All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[Malvolio]

Author Walter Mosley Quits 'Star Trek: Discovery' After Using N-Word in Writers Room
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...s-room-1237489

Producers CBS TV Studios responded to the acclaimed writer and author in a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter: "We are committed to supporting a workplace where employees feel free to express concerns and where they feel comfortable performing their best work."
Author Walter Mosley penned an op-ed for The New York Times, published on Friday, in which he revealed that he quit his job as a writer on a television series after he was "chastised" by human resources for using the N-word on the job.

Although Mosley, who is black, did not reveal which show he departed, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that it was CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery. That series, renewed in February for its third season with its third showrunner, has experienced serious issues of abusive language in its writers room in the past.

See, this is what I don't like. If you have a problem with something someone says in a writers meeting, don't be afraid to say so to the person's face. If that doesn't work, then by all means, go to HR. But don't escalate things when it's not necessary. At least give the guy a chance to say, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize. I won't say it again." Then, if they double down, go ahead and report them.

I just don't like how we're becoming so afraid to confront one another on these things.

[Tami]

Scottish Government-owned Prestwick Airport paid £9m by Trump administration

The publicly-owned Prestwick Airport has received more than £9m from Donald Trump’s administration in the past two years to refuel hundreds of US Armed Forces aircraft, an investigation by The Scotsman can reveal.

The loss making state-owned hub, which was put up for sale earlier this month by the Scottish Government, has received close to 650 orders since October 2017 for jet fuel.

Contract details drawn up by a US Defence Department agency indicate the deal could ultimately secure Prestwick’s parent company an additional £8m, while a new contract is set to extend the arrangement until autumn 2024.

The flurry of transactions - the equivalent of more than 35 a month - has reignited criticism of the SNP government for fostering close economic ties with the US military while publicly admonishing the president’s character and his foreign policies.

This is the airport that is the main access to Trump's Scottish Golf Club. If it closes, Trump's revenue plummet even worse than it is now.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The Republican Party aren't even championing democracy for their own voters in primaries, and are rigging elections for... Trump.

I mean, wouldn't it be smarter to rig the f***ing thing so someone sane won, instead? They're riding this elevator all the way to the bottom.

The thing is, do Republican voters even care? I suspect they don’t. I mean, they like Trump, they like the racism and xenophobia and general ugliness he spews because it makes them feel good about themselves, so why change things now? The GOP wouldn’t do this if they weren’t afraid of rocking the boat with the base by having nonsense like primaries.

[Tami]

Trump Says He’s Called Off Negotiations With Taliban After Afghanistan Bombing

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Saturday that he had canceled a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban leaders and the president of Afghanistan and has called off negotiations with the Afghan insurgent group that were close to a peace agreement months in the making.

“Unbeknownst to almost everyone,” Mr. Trump wrote in a series of tweets, Taliban leaders and the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, were headed to the United States tonight for what would have been a historic Sunday meeting at Camp David.

But Mr. Trump angrily said that “in order to build false leverage,” the Taliban had admitted to a suicide car bomb attack on Thursday that had killed an American soldier in the capital of Kabul.

I knew it, I knew he would blow it.

[numberthirty]

The Republican Party aren't even championing democracy for their own voters in primaries, and are rigging elections for... Trump.

I mean, wouldn't it be smarter to rig the f***ing thing so someone sane won, instead? They're riding this elevator all the way to the bottom.

Man...

On the one hand, it is less democratic.

On the other hand, it's not like this will be the very first time that one of the big two has decided not to hold a state primary during a cycle where it's President was running for reelection.

[Tami]

NOAA staff warned in Sept. 1 directive against contradicting Trump

Nearly a week before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publicly backed President Trump over its own scientists, a top NOAA official warned its staff against contradicting the president.

In an agencywide directive sent Sept. 1 to National Weather Service personnel, hours after Trump asserted, with no evidence, that Alabama “would most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated,” staff was told to “only stick with official National Hurricane Center forecasts if questions arise from some national level social media posts which hit the news this afternoon.”

They were also told not to “provide any opinion,” according to a copy of the email obtained by The Washington Post.

A NOAA meteorologist who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution said the note, understood internally to be referring to Trump, came after the National Weather Service office in Birmingham contradicted Trump by tweeting Alabama would “NOT see any impacts from the hurricane.”

[WestPhillyPunisher]

NOAA staff warned in Sept. 1 directive against contradicting Trump

In other words, **** science! Gotta placate the man-baby by any means necessary.

[Tami]

In other words, **** science! Gotta placate the man-baby by any means necessary.

I'll never understand what they are all afraid of. He's an idiot and unstable. Even the DOD is afraid of him. Cut off his twitter account and kick out his so called advisords and he's harmless.

[SquirrelMan]

Man...

On the one hand, it is less democratic.

