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

[worstblogever]

• November 11th, 2020: Gov. DeSantis personally drafts legislation to allow Florida citizens to shoot “looters and rioters” that would apply the Stand Your Ground Defense to anyone encountering civil protesters. The bill is written to also allow drivers to run over protesters who “block traffic”, encouraging right-wing terrorists to run over protesters.
• November 26th, 2020: Epidemiologists are dumbfounded by Ron DeSantis’ decision to extend an executive order barring municipalities throughout from Florida from enacting mask mandates as the number of infections reaches the highest levels since the pandemic started. Some go as far as to comment that the Governor of Florida is “on a killing spree”.
• December 7th, 2020: Gov. DeSantis orders law enforcement to send a SWAT team to do a raid on the home of former Dept. of Public Health official Rebekah Jones as retribution for her telling the public the truth about his incompetent response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and during their raid, the officers point weapons at her children.
• April 16th, 2021: As Congressman Matt Gaetz is implicated in a sex-trafficking ring that includes a minor, and thus, also a child sex trafficking ring, the media notes Gaetz’s friendship with DeSantis, where he referred to himself as the “Robin” to DeSantis’ Batman. A top campaign donor of Ron DeSantis, Jason Pirozzolo is implicated in criminal activity, as is a top administration staffer, Halsey Beshears.
• April 18th, 2021: A report drops that the DeSantis administration’s “Seniors First” policy on distributing the Covid-19 vaccine specifically worked to get the life-saving vaccine to his rich political donors first, in a brazen show of corruption.
• May 6th, 2021: Ron DeSantis signs SB 90, a bill aimed at targeting voting rights in Florida, and to help him suppress the vote to aid his own re-election chances in 2022. In a shocking move, he has the bill-signing ceremony live on Fox and Friends.
• May 30th, 2021: Almost a year after she went public with the DeSantis administration’s malfeasance on Covid-19 safety and manipulation of data, Rebekah Jones is granted Whistleblower Protections.
• June 1st, 2021: Ron DeSantis signs the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act”, a bill targeting transgender athletes in public schools and universities to ban them from playing in any sport as any gender other than the one of their birth.
• August 19th, 2021: Florida, due to DeSantis’ incompetence and insistence on doing nothing to stop the Covid-19 pandemic, breaks is own record for Covid-19 hospitializations, getting just shy of 17,000 patients in hospitals with Covid-19 in a single day.
• September 23rd, 2021: Gov. DeSantis’ Covid-19 idiocy sets another record, with 1213 Floridians dying from the disease in a single day. Just his state, 1213 people.
• September 10th, 2021: Ron DeSantis comes out hard as schools reopen against enforcing mask mandates in schools, as well as vaccinations for Covid-19… meanwhile, schools are asked to enforce dress code rules and vaccinate children against over a dozen other diseases before being granted admission.
• September 13th, 2021: Gov. DeSantis threatens cities and counties in Florida with penalties if they mandate vaccines for public employees, before giving a bats*** press conference filled with Covid-19 misinformation.
• October 24th, 2021: DeSantis actively tries to recruit anti-vaxxer cops refusing to be vaccinated in other states to come to Florida, promising them bonuses to come and spread disease when they should be serving and protecting.
• January 6th, 2022: News breaks about how Gov. DeSantis let over a million Covid-19 testing kits expire without being used before their expiration date in Florida. He lies and says there was “no demand” for them, in spite of sold-out stocks in stores, and massive lines at testing sites.
• January 25th, 2022: In yet another press conference where he spreads Covid-19 misinformation, Ron DeSantis continues to claim that antibody treatments of Regeneron are a great method for treating Covid-19, even though the FDA reported that they were useless.
  Perhaps not coincidentally, DeSantis is personally invested in the company that makes Regeneron.
• February 1st, 2022: After Neo-Nazis go on the march in Orlando, the press ask both Gov. DeSantis and his press secretary to make a statement, and for some weird reason… Ron Desantis won’t condemn Nazis, and instead spins the question about the unsettling protest into complaints about Joe Biden and Democrats.
  Because that’s his priorities. Nazis rank higher than Democrats.
• February 8th, 2022: DeSantis criticizes podcaster Joe Rogan… because he APOLOGIZED FOR USING SLURS. Yes, he’s not critical because he said the slurs, but for saying he was sorry for it.
• March 2nd, 2022: Ron DeSantis bullies a group of teens standing behind him at a press conference at the University of South Florida into taking their masks off, jeopardizing all their health.
• April 19th, 2022: After signing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Gov. DeSantis takes exception to mild criticism from Disney executives over the "Don't Say Gay Bill", and threatens to take away Disney World’s tax-exempt status. He of course, was forgetting that the company would be owed roughly a billion dollars from local municipalities if it happened.
• April 22th, 2022: DeSantis signs the “Stop WOKE Act”, a bill that would prohibit workplace training or instruction to deter harassment against people for race, sexual identity, sexual orientation, or their country of origin.
• June 8th, 2022: Gov. DeSantis’ personal propagandist, press secretary Christina Pushaw, has to retroactively register as a foreign agent, forgetting to mention that she used to work for a authoritarian dictator in the Republican of Georgia.
• June 12th, 2022: Not content to just have signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, DeSantis begins threatening to investigate any parent who takes their child to a drag show (in spite of said shows often being aimed at “all ages” in terms of content).
• June 16th, 2022: The FDA approves the Covid-19 vaccine for toddlers. Ron DeSantis refuses to preorder it, because those children are out of the womb, and therefore, ready to die by GOP standards.

