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

[CaptainEurope]

Sounds intriguing, but, I’ve seen proclamations of legal doom and gloom for Trump before and he keeps skating free. Would these new revelations in any way, shape or form keep him off the ballot next year? I mean, even if indictments were to come down say, next week, Trump’s lawyers would file delay after delay after delay to gum up the works while he runs for office again. If I’m wrong about all that, so be it, but, I don’t know if it’ll stop Trump from campaigning.

WPP, he has been arrested in NYC. The trial date has been set. He was also found liable in the sexual assault civil suit. He has stopped "skating free" months ago.

[worstblogever]

In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, a former pastor who has referred to same sex marriage as “an attack upon the family” while campaigning for office, thinks being gay is a choice, refers to climate change a myth, spoke at length about his frustration of endangered birds receiving more protection from the government than fetuses, blamed the Sandy Hook Massacre on “welfare moms overmedicating their kids to get more benefits” and in June of 2016 against a measure that would have made it illegal for firearms transfers to people who were suspected terrorists on the “no fly list”. His Christian principles lead him to believe migrant children should be thrown out of the country because in the Bible, being kind to strangers doesn’t specify that they should be citizens of the country you live in. Seriously, this guy is such a fanatic when he was asked about the national debt, his solution was to pray that it gets better. He currently is pushing for “religious freedom” legislation because he defines no being allowed to discriminate against gay people as “being targeted for his faith”, claiming they are the real victims in a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” situation. Lankford’s also prolifically absent in Congress when it comes time to vote, as he missed almost 10% of them from his final term serving in the House. Near the end of our 2015 entry about Lankford, we noted he had found himself amongst the #47Traitors, for writing a letter to the leaders of Iran trying to undermine the peace treaty that the Obama administration had arranged with them, and was campaigning to push for national “religious freedom” laws to allow for the discrimination of LGBTQ citizens and prevent them from having equal rights based on the supposed faith of who was discriminating against them. He has also voted to defund Planned Parenthood, voted to maintain the gun rights of people on the no-fly list so they could procure firearms for mass shootings, voted to try and block Syrian refugees from being resettled in the United States, and refused to consider Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court because “he isn’t conservative enough”, waiting a year to vote for Neil Gorsuch.

Through his career, James Lankford, he has made several troubling votes, including continuing to vote for every Trump administration nominee, no matter how unqualified or utterly appalling (including torture maven Gina Haspel to be the head of the CiA), he voted against disaster relief funding for victims of Hurricane Harvey back in October of 2017 (he always wants tornado relief for his state, of course), and in December of 2017, he voted for the big GOP Tax Plan Scam.

For all that party line bulls***, does Sen. Lankford never got any love from the Trump White House. HA! No. Trump doesn’t even know his name, he calls him “Tom”. And yet… he still blindly supports him.

Or in other key votes:

• February 14th, 2019: Lankford votes to approve the nomination of William Barr to be the country’s Attorney General, even though he was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s. (SPOILER ALERT: He’s still crooked as a snake with scoliosis).
• January 31st, 2020: Sen. Lankford votes against witnesses being allowed in the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump, effectively making it a “trial”.
• February 5th, 2020: James Lankford votes against the first impeachment of Donald Trump, in spite of the mountain of evidence showing that he solicited foreign assistance in the 2020 elections.
• February 25th, 2020: Lankford co-sponsors and votes for the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, an insane piece of anti-choice legislation that would ask abortion providers to try to admit aborted fetuses to a hospital if they were “alive” after the procedure, which is medically impossible given the age that abortions can be performed at.
• February 13th, 2021: Sen. Lankford votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because accountability for inciting a violent coup attempt is somehow anathema to the majority of the Republican Party.
• March 6th, 2021: Lankford votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he can’t be bothered to care if people need financial assistance during a pandemic.
• May 28th, 2021: Sen. Lankford votes against creating an independent commission to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol, because he knows members of his own caucus are up to their eyeballs in seditious activities, and he’ll cover for Donald Trump’s coup crew any time.
• March 30th, 2022: Lankford votes against putting the extremely qualified nominee, Judge Kentanji Brown-Jackson, onto the Supreme Court.

James Lankford spent most of the Covid-19 pandemic fretting about the fact that people received any of their stimulus money, opining that they were being given a “disincentivize” from going back to work, and that a $1200 payment was “too generous”.

Because we know a pastor must have read the Bible and learned all the important lessons where Jesus thumbed his nose at the poor and sick. BUT SPEAKING OF PASTORS… Lankford has a 2022 GOP Primary challenger for his Senate seat, and it’s… another pastor! But before you go thinking there’s a Republican with a conscience to actually tout the hypocrisy Lankford has shown as a Christian… Jackson Lahmeyer, his 29 year old challenger, was endorsed by the pardoned Trump-aligned felon, former General Michael Flynn, and attacked Lankford for not being loyal ENOUGH to Donald Trump.

