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

[Tami]

Let's see between Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News and the biggest media mogul on the planet versus Donald Trump who is *checks notes* *frowns* *puts on glasses* overseer of multiple bankruptices, in debt to a tune of $427million and many more, and is in all likelihood not even an actual billionaire.

Murdoch's a scumbag too but between him and Trump, I don't see Trump having a chance.

I honestly think that Trump wants to take down all news and other media outlets and replace them with Trump; Trump TV, Trump News, Trump Tribune, Trump Post, DTNN (Donald Trump News Network), and so on.

That is probably lurking in his twisted mind.

[Tendrin]

Uh, hey... WBE?

MISSOURI. The three adult children of St Rep-elect Rick Roeber (R) made an open plea to the incoming House Speaker to not seat their father, saying he physically, psychologically and sexually abused them when they were minors.

https://www.kansascity.com/news/poli...247100132.html

[BeastieRunner]

Uh, hey... WBE?



https://www.kansascity.com/news/poli...247100132.html

That means he's a fine candidate!

[DrNewGod]

...It's not a given that authoritarianism and fascism are easily reproducible. Strong personalities like Trump don't always reproduce linearly. When Hitler died...that was it for the German far-right for a long time (until very recently with AfD, and even they don't have a Hitler). With Mussolini, something similar.

That's not to say the danger isn't real, but it's also a threat you can't anticipate right away, and you shouldn't make the mistake of overestimating someone. That can be just as bad as underestimating them.

In both of the examples you offer, the countries were pretty well bombed into gravel from end to end, at least professing to blame the fascist leader for their plight, and occupied - indeed, saturated - for several years by those that deposed their leader. Nobody's rehabilitating the defeated lot in this case, even if they could, and their resentments will be at high boil for some time.

Still, I do agree that it isn't inevitable. As I also said in another part of the post you reference, I've of two minds about this.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump ‘plans to wreck Fox’ as revenge for Election Night coverage — and start his own media company: report

Well, it’s been said Trump’s presidential run in 2016 was nothing more than a publicity stunt to build up his brand for a media network, but then, the unexpected happened when he went and won the election. So now, he’s finally getting around to constructing that network, even though his motivation is payback for Faux News pissing in the punch bowl at his re-election party.

[worstblogever]

Uh, hey... WBE?



https://www.kansascity.com/news/poli...247100132.html

Jesus f***ing Christ.

[CJStriker]

New Poll Finds Biden’s Victory Has Improved U.S. Popularity in All But Two Countries: Russia and China!

https://www.mediaite.com/election-20...sia-and-china/

[The Cool Thatguy]

New Poll Finds Biden’s Victory Has Improved U.S. Popularity in All But Two Countries: Russia and China!

https://www.mediaite.com/election-20...sia-and-china/

Not being super crazy helps!

[Amadeus Arkham]

[Revolutionary_Jack]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...lped-biden-win

As exit polls and voter data are crunched, one of the major narratives coming out of this election is that Black voters helped propel Biden to victory, especially in cities such as Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh, where Black voter turnout was critical. Much of the turnout among Biden voters in general was influenced by concerns about police and racism. According to The Associated Press VoteCast survey, 68% of Biden voters said these were serious issues, 63% said that the criminal justice system needed a complete overhaul or major changes, and 53% said that protests against police violence were an important factor for this election.

Police violence protests led to a “heightened awareness and increase in people across the country wanting to be engaged,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. “We began to push that it was important for people to move from protest to power at the ballot box and then we saw a large turnout. I don’t think we can provide empirical evidence, but I can say there has been hype energy ever since George Floyd and we saw a lot of that leading up to Election Day, in the early vote, and on Election Day.”

The NAACP saw a huge influx of donations and financial support after the George Floyd protests, said Johnson. That was also true for many other Black-led organizations, particularly in Pittsburgh, where Biden needed a strong showing from Black voters to help counter the densely red suburbs and collar counties of western Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh-based organization 1Hood, a Black youth activist network that has been doing social justice work since 2006, experienced a surge in funding this summer from philanthropic and corporate donors due to their work organizing protests against police violence. According to its co-founder Jasiri X, grants from companies such as American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and Starbucks Corp. this year helped 1Hood meet its goal of unseating Trump.