Rumors are already beginning that should DeSantis somehow survive re-election via all his voter suppression activities in Florida in 2022, that he would be a dark horse presidential candidate should Donald Trump be unavailable due to health concerns or an acute case of incarceration by the time 2024 rolls around. Based on the above timeline, that’s a terrifying alternative.

[achilles]

Seems to me to be a terrible idea.

https://ktla.com/news/california/cal...ude-amendment/

Not sure advocating indentured servitude is a great idea, but it appears to be one that has support in other states, if not yet in CA. Scary if you ask me.

[CSTowle]

I disagree with your interpretation, but I do understand it.

It is different from the point I was responding to, which implied that the justices should make decisions to bring upon preferred legislative outcomes.

I honestly have no idea what would happen in a second conventional convention.

The likeliest answer is nothing. This is a divided country, and you would need all sorts of supermajority votes for anything close to a new constitution. That seems hard to pull off.

There will also be all sorts of legal wrangling, as this is an option that's been on the books for centuries but hasn't been utilized. There would be all sorts of legal fights. Are the procedures affected by the 14th amendment which changed the relationship with the states? What counts as a state ratifying an amendment? Would decisions to make procedures be easier be legal (IE- can a supermajority vote to allow future amendments to pass if a majority of delegates agree)?

But it would be unpredictable. If Bernie supporters have the level of organization for a convention as they did for Democratic caucuses, they might very well punch above their weight in rules committees. Or some other group might dominate.

I completely understand the argument that the current court is failing to do its job. But I don't think the right response is to suggest that progressive judges fight for progressive causes the same way conservative judges are perceived as fighting for conservative causes.

It's a resignation that only occurred because of the promise of a deal.

On a Convention, it's true we don't know the outcome. But we can use logic and observe politics in the recent past to say that left-wing activists would be fighting an uphill battle against the right and the center and would likely not have much input. And I'd argue that those pushing for this are on the right, and not your MAGA hothead types but the long-game player Heritage Foundation types who are going to have their ducks in a row and are the reason we have a 6-3 Court.

I'd bet heavily on the outcome favoring the same white/christian/hetero/wealthy folk who have too much say in government already. Again, hope I'm wrong and that it never happens. But 10 years ago I'd have said Roe is here to stay, and 20 years ago that there was no chance a fascist/theocratic movement would gain traction in this country beyond the old GOP establishment placating Evangelicals to get votes for tax cuts. I was wrong, and I'm going to be on the lookout for what's coming next.

