All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Dalak]

Their agenda is clear at this point -- the only people still denying and/or defending it are those who support said agenda.

Well we can look at Mets' most recent post on the matter for examples. Beyond the usual twisting of questions asked (Behavior = People?), minimizing of harmful conservative actions/policies, projecting Insults into a post which doesn't have any, and claiming that occasionally calling vile/hateful/criminal people idiots excuses defending violence & bigotry (Family Separation, LoTT, Misinformation used to drive up Anti-LGBTQ+ Hysteria, Daniel Perry killing Jordan Neely, etc) there's an argument that posters here are ignoring things that were never brought up in this thread (EX: Search for Laphonza).

Mets, if you wanted anyone's opinions on something specific you could have asked it politely in a non-loaded way. Instead you bring up specific things to accuse others of double standards which were never previously brought up or discussed, and that isn't debating in good faith. It's also a decorum breach to do so, is another double-standard on display, and is at-least mildly insulting if not a direct insult. None of this shows you in a less deceptive/disingenuous light either.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gay******...104746762.html

Your link is broken, but I'm not surprised at the story at all.

I wonder how all these assholes who are so concerned about who's fucking who would feel about being subjected to the same level of scrutiny about their sex lives?

These fucking people deserve shame and shunning for what they do to others. And the fact that they use the false flag claims of religion AND are allowed to get away with it only further cements the belief that religion is a farce.

It's the reason I'm virulently anti-Organized Religion yet paradoxically don't deride people for their faith if they hold to it. Now if they are Christians in the "Jesus is too liberal" group or ignore his teachings on hate, violence, and greed . . that's another story. And considering how many are adulterers I think they should have as much scrutiny on their sex lives as they are willing to put on others.

Both Hamas and Netenyahu benefit from this. They get the population to rally around them. The deaths of their own people only help them get people to support them.
Netenyahu os trying to assume dictatorial powers and is only in office because he has the support of the right wing, nationalist religious fanatics. Who, BTW, don't serve in the military. Hamas is a terrorist organization who don't want piece talks or anything that allows Israel to survive.

Only authoritarians and extremists benefit from this sort of violence around the world, which is why we're seeing such an up-tick in far-right gains in politics AND far-right violent rhetoric & action. They go hand-in-hand.

Vladimir Putin escalates nuclear rhetoric with threat to resume testing

Nuclear rhetoric is all Putin really has left outside of hoping elections go his way. He might NEED to restart testing in order to know that anything actually works.

Honestly if we entertain those threatening to "blow up the world" then we will deserve it when they eventually do anyway. This behavior cannot be entertained as it only encourages more brinksmanship and threats.

Turkey's Erdogan tells supporters he does not 'recognise' LGBT

I guess Erdogan is feeling better.

We often have US elected politicians calling for LGBT to be eliminated in direct/indirect ways, and we have those bending over backwards to give them the benefit of the doubt to excuse still voting for them.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled Brian Mast, who has served as the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 18th Congressional District since 2016, based on his honorable service in the U.S. Army working in explosive ordinance and disposal, and we’ll salute him for her service to our nation in the role that cost him the use of his legs…

And that’s about our limit for saying nice things about Brian Mast. During his first run for office in 2016, Mast was briefly linked with World Patent Marketing, a company that today no longer exists because the Federal Trade Commission shut it down because it was an invention promotion scam. World Patent Marketing donated a bunch of money to Mast's campaign fund and said in a press release that he sat on their advisory board. Mast has some convenient amnesia about his association with a professional scam outlet, saying he has no knowledge of being given a position on the board and said he only had a couple encounters with members of the company, at all.

So that’s shady. But that’s not even as “shady as hell” as our next item…

Back in 2018, Anthony Bustamante, a campaign consultant who worked on Mast's 2016 campaign, told The Wall Street Journal that as a member of the Mast campaign, had used data hacked from the Democratic National Committee by Guccifer 2.0, a front for Russia's GRU military intelligence service, to adjust Mast's campaign strategy. The hacked data had been leaked by Guccifer 2.0 to the HelloFLA blog, just to help Brian Mast win election to Congress. (This would seem to be the member of Congress who solicited help in the 2016 election from Russia that was mentioned in the Mueller Report.) And, not for nothing, but in 2019, Brian Mast was pressured into returning campaign donationS that he accepted from the quite dubious source that is Igor Fruman, as in the second half of “Lev and lgor the Russian guys arrested while trying to flee the country. Again, not a good look, and clearly got enough ties to Russia to be worn around Vladimir Putin’s neck.

Now, after the Pulse Shooting and then the Parkland Shooting, most of the Florida Republican caucus has been careful regarding statements they have made about the massive uptick in gun violence in our country, because when that many people have died in mass shootings, it’s practically personal for most of the state… however Brian Mast isn’t that smart, and only two days after Parkland, he blamed the rampage on “video games and violent movies”.

