What stupid thing did the GOP say or do this time? Episode 3!

[The Mighty Mollusk]

In any reasonable country, this would qualify as a crime against humanity and he'd be dropped in the deepest hole they could find, never to be heard from again. Unfortunately.....

 

[Ungnome]

What I REALLY don't get is how he keeps getting re-elected. He has done absolutely squat to help your average Texan and seems outright hostile to most of his constituents.

 

[abates]

They keep electing Ted Cruz and it looks like he'll win the next election too, despite famously fleeing the country when Texas had a major power outage during a massive winter storm. At this point I assume Texas is just outta luck for having sane people in charge.

 

[Spin-Out]

it's voter suppression. the GOP knows they can't win if everyone gets a fair say, so they rig the game.

 

[Teufel]

Beto wildly overperformed against Cruz beyond what anyone expected. That's not very effective voter suppression.

 

[Pale Rider]

3-Year-Old Dies Riding One Of Abbott's Migrant Buses

Texas began shuttling thousands of migrants away from the U.S.-Mexico border last year.

www.huffpost.com

 

[abates]

If an ordinary citizen had Abbott's body count, they'd be on trial for serial murder.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Republican Who Allegedly Murdered His Wife With a Flower Pot Wins Local Primary From Jail

Andrew Wilhoite won a local Republican Party primary in Indiana despite being in jail on charges of murdering his wife with a flowerpot.

www.rollingstone.com

Party of law and order, huh......

 

[NovaSaber]

Water is wet:

Former Republican staffer admits GOP would intentionally spread lies

"I think what we are seeing [now] is an extension of the Tea Party movement," the former staffer told Newsweek.

www.newsweek.com

Texas Republicans Cite Noah’s Ark in Lawsuit Over State’s Right to Wage War With Mexico

For support, the brief cites Genesis 7:17–20, which tells the story of Noah’s Ark.

slate.com

Faced with these facts, the congressmen defending the buoys pivot to the Bible. In their brief, they take issue with the Justice Department’s claim that the river is still legally “navigable,” noting that at certain points it becomes unnavigable because of changing depths, currents, dams, or other factors. The DOJ’s “theory” that a river is still “navigable” even when some parts become unnavigable, they declare, “would lead to absurd” outcomes because “most of Texas was once covered by seas.” But don’t just trust the geological record; also consider “the Book of Genesis,” which, taken “literally,” says “the entire world was once navigable by boats large enough to carry significant amounts of livestock.” For support, the brief cites Genesis 7:17–20, which tells the story of Noah’s Ark. Checkmate, libs.

This resort to young-earth creationism should tip off the reader that Texas has no plausible legal argument in this case. And still the worst is yet to come. After wrapping up this water business, the state takes a big swing: Unauthorized border crossings, the state’s lawyers write, is tantamount to an “invasion,” and Texas “has the constitutional power to repel that invasion” to “protect the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of its citizens.” They cite a provision of the U.S. Constitution that bars states from “engag[ing] in war” without congressional approval “unless actually invaded.” And, they say, the flow of migrants into Texas, coupled with cartel activity at the border, triggers this power to wage war over federal objections.

Republicans Wanted a Hunter Biden Special Counsel. They're Pissed They Actually Got One

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday named David Weiss, a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor, a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden.

www.rollingstone.com

Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) went on Fox News to call the appointment an “attempt to whitewash the Biden family corruption” and stymie the congressional investigation into Biden. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) agreed, telling Weiss he’s “not off the hook” and that this “Friday afternoon gambit is not going to work.” The House Oversight Committee offered a similar take, releasing a statement alleging that the Justice Department was trying to obstruct its work and calling the appointment a “Biden family coverup.”

The lesson, of course, is that nothing will satisfy Republicans short of Garland appointing Trump himself to investigate Biden. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) whined in February about the Justice Department’s failure to appoint a special counsel, before Fox News reported on Friday that he’s among those upset that it actually did, claiming Weiss isn’t the right man for the job. Sen. Graham was pushing for Weiss to become a special counsel as recently as last month.

