All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[jetengine]

Some of his takes do fall into that camp. I would say he has a lot of company on that crime. Me and you included.

Much of the criticism these last few pages lacks complexity and nuance, a rising problem on both fringes. I find most of Maher's takes to have complexity and independent consistency. I value that even when I disagree with it.

Yes because "both sides bad" is so complex and nuanced. Overall its not hard to see these guys are pieces of **** with no redeeming value and thus dont need airing.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump’s ‘Impenetrable’ Border Wall Being Breached With Power Tool, Officials Report

“We have a wall the likes of which very few places have ever seen,” Trump boasted earlier this year at a barrier outside San Diego. Makes me wish I bought stock in Lowe's or Home Depot. Between power tools and low tech options like ladders, Trump's impenetrable wall is proving to be anything but. By the way....

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Children Were Urged To ‘Build The Wall’ At White House Halloween Party

Costumed kids were given brick-colored paper cards and tape them to the wall. Oh yeah, let's indoctrinate impressionable kids in Trump's bigotry and xenophobia early.

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A Guide To Republicans’ Flailing Defenses Of The Trump-Ukraine Scandal

Without a coherent response from the White House, Trump’s supporters have been wildly pinballing across a range of unconvincing arguments. God bless those fools for being so devoted to Dolt45 that they crank out stupid **** like this.

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Bill Maher Says Vaccine-Autism Link Is Not ‘Crazy’: ‘We Don’t Know S**t’

The longtime HBO host promoted the views of a well-known vaccination skeptic on his Friday night show. That makes Maher no better than any of the other anti-vaxx kooks out there.

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Donald Trump Jr. Is Going On ‘The View’ And The Audience Isn’t Happy

The news that the president’s son will appear on the show on its 5,000th episode did not go down well. That has train wreck written all over it.

[Theleviathan]

And yet, here you are, having more problems with me calling the guy trashy than you are /with the actual comments/, demanding I 'change my approach' because it's 'too abrasive'. That is, in fact, tone policing a guy with no real power for whom these issues are near and dear. My house mate is trans.

My sibling is trans.

His words have demonstrably hurt people I cared about. Hurt their interests, hurt my family. Don't you /dare/ come to me and tell me I need to 'rethink' my 'strategy' because you want the 'left' to win. That is the very textbook definition of tone policing, so spare me the sanctimony.

I think this is a helpful idea to consider.

We have to allow for a distinction. Especially if our goal is more than the release of frustration.

[Tami]

Trump’s Favorite Pastor Has Pretend Doctoral Degree and History With Bankruptcy, of Course

Paula White is a Florida pastor who led a prayer at Donald Trump’s inauguration, chairs his Evangelical Advisory Council, and appeared with him at the White House last week as he introduced an executive order regarding “religious liberty.” Befitting her association with an administration occupied by a deadbeat who has spent his life affiliating with various fraud enthusiasts, she is often introduced as “Dr. Paula” despite never having graduated from college and lives a comically luxurious lifestyle despite having driven her previous church into bankruptcy.

[Tami]

Iran shows anti-US murals at old American embassy

Iran has unveiled new anti-US murals at the former American embassy in Tehran ahead of the 40th anniversary of the takeover of the compound.

Students overran the US embassy on November 4, 1979, after the Islamic Revolution. They held Americans, including embassy workers, hostage for more than 400 days. The crisis led Washington to sever ties with Tehran.

The paintings unveiled on Saturday replace works that had been on the walls since the seizure of the embassy.

The new murals include one that shows barbed wire instead of French fries in a packet of a US hamburger chain. Another appears to depict a popular American cartoon character holding a gun in front of a pool of blood.

A man involved in creating the murals said one of the messages of the works is the decline of America.

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China, ASEAN discuss disputed South China Sea

At the meeting with the ASEAN leaders on Sunday, Chinese Premier Li reiterated his willingness to conclude a maritime code of conduct by 2021. The accord is aimed at preventing conflicts in the resource-rich waters.

Li said that progress on the code of conduct will bring long-term peace and stability in the South China Sea.

The Chinese premier stressed cooperation between China and ASEAN is beneficial for all parties involved.

