the 2016 presidential campaign. His relationship with one of these women, former Trump campaign advisor A.J. Delgado, has been public knowledge since late 2016. But Miller provided new information on a second affair with Catherine Frazier, who worked as a press secretary for Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign during Miller’s time leading the candidate’s communications operation. The affairs occurred while his wife, Kelly Miller, was pregnant and the two were not legally separated. ...“It’s not something I’m particularly proud of,” he said after being asked to mention which parlors he visited. “I don’t remember the names.” He continued by detailing his encounters with what he called escorts: “In 2015, and then I believe again in 2017, I had sex with an escort.” Miller said the fall 2015 and spring 2017 incidents took place in D.C., with the 2017 encounter occurring after Miller’s wife, in the words of Gizmodo’s attorney, “had your daughter” and “after you and your wife decided to try and make things work.” He then admitted to visiting a massage parlor “a couple of months ago” in New York. “I’ve obviously made some serious mistakes in my marriage, and we had gotten things back to a really good place,” Miller said. “There wasn’t any of that in-- I remember in 2018. We got things back to a-- a good place-- and I screwed up again this spring.” Despite significant protest from Miller’s legal counsel, Shane Vogt-- famous for representing Hulk Hogan in the lawsuit that took down Gawker-- Gizmodo’s attorney Bolger cornered Miller into revealing the specifics about his dalliances. “The question is how much did you pay to have sex with an escort in the spring of 2017?” Bolger asked. “I think it was something like $2[00] or $300, somewhere in the range,” Miller replied, explaining he “just Googled” for escort services and “initially set up a-- like a massage appointment and then we just went from there.” Miller’s candid admissions teed up a hard swing from Gizmodo’s legal counsel: “You just testified that you had sex with an escort in the spring of 2017. Other than-- is that the last time you have been unfaithful to your wife?”
“Other than the massage parlor trip? Yes,” he replied. Bolger’s questioning then turned to Miller’s attendance at strip clubs. The defamation suit is based on an allegation-- which Miller denies-- pertaining to his relationship with a Florida dancer. Miller was able to rattle off the names of numerous Sunshine State gentleman’s clubs he has visited, including Thee Dollhouse and 2001 Odyssey in Tampa; the Diamond Club in Orlando; Scarlett’s outside Miami; Rachel’s in Winter Park and Rachel’s in Orlando. Miller also said he went to Flash Dancers in New York in 2016. Still, Miller insisted his affinity for strip clubs is behind him, stating, “I’m trying to be a better person, and that’s not something that I do anymore.” Most importantly, he denied having a relationship with any strippers. He went on to note that then-top Trump campaign advisor Jared Kushner “rightfully chewed me out for some poor decision making” after he went to the Sapphire strip club in Las Vegas late in the 2016 election with members of the media and Trump campaign staffers, including Delgado and Jessica Ditto, who currently works as the White House deputy communications director. As for Miller’s previously undisclosed affair with Cruz campaign staffer Catherine Frazier, he said the relationship began at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner in April 2016 and lasted until roughly late August of that year-- all while his wife was pregnant with their second child, who was born in January 2017. While direct mentions of Frazier, who now works for GOP strategist Jeff Roe’s consulting firm Axiom Strategies, were redacted from the public record, sources familiar with their relationship and who have seen the transcript, confirmed Frazier was the Cruz staffer involved with Miller. Frazier, who sources said was also married at the time, has not tweeted in more than two weeks; her disappearance from the social media site where she is normally active occurred a day after the first part of Miller’s deposition became public. ...Since declining the White House job, Miller’s career has been turbulent. He left his job as a CNN contributor in September amid what he called “false and defamatory accusations being made” against him. Splinter’s “abortion pill” story was released that month. In May, Miller left his job at Teneo, a corporate advisory firm, after going on a wild Twitter tirade repeatedly calling Rep. Jerry Nadler a “fat fuck” and telling him to “take a long walk off a short pier.” Despite this constant stream of controversies, Miller has kept up appearances of being in President Donald Trump’s orbit. As the 2020 election approaches, Miller has repeatedly given interviews to publications, such as the New York Times, Politico, and the Washington Post, discussing the president’s 2020 strategy and attacking Democratic presidential candidates. He has publicly advertised his connections to the campaign, telling Vanity Fair in March “spoke with” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale “this morning” while describing the president’s strategy to target voters.
