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

[Malvolio]

It does tend to go too far sometimes. Like Warner Bros getting rid of Speedy Gonzalez. They should have modernized him instead of doing away with the only Hispanic Looney Tunes character.

Warner Brothers did not get rid of Speedy Gonzalez. They did in fact modernize him by having him own a Mexican restaurant in the most recent incarnation.

[CaptainEurope]

The problem is, Democratic voters tend to be apathetic in midterms, usually thinking once you get rid of the main problem, that's all you need to do. As we have seen, it's far from the case.

Complacency always, always does the Democratic Party in.

That's what my Georgia friends said about runoff elections, too.

[Ragged Maw]

Warner Brothers did not get rid of Speedy Gonzalez. They did in fact modernize him by having him own a Mexican restaurant in the most recent incarnation.

The show did a pretty good job in that regard, IMO.

[Moon Ronin]

Warner Brothers did not get rid of Speedy Gonzalez. They did in fact modernize him by having him own a Mexican restaurant in the most recent incarnation.

They did and they didn't. Way back in 1999 or 2000 when Cartoon Network (a subsidiary to Time Warner) shelfed Speedy after getting soul distribution rights because of his "ethnic stereotypes" so for a few years they did not air any cartoon that featured Gonzalez. This made a litter stir with Latin Americans who really didn't see the cartoon character as problematic but as an icon so pushed to have him put back on. The idea that he is "offensive" has sparked back up with shelving of Pepé Le Pew with Charles Blow of the New York Times calling him him and is fellow Mexican mice harmful. In response Gabriel Iglesias the voice of Speedy in the new Space Jam movie to make a joke about cancel culture.

[Tami]

They did and they didn't. Way back in 1999 or 2000 when Cartoon Network (a subsidiary to Time Warner) shelfed Speedy after getting soul distribution rights because of his "ethnic stereotypes" so for a few years they did not air any cartoon that featured Gonzalez. This made a litter stir with Latin Americans who really didn't see the cartoon character as problematic but as an icon so pushed to have him put back on. The idea that he is "offensive" has sparked back up with shelving of Pepé Le Pew with Charles Blow of the New York Times calling him him and is fellow Mexican mice harmful. In response Gabriel Iglesias the voice of Speedy in the new Space Jam movie to make a joke about cancel culture.

It sounds to me like Executives make decisions without consulting experts. In this case, they made a decision that Speedy was offensive without talking to a representative groups of Mexicans, mecian Americans, and Latin-Americans.

As for Charles Blow, he either needs to do more research or make sure that his comments are framed as his own personal opinion, not one representative of a larger group.

[Tami]

It sounds to me like Executives make decisions without consulting experts. In this case, they made a decision that Speedy was offensive without talking to a representative groups of Mexicans, mecian Americans, and Latin-Americans.

As for Charles Blow, he either needs to do more research or make sure that his comments are framed as his own personal opinion, not one representative of a larger group.

I am old enough to have grown up with reruns of classic WB cartoons, the whole Bugs Bunny cadre. Even despite being female, I never thought of Pepe La Pew as being 'rape culture'. To me he was a parody of movies of the 1940's and 1950's. The thing is, Pepe pretty much never got away with his behavior, he pretty much never got the girl, they would usually run away from him, and he even hurt in the attempt sometimes. if anything, that was him being punished for his bad behavior, but being too stuck up on himself to give up and change his ways. he was not a character to be taken seriously or seen as a threat.

Him being a skunk seems very appropriate all things considered.

Still, I can see why modern audiences might not consider his antics funny.

[Tami]

Fox News Agrees to $1 Million Fine for Violating Human Rights Law

Despite Fox News’ claims to have repaired the company’s toxic workplace culture since the firing of founder and chairman Roger Ailes in July 2016, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has effectively admitted to ongoing misconduct that includes sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation against victimized employees, and has agreed to pay a million-dollar fine for what New York City’s Commission on Human Rights called “a pattern of violating of the NYC Human Rights Law.”

The settlement agreement, reached last week with the human rights commission, contains the largest-ever financial penalty assessed in the agency’s six-decade history, and also requires Fox News to remove mandatory confidential arbitration clauses from the contracts of on-air talent along with other employees and contributors for a period of four years when they file legal claims under the city’s human-rights law outside of the company’s internal process.

It “also demands immediate changes to policies surrounding reporting sexual harassment, retaliation, training, and compliance with the NYC Human Rights Law,” according to a statement from the commission, which added: “The Commission will monitor the network on a quarterly basis for a period of 2 years to ensure compliance.”

Among the policy changes required by the Commission, the network has agreed to provide all employees with a clear definition of “retaliation” and training for bystanders to intervene in incidents and to properly report any witnessed misconduct.

