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

[Tendrin]

It's almost like the panic over 'critical race theory' isn't really over 'critical race theory'.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-...?ocid=msedgntp

Dr. James Whitfield recalled in a Facebook post that his school district once asked him to take down a photo showing him kissing his wife.
He told Insider that was just the start of a sustained harassment campaign from local residents.
At a tense public meeting in July, residents accused Whitfield of promoting "the conspiracy of systemic racism" and called for his firing.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
On the day of his appointment as the principal of a Texas middle school, Dr. James Whitfield was forwarded an email from a resident of his school district that referenced a photo of him kissing his wife on the beach in Mexico, where the couple celebrated their 10-year anniversary. Whitfield is Black, and his wife is white.

According to Whitfield, in May 2019 the school district forwarded him the email, which read, "Is this the Dr. Whitfield we want as an example for our students?", and requested he remove the photo from his Facebook profile.

"I felt small, insignificant, and undervalued as a staff member," he told Insider in a phone interview.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

It's almost like the panic over 'critical race theory' isn't really over 'critical race theory'.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-...?ocid=msedgntp

If it looks like racism, smells like racism, walks like racism and talks like racism, chances are it's probably....RACISM!

[Tendrin]

If it looks like racism, smells like racism, walks like racism and talks like racism, chances are it's probably....RACISM!

But we were assured that it is BAD by conservatives because of anti-racist baby books!

[worstblogever]

It's almost like the panic over 'critical race theory' isn't really over 'critical race theory'.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-...?ocid=msedgntp

But we were assured that it is BAD by conservatives because of anti-racist baby books!

When in reality, they seem more like they're aiming to overturn no-brainer Supreme Court decisions like Loving vs. Virginia.

Conservative politics are just garbage, through and through. Proclaiming themselves "pro-life" while bending over backwards to help a virus spread and kill more people is one thing, but the white nationalist framing of the current Republican Party is terrifying in its audaciousness.

[worstblogever]

In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, that "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the U.S. Senator from Utah, Mike Lee. Our quick take on Mike Lee is that every policy he doesn’t like (The Affordable Care Act, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Violence Against Women Act (!), child labor laws (!), FEMA, disaster relief (!), the Food and Drug Administration, the 14th Amendment, the 17th Amendment… etc.) he has the nasty habit declaring unconstitutional (which is the job of the Supreme Court, not a senator). Sen. Lee is also one of Sen. Ted Cruz’s few allies in the Senate and was one of the most recognizable faces seen during the 2013 Shutdown, including at the rally the weekend before it ended at the World War II memorial where a pastor demanded that President Obama “put down his Quran and come out with his hands up”, before Tea Party “patriots” started grabbing barricades to throw in front of the gates of the White House while some waved Confederate flags. Y’know… nice, healthy rhetoric worthy of the movement.

Our 2015 update on Mike Lee featured his joining the ranks of the #47 Traitors and signing his name onto a letter to the leaders of Iran meant to sabotage negotiations the Obama administration was having with Iran, his belief that the Supreme Court actually does not have the power to overturn same-sex marriage, and the fact that he submitted federal “religious freedom” law legislation to attempt to allow the legal discrimination of LGBTQ citizens based on someone’s “deeply held religious faith” (the bill went absolutely nowhere).

In 2016, Mike Lee defended his U.S. Senate seat against Misty Snow, the first transgendered candidate for Senate in U.S. history, and in a state as red as Utah, he not surprisingly easily 1. He was confident enough that he would be victorious that he spent far more time helping his pal Ted Cruz campaign for president, and not just remaining on the fence about Donald Trump as a prospective nominee the whole time, but calling on him to step down as their nominee in October of 2016 (presumably so Ted Cruz could take his place as the nominee).

With the amount of revelations spinning out about Trump/Russia, Mike Lee could not keep his finger in the dyke forever. As of mid-July 2018, he was talking about how Donald Trump needed to “step down” to salvage any kind of legacy. And that was BEFORE Trump’s humiliation by Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, but slightly after Trump passed over Mike Lee and his brother Thomas, a Utah Supreme Court Justice for the U.S. Supreme Court, and instead chose Brett Kavanaugh (likely because Kavanaugh thinks presidents should be above the law). He has continued to carry water for Trump regarding the Mueller investigation, complaining not only about Democrats reading it and wanting to protect future elections, but literally booking himself on The View to whine about it and claim he didn’t see evidence of a crime. Which is amazing because Mueller literally spells out ten different ways Trump committed obstruction of justice during the FBI’s investigation. It’s like he didn’t read the report, y’know?