by Noah I thought I'd offer tonight's meme because I think it's good to know a little something about the cretins who vote to take away a woman's right to choose. Tennessee's Rep. Scott DesJarlais is your classic, typical hypocritical republican these days. We've all heard of Missouri's Todd Aiken, the "If it's a legitimate rape" guy, a former member of the House Of Representatives that the Republican Party proudly put up as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012. And, Alabama seems to have a whole mob of state legislators who, judging by their legislative handiwork, don't think that incest and rape are necessarily bad things. Some of these knuckle-draggers don't even seem to have much of an understanding of how babies even happen, but, keep in mind that people actually voted for these people because they feel they represent what they think about these things. We now even have another jackass in Missouri who has just introduced the concept of "consensual rape" to the world. Here he is. Here's Missouri Republican State Rep Barry Hovis, a former law enforcement official, as he spoke during the debate on his state's abortion ban-
Most of my rapes were not the gentleman jumping out of the bushes that nobody had ever met. That was one or two times out of 100. Most of them were date rapes or consensual rapes.
"Gentlemen" rapists? "Consensual rapes?" "My rapes?" Hovis and his republican defenders now claim that he "misspoke" but who, short of meth heads and stroke victims, misspeaks three times in such a short statement? But, hey, let's not forget poor ol' Scott DesJarlais! He's the star of this meme. Although the news about him is a bit old, I'd feel bad for him if he was forgotten in all of the current examples of Republikookery. You can see all you really need to know about this assclown above, but here's a few more details: He's a doctor. And, surprise, surprise, he's also a Christian. According to his divorce papers, his affairs included 3 co-workers, 2 patients, and (say no more!) a drug representative. Not to worry, though, DesJarlais tells people that "God has forgiven him." Whew! That's a good thing! I mean ya just can't imagine those wacko voters in Tennessee voting for him if God hadn't forgiven him. All of this leaves me with only one question and I ask it not out of jealousy but incredulity: How is it possible that at least six women wanted to have sex with this prime example of human physical (That smile reminds me of Eric Trump) and mental deformity? Maybe it's all some sort of Tennessee thing. I guess if they think he'd be good enough to vote for, then he's appealing enough to fuck. it's all about low local standards.
Tennessee Is Finding Out Why One Party Rule Doesn't Work Out Well
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How do you measure how red a state is. Well, there's the PVI, of course. Tennessee's is R+14. Only Wyoming, West Virginia, Utah, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Kentucky and Arkansas are worse. Trump's victory over Hillary was a rout-- 1,522,925 (60.7%) to 870,695 (34.7%). Trump won 92 of Tennessee's 95 counties. The only 20th Century presidents to do as well as Trump were Nixon (against MCGovern) and FDR. Currently, all six of the state's executive officers-- from governor to comptroller of the Treasury-- are Republicans. The Republicans hold super-majorities in each house of the General Assembly-- 27 seats in the 33 seat Senate and 74 seats in the 99 seat House. This isn't something you can even chalk up to gerrymandering 84.85% of Tennesseans voted for a Republican to represent them in the state Senate and 73.7% of Tennesseans voted for a Republican to represent them in the state. That's about as red as a state can be. You know what happens when all that power gets concentrated in the hands of one basically unaccountable political party? Corrosion and corruption-- and Tennesseans have been learning all about that in the past month or so. Glen Casada was elected to the House in 2000 to represent the 63rd district south of Nashville. Most recently, he was reelected in 2018 with 67.7% of the 39,952 votes cast. This past January he was elected Speaker. The first time he made national news was when he was a plaintiff in a case asserting Obama was not born in the U.S., not a citizen and not the rightful president. A judge threw the case out. Legislatively he was known for extreme right-wing legislation-- like trying to repeal workplace non-discrimination legislation and anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim bills. This month his political career started to crumble.
On May 6, The Tennessean's Joel Ebert and Natalie Allison reported that Casada ands chief aide, Cade Cothren were sending racist and sexually explicit texts to each other. At first the plan appeared to be to have Cothren take the fall since it was fairly well-known that Cothren "has a history of sending sexually explicit text messages and making inappropriate advances toward former interns, lobbyists and campaign staffers." The early reporting attempted to make Casada look almost like an innocent bystander. Almost.
