1. #37186
    Ultimate Member Gray Lensman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JackDaw View Post
    Is there any great distinction between racism and what I think of as “negation nationalism”?? (For me, nationalism is positive when its about loving your own country, negative when it’s about disliking other countries.)

    I ask because at recent meeting with a group of friends we got to discussing forthcoming wedding of one friends daughter (British) to a French guy.

    The French guys parents are being a wee bit difficult…for example…they have said they won’t be eating any of the food (“English crap”) and want all the speeches in French (my mate and his family are fluent, but would prefer some of the speeches in English because of some of the guests.)

    When my mate was explaining this…it was like pressing the destruct button…a fair number of the group went on massive monologues against all things French.
    You reminded me of a quote, although I can't remember the source. A patriot loves his country, a nationalist merely hates other countries.
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  2. #37187
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Don Young is the rare Republican who’s not afraid of Trump — or of saying he needs to ‘shut up’

    Rep. Don Young knew the call would not end well, as the Alaska Republican forcefully rejected Donald Trump’s plea to oppose the more than $1 trillion infrastructure legislation.

    How did the former president take the news?

    “Not well,” Young recalled, but there wasn’t any shouting. “No, no, no, no, no.”

    Young, 88, the longest-serving member of Congress, thought about all the contradictions he saw in Trump, particularly the chaotic style that made him a politically toxic figure.
    “I think his policy is just so good,” Young said during a 45-minute interview this week. “Just shut up — that’s all he has to do. He’s not going to. I know that.”
    Of all the Republicans Trump has targeted in the past few months, none have quite the carefree attitude of Young. His political sin was voting Nov. 5 for the massive infrastructure package over Trump’s objection, along with his quick embrace of the 2020 election results that showed Joe Biden’s victory.

    Yet during his decades-long career, Young has already defeated the FBI, both congressional ethics committees, the coronavirus and every political challenger since his 1972 loss to a congressman who was probably dead at the time.
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  3. #37188
    Braddock Isle JB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malvolio View Post
    I like Chris Cuomo, but clearly, there is a huge conflict of interest here. CNN had no choice but to take the action they took.
    Perhaps CNN knew this was coming and they felt it best to remove Chris before it officially hit the wires.

    DOJ probing Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment claims, contract reveals
    https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/02/doj-...t-reveals.html

    The U.S. Justice Department is probing claims of sexual harassment by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a newly disclosed document reveals.
    Cuomo already was known to be facing criminal investigations by various New York state district attorneys for conduct toward women.
    The federal investigation by the DOJ was disclosed in a legal services contract the office of current Gov. Kathy Hochul signed with the law firm Wilkie Farr & Gallagher.
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  4. #37189
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Republicans defy COVID vaccine policy at the N.J. Statehouse, ignoring troopers who tried to stop them

    A number of Republican members of the state Assembly openly defied a new COVID-19 vaccine policy at the New Jersey Statehouse on Thursday and took their seats to cast votes anyway — a surreal scene that at one point included a 15-minute standoff between indignant conservative lawmakers and State Police troopers who tried to stop them from entering the chamber.

    The policy, installed Wednesday to combat the coronavirus pandemic, calls for all people to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative test to enter the Statehouse. But a half-dozen Republicans, members of the minority party in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature, would not present either document when asked by troopers who were standing at the entrance to the Assembly.
    “This is tyranny, folks,” Assemblyman Erik Peterson, R-Hunterdon, said as the legislators packed together at the door. “They’re not letting the minority party vote.”

    Lawmakers who refuse to comply with the policy are actually allowed to vote remotely, but the Republicans — many of whom hail from conservative districts in northwestern Jersey — said they had a constitutional right to be in their seats.
    After a few minutes, another Republican, Assemblyman Brian Bergen, R-Morris, told the lawmakers that the troopers said they would not “physically restrain us.”

    “We can just walk past them,” Bergen said.
    “I know you’re just doing your jobs. But this is horses****,” state Sen. Holly Schepisi said as she showed troopers her vaccine card while walking into the Senate chambers.

    This all comes a day after top Republicans in both the Senate and Assembly filed a lawsuit in State Superior Court seeking to block the policy, which a little-known state commission approved in October as New Jersey.