Labor lawyer Nancy Erika Smith, who represented former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson in the sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit that cost Ailes his job (and won Carlson a $20 million settlement from Fox News’ parent company 21st Century Fox), called the right-leaning cable channel’s settlement agreement, especially its admission of guilt, “monumental.”

[Tami]

Arizona ballot audit shows signs of backfiring on GOP

When Arizona Republicans first pushed for a partisan audit of the 2020 presidential ballots cast in the Phoenix metropolitan area, they argued that they needed to know if any irregularities or fraud caused President Trump to lose this rapidly evolving swing state.

But the audit itself could be damaging Republican prospects, according to a new Bendixen & Amandi International poll, which shows roughly half of Arizona voters oppose the recount effort. In addition, a narrow majority favors President Biden in a 2024 rematch against Trump.

The news isn’t entirely promising for Democrats, however: A majority of voters don’t think Biden should run for a second term.

By 49-46 percent, Arizona voters are opposed to the audit, which puts the result within the poll’s margin of error. But the survey of 600 likely voters found that the intensity of opposition to the audit exceeded the intensity of support, with those strongly opposed to it outnumbering those strongly in favor by 5 percentage points. And while Democrats and Republicans broke along familiar partisan lines, independent voters upon whom the state pivots in close elections opposed the audit by 18 percentage points.

[Tami]

U.S. military commander in Afghanistan warns of possible civil war

KABUL — The top American military commander here expressed deep concern Tuesday that the country could slide into civil war and face "very hard times" unless its fractious civilian leadership unites and the haphazard array of armed groups joining the anti-Taliban fight are controlled and made "accountable" for their actions in battle.

The comments by Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, who met with a group of journalists, came as Taliban forces continued their rapid advance across northern provinces and expanded into other rural regions. The insurgents also began circling closer to the capital city. In the past 48 hours, officials and Afghan media reported, Taliban fighters have overrun parts of two provinces just north and south of Kabul, and attacked security posts in a third that hugs the city’s western border.

Miller, who is overseeing the drawdown of U.S. forces here but said he would be replaced in its final stages, described the process as going well “from a military standpoint.” But he acknowledged that the looming departure had damaged the morale of Afghan defense forces, which he said were already stretched thin after months of heavy fighting, often with poor support.

[AnakinFlair]

Fox News Agrees to $1 Million Fine for Violating Human Rights Law

Maybe Fox will close up shop in New York and move their headquarters down to Texas...

[godisawesome]

I am old enough to have grown up with reruns of classic WB cartoons, the whole Bugs Bunny cadre. Even despite being female, I never thought of Pepe La Pew as being 'rape culture'. To me he was a parody of movies of the 1940's and 1950's. The thing is, Pepe pretty much never got away with his behavior, he pretty much never got the girl, they would usually run away from him, and he even hurt in the attempt sometimes. if anything, that was him being punished for his bad behavior, but being too stuck up on himself to give up and change his ways. he was not a character to be taken seriously or seen as a threat.

Him being a skunk seems very appropriate all things considered.

Still, I can see why modern audiences might not consider his antics funny.

I’m biased on the Pepe Le Pew thing because I didn’t think he was funny and hated his cartoons before I was old enough to know about their problematic aspects.

I would always be watching Looney Tunes and having a ball and then Pepe would show up, I’d groan, and find something else to watch. I think the formula just bored me.

[Malvolio]

I’m biased on the Pepe Le Pew thing because I didn’t think he was funny and hated his cartoons before I was old enough to know about their problematic aspects.

I would always be watching Looney Tunes and having a ball and then Pepe would show up, I’d groan, and find something else to watch. I think the formula just bored me.

What I find kind of funny is when there's a description of a Pepe Le Pew cartoon in the cable TV listings: "Pepe Le Pew mistakes a cat for a skunk and attempts to romance her." So how does that differentiate this cartoon from any other Pepe Le Pew cartoon?

[Tami]

What I find kind of funny is when there's a description of a Pepe Le Pew cartoon in the cable TV listings: "Pepe Le Pew mistakes a cat for a skunk and attempts to romance her." So how does that differentiate this cartoon from any other Pepe Le Pew cartoon?

It doesn't. The majority of the cartons were variations on the same idea.

[Gray Lensman]

It doesn't. The majority of the cartons were variations on the same idea.

Someone threatens Bugs and repeatedly gets made into a fool.

Daffy Duck gets chumped.

ACME products backfire on Wile E Coyote yet again.

Sylvester fails to eat Tweety, fails to learn lesson as well.

Pretty much all the classic WB cartoons had a plot you could figure out the moment you saw the cast of the episode.

[CSTowle]

U.S. military commander in Afghanistan warns of possible civil war

Yeah, the Taliban will absolutely own that country again in a decade or less. But that's not our problem, and never should have been in the first place. Bin Laden and Al Qaeda should have been the focus, not nation building or regime change. Certainly not either in Iraq. We're long overdue to be gone from that part of the world.