On whether Left Judges should fight for Left causes like Civil Rights, protecting citizens from the influence of large interests like corporations, and so on or instead trying to do their best to stay impartial while 6 Justices are working on turning the US into Gilead I say to hell with that.

https://twitter.com/SawyerHackett/st...DIfoPy_vGKRXTQ

This is my shocked face. I was right.


2 Secret Service sources told CNN that Trump angrily demanded to be taken to the Capitol on January 6, partly confirming Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimony

Few things. 1. The reports (while contradictory) say he was angry and lunged forward. Not that he assaulted a Secret Service agent.

2. That's if you're to believe two anonymous sources when two specific agents (per this report) are willing to go on record to refute at least part of her testimony and for some reason aren't being called. We could speculate that the committee doesn't feel it's necessary, but it's also reasonable to speculate they'd rather not have contradictory testimony to the narrative they're crafting even if it confirms part of it because that allows for doubt from the general public and specifically of the worst case scenario (that he assaulted a Secret Service agent trying to take control of the vehicle to be on the ground and in the s##t with his rioters). Keeping in mind you said yourself that "these people are all like Bongino, you can't believe a word they say" (I guess unless you like what they have to say, then credibility and consistency be damned).

3. Even if this man, who has shown no history of fighting someone who could hit back or be a threat to him or ever placing himself in danger or at risk, decided today was the day to be a bad-ass and take on his security because this was his moment to shine actually did place hands on him or at least towards him (in which case by your standards ala Giuliani it'd be no big deal) at worst they could charge him with simple assault. In the meantime, again if true (or not, it's the MAGA crowd so facts and reality are optional compared to a favored narrative though I guess not only for them now) he gets to play this off like he wanted to be a hero and charge the Capitol with his people but was physically prevented from doing so while at the same time having the legal wiggle room to say he wanted to go down to make sure it was a peaceful protest and was prevented by his security, so if anything it's the system to blame for things getting out of hand.

This is what we're dealing with here, people who will do one thing and say another and get away with both. Even if true this isn't a smoking gun and is flimsy at best in proving intent. Whatever you might want to believe, look at reality and what he's gotten away with so far. Does this really seem airtight to you even if it were all confirmed?

So now you have sworn testimony by a woman who puts herself at risk from doing it, who saw the actual emotions of the people after it happened, and you have stories that stories about the incident circulated for years. And some anonymous claims that it did not happen, and your belief that Trump is a sweet teddy bear.

Sounds legit.

What doesn't sound legit is someone trying to pass off serious doubts about the legitimacy of this story as being "in the bag for Trump". I intensely dislike this man, I voted against him and likely am going to have to yet again in 2 years, and I vote almost exclusively straight-ticket blue. I am not a right-winger or even a centrist. What I am is a realist. And realistically, this isn't the win you think it is. And attacking anyone for pointing that out as "part of it" does indeed seem like the ramblings of a Q supporter. "Anyone who's not an ally is an enemy". Which is funny, because many on this board say the left is concerned with "purity tests". Guess it's different when it's your test.

As far as testifying at "risk to herself", Trump is a deeply disloyal human being who attracts deeply disloyal human beings. It's why he's so concerned with loyalty. And why so many people have turned on him who were once "trusted" advisors. Realistically, would it shock you to find out she was just another hanger-on who knew her time in the Trump circle was over so she decided to make a name for herself and maybe get a minute of fame and a book advance by exaggerating a story she'd heard, and saying the proper bad things about the guy everyone wanted to hear bad things about? Logically speaking would that shock you looking at the disloyalty around him and not having any reason to think she's got the sort of unimpeachable character or moral fortitude that should have disqualified her from being part of his circle (however minor) in the first place?

The truth will come out. And currently, it looks like you fell for the coverup.