On the other hand, it's not like this will be the very first time that one of the big two has decided not to hold a state primary during a cycle where it's President was running for reelection.

Serious question, as I cannot find the answer with a quick google search: Were there already declared primary opponents to those sitting presidents in those previous cases?

[SquirrelMan]

Trump Says He’s Called Off Negotiations With Taliban After Afghanistan Bombing





I knew it, I knew he would blow it.

Russia's state media has more on that:

Draft peace agreement between the Taliban and the Trump admin said that U.S. forces will leave five bases in Afghanistan within 135 days of signing the document, the U.S. & the Taliban insist that Russia be present at the possible signing of the agreements.

If Obama had done that, he would have been impeached.

[numberthirty]

Serious question, as I cannot find the answer with a quick google search: Were there already declared primary opponents to those sitting presidents in those previous cases?

Going from memory, John Wolfe Jr. declared in 2011.

In the other times that South Carolina has previously done this(George HW Bush/Bill Clinton/Maybe Reagan) I couldn't say for sure.

Seems like the reasoning that former President Obama was the only person who had actually made the SC ballot was why they cancelled it that year.

[PaulBullion]

How are you all feeling about this?

Bernie Sanders Campaign Defends Use of Uncensored N-Word in 1997 Book: ‘Critiquing Racism is Not Racism’

In the portion that the site quoted, Sanders wrote “For a hundred years, the white workers of the South were the most exploited white workers in America. They were paid the lowest wages, they endured the worst working conditions, their housing was abysmal, their kids went to the most backward schools, and very few could send their children to college. But what did they have? They were given ‘niggers’ to hate and look down on, ‘niggers’ who couldn’t vote, drink at their water fountains, use the same bathrooms, or sit up front in the buses or movie theaters.”

OK, so the point is not exactly new. It kind of takes away the agency of those white workers to make excuse for their racism though. As Toni Morrison said, if the only way you can feel tall is for someone else to be on their knees, you have a problem. Isn't it much more the case that part of the white working class consciously kept voting for racists because they WANT people of color on their knees?

Also, would it have killed him to use asterisks? Can I even quote that without getting banned from this board?

[SquirrelMan]

Going from memory, John Wolfe Jr. declared in 2011.

In the other times that South Carolina has previously done this(George HW Bush/Bill Clinton/Maybe Reagan) I couldn't say for sure.

Seems like the reasoning that former President Obama was the only person who had actually made the SC ballot was why they cancelled it that year.

Thanks.

If any of the candidates want to challenge that, they have a good shot though:

The rule that governs South Carolina's presidential preference primary allows the state party to cancel the primary only by a vote at the state party convention, within two years of the subsequent primary.

South Carolina Republicans did not vote to cancel the primary at either of its last two conventions.

The rule gives the state Republican executive committee power to reverse a convention's decision to cancel the primary if "circumstances surrounding the presidential election shall have substantially changed such that a primary would be deemed advisable."

But it does not give the executive committee the opposite power -- the power to unilaterally cancel the primary.

South Carolina GOP violates own rules in canceling primary for Trump

[worstblogever]

The part that leaves me shaking my head the most is how the GOP are responding to every further incident of Trump corruption, Trump instability, Trump insanity, or Trump ignoring the Constitution by digging in and cementing him as their nominee HARDER.

Like, I get that it's operating like a cult these days... but must you really gulp down the Kool-Aid like someone's going to take it from you? Spies popping cyanide pills in movies don't seem this eager to ingest poison.

[worstblogever]

How are you all feeling about this?

Bernie Sanders Campaign Defends Use of Uncensored N-Word in 1997 Book: ‘Critiquing Racism is Not Racism’

OK, so the point is not exactly new. It kind of takes away the agency of those white workers to make excuse for their racism though. As Toni Morrison said, if the only way you can feel tall is for someone else to be on their knees, you have a problem. Isn't it much more the case that part of the white working class consciously kept voting for racists because they WANT people of color on their knees?

I'll say this... it's not the most egregious use of the n-word I've ever seen, by any stretch. He's quoting the ethos of racists, and it's pointing out how racism was used to divide people who should have been united in their financial hardship against the wealthy.

That being said, it's still unnecessary to use it there to drive that point home. I've argued the same point about how rich white dudes convince poor white people to hate poor black people to distract them from who their real threat to their way of life is. I just did, and look, I didn't need to throw a slur or epithet in that statement.

So, is it acceptable? No. Is Bernie racist? No. Guy did go south for Civil Rights, even if there's little to note about his time doing so.

What he is doing, is letting his privilege show, though, by thinking that using the word in any context would acceptable.

I'm smart enough to realize that the white nationalists at the Daily Caller are predominantly the ones throwing this out there not to end his campaign for president, but to see if they maybe can try to embarrass him enough to maybe swing his Senate seat red. Meanwhile, that same site will endorse Roy Moore in Alabama.