“Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten us into.”

24 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

Tags

facebook, Holden, missouri, republicans, shooting gallery, social media, street fair

Why is it sometimes this way out outstate street fairs/festivals?

In the Kansas City Star:

Spotted at a Missouri fair: Uncle Sam manning a ‘shooting gallery’ of GOP opponents
August 24, 2018 02:06 PM
By Matt Campbell

A GOP “shooting gallery” manned by an Uncle Sam at the Holden, Mo., Street Fair has some people concerned….

[….]

Not to put too fine a point on it, yesterday an individual dressed up as Uncle Sam set up shop with a representation of shooting gallery, complete with a toy gun, made up of photos of Democrats – this next to a republican college student group booth at the Holden, Missouri fair. Of course, either intentionally or randomly, who knows, the fair organizers had placed the Johnson County Democrats booth directly across from the republican booth.

People took pictures and then posted them on social media.

Raymond James
Small town Missouri racism. Booth selling KKK/ Confederate flags with no US flags for sale or present. The US flag in the picture is the booth next door. You do not get to pick your neighbors.
GOP had a “game ” toy gun and a Shooting Gallery with Senators pictures on it. Great Family Fun shooting at Senators.

Raymond James is a Johnson County Democrat who was manning the Democratic party both at the fair.

The flag vendor booth was another booth which was in close proximity to the other booths.

A photo of the republican booth and shooting gallery posted in the Facebook post comments:

In case you’re not convinced, the shooting gallery is labeled “shooting gallery”.

We’ve seen this individual at public events before.

With a Hillary Clinton (D) effigy in a tiny jail cell outside the Missouri State Fair Governor’s Ham Breakfast in 2016:

Outside the Missouri State Fair Governor’s Ham Breakfast [August 2016 file photo].

And at the same venue a little over a week ago:

Outside the Missouri State Fair Governor’s Ham Breakfast [August 2018 file photo].

In addition to the newspaper coverage we’ve heard that a Kansas City metro market television station sent a crew to the fair today.

In an interesting turn of events, demonstrating brilliant public relations and damage control strategies, the street fair authorities have apparently issued an edict of “a plague on both your houses” and booted the Democrats and republicans from the fair.

Don’t you just love small town Missouri?

Update:

Johnson County Missouri Democrats

This post is from Ray James Chair Johnson County Central Committee.

As previously posted, the Holden Chamber of Commerce asked the Democratic Booth to leave at the same time as the Republican Booth from the Holden Fair Tonight. We did not ask or discuss reasons why. We packed up when told to do so and left. We were told we may still participate in the parade 5 pm Saturday.

At this time we are considering it. I will post by 2 pm Saturday if we will participate.

For those scheduled to staff the booth I thank you for your time.

Any questions or concerns about the actions of the Holden Chamber of Commerce Fair Committee and what / how they reached a decision should be directed to them. Remember they put in long hours to put on a fair in a very thankless job.

There was no yelling, name calling, heckling, interference by Democrats staffing the booth with any other booths at the fair.

We did not complain to the Fair organizers, Holden Police or the staff at the Republican booth about any actions by any booths at the fair.

We did notify the Johnson County Republican Central Committee, Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler staff, Secretary of State [Attorney General] Josh Hawleys campaign staff of the unacceptable actions of the Republicans at the booth with their having a Shooting Gallery “Game” complete with Targets of US Senator Claire McCaskill and a toy gun.

Tonight the game was renamed as the words Shooting Gallery were replaced and the toy guns were not present. I did not see if the pictures had been changed. The Gentleman who brought the “game” was again in attendance. Interestingly he brought an American Flag and insisted he had one present on the 23 Aug. I refer you to the pictures posted from the 23 Aug. The Gentleman clearly has memory issues or was untruthful on this issue.

I was contacted by several media organizations and did give two interviews between 3:30 and 4:00 pm to Channel 5 and Channel 41. In which, I stressed the unacceptable actions of the Johnson County Central Committee Sponsored Booth.

It is never OK to Joke about shooting a person or to encourage others to actually commit violence. As to the intent of the “game ” I would direct all questions to the Johnson County Central Committee as it was their booth.

Any further questions by Johnson County Democratic Club members or Central Committee members please contact Ray James.