Falling for something means holding a strong belief one way or another. Asking questions of questionable people because I don't want to be roped in by my own biases, and want to make sure if we nail him it's for something real and will stick? That makes me realistic, and I hope that whatever the board feels the people who are sitting on that committee have that level-headedness and also have their ducks in a row instead of grasping for whatever feels good to believe or will sound good in the next news cycle. I don't want yet another scandal that goes nowhere like the dozens he's already had come and go to no effect. I want him nailed. I'm just not sure this is the smoking gun we all want it to be.

Never underestimate how far someone can bury their head in the sand with Trump. Especially someone with a track record of digging in and spending hours if not days digging in and posting and posting rather than admit they were wrong. The Washington Post interviewed 15 people who acknowledged they have also heard a version of the story Hutchinson told from other sources. Two of those 15 were members of the Secret Service.

That probably won't be enough to get them to pull said head out of the sand, or wherever else it might be placed.

I'd again say those burying their heads are the ones who won't tolerate debate or questioning of their preferred narrative. But feel free to answer the same questions I gave the Captain. We should all examine our biases and ask questions even of our allies (especially of our allies, as they're the only ones likely to take our advice or political pressure to heart if they do step out of line).

But who are they to believe Tami? Trump, or their lying eyes? LOL.

Again, what do they show exactly? And what does that mean, exactly? But again, belittle to dismiss the argument rather than engaging. It's certainly an easier way to go about things.

[CSTowle]

Seems to me to be a terrible idea.

https://ktla.com/news/california/cal...ude-amendment/

Not sure advocating indentured servitude is a great idea, but it appears to be one that has support in other states, if not yet in CA. Scary if you ask me.

When people ask, "what things will society be horrified about 50 years ago that we're doing today?" this legalized form of slavery is near the top of the list. I'm curious if my neighboring state Vermont moving away from this also includes such preventions when they ship prisoners to other states for lack of facilities. Maybe that's a way to backdoor it into other states who take the prisoners for money, get a movement going when prisoners from other states see the difference in treatment.

[Tami]

Thomas says he doesn't know why he was selected for SCOTUS. It's obvious.

In a newly released book about his life, archconservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas seems confused as to why he was selected to serve on the court.

Isn’t that precious?

Thomas, according to an excerpt reported by Business Insider, is quoted as saying, “I have no idea why or how I got nominated. All I know is that Justice Marshall retired, and that was a shock.”

“My reaction was, ‘Oh no, this is going to be bad," he said. "People will go on a rumor that I’m one of the nominees."

If only I could speak to Thomas then. I’d tell him 1) you have far worse allegations to worry about, and 2) the reason you’re being chosen is because you’re a bigoted mascot for a white nationalist party.

If that sounds harsh to you, know this: The idea isn’t novel. In fact, there were reports at the time about the pressure on then-President George H.W. Bush to name a Black, right-wing justice to replace liberal Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black person to sit on the court.

Once Thomas was seated and showed conservatives he would eagerly defend their wishes, the right’s praise for him became all the more cringeworthy. And you don’t have to take my word for it.

[Tami]

How the Russian Media Spread False Claims About Ukrainian Nazis

In the months since President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called the invasion of Ukraine a “denazification” mission, the lie that the government and culture of Ukraine are filled with dangerous “Nazis” has become a central theme of Kremlin propaganda about the war.

A data set of nearly eight million articles about Ukraine collected from more than 8,000 Russian websites since 2014 shows that references to Nazism were relatively flat for eight years and then spiked to unprecedented levels on Feb. 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine. They have remained high ever since.

The data, provided by Semantic Visions, a defense analytics company, includes major Russian state media outlets in addition to thousands of smaller Russian websites and blogs. It gives a view of Russia’s attempts to justify its attack on Ukraine and maintain domestic support for the ongoing war by falsely portraying Ukraine as being overrun by far-right extremists.