Only three days before the Republican primary, James Lankford had a bit of a problem for any politician, in the form of a deposition he made back in 2010 during a church abuse investigation. You see, then Pastor Lankford told authorities he believed that a 13 year old could consent to having sex. Which… nope. Nowhere in the United States is that not statutory rape.

So of course, the people of Oklahoma re-elected James Lankford to another six year term by a two-to-one margin of victory, even though he’s fine with adults having sex with adolescents. This is now the senior senator from Oklahoma, in his third term in office.

This is also why we drink.

[Kirby101]

WPP, he has been arrested in NYC. The trial date has been set. He was also found liable in the sexual assault civil suit. He has stopped "skating free" months ago.

He'll never pay the settlement (it will be paid by idiot donors who love him) and until he is behind bars and bankrupt, he is skating free.

[JT221]

This is also why we drink.

True.

face-with-tears-of-joy_1f602.jpg

[WestPhillyPunisher]

He'll never pay the settlement (it will be paid by idiot donors who love him) and until he is behind bars and bankrupt, he is skating free.

My thoughts exactly.

[Dalak]

Sadly, I think high-profile people are simply a reflection of who and what we kind of collectively are inside a period of time.

The reason I include 'racism' is because I think most people probably actually mean 'bigoted' or the word you chose 'prejudiced.' I find 'race' to be a particularly destructive term (most probably mean 'ethnicity' when they use 'race') in today's dialogue.

But the language is all over the place. People use 'objective' when they probably mean 'impartial.' They use phrases like "mainstream media" when they probably mean "corporate media" or "legacy media."

Lot of pejoratives out there.

As I said before, misuse of terms isn't the same as having it be a catch-all term used as an umbrella for things that it clearly isn't (Woke, CRT). Literally is now officially used as Figuratively after all. I do like bigoted because by definition it includes prejudice & hate against a variety of people and creeds without specifically applying to just one like Racism/ethnism/skinism/whatever, thus it's less likely to be nitpicked and used to invalidate whole arguments & valid evidence.

I'm still looking for more specific umbrella terms, and "mainstream media" is a great example of such as it is often used to include news types far from the mainstream which are just agreeing with more popular sources.

My personal favorite words to hate the use of right now are "misinformation" (incorrect) and "disinformation" (lies) ... the language of intelligence analysts who want to distance themselves from their sins.

You seem a bit cynical about those things. I used to teach media literacy classes, and I find expressions like that useful when teaching people how to distinguish real information from lies and erroneous information on the web.

I teach that as well, and have come to think just being blunt and descriptive is more pragmatic and effective when it comes to public communication. "Lies" and "erroneous information" are likely much better understood by all. Little more stark, too.

After all, personally I would rather be accused of "spreading disinformation" rather than "lying."

Honestly it's a way to distinguish what kind of lie it is, as there are as many ways to lie as there are 'bad words'. However it does mask the visceral note that the word Lie/Lying brings to the table when someone is being "deliberately misleading", and feeds into the Decorum argument when one is fine lying through one's teeth but complains of insults when called out on it.

Fani Willis' Trump election fraud probe expands into 'several other states'



Also:

CNN legal analyst tells Trump to brace for new indictment: 'Spidey Sense tells me they're near the end'

Attachment 132324

Sounds intriguing, but, I’ve seen proclamations of legal doom and gloom for Trump before and he keeps skating free. Would these new revelations in any way, shape or form keep him off the ballot next year? I mean, even if indictments were to come down say, next week, Trump’s lawyers would file delay after delay after delay to gum up the works while he runs for office again. If I’m wrong about all that, so be it, but, I don’t know if it’ll stop Trump from campaigning.

WPP, he has been arrested in NYC. The trial date has been set. He was also found liable in the sexual assault civil suit. He has stopped "skating free" months ago.

He'll never pay the settlement (it will be paid by idiot donors who love him) and until he is behind bars and bankrupt, he is skating free.

My thoughts exactly.

Jail. Time.

[JT221]

As I said before, misuse of terms isn't the same as having it be a catch-all term used as an umbrella for things that it clearly isn't (Woke, CRT). Literally is now officially used as Figuratively after all. I do like bigoted because by definition it includes prejudice & hate against a variety of people and creeds without specifically applying to just one like Racism/ethnism/skinism/whatever, thus it's less likely to be nitpicked and used to invalidate whole arguments & valid evidence.

Actually, I think a word like 'hate' is becoming increasingly useless in discussions, too.

[ed2962]

What are some other examples of terms like "woke" that you've noticed? CRT is another big one out there, and even the guy who started the attacks on it admits he's included all the liberal ideas he can under that umbrella.

