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

[worstblogever]

I will note that Slate is generally considered a center-left publication. If you don't look up the individual writer most people will presume they have the same bias attributed to the magazine/website as a whole.

Having read a few other things Saletan has written I know better, but I didn't know about him quoting White Nationalists.

I mean, neither did I, but I saw something that seemed skewed, and my critical thinking skills kicked in to go, "Who wrote this nonsense?"

[PwrdOn]

Title Nine has changed more for women in education than almost anything. If one wants to say America's failures are because not enough people are on the Left and vote that way, Okay. But to say America's failures are all because the Left didn't change things, as if they had all the power, is ridiculous. It's like saying the problem in Russia is Navalny isn't doing enough to change things.

I wasn't aware that Navalny had gotten himself elected president and held majorities in both houses. Now, you could make the argument that the left isn't actually in power because Biden and the Dems are actually center right and were elected precisely because they no intention of pushing through any of the radical policies that leftists advocate for, but that was exactly the point that sparked this discussion in the first place.

[CaptainEurope]

Do you think the Georgia law is comparable to what things were 50 years ago?

Europeans may have universal health care but there are downsides to that, including a lack of innovation, which is why they're dependent on others for coming up with the vaccine.

Mister, my hard earned German taxes paid for much of the BioNtech research that got us the very first covid-vaccine.

Not to mention us having an education system that gives opportunities to immigrants (though it is still far from perfect, but it's probably far better than the US system in that regard) so those immigrants can grow up to save the world with a vaccine.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

John Lewis’s Final Fight For Voting Rights

Democrats’ big reform bill contains 300 pages expanding voting rights that were written by the late civil rights leader. Now, more than ever, that bill needs to be hammered into law. Meanwhile....

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Corporations Gave $50 Million To Voter Suppression Backers

AT&T, Comcast, Philip Morris, Walmart, Verizon, GM and Pfizer were among the most prolific. Revolting to say the least.

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For Republicans, 2021 Is The Year To Target Trans Kids

Dozens of states have introduced bills to limit medical care to transgender youth or keep trans kids from playing on school sports teams. The GQP sure loves taregting their hate towards anyone who's different. Disgusting.

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Infectious Disease Expert Warns Of New COVID-19 Wave Infecting Younger People

“We’re almost in a new pandemic,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. While COVID stopped being known as a "Boomer Remover", this is a fearsome problem.

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Matt Gaetz’s Book Praised Trump For Ending ‘Family Man’ Attitude In White House

The Trump administration was a “good time to be a fun-loving politician,” the Florida Republican wrote. It stood to reason a horndog like Matty Perv enjoyed having an unrepetant skirt chaser like Trump in the Oval Office. What a tool!

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GOP Has Lost Credibility On Federal Debt Gripes, Chris Wallace Tells Sen. Roy Blunt

Under Trump, $3 trillion was added to the national debt before the pandemic while tax revenue was slashed by $1.5 trillion, Wallace reminded the Republican. Of course Qpublicans only care about the deficit when a Democrat is president.

[Tami]

Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly U.S. Capitol riot: Reuters/Ipsos poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened.

Three months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to overturn his November election loss, about half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists "trying to make Trump look bad," a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.

Six in 10 Republicans also believe the false claim put out by Trump that November's presidential election "was stolen" from him due to widespread voter fraud, and the same proportion of Republicans think he should run again in 2024, the March 30-31 poll showed.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll shows a large number of rank-and-file Republicans have embraced the myth. While 59% of all Americans say Trump bears some responsibility for the attack, only three in 10 Republicans agree. Eight in 10 Democrats and six in 10 independents reject the false claims that the Capitol siege was "mostly peaceful" or it was staged by left-wing protestors.

“Republicans have their own version of reality,” said John Geer, an expert on public opinion at Vanderbilt University. “It is a huge problem. Democracy requires accountability and accountability requires evidence.”

The refusal of Trump and prominent Republicans to repudiate the events of Jan. 6 increases the likelihood of a similar incident happening again, said Susan Corke, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

And the other half boast about having been part of the violence.