Copies of text messages sent from a cellphone number associated with Cade Cothren, 32, show Casada was included on some of the staff member’s derogatory comments toward women. The texts also show Casada, R-Franklin, participated in some of the sexually charged messages objectifying women. Cothren’s explicit text messages include:
• soliciting oral sex and naked photos from an intern; • suggesting he would make sexual advances toward another intern; • seeking sex with a lobbyist; • referring to another woman as a “cunt”; and • calling Metro police officers who gave him parking tickets “rent a cop cocksuckers.”
The text messages range from early 2014 to fall 2016 when Cothren served as House Republicans’ press secretary. In an interview Monday, Cothren admitted that he had sent “derogatory” texts to women in the past, but declined to elaborate on those messages or his behavior toward women. Cothren in January became Casada’s chief of staff, earning $199,800. “I’m just not the same guy that I was several years back,” Cothren said. “I was young and dumb and immature. There’s no excuse for it at all, and I’m not trying to make excuses, but I can tell you that I have changed since then.” Casada summarized his involvement in some of the sexually charged text messages-- a conversation not involving the interns-- as a comment on “a relationship between two consenting adults.” Revelations about Cothren’s inappropriate sexual advances and text messages come after Casada’s chief of staff admitted to using cocaine in the legislature’s office building. Cothren is also facing scrutiny over racist text messages. News of Cothren and Casada’s sexually explicit remarks comes at a time of renewed scrutiny of the legislature’s sexual harassment policy. In recent days, Casada repeatedly has vouched for Cothren, including Monday. "While I’m not proud of who I was in the past, I am proud that, with God’s grace and a strong support system, I’ve been able to achieve so much in the years since," Cothren said. Casada said, "Who am I to hold that against someone when they've turned their life around? ... It's a very simple story of a young man going off and making some bad life decisions, but recognizing those bad life decisions." In a statement released the same day, Casada said he believed Cothren had proved himself to be a changed man. “I choose to believe that we all deserve a shot at redemption,” Casada said. “I gave Mr. Cothren this chance to prove himself, and that’s exactly what he’s done.” Last week, Casada similarly expressed support for Cothren, who he said had worked for him for 10 years. “I stand by my chief of staff on his character because I know his character,” the speaker said. In an interview with the USA TODAY Network-Tennessee, concerning the allegations involving Cothren and interns, Casada said late Monday afternoon he needed "to reevaluate some things.” According to copies of text messages obtained by the USA TODAY Network-Tennessee, Casada, who was married at the time, participated in Cothren’s sexually charged comments toward women. In July 2016, Cothren shared a photo of an upside down woman standing next to a pole. He shared the picture with Casada, who said, “What about some pole dancing!!!” Cothren referred to the woman as “wife material” before Casada asked, “Can I just touch????” Cothren replied, “Lol maybe just once.” In August 2016, Cothren texted Casada about a sexual encounter he had with a woman. “Just so y’all know, I did fuck (woman) in the bathroom at party fowl,” he said, referring to the Party Fowl restaurant. “Will send pictures later.” Casada responded: “Only gone for 60 seconds,” adding, “R u a minute man???;)” Cothren said, “Yes, I take after you. Like father like son.” Casada replied, “Lolol! If I’m happy, then all is good!!!!!” In May 2016, Casada was sent another text message from Cothren but did not offer a response. The text from Cothren said, “I have many miles and many girls to go before I sleep.” In a separate 2016 exchange with another person, Casada said, referring to Cothren, "Those girls aren't safe!!! Shepard? He's the wolf!!!" In the text messages Cothren made sexual advances to a legislative intern and a campaign intern for Casada, who was not included in the conversation. In texts sent during April 2015, Cothren solicited oral sex on one occasion and nude photos another time from an intern. He also asked her whether she was wearing underwear and attempted to pivot the topic of a conversation to orgasms. In a text conversation in February 2014, Cothren discussed another intern’s attractive appearance. “I’m gonna keep hitting on her just to see what happens,” Cothren wrote, noting that the intern was already in a relationship. “Before long, I’ll be THAT guy.” On Monday, Casada said if he knew Cothren was sending sexually explicit text messages to interns he would have fired him. “He would have been let go,” Casada said. “If I had known that he was interacting with interns in that manner, I probably would have sent him to rehabilitation.” Cothren then made sexual advances toward a female lobbyist in a series of texts in 2016 about how he would like to sleep with older women. He asked the woman whether she enjoyed having sex in the