That would be right wing activist Chris Rufo and unfortunately it worked. He's also part of the move to conflate trans issues with drag and drag with strip shows, and sadly that's working as well. This tweet is still up...

https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/st...07543895998464

He's opening saying, "Let's lie to and confuse people to further our goals."

[SquirrelMan]

The DJI is up almost 600 points today already, almost completely reversing the losses caused by the GOP holding the economy hostage over the Debt Ceiling.

[JT221]

The DJI is up almost 600 points today already...

Also very welcome news...especially for older Americans whose retirements are tied into such things.

[Dalak]

Actually, I think a word like 'hate' is becoming increasingly useless in discussions, too.

I strongly disagree, because the lengths so many otherwise regular people are going to make life as hard as possible for a tiny fragment of society can be motivated by nothing else. Pointing that out, and how others are enabling it and encouraging it is a powerful way to make people realize just what's going on, and it reveals the ones for which Hate isn't something that bothers them compared to other issues which don't involve gross prejudice.

That would be right wing activist Chris Rufo and unfortunately it worked. He's also part of the move to conflate trans issues with drag and drag with strip shows, and sadly that's working as well. This tweet is still up...

https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/st...07543895998464

He's opening saying, "Let's lie to and confuse people to further our goals."

A bigot admitting they should lie and abuse language to control the narrative, something that's been pointed out far more than once to nothing but crickets from the ones who need to hear it.

[Adam Allen]

Did you mean to respond to me or someone else? Because I was saying that Panfoot's word has more weight than Met's, since the former is living directly under DeSantis' rule, and is the direct target of the laws he has passed. I have no idea how you could get that I was saying queer people are a disease from that.

Apologies. Yes, I was talking to you; no, I was not talking about you.

Mets has said "social contagion", in the conversation about Jamie Reed/Wash U, about the increase in trans and nonbinary identified folk in the younger as opposed to older generations. And my point is that I am one of those older genderqueer folk, and have direct experience, training, and knowledge of mental health accumulated over two decades ... leaving aside even direct geographical knowledge and personal investment in the area (St. Louis/Wash U).

I'm sorry I was not more clear, but no, I was not accusing you of anything.

[JT221]

I strongly disagree, because the lengths so many otherwise regular people are going to make life as hard as possible for a tiny fragment of society can be motivated by nothing else. Pointing that out, and how others are enabling it and encouraging it is a powerful way to make people realize just what's going on, and it reveals the ones for which Hate isn't something that bothers them compared to other issues which don't involve gross prejudice.

I can respect that. I just do not think knowing whether or not someone is doing something out of "hate" is something we'll ever really understand. Why I do not like the term "hate crime." The action is enough. Premeditated murder is enough. Did the person committing it "hate" the person they murdered? Probably, but I do not know what is inside them. I do know their action cannot be tolerated.

Does that make sense?

[Dalak]

I can respect that. I just do not think knowing whether or not someone is doing something out of "hate" is something we'll ever really understand. Why I do not like the term "hate crime." The action is enough. Premeditated murder is enough. Did the person committing it "hate" the person they murdered? Probably, but I do not know what is inside them. I do know their action cannot be tolerated.

Does that make sense?

While I see your argument, I disagree again. The first is we can definitely know that some people are doing things out of Hate because of other things they've done, said, and bought/display. The company they keep can come into play if they're unrepentant bigots, and that's why part of any investigation into whether something is a actually a hate crime involves looking into things like that. The second is that Hate Crimes go far beyond just murder and into lesser things like assault, and people who commit Hate Crimes are far more likely to commit more because of the underlying Hate involved rather than someone motivated by greed or something less visceral. It's been shown that such prejudice isn't something that can be erased or cured easily even if the particular person wants to truly get past it. The brain develops connections that have nothing to do with conscious thought which are reinforced every time they are used, and that applies to every notion, opinion, judgement, and 'instinct' we have.

[JT221]

While I see your argument, I disagree again. The first is we can definitely know that some people are doing things out of Hate because of other things they've done, said, and bought/display. The company they keep can come into play if they're unrepentant bigots, and that's why part of any investigation into whether something is a actually a hate crime involves looking into things like that. The second is that Hate Crimes go far beyond just murder and into lesser things like assault, and people who commit Hate Crimes are far more likely to commit more because of the underlying Hate involved rather than someone motivated by greed or something less visceral. It's been shown that such prejudice isn't something that can be erased or cured easily even if the particular person wants to truly get past it. The brain develops connections that have nothing to do with conscious thought which are reinforced every time they are used, and that applies to every notion, opinion, judgement, and 'instinct' we have.

I hope you do not mind, but I have a question: Why do you keep capitalizing the word 'hate?' I hope that does not come off as an accusation. I am just curious.