Don’t think for a moment, though, that Mike Lee is coming to the center, because he’s also been openly discussing eliminating all public protected government lands as a policy of the United States, because apparently rejecting the Bears’ Ears Monument in Utah wasn’t enough for him.

Fast forward a couple months, though, and as an investigation was just beginning by the United States’ intelligence community into the Trump campaign and Russia potentially colluding to change the outcome of the American election, and Mike Lee was quick to declare that “I don’t see any evidence of anything happening here, so as a result, I think it’s time to move forward. It’s time to wrap this thing up and it’s time to move on.”

That was in January. With every revelation that has come, Mike Lee wanted to aid the coverup into what the investigation has shown has a LOT of evidence of potential treason. But hey, the Republicans won, so quick, nobody look…

• July 23rd, 2019: Sen. Lee votes against the Zadroga Act, to provide medical care for the 9-11 First Responders.
• January 31st, 2020: Mike Lee votes against witnesses being allowed in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, effectively making it a “trial”.
• February 5th, 2020: Lee 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: Lee 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.
• July 2nd, 2020: Mike Lee begins a hyperbolic name-calling tantrum shortly after failing to push through a resolution condemning protests against police violence as “mob violence”, going on to say that Democrats were challenging him based on “bat guano-inspired insanity”, adding:
  

  “This is a statement that says mob violence is bad. Democrats can’t say mob violence is bad without simultaneously taking a jab at the president of the United States? You can’t really oppose this, it seems to me, without being on the side of the mobs, of mob violence, of mob mentality, of cruelty and intolerance and terror. I don’t think one can oppose this without being comfortable with those things. These violent protesters aren’t enlightened, edgy or hip. They’re frauds. They’re dimwitted, phony drama addicts.”

• January 6th, 2021: In the middle of the Capitol attack, as insurrectionists are storming the building, Donald Trump tries to call Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, but instead, dials Mike Lee and leaves a bizarre voice mail, which in the days that follow, the press get their hands on audio .
• February 13th, 2021: Lee votes to acquit Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, after at one point during the trial, trying to sabotage Democrats’ case against him by claiming their portrayal of his statements on the phone call, and denying it took place when he’d already previously confirmed it.
• March 6th, 2021: Sen. Lee 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.

Mike Lee’s allegiances to Donald Trump have led a faction of Utah Republicans seeking to restore their party to its former self in 2022 to run Ally Isom against Sen. Lee in the GOP Primary. If there’s any hope for the Republican Party, it will be that an incompetent, boot-licking putz like Mike Lee does not get a third term in the Senate.

[Jack Dracula]

When in reality, they seem more like they're aiming to overturn no-brainer Supreme Court decisions like Loving vs. Virginia.

Conservative politics are just garbage, through and through. Proclaiming themselves "pro-life" while bending over backwards to help a virus spread and kill more people is one thing, but the white nationalist framing of the current Republican Party is terrifying in its audaciousness.

It’s the nature of the party to assimilate and pander to the moral attitudes of it’s most extreme groups. The extremists are easiest to motivate and manipulate because they already have the emotional impetus and only need to be pointed at a target. It’s all at the behest of the wealthy individuals and corporate donors who pay to have their taxes lowered and regulations eliminated. The GOPs a business and what they sell is public and governmental manipulation.

[Tami]

In western New York, the far right tries to make inroads with vaccine skeptics

BUFFALO — The leader of a far-right "patriot" group in western New York stood on top of a truck trailer speaking to a crowd of about a hundred people in a quiet suburb of Buffalo. They had gathered in June to support a Buffalo Bills player who had refused to take the coronavirus vaccine, even at the cost of his career. Charles Pellien, head of the New York Watchmen, spoke proudly of a constellation of groups coalescing around their shared beliefs.