    Republicans argued in the motion that the policy is an “unprecedented overreach by a state agency,” that it violates the state Constitution, and that it prevents a portion of the public from participating in the legislative process.v
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  5. #37190
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    5 cases of Omicron in US, at least one from someone who caught it at Anime Con NYC.
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    Now, if we're going to talk about the mental fitness of octogenarians in politics... Don Young has been questionable for almost a decade now. And based on his takes on Trump... WHAT POLICY IS SO GOOD? He doesn't have any. He's talking nonsense.
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  7. #37192

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    On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day posted profiles of Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, whose real name is Dannie Goeb, but he legally changed it in 2003 after he rose in the ranks of the Texas Republican cult of personality over a fifteen year career working as a conservative talk show host. He made numerous racist remarks on his show, particularly directed at Asians, including discussing trade negotiations between the Clinton administration and China by speaking in pidgin English and pronouncing Clinton’s name as “President Crinton”. Patrick has also insisted illegal immigrants are bringing tuberculosis and leprosy (yes, LEPROSY) into the United States, claimed ISIS is sneaking across the U.S./Mexico border, and has tried to pass legislation patterned after Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 anti-immigration law. As a Texas State Senator, Dan Patrick walked out of the chamber in protest when a fellow lawmaker (who was Jewish) asked for a Muslim cleric to give a prayer before the legislature. Patrick is also fiercely opposed to abortion, comparing his rivalry with State Senator Wendy Davis to Jesus facing off with the Pharisees , and once asking a fellow legislator during a debate on abortion, “And if those aborted souls were in the gallery, what you say to them right now?” (Really, he seems to think there are ghost embryos about.) As if we needed to add anything else, Patrick has also denied the existence of a separation of church and state in the United States Constitution, and after Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson publicly bashed gay people in 2013, Patrick heralded him as one of God’s modern day prophets while spending his own money on misleading and fear-mongering ads to support ballot initiatives to ban transgendered citizens from using the public bathroom of their choice by insisting there are mythical sexual assaults taking place in those bathrooms by men in drag. In 2016, Patrick called for a boycott on Target, for suggesting that they would allow transgendered citizens to use the restroom of their choice in their stores, and in June of that year, responded to the shooting at The Pulse nightclub in Orlando by getting on Twitter and quoting the Bible passage Galatians 6:7, that seemed to indicate he felt the victims got what was coming to them.

    In 2017, Dan Patrick immediately took it upon himself to introduce a transphobic bathroom bill into the state legislature, calling it a “top priority” to prevent all the non-existent sexual assaults from the transgendered community from occurring (while conveniently doing nothing about any of the members of his own party who seem to be in the news for them these days). He continued to insist that a bill designed to discriminate is “not discriminatory. Outside of that, he has also blamed Democrats for the deaths of several undocumented immigrants who overheated in a semi as part a human smuggling ring, as their fault because of policies of “open borders”, which is about as ass-backwards logic as you might see. Or at least, it would have been had he not also got on board with arguing against the University of Texas at Austin removing Confederate statues, where he invoked Godwin’s law by mentioning Naizs, and posited a “slippery slope” argument that seemed to wonder if eventually statues at the Alamo might be taken down, too.

    Dan Patrick outraged many in 2018 after reacting to a a mass shooting at Sante Fe High School in Texas, explaining that the real problem causing mass shootings is that “too many entrances” are available to mass shooters, so buildings are harder to defend. Now, not only is this just dumb in terms of a need for gun control in Texas, but it means that Patrick fails to understand that “too many entrances” are also “many exits” for kids having to flee buildings when they’re being shot at.

    A month later, in September of 2018: Patrick, on the campaign trail, ranted impotently at Colin Kaepernick appearing in Nike’s new ad campaign (the highly successful one). He was regrettably re-elected to another term in office as Texas’ Lieutenant Governor, narrowly beating Democrat Mike Collier with only 51% of the vote. Eking out a win was due to his brilliant strategy of being a coward who doesn’t like having to have his idiocy challenged, as evidenced by Dan Patrick’s refusal to debate his opponent.

    In September of 2019, Patrick again disgusted people around the country after blaming the video game industry for mass shootings, saying they were “teaching people to kill”, and proposing the solution to curtail gun violence was to allow prayer in schools (which is obviously not constitutional). One might think that would prove that Patrick is heartless, but that would apparently be medically inaccurate because two weeks later Patrick was hospitalized with a blocked artery. He survived, only to somehow find a way to reach a new low.

