All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[Malvolio]

https://thinkprogress.org/house-farm...-9d93b9af4abe/

Yikes.

And when, as ex-cons, they find it difficult to find a job, what's left for them except to return to a life of crime? But of course, it's their own fault for going back to crime, not the Republicans who intentionally set them up to fail.

[InformationGeek]

Holy s**t, this is pure evil.

As nearly a million people hit the road before Hurricane Florence nears the coast, 934 inmates and as many as 119 prison staff were ordered to stay behind despite a mandatory evacuation.

Despite an evacuation order encompassing the prison’s location in Jasper County issued Monday, S.C. Department of Corrections officials decided not to remove inmates at the Ridgeland Correctional Institution as of that afternoon, SCDC spokesman Dexter Lee said in an interview with The State.

“Right now, we’re not in the process of moving inmates,” Lee said. “In the past, it’s been safer to leave them there.”

During a press conference Monday afternoon, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster revealed maps of the evacuation zones. McMaster commented that the darker the color, the more important it was for residents to evacuate.

Ridgeland falls within a red area on the evacuation map.

[Tami]

North Carolina didn't like science on sea levels … so passed a law against it

When North Carolina got bad news about what its coast could look like thanks to climate change, it chose to ignore it.

In 2012, the state now in the path of Hurricane Florence reacted to a prediction by its Coastal Resources Commission that sea levels could rise by 39in over the next century by passing a law that banned policies based on such forecasts.

The legislation drew ridicule, including a mocking segment by comedian Stephen Colbert, who said: “If your science gives you a result you don’t like, pass a law saying the result is illegal. Problem solved.”

North Carolina has a long, low-lying coastline and is considered one of the US areas most vulnerable to rising sea levels.

[Tendrin]

And when, as ex-cons, they find it difficult to find a job, what's left for them except to return to a life of crime? But of course, it's their own fault for going back to crime, not the Republicans who intentionally set them up to fail.

I mean, this is the whole point. Criminalize being poor, lock the poor up, use the poor as slave labor, deny them benefits, get them sent back to jail, use them as slave labor for profit, etc.

It's pure evil.

[numberthirty]

I mean, this is the whole point. Criminalize being poor, lock the poor up, use the poor as slave labor, deny them benefits, get them sent back to jail, use them as slave labor for profit, etc.

It's pure evil.

Worth noting...

https://ellabakercenter.org/blog/201...-labor-problem

California's Prison Labor Problem

California Attorney General Kamala Harris said that she was "shocked" by the Los Angeles Times report that lawyers from her office had argued in court that if forced to expand prison releases per the order of federal judges, prisons would lose an important labor pool. But almost-free labor is practically the only argument the state has left for continuing to lock up as many people as California does. And as more and more of California understands this practice’s obvious immorality, the state may have no choice but to actually comply with judicial orders....

Kamala Harris may have been surprised that lawyers spoke openly about the state’s need for slave labor, but she can’t be surprised by that logic; it’s all prison proponents have left.

You can contact the state Attorney General’s office here, to let them know that the Supreme Court has ruled, and the voters of California have spoken: it’s time to release prisoners. It’s just, it’s moral, and it’s mandatory.

[Tendrin]

Worth noting...

https://ellabakercenter.org/blog/201...-labor-problem

Yes, Kamala Harris' record on this is bad in spots.

But here we go again with you targeting and attacking a female candidate in perpetuity without being able to see your own misogyny or double standards.

[numberthirty]

Yes, Kamala Harris' record on this is bad in spots.

But here we go again with you targeting and attacking a female candidate in perpetuity without being able to see your own misogyny or double standards.

That you have been a part of the problem has nothing to do with if you are...

- A Man
- A Woman
- A Republican
- A Democrat
- An Independent

and so on.

Plenty of people have really dirty hands when it comes to this. Pointing that out is not an attack. It is an honest appraisal of how someone has paved the road to where they are.

[Tendrin]

And yet, you only ever seem to criticize democrats and democratic women in particular, just like when you ignored Sierra Blanco or ranted about 'superpredator' for two years over a bill Bernie actually voted for but got a pass on.

Save it. No one believes you actually care when you spent two years doing your small part to help Trump.

[numberthirty]

And yet, you only ever seem to criticize democrats and democratic women in particular, just like when you ignored Sierra Blanco or ranted about 'superpredator' for two years over a bill Bernie actually voted for but got a pass on.

Save it. No one believes you actually care when you spent two years doing your small part to help Trump.

I'm talking about what someone who was, best case scenario, a part of keeping things heading in the wrong direction.

Trying to change the subject doesn't really change what someone has actually done.

[Tendrin]

I'm talking about what someone who was, best case scenario, a part of keeping things heading in the wrong direction.

Trying to change the subject doesn't really change what someone has actually done.

In my first post I pointed out that Kamala has had some poor positions on these things.

I then pointed out your own continuing criticism of democrats rings pretty hollow, especially in light of your inability to apply that standard to Sanders given that he did, in fact, help set things into the wrong direction.

[numberthirty]

In my first post I pointed out that Kamala has had some poor positions on these things.

I then pointed out your own continuing criticism of democrats rings pretty hollow, especially in light of your inability to apply that standard to Sanders given that he did, in fact, help set things into the wrong direction.

Being involved in the infancy of a thing is completely different than being at the head of an agency that made an argument for prison labor remaining a large part of the picture based on it being cost effective once the consequences of mass incarceration were plain to see. One figure is absolutely in a better position not to continue what is clearly a mistake. Never mind that we are talking about an act so recent that it is hard to create a scenario where it should not be criticized.

If you have an example of Sanders being at the head of an agency that was that sort of an argument that recently?

Let's discuss it. If it exists, it should be condemned.

[BeastieRunner]

Willie Nelson Will Headline a Rally for Beto O’Rourke.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ke-723418/amp/

Reddit Bans Qanon Subreddits After Series of Violent Threats.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/b...041.html?amp=y

[Tendrin]

Republicans’ newly minted nominee to face Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) this fall recently defended gay conversion therapy, a deeply controversial practice of treating homosexuality and transgender identity as mental illnesses or addictions that can be cured.
Steve Negron, a GOP state lawmaker, won his party’s primary to face Kuster on Tuesday. Just weeks ago, he defended his vote in the state legislature against a bipartisan bill to ban gay conversion therapy for minors.


“I did not vote for that. I believe that’s something that, when you look at these young children that are trying to make a decision, and I remember when I was 15-16 I was confused, I had a lot of options in my life,” he said during a late August Facebook Live interview with WMUR, the state’s largest TV station.
“I think we need to be able to help them understand what it is, give them the right information, and let them get the treatment that they need to understand what the situation is,” Negron continued. “And I think the parents have a huge role in that as well.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/new...ersion-therapy

Oh, WBE-Eeeee….

[Tendrin]

The documents also had another startling item, namely an e-mail sent by a Republican operative in Louisiana to her superior at the RNC in Washington describing what she had been doing. The background to this was that the person in Louisiana who had been in charge of the project took ill. As a result, a staffer at RNC headquarters in Washington was detailed to go the Louisiana to pinch-hit. That staffer sent the e-mail to her superior detailing what she had been doing and the status of the project. At the end of her e-mail she said the following (although it has been more than 30 years, our effort in response to the Republican project was so intense and all-consuming over such a short period of time that my memory of it is still so vivid that I am confident that it is correct): “[t]his should keep the black vote down considerably.”

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog...n-considerably

No surprises here, but starkness.

[numberthirty]

Man, Moore laying things out on All In was heartening.