“It was that organizing around police violence that actually led us to be able to mobilize folks to the polls,” says X. “We took that energy and those resources that we got and for the first time we were able to hire people, and to recruit digital canvassers, and put money into things like voting festivals because we had access to those resources.”

-----

Defund the Police
Another wildcard for this year’s election was the elevation of the “defund/abolish the police” battle cry, which for many protesters also formed their flagship policy demand. It ended up spooking many Democrat elected officials, especially those running close races — Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina has criticized this particular “sloganeering,” arguing that it is impractical, while Representative Conor Lamb, who represents parts of Pittsburgh and its outer suburbs, told the New York Times that the language likely cost the Democratic Party some House seats. Lamb, a former U.S. Attorney, won his race last week against former Army Ranger Sean Parnell.

But the activists Citylab spoke with said that the “defund/abolish the police” language had the opposite effect, especially by capturing many first-time and infrequent Black voters. The banner may have even had a positive effect on voter recruitment in some of Pittsburgh’s whiter suburbs, where there were several anti-police violence protests over the summer, and where both Biden and Trump needed to net voters to win. For Walker-Montgomery, the discussion around defunding or abolishing police departments was imperative to connecting with voters.

“Some of the white people in our communities didn’t like the word ‘defund,’ so they would say, ‘Why can’t you say reallocate?’” said Walker-Montgomery. “Our response was if you really want to address white supremacy then you have to get at the premise of it, which is keeping white people comfortable. We say defund because that’s what we mean.”

The same went for Minor-Spencer, who balked at the idea that she and her volunteers may have to water down their approach in order to appease those sensitive to the issue.

“What you are saying to me is my language is making you uncomfortable and you want me to rearrange what I have to say when all you have to do is ask, ‘What does that mean?’” said Minor-Spencer. “The Pittsburgh police budget was $100 million in 2018 and then went up to $114 million in 2020. So let’s talk about that extra $14 million and putting it into mental health services, or social services in schools. These are the things that we need while what you want is comfort.”

The political advocacy network Order of the Phoenix, which did a lot of voter engagement work in Pittsburgh’s predominantly white suburbs, did experience an uptick in volunteers of the summer months of protests, said Marie Norman, one of its leaders, but she couldn’t determine if that was from police demonstrations. In fact, the language around “defund/abolish” police actually made some of her volunteers nervous. However, she said she thought the protests “probably did get more people registered to vote, and that was good.”

Perhaps the crowning achievement was when the Pittsburgh Steelers decided to put out a statement against police violence and place Antwon Rose Jr.’s name on their helmets this season—no small matter given the Steelers’ usual course of avoiding political issues and their silence around Rose’s killing when it happened in 2018. Some of the Steelers players showed up for voter registration and early balloting events organized by PA Black Votes Matter and 1Hood. The professional athletes got involved due to an intervention from mogul Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, the NFL, and Rose’s mother Michelle Kenney, who herself became an advocate for police reform as a result of her son being killed.

“Once people began to not only protest, but take over the streets, take over these public safety buildings, these police departments, I don't think we understood how powerful our vote was,” said Kenney. The protests “inspired a whole bunch of people to get involved in this election because we understood that the laws needed to change and that the people that we had in positions weren't willing to make those changes. We finally came to the understanding that until these laws that allow these police officers to take these lives with no penalty — no accountability, nothing — were changed, we would be stuck.”

Conor Lamb can go suck a lemon.

[Amadeus Arkham]

Does anyone here see Tucker Carlson running in 2024 if Trump opts out of re-election?

[Tami]

Does anyone here see Tucker Carlson running in 2024 if Trump opts out of re-election?

Everyone and their mothers will be running so long as they don't have to deal with Trump.

[Amadeus Arkham]

Imagine if the COVID-19 had happened in 2017 as opposed to 2020 and we were left with Trump having to handle the crisis for four years. We’d be so screwed.

[worstblogever]

Does anyone here see Tucker Carlson running in 2024 if Trump opts out of re-election?

No. Tucker Carlson is loathed WAY too much. How does someone who can't get a sponsor for his primetime TV show outside of the MyPillowGuy expect to get campaign donations?

[mogwen]

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/s...89666055299074

Laurie Garrett warns that Trump might try to steal the electoral voters.
Not sure but you might be vigilant, he might not be above bribing, intimidating or blackmailing individual voters. I'm sure a few shady officines might be at work.