mornings, saying he would change his sleep schedule to accommodate her preference. In another series of texts with the woman, Cothren mocked her marital status while he and a friend encouraged her to meet with them. When the lobbyist replied that her husband would also like to come out with the group, Cothren replied “orgy.” The lobbyist on another day indicated that Cothren had a reputation for frequently talking with women, writing that Cothren was “#textingalltheladiesatLP,” a reference to Legislative Plaza, the legislature’s office building at the time. The legislature’s sexual harassment policy requires anyone with knowledge of any form of discrimination or harassment to immediately contact the House and Senate speaker or any staff directors, such as the director of legislative administration. The text messages and derogatory remarks by Casada and Cothren may make victims of sexual harassment reticent to move forward with a complaint. ...The latest revelations come after Casada elevated Rep. David Byrd to serve as an education committee chairman. Byrd faces allegations dating from the 1980s that he sexually assaulted three now adult-aged women when he was their high school basketball coach. Byrd is one of four Tennessee lawmakers in as many years to face allegations of sexual misconduct. Casada notably supported expelled former Rep. Jeremy Durham amid allegations of sexual harassment against multiple women working in the legislature. Casada long stood by Durham, despite an attorney general’s probe that found he had engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with at least 22 women. It wasn’t until Durham faced an investigation over campaign finance issues that Casada turned on his colleague.
Then on Tuesday the same two reporters revealed that Casada had finally agreed to resign as speaker "in the coming weeks." The announcement "came less than a day after the House GOP caucus approved a resolution with a 45-24 vote stating it had no confidence in his continued leadership." He plans to stay in his House seat.
Casada had faced mounting pressure from his legislative colleagues and other Republican leaders, including Gov. Bill Lee, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and the state Republican Party-- in addition to longtime supporters-turned critics in Casada's district. After the House GOP caucus's Monday vote, the governor gave Casada an ultimatum: resign or face a special session. Others, including McNally, Tennessee Republican Party chairman Scott Golden and dozens of GOP lawmakers, similarly encouraged Casada to resign Monday... [T]he lieutenant governor was satisfied with Casada's decision to resign only as speaker but to keep his seat in the House. ...Given Casada's open-ended plans to resign, with no date set, some Republicans, including Dunn and Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, have expressed a desire to hold a special legislative session to oust Casada from his House seat. Carter said Tuesday he would begin circulating a petition for a special session. Prior to his Tuesday remarks, Casada showed no sign of stepping down. “I’m disappointed in the results of today’s caucus vote," Casada said Monday. "However, I will work the next few months to regain the confidence of my colleagues so we can continue to build on the historic conservative accomplishments of this legislative session.” Casada's decision to resign in the coming weeks bookends a whirlwind month that began with him and others celebrating the General Assembly's accomplishments during the recently concluded legislative session. But since he began facing media scrutiny, Casada has fought for his political life. He repeatedly resisted a chorus of calls for his resignation, hosted a caucus phone call, lobbied lawmakers, including many freshmen he helped get elected, sought advice from a public relations firm and created an action plan to address the current crisis. In recent weeks Casada has faced calls for investigations from the U.S. Attorney and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, accusations from one lawmaker that he attempted to influence the outcome of an ethics proceeding and been the subject of a complaint filed with a local district attorney. He also resigned from his job as a veterinary pharmaceutical salesman.
"Sure, Lynne, Come On In," Said Biden To The Shady Lobbyist Who Bundled A Quarter Million Dollars For Him
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Yesterday, OklahomaWatch reported that 5 former legislators just joined the ranks of the army of state lobbyists working their former colleagues. The new malefactors are:
• Pat Ownbey (R) • Josh Cockroft (R) • Bobby Cleveland (R) • Randy Bass (D) • Katie Henke (R)
"The moves," wrote OklahomaWatch's Trevor Brown, "come as the Oklahoma Ethics Commission has attempted to crack down on the lobbying revolving door at the Capitol by passing rules each of the past two years that would require a two-year “cooling-off period” before former lawmakers can register as lobbyists. The Legislature overruled the Ethics Commission last year by rejecting that proposal. Lawmakers have yet to vote this session on whether to accept or deny the Ethics Commission rule once again."