He said that it comes at a time when the international and regional situations are facing complex changes.

China is boosting its military presence in the region. It has built artificial islands and military outposts. Some ASEAN members including Vietnam oppose the buildup. They say it undermines regional peace and stability.

The United States has been sending warships to the South China Sea under its "Freedom of Navigation" operations.

NHK's reporter says Beijing's push for discussions on maritime rules can be seen as a way to exclude Washington from policy on the South China Sea.

[GindyPosts]

Delhi's air pollution is at "unbearable levels"

At 2 and a half times higher than usual for Beijing, the air quality in India's capital region has broken records, and is attributed to farming practices. Holy crap, that looks horrifying.

And watch as they don't do anything about it.

[GindyPosts]

I mean, I like the UFC, but why is a sitting president in attendence at an event? Respectfully, it's pretty lowbrow.

Beats me. But, remember; Trump is the guy who helped out Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation with promotional content in the early days of WrestleMania, given that WrestleMania IV & V, in spite of the event being held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, were billed from "Trump Plaza", and later was involved in the ludicrous "Battle of the Billionaires" match at WrestleMania 23 (which one fan hilariously threw shade at by addressing Vince's net worth on a sign at the time at around, and this is from memory cause even though I have the DVD I'm too lazy to look at it, $723 million), which got him a spot in the kayfabe WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. Ironically, the wrestler who fought on his behalf at WrestleMania 23 for the honor of protecting his hair, Bobby Lashley, is getting death threats right now because WWE has put him in an infidelity angle in which he's dating and having romantic relationships with a white woman, Lana.

Normally we shouldn't judge presidents by what they should go to on their down time, but considering how often Trump goes to sporting events and golf courses instead of working

[Tendrin]

I think this is a helpful idea to consider.

We have to allow for a distinction. Especially if our goal is more than the release of frustration.

You've spent the entire conversation actually telling people to modify their tone. I'm not sure you get to pull this card, especially not in defense of a racist transphobe.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Don’t Expand the War on Terror in the Name of Antiracism

Declaring white nationalism a form of terrorism won’t combat white nationalism — but it will grant more arbitrary powers to a carceral state that preys on the most vulnerable.

Many concerned about white supremacist violence support these proposals, highlighting the stark discrepancy in the ways the government treats Muslims and whites when they commit acts of political violence. What could be wrong with wanting to remove the racial biases in the application of counterterrorism? Why wouldn’t we want the full force of federal law to be applied to racist mass murderers? But to think that would be a mistake. It would actually end up worsening the problem of white supremacy and further expanding the reach of law enforcement. To understand why requires understanding how the word “terrorism” operates in US political and legal culture and the racially coercive powers its use enables. It also requires taking seriously the arguments of prison abolitionists who caution against “reforms” that actually give law enforcement more power.

Years and decades of organizing work and movements like Critical Resistance, Black Lives Matter, and #Not1More Deportation — along with influential analyses by scholars such as Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore — have produced a substantive shift toward radically transforming the legal system — on the issues of ending cash bail and solitary confinement, on electing progressive district attorneys who promise what they won’t do instead of what they will, on real civilian oversight over the police, and prison abolition. That work has moved us beyond the assumption that only certain kinds of reforms for certain kinds of people could be advocated. That work — and the insights it has produced — has created the space and the urgency to take on federal “counterterrorism” law and policing, which has largely escaped sustained challenge.

In July, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the Department of Homeland Security should be eliminated. While her comment initially focused on ICE abuses, it zeroed in on the fact that we cannot undo contemporary injustices without dismantling the apparatus of such legalized injustice. To understand the structures of policing and imprisonment — and what supports them ideologically and materially in the United States — necessitates examining the domestic war on terror as well.

Like with imprisonment, a radical examination of “counterterrorism” shows it fails to work even on its own terms: many more civilians have been killed as a result of the war on terror than the “jihadists” have killed, or could ever have hoped to kill. The wars, bombings, and covert operations pursued by the United States have killed nearly five hundred thousand people in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, according to a Brown University estimate. Families and whole swaths of communities within the United States have been devastated by domestic practices of intensive targeting and prosecution. Like the war on drugs, the war on terror at home does not reduce violence but spreads it; its impacts reverberate from schools to family life to diminished political power for Muslim-American communities. Under the guise of policing “homegrown terrorism,” it has dramatically expanded the politics of fear and suspicion around Muslims and the sphere of law enforcement around Muslim communities.