But we’re still not done with this creep. And we emphasize he’s a creep, especially given his idea of “humor”. Two “jokes” that turned up on Brian Mast’s Facebook page are particularly telling. Back in February of 2009, Rocco LeDonni, who is now Mast’s campaign manager, posted photos of himself in a bar in South Africa, and Mast commented, “I'm so proud of you... i hope you hook up with at least fifteen 15 year olds over there.... its legel there right.”

Yes, he just encouraged his campaign manager to commit statutory rape.

Two years later, in May of 2011, LeDonni posted, “Anyone have any good pick up lines for this weekend considering according to the crazy christian radio guy the world may end on Sunday?” And Mast responded that LeDonni should tell the target of his affections:

“How about don’t turn this rape into a murder.”

It got more disgusting than even that, and we know, that shouldn’t be possible, but in Mast’s “apology”, Mast blamed his poor attempt on humor on his injuries in combat, and his campaign claimed the comments were posted while Mast was drugged up with “morphine, oxycodone, sleep sedatives, anti-inflammatories and anti-depressants” and therefore he wasn’t in his right mind when he made the comments … except he made the inappropriate “jokes” a year before he got his Purple Heart. So now he’s an outright liar, too…

[Tami]

Authoritarians and wannabe authoritarians in the world are either being emboldened or are in a state of panic. Not sure which, but I think it depends on who they think will win the next US election, Biden or Trump.

[Reverse Happy]

On this Biden is basically doing what the law requires him to do.

https://abc7chicago.com/border-wall-...tion/13866618/

There's a criticism that he should do more to delay the process, although that's rather icky, and sets a defense of others who ignored laws.

He didn't have to waive dozens of federal laws to let it go faster over environmental and native-American resistance. Politically it's a complete footgun. Nobody is grateful for this capitulation except Republican campaigners, silently, in their pants.

[Kirby101]

https://politicalwire.com/2023/10/06...-in-the-house/

And if the GOP spits in their face again it must be the Dems fault that the House is a xhit show.

[Gray Lensman]

He didn't have to waive dozens of federal laws to let it go faster over environmental and native-American resistance. Politically it's a complete footgun. Nobody is grateful for this capitulation except Republican campaigners, silently, in their pants.

Without being able to get into his head and know everything about how and why, I wonder if the waiving of the laws is to get it over with as soon as possible and out of the news, again as soon as possible. Basically, if you have to do something you hate, best get it over with quickly.

But that is just speculation, I freely admit there aren't any known facts there.

[Tami]

Without being able to get into his head and know everything about how and why, I wonder if the waiving of the laws is to get it over with as soon as possible and out of the news, again as soon as possible. Basically, if you have to do something you hate, best get it over with quickly.

But that is just speculation, I freely admit there aren't any known facts there.

Theoretically, if he HAD to do it, and if it is advocated by the Republicans, those in Congress would be trampling all over themselves to get to the nearest news outlet to yell and scream about how Biden wasn't doing what he was legally supposed to do. This woul dhave been a big distraction away from other issues.

However, President Biden may still be able to mitigate this by doing more positive work in support of immigrants to the US. Let's see what he does next on this issue.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I imagine Hamas wouldn't do this without strong support from Iran.

Hamas is a terrorist organization. They are going to get crushed.

The Israeli government isn't any better. I wish the US government would stop supporting their efforts to oppress Palestinians.

[kidfresh512]

Horrifying images of destruction and hostages. There is no celebration to be had in any of it.

[Tami]

The Israeli government isn't any better. I wish the US government would stop supporting their efforts to oppress Palestinians.

What Is U.S. Policy on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

Multiple U.S. administrations have proposed road maps for a peace process that would result in two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian. However, critics say President Donald Trump limited prospects for a two-state solution by implementing controversial policies regarding core components of the conflict. Though the Joe Biden administration has reiterated U.S. support for a two-state solution, it has reversed only some of Trump’s changes while leaving others in place. Meanwhile, violence between the two sides has reached levels not seen since the last Palestinian uprising ended in 2005.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in a century-long territorial dispute over the Holy Land, a Middle Eastern region with great religious and historical significance to Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

Increasing numbers of Jews began moving to Ottoman Palestine—a predominately Arab region—following the 1896 publication of Theodor Herzl’s The Jewish State, which promoted the idea of a haven for Jews in their ancient homeland to escape antisemitism in Europe. The migration accelerated after the Holocaust of World War II, in which Nazi Germany killed six million Jews.

In 1947, after years of Arab-Jewish violence, the UN General Assembly voted for the establishment of two states in Palestine, one Jewish and the other Arab. Shortly after, the Jewish community in Palestine declared Israel an independent state, prompting hundreds of thousands more Jews to emigrate, and precipitating a war launched by neighboring Arab states.

For their part, Palestinian Arabs say Jews have usurped their ancestral homeland with help from Western powers, including the United States and the United Kingdom. They refer to Israel’s establishment and its defeat of allied Arab armies in the 1948 war as the Nakba, or catastrophe, which the United Nations estimated uprooted more than seven hundred thousand Palestinians.