AOC describes how politicians like Biden, Steny, McCarthy & McTurtle sell their souls to grab power
AOC made the point Tuesday evening that lobbying is usually more about schmoozing and developing a "relationship between the lobbyist and the member of Congress-- the mark-- than about threatening or about outright bribing. She's really saying basically the same thing in her tweets that Biden said in the video up top, although AOC is repulsed by it and is working to shut it down, while Biden's life and career are inexorably tied up with the whole culture of corruption system. Bonus question: Who's been successfully schmoozed the most by more scumbag lobbyists over the last century, Status Quo Joe, McTurtle or Steny Hoyer? I don't know if he resigned yet but when I started writing this, Jim Beck was still the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner for the State of Georgia. He was elected last year, beating Democrat Janice Laws 1,944,963 (50.4%) to 1,814,499 (47.0%). I'm guessing that Biden says that "lobbyists are bad people" because his brother is a lobbyist for charter schools (and a very bad person). But Beck was also a lobbyist-- for the Georgia Christian Coalition. Yesterday a federal grand jury handed down a 38 count indictment alleging a series of insurance schemes, some of which involved the Georgia Christian Coalition, including $2 million that Beck used to fund his campaign, pay his income taxes and paying his personal credit cards bills. Yesterday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionreported that the frauds he committed were all insurance-related and that he "he spent thousands on personal expenses" and earned millions for the schemes. I thought these nuts would have learned from Ralph Reed, another right-wing Georgia lobbyist who used evangelical front operations-- he was the executive director of the Christian Coalition-- to scam millions of dollars. Maybe Beck would have though more carefully about embarking on a life of crime if Reed had been punished for his criminal transgressions.
Ralph Reed and Jim Beck, very typical Republican Christians
At the time of the alleged crimes, which date back to 2013, Beck was the general manager of operations for Georgia Underwriting Association, an insurance association in Suwanee created to provide high-risk property insurance to Georgia homeowners. He allegedly encouraged friends to start companies and send invoices to the Georgia Underwriting Association. Beck then funneled money to himself through two Carrolton-based companies he controlled, Georgia Christian Coalition and Creative Consultants, the indictment alleges. It isn’t clear if the friends, who are identified in the indictment only by initials, knew the invoices could’ve been improper. Thomas said Beck “acted legally and in good faith” in his position at the Georgia Underwriting Association. ...Under state law, if Beck does not resign or ask to be suspended, the governor can act after a 14 day waiting period. If the elected official chooses to remain in office, the governor must appoint a three-person commission to look into the charges and make a determination whether they relate to his duties. The commission has 14 days to make that determination. If they find that they do, the governor must suspend the official and name a temporary replacement. Beck largely self-bankrolled his GOP primary campaign for insurance commissioner last year, outspending all opposition and winning an overwhelming victory in the May primary. He won despite media reports that noted that, on more than one occasion, he’d held full-time state and private-sector jobs at the same time. After Beck won the primary, [former insurance commissioner John] Oxendine held a fundraiser for him and the insurance industry started writing his campaign checks. He won a relatively close victory over a Democratic insurance agent in November. Throughout the general election campaign, and after the election, Beck was dogged by rumors that an indictment was imminent.