The CC does not intend to issue a press release or to contact media concerning this matter but we do anticipate further media interest. I have referred all questions, as to why we had to suspend operations, from media organizations back to the organizers of the Fair as we did not discuss/ask.

Previously:

Trumpoids at the Missouri State Fair Governor’s Ham Breakfast (August 18, 2016)

Cargo cult (August 17, 2018)

For right wingnuts “The Handmaid’s Tale” is not dystopian fiction, it’s aspirational

16 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

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Brett Kavanaugh, Concerned Women for America, Governor's Ham Breakfast, missouri, republicans, right wingnuts, Sedalia, State Fair, tour bus, U.S. Supreme Court

This morning outside the Governor’s Ham Breakfast at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia:

Concerned Women for America Brett Kavanaugh (r) U.S. Supreme Court tour bus.

We understand red is the color.

At least he made the trains run on time …

20 Sunday May 2018

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

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Donald Trump, Fascism, republicans, Roy Blunt

Wish I had a nickel, dime or whatever for every time I’ve heard somebody excusing Mussolini’s fascist coup by referring to those timely trains. Which may be why I was so gob-smacked by Republican Senator Roy Blunt’s comments when asked to react to the fact that the current occupant of the White House lies consistently. Blunt refused to engage with the substance, declaring that :

It would [be a problem] “if we weren’t getting things done,” Blunt responded. “What the regulators are doing. … The tax package, better than I would have expected. I think the foreign policy, the president was left with lots of problems. We had about eight years where we acted like the United States of America was basically any other country in the world. And a lot of things got off track during that eight years.”

So, as far as Blunt is concerned, Trump can do no wrong, he can lie, collude with Russians and curry favor from Vladimir Putin, and enrich himself with taxpayer money as long as he delivers on goodies that Blunt has been trying to get for his rich cronies. Because that’s what “getting things done” means.

Stop and think about that list of achievements: The justly unpopular and deficit-busting tax cut for the wealthy? Deregulation? Tell me in a few years how you like living in a country where basic health, consumer and social protections – air and water pollution and our food supply, for instance – are left to the tender mercies of corporate America. Foreign policy? You gotta be joking. – and don’t give me any backchat about Korea now that it seems more and more likely that the naive and egoistic Trump is getting played two ways to Sunday.

Funny thing is, the claim that Italian fascists managed to make the trains run on time is equally spurious. As Brian Cathcart put it in The Independent, “like almost all the supposed achievements of Fascism, the timely trains are a myth, nurtured and propagated by a leader with a journalist’s flair for symbolism, verbal trickery and illusion.”

Sounds a bit like that prominent liar that Blunt is so eager to defend, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, folks like Madeleine Albright* are warning us that if the tendencies that Trump embodies are left unchecked, the U.S., like Italy, could also go the fascist route:

“The possibility that fascism will be accorded a fresh chance to strut around the world stage is enhanced by the volatile presidency of Donald Trump,” Albright warns. “Instead of standing up for the values of a free society, Mr. Trump’s oft-vented scorn for democracy’s building blocks has strengthened the hands of dictators. No longer need they fear United States criticism regarding human rights or civil liberties. On the contrary, they can and do point to Mr. Trump’s own words to justify their repressive actions,” she adds.

In order to save our democracy Albright recommends “defending the truth in the press, [and] recognizing that no one is above the law, ” both efforts that Blunt eschews because, under Trump, “we” are “getting things done.” I can hear that fascist choo-choo train pulling into the station right on time.

As Snopes observes about Mussolini and the ubiquitous trains trope, if you can’t – or won’t – govern to benefit the majority of the people, “the next best thing is to convince them that you have done something of benefit to them, even though you really haven’t.” Trumpism – and today’s GOP – in a nutshell.

*Typo corrected; Albrecht changed to Albright 5/20/18, 11:19.

Roy Blunt and the NRA: Married on the way to the bank

15 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

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2nd amendment, Florida shooting, Gun policy, Gun regulations, Margery Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting, mass shootings, NRA, republicans, Roy Blunt, School shootings

According to The New York Times Roy Blunt is one of the top ten “career”recipients of NRA largess in the congress. His take: $4,551,146. That’s right. Our boy got himself over four million of those NRA dollars. And I don’t think anyone would disagree that he’s done himself proud when it comes to earning his fee.