Jerusalem. The disputed city straddles the border of Israel and the West Bank. Israel has annexed the whole city as its capital; the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem for the capital of their state. A two-state solution would require a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.

However, U.S. interest in resolving the conflict has waned in recent years. After the start of the 2011 uprisings commonly known as the Arab Spring, the wars in Syria and Yemen, Iran’s push for dominance in the region, and terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the self-proclaimed Islamic State posed more immediate threats to U.S. interests. Additionally, U.S. relations with Iran and the Arab Gulf states no longer seem to hinge on Israeli-Palestinian issues, making the conflict even less of a priority.

Pentagon says it will support Israel after Netanyahu declares war

Biden Offers Israel Sweeping US Support Against Hamas Attack

[The Cool Thatguy]

The Israeli government isn't any better. I wish the US government would stop supporting their efforts to oppress Palestinians.

I don't agree entirely with that sentiment, but Israel has done plenty to stifle legitimate voices within the Palestinians.

[Vakanai]

So let me see if I've got this straight:
1. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is ongoing. Putin is threatening nukes more seriously and more often. The United States conservatives want to end aid to Ukraine, a democracy, and are more and more pro-Russia and pro-Putin in this conflict for "reasons," to the point where they'll shut down the government partially over ending such aid. Also their frontrunner for president was a pro-Kremlin Putin brown-noser his whole term in office and called the invasion "smart" as he continued to brown-nose Putin.

2. Israel and Palestine are at war with each other, officially now. And whether it's right or wrong the US is obligated to help put our might behind our ally Israel, which there's no way that won't negatively impact aid to Ukraine let's be real here. Plus it puts us sort-of back in the Middle East, where we do not want to be after having spent 20 years there on the ill fated war on terror and Iraq (Iraq for no damn good reason other than Bush lied).

3. China is continuing to bully it's neighbors, has an eye for aggressive expansion, and is clearly planning on committing a Putin against the country of Taiwan in the very near future. Meanwhile China's favorite little madman ally Kim Jung Un in North Korea is steadily doing more ICBM testing and working towards a nuke that can hit America.

4. And all one of the two major parties can think of is waging war against trans people, gay people, minorities of all shades of brown, and being "woke" as in knowing there's systemic racial injustice going on and wanting to change it, they're against all that. And they're banning books, shutting down discussions, and basically thought policing our schools to produce a generation ignorant of and un-empathetic to racial and LGBTQ injustice. Oh and they want to shut down the government, partially to help Putin out and stop aid to Ukraine but mostly to stop or defund the legal system currently going after their favorite orange shit stain Trump for all the criming he's done...and also probably to just enjoy watching the world burn.

5. And to top it all off, as if this was not concerning and damning enough, many if not most European countries are sliding into authoritarian populist and (white) nationalist fascism. Mostly in fierce reaction to an increasing immigration exodus into their countries of Muslims (aka brown people) fleeing the Middle East for the obvious reason that it's pretty bad in quite a few Middle Eastern countries right now. Oh, and also largely as a reaction to LGBTQ people being more outspoken and visible about the fact that, yeah, they fucking exist.

6. And just as a little extra cherry on top of this global shit sundae, we've just had the hottest summer in record, that's the hottest in about 117,000 years according to scientists, in which the global temperature broke the record by an entire degree when usually it's measured in the hundredths of a degree, so very damn concerning. The world's on literal fire sometimes, climate change is real and an existential threat impacting us now!


So, have I successfully broken down the current state of world affairs as it is today, like right now?

[scourge]

The second someone tries to compare calling people like LoTT out on her terrorism to the dangerous homophobia and transphobia from her and her bigoted ilk they lost any tiny shred of credibility they might have had.

In related stupid news...
The moron Musk who UNBANNED the bomb threat encouraging LoTT...perma-banned someone from Twitter who made a joke about him that was clearly labeled as a joke. Because "free speech" only applies to the conservatives apparently.

[numberthirty]

Without being able to get into his head and know everything about how and why, I wonder if the waiving of the laws is to get it over with as soon as possible and out of the news, again as soon as possible. Basically, if you have to do something you hate, best get it over with quickly.

But that is just speculation, I freely admit there aren't any known facts there.

Man, gimme a break with this nonsense...

The guy is the President of The United States. If anyone feels this way?

He didn't have to waive dozens of federal laws to let it go faster over environmental and native-American resistance. Politically it's a complete footgun. Nobody is grateful for this capitulation except Republican campaigners, silently, in their pants.

It's tough to justify any kind of a "Without Being Able To Get Into His Head And No Everything About Why..." excuses.

Whatever the lay of the land actually is?

He is absolutely capable of letting Americans in on exactly what it is.

[numberthirty]

I don't agree entirely with that sentiment, but Israel has done plenty to stifle legitimate voices within the Palestinians.

When it comes to that?

Any sort of "Well, We're On Slightly More Solid "Moral..." Footing Than Them..." just feels like it is a way to excuse this whole thing dragging out for another couple of decades(minimum...)