When It Comes To Political Melodrama, Virginia Doesn’t Disappoint
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Five States have Legislative elections in 2019: Virginia, New Jersey, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana. All are important; however, only Virginia stands a reasonable shot to flip their Legislature’s majority from R to D, giving the Dems the right to the redraw the state's congressional and state legislative boundaries and prevent another GOP gerrymander. Just remember the attendant, associated institutional power, for possibly the next 20 years. Big Deal-- Big Drama. Republicans have an acute recognition of this fact. They very nearly shattered the Democratic base coalition with their dirty tricks op-- on the first day of Black History Month-- the "February Flim-Flam," which included: accusations of a "racist past," against Governor Ralph Northam, evidenced by racially inflammatory Medical School yearbook photos; followed by: allegations of sexual assault and rape against Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax around 36 hours later; followed by: Attorney General Mark Herring’s necessary disclosure of college-age racial insensitivity, again after an additional approximately 36 hours. The first week of February was filled with a toxic stew of racial angst and sexual strife. Start the op on Feb. 1st, deny the Virginia Black population even one day of celebrating their heroic Virginia history and heritage; peel off women of all races with hideous accusations of sexual impropriety-- by the only Black Statewide Elected Official-- deny the Dems their 3 top statewide fundraisers; start an internecine squabble amongst a historically loosely bonded cohort of Dem base voters... BINGO!!! If you’re the GOP, sit back and get some popcorn. Nice job; well done. BUT, nobody resigned, despite heavy pressure. The coalition is still squabbling, but it’s holding together. Apparently, the law firm tasked with investigating the Northam Medical School "photo," has identified the two subjects, and determined that neither is Ralph Northam... a fly in the ointment, oh my! Where does that leave all of the breathless "concern trollers" and "virtue signalers" who have been baying for "accountability and resignation?" Don’t know, don’t care. In the face of this sturm und drang, some Virginia. Dems have remained focused and on task, and need only recruit 14 more House candidates and 4 more state Senate candidates in order to go, "Full Boat"-- 140 for 140-- contesting every race, (100 House and 40 in the Senate ), leaving the Virginia Republican Party zero (0) "freebies" for 2019-- no "walkovers," no "nolo contenderes." If Virginia Dems accomplish this "full ballot mission" by the candidate filing deadline, June 11th, the band should start warming up, Turn Off the Lights.
Democrats only need to flip one state Senate seat, and two seats in the House of Delegates to effectively take over the majority; any more than that is pure gravy. That is if they can hold onto all their gains from 2017.
Democrats don’t have a monopoly on drama in Virginia. In fact, the Virginia Republicans are the reigning rulers of reprobates; it’s not even close. The most recent drama involves Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his wife, and their... very interesting exploits, "ministering" to the needs of young folk... in the, um... hospitality industry-- which subsequently required some "legal consultation" from then-Trump lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen-- very alarming, very salacious and sordid stuff. There may be a lot of campaign contributions being returned or contributed to charity.
Falwell, Jr. has supported politicians throughout Virginia over the years; some are even graduates or patrons of his college, Liberty University. One such candidate is D.J. Jordan, running in Prince William County’s HD 31. Jordan is the GOP’s choice to unseat freshman Delegate Elizabeth Guzmán,
who defeated a long-term Republican incumbent in 2017 to become the first Latina to serve in the history of the Virginia Legislature-- and we’re talking about 1600s "House of Burgesses" history. That’s historic. So far, Blue America has endorsed four Virginia legislative candidates, one being Elizabeth Guzmán. That thermometer on the right is for candidates running for state legislatures and we'd appreciate it if you tapped on it and considered contributing to Elizabeth and any of the other candidates on the list.
That win by a Latina over one of their own stalwarts would seem to be too much for the Virginia GOP to abide; so they recruited a Black male, Liberty University grad; dressed him in Blue, placed him against a Blue background, built him a nice website that conveniently neglects to identify his political party, filled his campaign account with large dollar offerings, and sent him out to preach about "infanticide and family values."
Good stuff! Except for Jerry Falwell’s "Pool Boy" buffoonery. D.J. Jordan is going to have some explaining to do; not only a stealth Republican, but, a Liberty University grad to boot; INCONVENIENT!!! We’ll see how it shakes out for him.
Washington Post reported that Falwell Jr. was blaming a "conspiracy" of Republican Party establishment leaders for the leak of Trump's now infamous 2005 "grab-'em-by-the-pussy" video. "We're all sinners," he said in defense of Trump, who had helped him get rid of the pictures that supposedly show him with a male penis-- presumably the pool boy's-- in his mouth. There is also a felching shot that Michael Cohen hasn't discarded and has hidden away. Falwell's fellow charlatan-cum-grifter, James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and now host of the show Family Talk also stood by his Trumpanzee endorsement.