All of which prompts one to ask what he has to say about the latest mass shooting event at a school, a spree that took 17 lives and wounded at least 12 other children. The Sedalia Democrat offers the following quote:

In an interview, Blunt said that “I don’t think we have enough information yet to know that a change in any law would have impacted what happened in Florida.” But, referring to reports that the FBI had been warned by threats that the killer had made on social media, Blunt added: “Whether it is bizarre anti-social behavior or terrorist activity, when people see something they should say something.”You have got a guy parading around in a gas mask with weapons making threats and putting that on social media; that needs to be reported,” Blunt, R-Mo., said. “And the people that is [sic] reported to need to respond to that report.”

Blunt echoed the president in his imputation that the correct way to protect against mass school shootings would be for the “normal” folks to report aberrant behavior on the part of troubled individuals. Happened here, didn’t work, not going to work, just stigmatizes folks with emotional problems.

In the past Blunt has resorted overtly to the tack taken by Donald Trump today which is that it is mental illness that kills people, not guns – in spite of the fact that those suffering mental illness have been shown to more often suffer violence than they are to commit violent acts, that when they do act out violently, they themselves have frequently been previously victimized, and they are more likely to do so within institutional settings rather than in public.

All of this is just a way to frame the simple-minded NRA bumper sticker that says in one variant or another that “people kill people, not guns.” If Kim Jong-un, who may or may not be mentally unstable, doesn’t realize that he’s dealing with a possible mental case in the White House, push comes to shove, and hundreds of folks, possibly in the U.S. as well as North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia are killed, will Republicans excuse the holocaust with a similar slogan: Crazy people kill people, not bombs? Funny that. Or not.

Of course, the real thrust of Blunt’s response was that he just doesn’t have enough facts to say anything substantive. While I know he’s unlikely to read this screed, I’d sill like to supply him with a few hard and fast facts:

A disturbed young man, who, incidentally, had been reported and investigated by the authorities, was able to legally buy a military-grade weapon.
President Trump, in his haste to destroy any remnants of Obama-style common-sense regulation, stopped a rule that would have made it more difficult for the mentally-ill to buy firearms.
Republicans like Blunt have consistently refused to vote for legislation that regulated civilian acquisition of military-grade weapons in spite of the fact that they seem to be the weapon of choice for mass shooters.
A conservative analysis by The Washington Post tells us that “more than 150,000 students attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.”
In the first 45 days of this year there have been six school shootings that have injured students.
States are skint. They aren’t willing or able to pay to supply the school security officers that schools are requesting. Florida schools, scene of the most recent shooting, are among those that have experienced growing enrollments but have received less money to pay for necessities like increased security for which they have requested funding.
A spate of studies report that states – and developed countries – with more guns have more homicide deaths and suicides. States and countries with better regulated gun ownership have fewer.

There are lots more facts like these. And I’m willing to bet that Blunt knows a few of them already. He just doesn’t care.

Nor, as Blunt’s GOP pals like to claim, do these facts suggest that gun ownership should be illegal; nobody’s 2nd amendment rights should be violated. But we have to be clear that the Supreme Court ruling, District of Columbia v. Heller, authored by conservative, gun-loving Judge Antonin Scalia, specifies that that the right to own firearms is subject to regulation, specifically in the case of “prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons’.”

So what’s keeping the pot boiling for a dangerously out of control NRA, an organization that wants to persuade us that even talking dirty about guns is not only a violation of a poorly understood 2nd amendment, but an invitation to “jack-booted government thugs” to steal our liberties? Look no further than Senator Roy Blunt and an NRA-whipped GOP.

But hey! Four million dollars is one heckava payout. And Blunt wasn’t even number one on the list.

Campaign Finance: ante up

30 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance

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campaign finance, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, republicans

Today at the Missouri Ethic Commission for the republican senate campaign committee:

C071094 01/30/2018 MISSOURI SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE Isle of Capri Casino Boonville 100 Isle of Capri Blvd Boonville MO 65233 1/29/2018 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”
“Your winnings, sir.”
“Oh, thank you very much.”

Heh.