"We're all coming together," Pellien said. "That's why this crowd is so big."

Far-right groups across the nation have aligned themselves with those opposed to masks and vaccines, seeking new allies around the issue of "medical freedom" while appearing to downplay their traditional focus on guns, belief in the tyranny of the federal government and calls by some for violent resistance.

Public health mandates and the push to vaccinate as many people as possible against covid-19 have become animating issues for patriot groups, which have long held conspiratorial views of the federal government. The Watchmen and others say that official responses to the pandemic, both at the state and federal level, are a stark example of government overreach — an argument that helps them appeal to new potential supporters, analysts say.

"The New York Watchmen uses this framing broadly to oppose things such as covid-19 health safety measures, mask mandates, covid-19 vaccinations," said Susan Corke, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which monitors extremist groups. They "believe they are working to protect citizens' constitutional rights from an ever overreaching government."

At a moment when domestic extremism has been identified by the FBI as the major violent threat in the United States and lawmakers are focused on the fallout from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, researchers and health experts are increasingly concerned with the alliance forming nationwide between the radical right and vaccine hesitant populations.

First you shun masks
Then you refuse to get vaccinated
If you survive that, you are likely to be drawn into the darkness of Domestic Terrorism.

[Mister Mets]

Anyone who has even a modicum of experience with economic analysis knows that the debate over how much to weigh the human cost of a particularly policy against the economic impact is FAR from settled. Unlike natural sciences, economics does not have a universally accepted canon of formulas and equations built up from first principles, but rather a scattered collection of bespoke models that are purpose designed for a particular study, often with an eye toward showing a predetermined result. While it seems like the only economists who get a public platform these days are psychopaths advocating for us to sacrifice as many people as necessary to keep the money flowing, that doesn't mean that this viewpoint is universally shared within the profession, or that it's any less insane of an idea because some guys with fancy degrees are saying it.

I think you're responding to points that weren't made.

I don't believe I've suggested that the question is settled, just that this is something we have to ask. Nor did Tyler Cowen say that we should sacrifice as many people as possible to keep the money flowing.

[Mister Mets]

Uh, well, COVID hit in 2020 when Trump was President. Wasn't Trump supposed to do something about all those *nasty* immigrants? So, if you want to blame immigrants, then shouldn't you blame Trump for letting in all those infectious germ ridden (being sarcastic here) aliens?

Republicans just don't think things through.

There are two counterarguments here.

The first is that arrivals of undocumented immigrants have increased under Biden, there has also been a decline in deportations under Biden, and there has also been a problem of migrants failing to make their court dates.
https://www.economist.com/united-sta...t-a-record-low
https://www.axios.com/migrant-releas...b60e3c070.html

The second is that the Trump administration's efforts to kick out people who crossed the border illegally and/ or made incorrect claims for amnesty were hampered by the administrative state and Democratic officials.

This one would only work if every single migrant winding up on the US side of the border was a Mexican, and one could make an "Apples..."/"Apples..." comparison.

Which probably is not the case.

What they are saying is stupid, but it won't make comparisons that don't work into comparisons that do.

Yeah. It's also worth noting that people crossing the border aren't necessarily a random sample of the population.

[Jack Dracula]

I think you're responding to points that weren't made.

I don't believe I've suggested that the question is settled, just that this is something we have to ask. Nor did Tyler Cowen say that we should sacrifice as many people as possible to keep the money flowing.

Points not said but implied.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In western New York, the far right tries to make inroads with vaccine skeptics







First you shun masks
Then you refuse to get vaccinated
If you survive that, you are likely to be drawn into the darkness of Domestic Terrorism.

Frankly speaking, I hope those knuckledraggers DON'T survive. I hope the Grim Reaper has a field day with all of them. I'm tired of the chaos they're fomenting.

[Mister Mets]

Points not said but implied.

This gets messy.

If you say that it doesn't matter what someone said but what is inferred, it opens up people who disagree with you to make similar arguments, sometimes in bad faith. And because we're not dealing with facts, or what was clearly said, bad faith arguments are going to be easier.

In general, people are bad at interpreting the views of those they disagree with. According to studies, it's a bit more of a problem for progressives, but there are many conservatives who would fail the ideological turing test. So many people will be mistaken when inferring what someone believes but isn't willing to articulate.