Don't forget, back in 2016, a few weeks before election day, the
Falwell, who is president of the nation's largest Christian university, provided one of Trump's first key endorsements from an evangelical leader. Trump's candidacy, however, has divided evangelicals, who have no formal leadership. Some evangelical leaders continued to back Trump after the video leak, while a prominent theologian pulled back his support Sunday and other leaders continued to condemn the nominee. ...In comments made to WABC Radio in New York City, Falwell said he thinks the leak was part of a conspiracy by GOP establishment leaders. "I think this whole videotape thing was planned, I think it was timed, I think it might have even been a conspiracy among the establishment Republicans who've known about it for weeks and who tried to time it to do the maximum damage to Donald Trump," Falwell told reporter Rita Cosby on her podcast after Sunday night's debate.
Prince William County is rapidly becoming a Democratic stronghold, much like it’s neighbor to the North; Fairfax County. In 2014, the district went for Gillespie (R) over Warner (D), narrowly, in the U.S. Senate race. But it's been all blue since then. In 2016, Hillary beat Trump in the district, 51-44%. The following year Democrats swept-- Herring (D) beat Adams for AG, 56-44%; Fairfax beat Vogel for Lt. Governor, 56-44% and Northam beat Gillespie 56-43% for Governor. Last year, voters in HD-31 gave Kaine (D) a fat 59-39% win over Trumpist reactionary Corey Stewart. And of course-- sweetest of all-- was that Elizabeth Guzmán ousted GOP incumbent Scott Lingamfelter 15,466 (54.1%) to 12,658 (44.2%).
And, by the way, other sleazy, corrupted politicians will have to answer for their Falwell associations as this story evolves... and they won’t all be Virginians, will they?
Pericles, from Act I, Scene I-- Pericles, Prince of Tyre by William Shakespeare: Great king, Few love to hear the sins they love to act;
'Twould braid yourself too near for me to tell it.
Who has a book of all that monarchs do,
He's more secure to keep it shut than shown:
For vice repeated is like the wandering wind.
Blows dust in other's eyes, to spread itself;
And yet the end of all is bought thus dear,
The breath is gone, and the sore eyes see clear:
To stop the air would hurt them. The blind mole casts
Copp'd hills towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng'd
By man's oppression; and the poor worm doth die for't.
Kings are earth's gods; in vice their law's
their will;
And if Jove stray, who dares say Jove doth ill?
It is enough you know; and it is fit,
What being more known grows worse, to smother it.
All love the womb that their first being bred,
Then give my tongue like leave to love my head.
One more little tiny thing. Is the biggest political scandal of the year being hushed up because the media doesn't like asserting that a white conservative man of stature-- Falwell, Jr.-- is a sex maniac who bought the services for a 21 year old pool boy? Almost $5 million dollars of Church money-- spent on buying a gay "hotel" (whore house). This is an amazing story! You've got to watch this whole video:
Sunday Thoughts: There they go again, and again, and again. There will be plenty of things that voters can use to judge whether or not they want to vote for Pete Buttigieg or any candidate but, leave it to Fake Christians to make who a person sleeps with one of them. In demanding that Pete Buttigieg repent for his homosexuality, Trump ally Franklin Graham is continuing to throw around his moral manure, making himself smaller in the eyes of more and more Americans, and, he is continuing to besmirch his professed religion and both his and its relevance.
by Noah Republican Hypocrisy and Evil 101: Using a cancer survivor, especially a child, as a cheap SOTU applause prop is extra evil of all of those Republicans who applauded young Grace on Tuesday night. What republicans did just a few days after they and their beloved party leader interrupted the chemo treatments of untold numbers of Americans with their heinous government shutdown is about as evil as humans get. Yet, they smile and shrug it off. Virtually no one calls them out on it, so it's up to the meme creators when those who have the power to say something and do something abdicate their responsibilities. They just don't ignore their responsibilities, they sadistically dedicate themselves to making things worse for those they condescendingly call ordinary Americans. That's your State Of The Union. Meanwhile, the Republican Party continues to promote its agenda of poisoning the air and water this child will be breathing, drinking, and swimming in for the rest of her life. Pro-life party? What pro-life party?