Vicky Hartzler and the fine GOP art of lying through one’s teeth

19 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

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economy, offshoring, republicans, Tax bill, tax cuts, Tax policy, Vicky Hartzler

Here, via The Turner Report, is GOP Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s statement on the tax sham being muscled through Congress right now:

The release of this final tax reform bill brings hard-working Missouri families one step closer to relief. I look forward to voting on the tax package next week and getting it to President Trump’s desk before Christmas, so that Americans will see their paychecks increase and more jobs come back from overseas.

I want you to read this carefully in order to appreciate how remarkable it is. Remarkable, I mean, in terms the number of lies that can be packed into a relatively short statement:

The Tax bill will bring relief to “hard-working” Missouri families: I suppose this is true insofar as it’s possible that some billionaires are hardworking. And these guys are going to have so much relief that they will, to paraphrase Trump, who will also make out like the proverbial bandit, get sick of being relieved. Others, we are told by tax experts who have reviewed the document, may or may not pay less and, of course, even these much smaller poor folks “cuts” will expire within 5-10 years. Many working and middle class families and some small businesses will pay more in taxes right away since crucial deductions have been “simplified” out of existence in order to pay for huge, permanent cuts for corporations – which will, incidentally, keep almost all of the loopholes that the elimination of which have in the past provided a rationale for lowering the corporate tax rate.

Americans will see their paychecks increase: Most economists agree with those who assert that if it hasn’t already happened, increasing the corporate bottom line via a huge tax cut isn’t going to make it happen. As The Washington Post notes, “wage growth has remained relatively sluggish over the past several years, even as corporate profits hover near all-time highs as a share of the economy, and the unemployment rate continues to fall to levels that economists normally associate with rapid increases in worker pay.” Expect the corporate tax windfalls to go straight into corporate stock buybacks and to wealthy stockholders.

Americans will see … more jobs come back from overseas. The tax scam bill would allow companies to repatriate profits on a one-time basis at a 15% rate, a strategy that has failed to stop offshoring in the past. Tax lawyer David Herzog reminds us in a New York Times op-ed that, “by instituting a tax holiday in 2004, the government signaled to companies that future untaxed profits could eventually be repatriated when the budget was in trouble.” That’s why corporations are now sitting on $2.5 billion dollars they’ve squirreled away in foreign countries, waiting on the next tax holiday – and, voila, here it is.Thank you Daddy Trump.

Nor, as an AP Fact check observes, does past experience indicate that repatriated profits have much of a positive effect on the economy, but rather go into shareholders pockets or to finance stock buybacks. Tax experts, as opposed to Rep. Hartzler who clearly is not, are nearly uniform in the considered opinion that “the legislation fails to eliminate long-standing incentives for companies to move overseas and, in some cases, may even increase them.”

Nevertheless, we can expect this disastrous, deficit busting bill to pass with unanimous Republican support today. Its passage will happen even though a majority of Americans, even those who will get a tax cut, have made it clear in polls that they know it stinks. If you are interested in why Republicans don’t care about their constituents needs and preferences, Steve Benen has done an excellent job of outlining the possible reasons for GOP disregard of public opinion in this case.

I personally think that Rep. Hartzler’s mendacity in trying to pass off a mess of spoiled pottage as caviar and champagne can give us a clue to at least one aspect of the GOP strategy. I expect that we’ll hear many variants of Hatzler’s fantastic stories tripping off the lips of our imaginative Republican congresspeople in the coming weeks.They’re so sure that the voters they need have been Foxized to the point that they can be told up is down and they’ll not only believe it, but will start walking on their hands. Republicans think we’re dumb, manipulable bozos who can be led by our noses straight off a cliff.

And maybe they’re right to be contemptuous of their voters. Just look at who is sitting in the White House.

Which Missouri pols helped knife net neutrality – and how much did they get paid to do it?

16 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

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Ajit Pai, Billy Long, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Claire McCaskill, corruption, missouri, Net Neutrality, republicans, Roy Blunt

Last Wednesday 107 members of the U.S. House sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai urging him to revoke net neutrality regulations that have guaranteed that the big ISPs must treat all digital content equally, whatever it is and wherever it’s hosted. Without such rules broadband companies such as AT&T and Comcast can favor one website over another and charge users more to view certain material—such as streaming movies. They can potentially even censor political material they don’t like. In short, net neutrality is the backbone of the open internet we have all come to depend on. Without it, the digital community faces bleak times.