We should all strive to avoid being the toxic combination of obnoxious and wrong, which is the case of anyone who makes a negative inference that turns out to be incorrect.

There are alternatives to making negative inferences, including just asking whether the person means to imply something, rather than making the assumption.

I see the stories on The Anti vaxers and Gop getting Corona and Dying. I just dont get it. I mean I have thought about it and thought and I just cant wrap my head around it. The virus is killing their base, it is killing them yet they still spread lies and tell people not to get it. Is making a political point really worth their life? I mean Trump went on the air every chance he got and talked about how he got the vaccine through it was all him. he has had it. many GOP leaders have had it. Yet they still refuse even after seeing the stories of the spreading virus and how it is killing members of the GOP party at a much higher rate. Are they so blind to facts? or do they just not care because every death makes Biden look bad for how he is handling things and of course they could never get it?

Even my hardcore Trumper Aunt has got the shot and wears a mask.

Politically, there are three intersecting explanations here.

Generally, people who are older and at greater risk for the worst outcomes of Covid have gotten vaccinated at higher rates. This diminishes the possibility of mass death as well as the risk that hospitals will be overrun, which changes the calculus. Your auny getting the vaccine fits this.

Some Republicans made a cynical calculation that they could play footsie with antivaxxers for political gain because enough people have gotten vaccinated to diminish the spread of Covid. This calculation was made prior to the emergence of the Delta variant, which is more transmissible.

Politically, Republicans are more likely to support individualism (with the main exception of abortion), so there is the idea that people should be free to make stupid choices. I'm interested in what policies would you prefer to see? There is a bit of a spectrum between bans on vaccine passports on cruise ships to more severe lockdowns than we had last year.

[babyblob]

This gets messy.

If you say that it doesn't matter what someone said but what is inferred, it opens up people who disagree with you to make similar arguments, sometimes in bad faith. And because we're not dealing with facts, or what was clearly said, bad faith arguments are going to be easier.

In general, people are bad at interpreting the views of those they disagree with. According to studies, it's a bit more of a problem for progressives, but there are many conservatives who would fail the ideological turing test. So many people will be mistaken when inferring what someone believes but isn't willing to articulate.

We should all strive to avoid being the toxic combination of obnoxious and wrong, which is the case of anyone who makes a negative inference that turns out to be incorrect.

There are alternatives to making negative inferences, including just asking whether the person means to imply something, rather than making the assumption.

Politically, there are three intersecting explanations here.

Generally, people who are older and at greater risk for the worst outcomes of Covid have gotten vaccinated at higher rates. This diminishes the possibility of mass death as well as the risk that hospitals will be overrun, which changes the calculus. Your auny getting the vaccine fits this.

Some Republicans made a cynical calculation that they could play footsie with antivaxxers for political gain because enough people have gotten vaccinated to diminish the spread of Covid. This calculation was made prior to the emergence of the Delta variant, which is more transmissible.

Politically, Republicans are more likely to support individualism (with the main exception of abortion), so there is the idea that people should be free to make stupid choices. I'm interested in what policies would you prefer to see? There is a bit of a spectrum between bans on vaccine passports on cruise ships to more severe lockdowns than we had last year.

I am not sure what policies to be honest. I am not in the government or employ people so I dont have to come up with that answer. One I have heard is employers being able to look at workers medical records to see if they had the shot. I am against that. But I am not sure what to do about the anti vaxers.

My question was more of a why do they think the way they do and what they think they are gaining when so many of them seem to be getting sick and dying.

[Malvolio]

Employers look at employees' medical records all the time when they're determining health benefits. For instance, if the employee has had health issues related to their smoking habit, they may be asked to pay more out of their paycheck for their health care than an employee who doesn't smoke. Why would being vaccinated or not be any different?

[skyvolt2000]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...194136884.html

The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on Friday: believers in the false conspiracy theory that Trump will be reinstated have increased their calls for violence if the former president isn’t back in the White House soon.

“Some conspiracy theories associated with reinstating former President Trump have included calls for violence if desired outcomes are not realized,” the DHS bulletin, obtained by ABC News, said.