[Theleviathan]

You've spent the entire conversation actually telling people to modify their tone. I'm not sure you get to pull this card, especially not in defense of a racist transphobe.

Oh I absolutely "get" pull it because you claimed things were a myth and tried to silence me with your fallacious understanding of the concept. I never tried to silence your opinion because of your tone (what the term could actually mean and be useful)...I tried to get you to see sometimes it's worth noting your strategy is causing more harm than good.

That's important to me because the things you espouse to believe in are important to me as well. I want trans kids and other marginalized groups to grow up in a better world. Changing tactics so less fucking Republicans get elected is priority number one to accomplish that.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Oh I absolutely "get" pull it because you claimed things were a myth and tried to silence me with your fallacious understanding of the concept. I never tried to silence your opinion because of your tone (what the term could actually mean and be useful)...I tried to get you to see sometimes it's worth noting your strategy is causing more harm than good.

That's important to me because the things you espouse to believe in are important to me as well. I want trans kids and other marginalized groups to grow up in a better world. Changing tactics so less fucking Republicans get elected is priority number one to accomplish that.

This is not a call for unity or better strategy, it is a veiled threat.

Tolerate the softcore bigots, or else the hardcore bigots will amass more power and you wouldn't like that, would you.

If someone claims to be an ally, but is turned off against the fight against oppression because people were mean to them, then they were never allies to begin with.

[Tendrin]

Oh I absolutely "get" pull it because you claimed things were a myth and tried to silence me with your fallacious understanding of the concept. I never tried to silence your opinion because of your tone (what the term could actually mean and be useful)...I tried to get you to see sometimes it's worth noting your strategy is causing more harm than good.

That's important to me because the things you espouse to believe in are important to me as well. I want trans kids and other marginalized groups to grow up in a better world. Changing tactics so less fucking Republicans get elected is priority number one to accomplish that.

This is a whole bunch of projection. I didn't try to silence you. How could I actually do so? You're still here, still posting. I told you cancel culture isn't as real as you think it is, nor is it something to be so up in arms about as you are, and you have now spent a great number of posts demanding that I change my 'tactics' to suit you. Most of the people who've been 'cancelled' are still out there, meeting plenty of success and getting Netflix specials, amongst other things.

If you think me brazenly calling Bill Maher a racist transphobe for chortling along with racists and nodding in agreement while calling people who abuse them 'reasonable' and then proceeding to try to take the credit for their down fall thereafter, is going to 'elect Republicans', I think you're patently ridiculous.

Remember, it's always people who call attention to these things that are problematic if they're too brazen, never the racist transphobes on your TV and the media infrastructure that keeps them there.

[Robotman]

Militant atheists, folks who like to think of themselves as liberal but who have otherwise reactionary social politics, conservatives...

Militant atheists? Do they use weapons grade logic?

[Tendrin]

Militant atheists? Do they use weapons grade logic?

They think so. They are sadly mistaken.

[Theleviathan]

This is not a call for unity or better strategy, it is a veiled threat.

Tolerate the softcore bigots, or else the hardcore bigots will amass more power and you wouldn't like that, would you.

If someone claims to be an ally, but is turned off against the fight against oppression because people were mean to them, then they were never allies to begin with.

It is a call for better strategy. Speaking reality is not a threat, it is reality. If you want to change reality you should wake up to it. Your reality is that you are so far to the fringe and so unwilling to work towards changing minds rather than stumping your opinions that you'll likely always stay there. Doomed to see your ideas defeated or postponed time and time again. You might be ok with that but I'm not. There are real people who suffer real consequences while you sit on your ideological throne of purity. I work with those people every day and want to see the world changed to be better for them. If you can't help, kindly stop making it worse.

So I'm sorry you disagree with my suggestion, but it'd be best if you didn't warp what I'm saying into a strawman and then berate me with it. I'll remain your ally despite that, but not everyone will.