And Republicans want to destroy our thriving Internet culture – so much so that they wrote a letter to Trump’s FCC head lackey urging him to get down to business.

The letter was made public by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Vice Media’s Motherboard has – so far- deciphered 84 of the 107 names (the writing is not always legible and a typed list of signatories was not included in the release) and listed them along with the amount of money each has received from the telecom industry over the years.

Two Missouri members are clearly listed among the telecom toadies who signed the letter:

Blane Luetkemeyer (R-3), total telecom payola: $105,000
Billy Long (R-7), total telecom payola: $221,500

Although there are only two Missouri House members whose signatures grace the letter, over the years, there haven’t been too many Missouri GOPers who have been very friendly to the idea of the open internet – and almost all have been liberally rewarded for toeing the telecom line when it comes to net neutrality.

GOP Senator Roy Blunt alone has received $1,283,416 from the big three telecoms over his career (yes, you read that right – over a million dollars). Only John McCain took a bigger payout. And Blunt delivered for his bosses in the past – spouting the usual unsupported twaddle about how net neutrality is bad for jobs and innovation. Jobs. You gotta give it to ol’ Roy – he’s more than willing to mouth whatever predigested magic formula Republicans have decided to use against everything their patrons tell them to oppose whether it makes sense or not.

To be fair, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill has taken over $500,000 dollars from the same folks since she went to Washington. As a report prepared by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) has noted, “the industry’s attempt to gain favor with lawmakers is not partisan. Entrenched telecommunications companies liberally spread money and attention to everyone who holds office.”

So, what did they get from McCaskill? While she supported the nomination of Pai as FCC Chairman and has tried to straddle the issue in the past, she has, as of today, indicated that she will support legislation to restore net neutrality – which, of course, can only pass if Democrats succeed in taking back the Congress in 2018. In the long run, though, McCaskill knows that destroying the Internet is a bad deal – both for her constituents and for her politically – and she’s not nearly as mercenary as her GOP opposite number.

Even though Democrats have benefited from telecom efforts to buy congressional votes, it is nevertheless still true that, as the CRP observes, “alignment with the ISPs is currently drawn along party lines.” Republicans take their obligations to their donors seriously, probably because they get lots more money from them. If you’re curious about how many pieces of dirty silver your Missouri GOP House member has received from the telecom industry as the price for selling out their constituents, you can check the CRP tally for every House and Senate member.

Depressing, no?

Roy Blunt went all out for Roy Moore

14 Thursday Dec 2017

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

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Alabama, campaign donations, missouri, Rely on Your Beliefs PAC, republicans, Roy Blunt, Roy Moore

Last Tuesday, the day of the Alabama special senate election, Randy Turner posted the following interesting tidbit:

The most recent campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission shows no one gave more money to embattled Alabama U. S. Senate candidate Roy Moore than Sen. Roy Blunt.

Blunt’s support was not a personal contribution to Moore, but came in the form of a $5,000 contribution from Blunt’s Rely On Your Beliefs PAC.

Turner notes that other Republicans who gave big, like Mitch McConnell, asked for their money back when it became clear that Moore had sexually assaulted teenagers when he was in his thirties.

But not our Roy Blunt.

Blunt did talk the talk, stating unequivocally that “the women have a more credible story than Judge Moore. Alabama voters should have a better choice and Judge Moore should have better answers to these charges.”

Blunt just doesn’t seem willing to walk the walk.

Our MO GOP Senator’s just got a different point of view; we call it a “bottom-line” mentality. What’s good for the bottom line of his campaign donors – and the various lobbyists in his family – that is. And he evidently thought that insuring important deliverables by boosting a criminal (who avoids prosecution by virtue of Alabama statutes of limitation) was worth the moral taint. After all, Moore wouldn’t be the first criminal in Congress to offer a reliable Republican vote.

Given Roy Moore’s notorious Christian predilections it seems appropriate here to note the words of a famous religious figure Christians tell us they revere above all others: “By their fruits shall ye know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?”(Matthew 7:16).

I’d advise you to keep an eye on those thorns and thistles sprouting in various congressional offices.

*Last two paragraphs revised slightly for clarity (12/16, 11:32 am)