News stories have falsely claimed that Ukrainian Nazis are using noncombatants as human shields, killing Ukrainian civilians and planning a genocide of Russians.

The strategy was most likely intended to justify what the Kremlin hoped would be a quick ouster of the Ukrainian government, said Larissa Doroshenko, a researcher at Northeastern University who studies disinformation. “It would help to explain why they’re establishing this new country in a sense,” Dr. Doroshenko said. “Because the previous government were Nazis, therefore they had to be replaced.”

“The current Ukrainian state is not a Nazi state by any stretch of the imaginiation,” Dr. Veidlinger said. “I would argue that what Putin is actually afraid of is the spread of democracy and pluralism from Ukraine to Russia. But he knows that the accusation of Nazism is going to unite his population.”

[Jack Dracula]

https://twitter.com/Thom_Hartmann/st...79225254559744

2022 may be the most important midterms in US history.
Conservative legislatures in key states may be granted the right to submit their own chosen slate of electors if given probable cause, such as excessive claims of election fraud or interference in particular districts.

The plan for the origins of those excessive claims is being enacted now.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...tapes-00035758

The state legislatures don't actually need real evidence of election fraud, just allegations to indicate a possibility. They don't need a fire, just enough smoke to declare the results invalid and they can submit their own conservative electors.

[achilles]

When people ask, "what things will society be horrified about 50 years ago that we're doing today?" this legalized form of slavery is near the top of the list. I'm curious if my neighboring state Vermont moving away from this also includes such preventions when they ship prisoners to other states for lack of facilities. Maybe that's a way to backdoor it into other states who take the prisoners for money, get a movement going when prisoners from other states see the difference in treatment.

Sorry, I think I read that wrong. I think this reads to say that California already HAS indentured servitude, and they rejected an amendment to the CA constitution to ELIMINATE it as a punishment for crime. Eek, my bad I think. Though maybe that article could have been worded a bit better. In any event, it's a bad idea and I'm rather astonished to see it appear.

[Tendrin]

How the Russian Media Spread False Claims About Ukrainian Nazis

I am shocked, /shocked/ that the claims of 'Ukronazis' are bullshit. It's almost as if that one guy trying to convince us that Ukraine put all the bodies in Bucha was a total moron!

[Mister Mets]

Can we agree that this type of stuff is embarrassing?



And from the left...



This makes it hard to take politicians seriously.

[CaptainEurope]

Donald Trump has accelerated his campaign planning, hoping a White House bid will blunt a series of damaging revelations.

[Odd Rödney]

The Supreme Court is not supposed to make decisions about hastening or mitigating a climate emergency. Their role is to interpret the law, not to make it.

Whether it's interpretation or implementation the decision comes with serious consequences. Meanwhile, you're over here quibbling over this, trying to make your pedantic nuance here into something bigger than it is.

It is different from the point I was responding to, which implied that the justices should make decisions to bring upon preferred legislative outcomes.

Once again, did they not just make decisions to bring the preferred legislative outcomes of the religious right to fruition by striking down Roe v. Wade? They did.

I can't tell if you're insincerely here to just increase the blood pressure of folks or if you're legitimately trying to make sense here. In a way, I kind of hope it's neither.

[SquirrelMan]

Donald Trump has accelerated his campaign planning, hoping a White House bid will blunt a series of damaging revelations.

It's both an opportunity for more grifting, and a way to claim he is just being attacked as part of campaign games.

[Malvolio]

What is wrong with Americans?

The MSM (and I'm not just talking about FOX News here) has done a pretty good job, ever since Watergate, of telling us that we should take anything coming out of a politician's mouth, regardless of party affiliation, with a grain of salt. And for some people, if we shouldn't believe what the government tells us about A,B and C, then we CAN believe what QAnon tells us about D,E and F. That applies even when there's no proof, as long as it sounds plausible. Like I always say, conspiracy theories tend to be long on motive, but short on evidence.

[SquirrelMan]

The new Harvard-Harris poll is all kinds of depressing.