People Don't Like Trump-- His Popularity Has Dropped In Every Single State
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No one wants to work for Trump. Politicoreported that he offered the Defense Secretary job to former Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who turned him down. A cadre of generals have also told him thaty're not interested, including one of his favorites, Jack Keane. He's either stuck with keeping on the acting nitwit he has, Patrick Shanahan, or finding some TV actor to appoint and hope he can get him through the confirmation process. But prospective Pentagon chiefs aren't the only ones who hate Trump. This morning, Harry Enten reported for CNN that the majority of Americans are against Trump on the wall and the shutdown. "Polls show a majority of Americans blame him and Republicans for the shutdowns, and the majority have also consistently been opposed to his idea of a border wall with Mexico. The average of polls taken since the shutdown began indicate that Americans are blaming Republicans... in the average, about 50% [and] think Trump is most to blame." There is also some sign that Trump may be losing voters in the center of the electorate because of the shutdown and now he is less popular than Nancy Pelosi for the first time during his presidency. And according to Morning Consult, Trump's approval rating has gone down in every single state + DC over the course of the last year-- yes in the states like California where we already hated his guts (and his disapproval sank from 48% to 62%) and in the dumb states where they really love him, like Mississippi (and his disapproval went from just 27% to 39%). Trump’s net approval rating is now underwater in nine states that he won in 2016: Wisconsin (-12), Michigan (-12), Iowa (-10), Arizona (-7), Pennsylvania (-6) Florida (-3), Georgia (-3), North Carolina (-3) and Ohio (-3). This list shows every state with their are disapproval and, in parenthesis where that disapprovals were a year ago:
What about Trump's approval ratings? And sure enough, there are some states where he's still really popular, even if it's dropped a bit, right? Right. His approval is 50% or more in 16 states.
That's 101 electoral votes... not even halfway to the 270 electoral votes needed to keep Señor Trumpanzee in the White House.
John Pavlovitz is a progressive evangelical pastor with an excellent blog, Stuff That Needs To Be Said. Yesterday he wrote about why he doesn't care about a member of Congress cussing-- and why none of us should. "And let’s be honest," he wrote-- "you who are clutching your pearls and carrying on and feigning righteous indignation, don’t care either."
If dropping an MF-bomb or profanity or coarse language were at all offensive to you, you wouldn’t have voted for this President a couple of weeks after hearing him talk about women like they’re pieces of garbage-- would you? You wouldn’t have dismissed him saying he could grab them by the p*ssy, as just “boys will be boys locker room banter,” right? You wouldn’t have held your nose and cast your ballot for him to lead our country, after hearing him say he “moved on” a married woman “like a bitch,” would you? You wouldn’t have cheered the expletive-laden speeches and vile interview comments as “straight talk from a guy who tells it like it is,” right? You don’t care about cussing. I know the shows you stream with your kids, I see you Tweeting about missed field goals in playoff games, I hear you when you’re cut off in traffic, and I know the words you let fly when you’re angry at your kids. Let’s be honest, here. I don’t care about cussing either. I care that families are being separated. I care that medical bills are bankrupting people. I care that we’re drowning in guns and daily shootings. I care that Muslims are caricatured into terrorists, migrants into advancing hordes, and LGBTQ people into imminent threats, by our elected leaders. I care that we’re talking about an asinine multi-billion dollar border wall that won’t solve a crisis, even if there were one-- and there isn’t one. I care that we have accused predators in the White House and on the Supreme Court. I care that our climate is changing and our planet is warming and our environment being degraded, and we have politicians who see Science as an adversary. I care that this Administration solicited and welcomed foreign interference in a Presidential election.
I care that our President took to Twitter to personally malign Christine Blasey Ford, and that Republican women were fine with that. I care that voter suppression and gerrymandering are making it almost impossible for poor people and people of color to be heard and represented. I care that Evangelical Christians are failing their calling to be lovers and healers and compassionate caregivers to the poor and invisible. I care that racists march without hoods now, that elementary school teachers dress up like border walls, that wrestling coaches cut off a black man’s dreadlocks in public. I care that our President is mentally unfit to lead, and that he is buffeted by a group of professional enablers who know he is unfit and defend him anyway. I care that every single day brings new legislative attacks on people who are already pushed to the brink. I care that so many of my Christian friends seem not to have the slightest interest in the teaching of Jesus. I care about families and sick people and underpaid teachers and hungry kids and unpaid Federal workers and transgender teenagers-- and the millions of beautiful, vibrant, disparate human beings who are daily endangered by the leadership of this country. That’s what I f*ckin’ care about. I wish you cared about those things. You don’t. I wish injustice as discrimination and inequality were offensive to you. They aren’t. I wish marginalized people could merit such passion from you. They don’t. That offends me.