 

[Ironbite4]

Nothing short of complete surrender to the GOP will satisfy these idiots.

 

[Pocket]

That Noah's Ark citation was borderline Chewbacca Defense levels of nonsensical.

 

[Plutoniumboss]

Borderline? It is the Chewbacca Defense.

 

[Spin-Out]

this is what churches literally and figuratively beating the critical thinking skills and capacity for empathy out of kids leads to.

 

[KidTDragon]

MTG follows Trump's philosophy of only hiring the best people:

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 2020 campaign manager, two others agree to pay $50,000 for roles in East Palestine charity scam

Attorney General Dave Yost announced the settlement after state investigators found a fake charity raised thousands more than previously thought.

www.cleveland.com

 

[wonko the sane?]

At what point does the law start to recognize that republicans are acting deliberately and maliciously? They strip out all oversight to insure disaster and then lie to profit from that disaster. Literally human garbage.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

They've mangled the law for decades, then done everything they can to disenfranchise voters to keep it that way. The system isn't broken, it works exactly the way they've made it work for them.

 

[Pocket]

Acting as though there's any difference between "the law" and "whoever happens to be in charge right now" is counterproductive. This isn't the Deep Magic of Narnia; it relies on humans choosing to abide by it or it all falls apart. And, as I've said before, barring the discovery of and subsequent pact with an elder god, that's how it's always going to be for everyone everywhere.

 

[NovaSaber]

This could have also gone in the AI thread:

School district uses ChatGPT to help ban library books

Faced with new legislation, Iowa's Mason City Community School District asked ChatGPT if certain books 'contain a description or depiction of a sex act.'

www.popsci.com

“Frankly, we have more important things to do than spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to protect kids from books,” Exman tells PopSci via email. “At the same time, we do have a legal and ethical obligation to comply with the law. Our goal here really is a defensible process.”

According to The Gazette, the resulting strategy involved compiling a master list of commonly challenged books, then utilizing a previously unnamed “AI software” to supposedly provide textual analysis for each title. Flagged books were then removed from Mason City’s 7-12th grade school library collections and “stored in the Administrative Center” as educators “await further guidance or clarity.” Titles included Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights.

“We are confident this process will ensure the spirit of the law is enacted here in Mason City,” Exman said at the time. When asked to clarify what software Mason City administrators harnessed to help with their decisions on supposedly sexually explicit material, Exman revealed their AI tool of choice: “We used Chat GPT [sic] to help answer that question,” says Exman, who believes Senate File 496’s “age-appropriateness” stipulation is “pretty subjective… [but] the depictions or descriptions of sex acts filter is more objective.”

 

[Spin-Out]

they can't let kids read the handmaid's tale. otherwise the kids will know what they're planning to turn america into before they're old enough to vote.

 

[Ironbite4]

Meet Vivek Ramaswamy everybody. GOP presidential candidate who's major platforms include raising the voting age to 25 unless you can pass a civics test you'd take when you're 18-24, abolishing major portions of the government and slashing foreign aid to counties that we have been closely tied to. What a guy.

Vivek Ramaswamy wants to raise the voting age. Even his staff doesn’t like the idea.

The youngest candidate in the Republican presidential field is preparing to announce a proposal to raise the voting age to 25 for most people.

www.politico.com

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/vivek-israel-aid/2023/08/18/id/1131201/?ns_mail_uid=2cc6d7f1-72ca-49f8-8b84-b7295bbe37c7&ns_mail_job=DM513433_08192023&s=acs&dkt_nbr=010102hwns0b#CommentSection

Vivek Ramaswamy lays out plans to eliminate federal agencies including FBI

The Republican presidential candidate also said the Department of Education and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could be shuttered.

www.nbcnews.com

He's also way up Trump's ass and wouldn't even consider a running mate position, the scamp.

Ironbite-he's third in the polls btw.