    Because, as many dumbass Republicans have begun attacking public health mandates that will save lives during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dan Patrick was one of the first to rush to the microphone to encourage people to die. That sentence in no way has any hyperbole, as Patrick literally offered up not only himself, but other senior encouraged people to be willing to sacrifice the elderly in order to “save the economy”.
    While perhaps less evil of a move, but still decidedly out-of-touch with reality and partisan (Patrick’s wheelhouse), after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, Dan Patrick fanned the flames of voter fraud conspiracies by literally offering a $1 million bounty if anyone around the country had proof of any voter fraud cases. The original response he got was from Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman let him know that his state caught two REPUBLICANs trying to vote fraudulently, and said he’d like his $2 million. To the surprise of no one, Patrick, the true motherf***er that he is, didn’t pay. As time went by, he finally paid a Pennsylvania poll worker who caught another Republican who committed voter fraud... $25,000.

    We’ll note that at every step of the way during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dan Patrick has pushed back against mask mandates and vaccine mandates, but as Texas became an obvious candidate for bottom of the pack in Covid-19 cases and deaths, Patrick went on Fox News to blame African Americans for refusing to get vaccinated, and the lack of progress in stopping the virus… he blamed that on Texas Democrats…. Interesting considering that the GOP controls the Governor’s mansion, and the state legislature, and the courts there, yet they hold not responsibility.

    Dan Patrick still remains in office at the age of 70… and in 2022, is making a another run for Lieutenant Governor… which we’re hoping he loses against Democratic candidate Mike Collier. Texas Republicans may be doing everything that they can to suppress the vote to cling to power, but if anyone with an “R” from their name should have to go first, Dan Patrick would be a great start.
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  8. #37193
    Braddock Isle JB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tami View Post
    5 cases of Omicron in US, at least one from someone who caught it at Anime Con NYC.
    5 have now been detected in NY alone. Thankfully so far symptoms appear to be mild.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...vel-rules-loom
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    Old school comic book fan WestPhillyPunisher's Avatar
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    It’s a pity the troopers didn’t arrest those assholes. But then, I’m guessing the anti-vaxxers were hoping that happened so they could become martyrs for their half-assed cause.
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  10. #37195
    Invincible Jersey Ninja Tami's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jbenito View Post
    5 have now been detected in NY alone. Thankfully so far symptoms appear to be mild.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...vel-rules-loom
    My feeling is that they will find that Omicron is highly contagious, but not so dangerous. Much like the flu.
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  11. #37196
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    It's a mental coping mechanism. Nobody's the villain of their own story, and it's easy to justify bad behavior to yourself. When a good chunk of the population is taking measures like mask-wearing, getting vaccinated, social distancing, shutting down businesses that cater to crowds, and the like despite the difficulties that come with all of that and you're one of the group that is acting like a 5 year old who doesn't want to eat their vegetables (only in this case chucking some brussel sprouts down your gullet might save Grandma's life) you have to figure out a way to make yourself the hero instead of the selfish a##hole you are.

    Best way? Persecution complex. They're taking away your way of life, they're shoving it down your throats, they're on the slippery slope to marginalizing and finally carting you off to concentration camps (conspiracy thinking is helpful as well, and thanks to the internet a lot easier for folks to come together and share the crazy). You could apply any of this to Covid, or LGBTQ+ rights, or minorities getting a seat at the table, feminism, anything that doesn't include keeping white/hetero/conservative christians at the top of the food chain and everyone else in their place.

  12. #37197
    Ultimate Member Tendrin's Avatar
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    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/e...gateway-pundit



    In the year since the Trump campaign and the conspiracy theory website The Gateway Pundit cast Wandrea Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman as key players in a false narrative of election fraud, Moss hasn’t been able to sleep much.

    She’s gained 50 pounds. Her son failed multiple classes in school, as the phone he was using as an internet connection for his remote education was bombarded with racial slurs and threats. At least twice, strangers showed up to Moss’ grandmother’s home and attempted to push their way inside to perform a citizen’s arrest.
    The stochastic terrorism is the point.

  13. #37198
    Astonishing Member JackDaw's Avatar
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    There’s an obvious but interesting question posed about the Ghislaine Maxwell trial posed in todays Daily Telegraph: if the allegations against her are true, then shouldn’t other trials against an array of other people follow relentlessly??

  14. #37199
    Ultimate Member Gray Lensman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JackDaw View Post
    There’s an obvious but interesting question posed about the Ghislaine Maxwell trial posed in todays Daily Telegraph: if the allegations against her are true, then shouldn’t other trials against an array of other people follow relentlessly??
    Dep being on how much evidence can be gathered, yes.
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  15. #37200
    Astonishing Member JackDaw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gray Lensman View Post
    Dep being on how much evidence can be gathered, yes.
    If enough evidence can’t be gathered to establish a single person other than Ghislaine M committed a crime, the case against her can’t be very strong….or more worryingly US authorities have little appetite to pursue other cases because of the identities of other possible miscreants.

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