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

[Hellion]

So, bizarrely, I have found myself tied to current events. I just discovered that one of my students is the son of Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia group. For those who may not be aware, Stewart Rhodes was arrested for seditious conspiracy related to 1/6 and is currently imprisoned in a federal detainment facility in Oklahoma. I made the connection yesterday when I read an article on Politico about Rhodes being interviewed by the 1/6 Committee.

I feel bad for Rhodes's son. He is displaying all the behaviors of someone coming out of a cult environment for the first time. He has legally changed his last name to distance himself from his family, appears to be living "in hiding" from them and has worked hard to be able to attend the college I'm employed at. He confided in me that his only prior experience in public education was when he took an EMT course here because his family wanted him trained to be their combat medic. Freakin' crazy. He is passionate about journalism and politics, and while I can't get a read on whether he mostly agrees with his family's worldview or finds that worldview abhorrent, I understand he's still in the process of figuring out what his own beliefs are versus what he was "programmed" to believe by the cult he was raised in.

[Xheight]

There is no such thing as an "alternative" slate of electors. There are only the "winning" slates and the "losing" slates. The losing slates (which in the States won by the Democrats would include not only the GOP slate but also the Libertarian Party slate, the Green Party slate, etc.) have no business submitting Electoral ballots. The phony ballots cast by the losing slates do not bear the State seal and the governor's signature, which are required to make them official. Submitting these phony ballots is genuine election fraud.

Wining and losing slates is consistent with what I said to be based on review of the legality of types of ballots hence throwing out the now illegal ballots in PA would have give PA a different winning slate. The review however was not allowed and the results were bum rushed to congress.

[Xheight]

So, bizarrely, I have found myself tied to current events. I just discovered that one of my students is the son of Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia group. For those who may not be aware, Stewart Rhodes was arrested for seditious conspiracy related to 1/6 and is currently imprisoned in a federal detainment facility in Oklahoma. I made the connection yesterday when I read an article on Politico about Rhodes being interviewed by the 1/6 Committee.

I feel bad for Rhodes's son. He is displaying all the behaviors of someone coming out of a cult environment for the first time. He has legally changed his last name to distance himself from his family, appears to be living "in hiding" from them and has worked hard to be able to attend the college I'm employed at. He confided in me that his only prior experience in public education was when he took an EMT course here because his family wanted him trained to be their combat medic. Freakin' crazy. He is passionate about journalism and politics, and while I can't get a read on whether he mostly agrees with his family's worldview or finds that worldview abhorrent, I understand he's still in the process of figuring out what his own beliefs are versus what he was "programmed" to believe by the cult he was raised in.

Would you call someone raised in a liberal left household or Conservative Jewish home (in keeping with the headlines) a Cultist? In many such cases people are "training" to be activists and advocates consistent with their cultural beliefs. It is what we expect parents to do, and I am sorry, not hand over their ideological orientation to Higher education. I am reminded of the cultural response to the Rosenbergs’ deaths in E.L. Doctorow’s novel, The Book Of Daniel, which imagines the painful life afterwards of the Rosenbergs’ oldest child, but could just as well apply to children the Weathermen or any radical family. Rhodes is no different than these committed people and the families that naturally surround them. Personally it may be hard for someone who just wants to mainstream but I believe our society is better for all the committed faiths, Right or Left, religious or secular.

[Hellion]

Would you call someone raised in a liberal left household or Conservative Jewish home (in keeping with the headlines) a Cultist? In many such cases people are "training" to be activists and advocates consistent with their cultural beliefs. It is what we expect parents to do, and I am sorry, not hand over their ideological orientation to Higher education. I am reminded of the cultural response to the Rosenbergs’ deaths in E.L. Doctorow’s novel, The Book Of Daniel, which imagines the painful life afterwards of the Rosenbergs’ oldest child, but could just as well apply to children the Weathermen or any radical family. Rhodes is no different than these committed people and the families that naturally surround them. Personally it may be hard for someone who just wants to mainstream but I believe our society is better for all the committed faiths, Right or Left, religious or secular.

Your lack of support or concern for the individual who has changed his surname and is living in hiding from the family that refused to allow him to follow his own dreams and pursue his own interests has been duly noted.

[Dalak]

Just thought this should be requoted.

[Xheight]

Your lack of support or concern for the individual who has changed his surname and is living in hiding from the family that refused to allow him to follow his own dreams and pursue his own interests has been duly noted.