[Tami]

Human smugglers use Facebook to connect with migrants and spread false hope of reaching U.S.

Human smugglers are openly advertising their services on Facebook, falsely telling Central Americans interested in crossing illegally into the United States that they can promise a "100 percent" safe journey.

While the use of social media by smugglers is not new, the practice is growing, fueling false hope as more migrants fall prey to misinformation about how the Biden administration will welcome them, according to Department of Homeland Security officials, immigration experts and lawyers.

"Travel to Mexico to the United States. Costs $8,000. 100 percent safe," reads a recent post written in Spanish. "Cross through Matamoros. You walk one hour, after in automobile until you arrive to your relative."

The Spanish-language posts identified by NBC News were found on public Facebook pages with names like "Migrants from Various Countries in Mexico" and "Migrants in the Mexico-U.S.A. Border Awaiting Hearing."

[Tami]

Accused stalker who left candy outside woman’s home shoots her husband in wild kidnapping attempt: cops

An Oklahoma man who had been stalking a former co-worker for more than a month is accused of assaulting her and shooting her husband in the hand during a wild kidnapping attempt over the weekend.

Police said Justin Arthur-Ray Davis, who allegedly began stalking the woman after he quit his job at their mutual workplace, would sometimes sit outside her Tulsa apartment and leave candy and food on her doorstep. The stalking took a violent turn on Good Friday when the armed suspect attacked the victim and her husband in broad daylight, according to police.

The woman was leaving for work that morning when she and her husband spotted Davis sitting in his truck, authorities said. The suspect then got out of the vehicle with a shot gun in his hands and ran after the couple, the Tulsa Police Department said in a news release.

As the couple ran back to the apartment and closed the door behind them, Davis shot through the door, striking the husband in the hand, according to the release. The accused stalker then went into the apartment, grabbed the woman and dragged her down the stairs while choking and punching her, police said.

Neighbors heard the commotion and called 911 as they watched Davis repeatedly assault the woman outside the apartment, authorities said. The husband eventually came back downstairs to try to save his wife, but the suspect pointed his gun at him and threatened to kill him if the woman didn’t get into his truck, according to police. Davis even fired two shots into the air during the incident, police said.

But cops arrived at the scene before the woman could get into the vehicle and Davis decided to take off, leading officers on a chase down Interstate 44. He soon lost control of the truck and crashed it on the highway.

[Tami]

ERCOT overcharged power companies $16 billion for electricity during winter freeze, firm says

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas made a $16 billion error in pricing during the week of the winter storm that caused power outages across the state, according to a filing by its market monitor.

Potomac Economics, the independent market monitor for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees ERCOT, wrote in a letter to the Public Utility Commission that ERCOT kept market prices for power too high for nearly two days after widespread outages ended late the night of Feb. 17. It should have reset the prices the following day.

That decision to keep prices high, the market monitor claimed, resulted in $16 billion in additional costs to Texas power companies. The news of the overcharging was first reported by Bloomberg.

Some of the providers that were charged during the high price period could pass the costs to customers, depending on the type of contract they have, according to Detlef Hallermann, director of the Reliant Energy Trade Center at Texas A&M University.

Kenan Ogelman, the ERCOT vice president of commercial operations, who testified during a Texas Senate committee hearing Thursday, was not asked by state senators about ERCOT’s $16 billion mistake. Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, who chairs the Business and Commerce committee, did not indicate what action he or other senators would take on the various financial ripple effects from the winter storm.

“There are financial concerns — let’s put it that way — that we have to address,” Hancock said.

[Kirby101]

I wasn't aware that Navalny had gotten himself elected president and held majorities in both houses. Now, you could make the argument that the left isn't actually in power because Biden and the Dems are actually center right and were elected precisely because they no intention of pushing through any of the radical policies that leftists advocate for, but that was exactly the point that sparked this discussion in the first place.

