Republican Hypocrisy On Parade

For many long years, we got to see Republicans and their supporters show their true nature - being bullies.  There are countless pictures of them hanging President Barack Obama in effigy. There have been all the baseless accusations against Hillary Clinton and chants to "Lock her up!" There have been intimidation and smear tactics against your average citizens that dared to ask questions or tell truth to power. The list goes on and on.

One of the poster children for this bullying is Greg Gianforte, a Republican in Montana, who didn't like a question a reporter was asking. So Gianforte picked the reporter up and body slammed him to the ground.

Gianforte then told lie after lie, denying and then minimizing, the incident.  He went on to win the special election he was running in.

Even now, Gianforte is fighting a judge's order that he be booked like the criminal he is, afraid that political opponents might use his mugshot against him.

Then this past week, the unthinkable happened to the Republicans.  An idiot (legally) got his hands on some guns and went on a shooting spree in Arlington, hitting five people, including fellow Republican Representative Steve Scalise.

So how did the Republicans and their irresponsible rhetoric, laws and behaviors act?  Did they pass responsible gun control laws?  Did they apologize for all of the behaviors they helped provoke against women, against minorities, against Muslims and against the left?

HELL NO!

Instead of acting like mature adults, they reaffirmed their bully personalities by now and only now saying that there needs to be more civility in political discourse.

Let's look at Macho Man Gianforte now:

But he is eager to put the episode behind him, and he is now adding his voice to the growing chorus calling for better political discourse.

Gianforte said there is an obligation for members of Congress to ratchet down the vitriol in politics, especially after this week’s shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise during a Republican congressional baseball practice by a man who volunteered for Bernie Sanders’ Democratic presidential campaign.

“I believe that good things can come out of bad,” he said. “It’s important to make sure we reach out to all parties and hear their voice. I think the other parties have an obligation, as well, to be respectful and in that dialogue.”

The hypocrisy! It burns!

It is unsurprising though.  This is what bullies do.

So the next questions is how long will this new found call for civility last?

Answer: It has already ended.

Republicans are still eager to push through Ryancare, which will harm more than 24 million people.  This is not the behavior of a civilized group.  It is the behavior of a bunch of petty, hypocritical, hate-filled bullies.

People, we can - we must! - do better than this.

The Reason for the Season

With all of the bad we bring to you...its time for some good!

Bullying Bailey!

Earlier, we brought you the coverage of the debate between Don Pridemore and Tony Evers.  The two candidates for the position of State Superintendent Schools have some very stark contrasts. 

Don Pridemore is a well entrenched republican legislator who is looking for better pay from the taxpayers of WI and so he is running for yet another government job.   

In his debate, Pridemore  had this to say about Bullying:

“Bullying is going to be with us,” Pridemore said. “We have to deal with it, and the most effective way of dealing with it is allowing teachers to react and respond to situations … and not necessarily create a set of rules that be followed for every kid.”

 Tonight on the facebook page of Baltimore Ravens running back, Ray Rice, he had this to say:

 I wrote this earlier today but waited to post until I had permission from the family. This is going to be a long post so please bear with me.

A few weeks ago i shared a link to an article that a fan sent to me. It was about an 11 year old boy named Bailey who had been bullied at school. In the latest incident, Bailey was beat up on the school playground. Hit in the face and pushed to the ground, Bailey began to have severe seizures which required him to be placed into a medically induced coma.

After learning last Thursday that doctors said Bailey had no longer had any brain activity, I reached out to the family and was able to spend about 45 minutes on the phone with them. I could hear their sadness, worry, frustration and grief. They would be faced with removing their son, cousin, nephew, and best friend from life support.

Bailey passed away this morning, one day after his 12th birthday.

I don't think I will ever be able to understand why kids bully each other and how we are all sitting here after yet another "bully death" getting ready to go through this difficult task of picking up the pieces and the even more difficult task of forgiving so we can heal.

I don't know if we will ever get to a point where bullying is actually considered a CRIME, rather than "kids being kids" or a "playground incident."

I don't know if the kid that did this to Bailey will be punished severely enough or if he will receive the help I know he truly needs. Bullying doesn't happen for no reason...we have to figure out what the underlying cause it and treat it like the illness it is.

I don't know when parents, teachers, elected officials and administrators will sit up and take notice...and ACT.

But, I DO KNOW THIS: I will NOT give up my fight. Everyday I will continue to fight AGAINST bullying and fight FOR kindness.

Bailey - my little buddy, I will not let you become just another bully statistic...you are my inspiration and one more angel that will help me continue the fight for kids everywhere. You are going to help me save lives. RIP my little friend.

Well Mr. Pridemore can call up the Bailey's family and tell them to "Just deal with it".    I would also like to point out to Mr. Pridemore(who is truly unfit to serve in public office), that Baileys family will now be able to "react" to the bullying - by planning his funeral.     

If you want to join Ray Rice in the fight against Bullying, here is the link to his charity - Athletes 4 Kids!

 

George Takei vs The Douchebags of the World

George Takei knows how to call the idiots out:



Sadly, it takes strong words like that to just get their attention. Just don't hold your breath that they're actually going to figure out how to behave like humans.

H/T digby

Wisconsin's Right Wing Shorter

Conform or else!

This morning, TMJ4 came out with a report about a state employee and her husband who received a threatening letter in the mail. Apparently, according to the sender of the letter, a miscreant's miscreant that completely misnamed himself "American Patriot," the family's offense worthy of threats was that she was a public employee and he opposed Scott Walker.

If this cravenly coward was truly an American or a patriot, he or she would know to respect the Freedom of Speech. But this idiot doesn't even want them to have the freedom of independent thought.

It was also learned today that Bill Christofferson also received a threatening letter from some reprobate too afraid to put their name to their letter of hate:

Thug Letter

I'm not a little surprised that these letters didn't come in the form of letters cut out of a magazine and glued to a piece of paper.  They did however manage to confirm that they have atrocious grammar and were too dull to recognize that Bill isn't a public sector employee.

But this isn't the first time that people on the left have been threatened for speaking out.

I have received two such threats in the past year, one made openly and one via an unpublished comment which read "I have a hollowpoint with your name on it, Chris."

Zach Wisniewski and Jeff Simpson, over at Blogging Blue each have their takes on these deplorable acts.

But down to be outdone in the deplorable department, local squawker Charlie Sykes and his audience actually complaining that TMJ4 actually aired the story.

I've got a couple, three things to say about all of this:

1. If you don't like the fact that your behaviors make you look bad, don't do them.
2. It is pitiful that the right, not being able to come up with a cogent defense of their positions, have to resort to bullying and intimidation tactics in an effort to suppress dissenting voices.
3. I am still an American and a Wisconsinite and I will continue to act as a free person.  If you don't like it, that's your problem.

Quotable, Or Should I Say Tweetable?

From a tweeter that goes by the Twitter handle of @OTOOLEFAN:

Since NJ just passed the "Anti-Bullying Act", does that mean Chris Christie has to step down now?