How is my response a matter of lack of concern? I have read of such accounts before in real life and in allegory. As noted there are novels that touch on the same subject and if anything the onus is on society to not judge one on the sins of one's father but on his own merits. John Brown's children are moving story of political belief and having a legacy forced on an individual. It is a human scale story though which is not what radicals strive toward. What you might be doing is putting the son's value before the father's when you don't seem to be willing to consider that as a point of comparison.

[Catlady in training]

Do we have any review of the book that suggests Shrier fails to appreciate the nuances between trans girls and females (used here purely in the biological sense) who identify as nonbinary?

Here you go:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/sho..._review_page=1
https://www.goodreads.com/review/sho..._review_page=3
https://www.goodreads.com/review/sho..._review_page=3

Some other reviews I found useful, in case you're interested:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/sho..._review_page=2
https://www.goodreads.com/review/sho..._review_page=3
https://www.goodreads.com/review/sho..._review_page=3
https://www.goodreads.com/review/sho..._review_page=1

[shooshoomanjoe]

Would you call someone raised in a liberal left household or Conservative Jewish home (in keeping with the headlines) a Cultist? In many such cases people are "training" to be activists and advocates consistent with their cultural beliefs. It is what we expect parents to do, and I am sorry, not hand over their ideological orientation to Higher education. I am reminded of the cultural response to the Rosenbergs’ deaths in E.L. Doctorow’s novel, The Book Of Daniel, which imagines the painful life afterwards of the Rosenbergs’ oldest child, but could just as well apply to children the Weathermen or any radical family. Rhodes is no different than these committed people and the families that naturally surround them. Personally it may be hard for someone who just wants to mainstream but I believe our society is better for all the committed faiths, Right or Left, religious or secular.

Not hiding what you are anymore?

[Malvolio]

Not hiding what you are anymore?

He was never really hiding it that much to begin with, right?

[Tami]

South Florida seniors alarmed after political party was unknowingly changed to Republican

MIAMI – Despite the security at Haley Sofge Towers, a Miami-Dade public housing building, people with clipboards and Republican Party of Florida caps were in the hallways, door knocking.

It made registered NPA Armando Selva suspicious.

“They said, “We’re doing the renewals on the voter registration, would you like to renew?” Selva recalled.

Resident Juan Carlos Salazar was not suspicious at the time.

“I didn’t do anything, but they changed the party,” Salazar said, adding he noticed, “when they sent me the new registration.”

He wasn’t the only elderly resident at the public housing to come forward and say the same thing happened to them.

The realizations came after a Local 10 News report in December about an 84-year-old lifelong Miami Democrat who was shocked to receive a new, changed voter identification card.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

South Florida seniors alarmed after political party was unknowingly changed to Republican

Well now, this is a stunt I’ve never heard of before. More skullduggery from the Party of No Platform or Morality.

[JackDaw]

Things go from bad to worse to much worse for Boris Johnson…it’s sadly got to point that the old joke about politicians lying patently applies to him (“How do you tell he’s lying? Simple…check whether his lips are moving.”)

The latest episode is one of his chief aides resigning because Boris made obviously untrue and slanderous remarks about Sir Keir Starmer in Parliament…remarks which would result in Boris paying massive damages if he repeated them outside Parliament. Once Boris was exposed…as usual it was everybody else’s fault for misunderstanding what he said, etc, etc.

It’s got to point where you wonder how any Conservative mp with integrity can really want him as leader. I suppose if he was a genius leader in other respects you might hold your nose, and soldier on with him in charge…but basically he’s pretty useless all round.

[seismic-2]

Wining and losing slates is consistent with what I said to be based on review of the legality of types of ballots hence throwing out the now illegal ballots in PA would have give PA a different winning slate. The review however was not allowed and the results were bum rushed to congress.

You apparently have a profound misunderstanding of how the Electoral College operates, if you truly believe that electors for a party other than the one that was certified to have won the election in a State can just go ahead and cast their own Electoral ballots anyway.

[Kirby101]

You apparently have a profound misunderstanding of how the Electoral College operates, if you truly believe that electors for a party other than the one that was certified to have won the election in a State can just go ahead and cast their own Electoral ballots anyway.

[Mister Mets]

Not hiding what you are anymore?

I may be missing something with the headlines comment, but I don't think he's suggesting it's a wrong thing for conservative Jews to raise children a particular way.

He's looking at the logic of an argument, rather than suggesting that it's a good idea to call someone who grew up in a conservative Jewish household a cultist.