Oh, you weren't asking what the Left has done the last 60 years. You are asking why they haven't fixed everything in the last 2 months with the Dems in charge. Even though the Left is only a part of the Democratic Party and the Senate is 50/50 split. What sparked this discussion is you saying Progressives have not accomplished anything in this Country.

[Tami]

'Allergic reaction to US religious right' fueling decline of religion, experts say

Fewer than half of Americans belong to a house of worship, a new study shows, but religion – and Christianity in particular – continues to have an outsize influence in US politics, especially because it is declining faster among Democrats than Republicans.

Just 47% of the US population are members of a church, mosque or synagogue, according to a survey by Gallup, down from 70% two decades ago – in part a result of millennials turning away from religion but also, experts say, a reaction to the swirling mix of rightwing politics and Christianity pursued by the Republican party.

The evidence comes as Republicans in some states have pursued extreme “Christian nationalist” policies, attempting to force their version of Christianity on an increasingly uninterested public.

This week the governor of Arkansas signed a law allowing doctors to refuse to treat LGBTQ people on religious grounds, and other states are exploring similar legislation.

Gallup began asking Americans about their church membership in 1937 – and for decades the number was always above 70%. That began to change in 2000, and the number has steadily dropped ever since.

Some of the decline is attributable to changing generations, with about 66% of people born before 1946 are still members of a church, compared to just 36% of millennials.

Among other groups Gallup reported, the decline in church membership stands out among self-identified Democrats and independents. The number of Democratic church members dropped by 25% over the 20 year period, with independents decreasing by 18%. Republican church members declined too, but only by 12%.

David Campbell, professor and chair of the University of Notre Dame’s political science department and co-author of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, said a reason for the decline among those groups is political – an “allergic reaction to the religious right”.

“Many Americans – especially young people – see religion as bound up with political conservatism, and the Republican party specifically,” Campbell said.

“Since that is not their party, or their politics, they do not want to identify as being religious. Young people are especially allergic to the perception that many – but by no means all – American religions are hostile to LGBTQ rights.”

[Tami]

Facebook data leak: details from 533 million users found on website for hackers

Details from more than 500 million Facebook users have been found available on a website for hackers.

The information appears to be several years old but it is another example of the vast amount of information collected by Facebook and other social media sites and the limits to how secure that information is.

The availability of the data set was first reported by Business Insider. According to that publication, it contains information from 106 countries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates and email addresses.

Facebook has been grappling with data security issues for years. In 2018, the social media giant disabled a feature that allowed users to search for one another via phone numbers, following revelations that the political firm Cambridge Analytica had accessed information on up to 87 million users without their knowledge or consent.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Half of Republicans believe false accounts of deadly U.S. Capitol riot: Reuters/Ipsos poll





And the other half boast about having been part of the violence.

That's the thing, mainly because they're still kissing up to the Godfather of Mar-a-Lago.

[PwrdOn]

Oh, you weren't asking what the Left has done the last 60 years. You are asking why they haven't fixed everything in the last 2 months with the Dems in charge. Even though the Left is only a part of the Democratic Party and the Senate is 50/50 split. What sparked this discussion is you saying Progressives have not accomplished anything in this Country.

I wasn't asking about what the left has done in the last 60 years, you just brought up things from the 60s because evidently the recent track record isn't looking so good. Call me crazy, I just don't think it's wrong to demand more from our elected officials.

[Tendrin]

https://twitter.com/marceelias/statu...11991132856320

https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-c...-Complaint.pdf

Worth a read. The Georgia law is bad, no matter what Saletan and defensive conservatives have to say.

[Hellion]

GOP Has Lost Credibility On Federal Debt Gripes, Chris Wallace Tells Sen. Roy Blunt

Under Trump, $3 trillion was added to the national debt before the pandemic while tax revenue was slashed by $1.5 trillion, Wallace reminded the Republican. Of course Qpublicans only care about the deficit when a Democrat is president.

I rarely watch FOX News, but when I do, you can be sure it's to watch Chris Wallace taking someone to school.