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

[Tami]

Racism is denounced on the right.

I am unaware of any prominent Republicans who are opposed to interracial marriage, or who think that Larry Elder's race disqualifies him from being Governor of California. (There was the argument about some idiots in Texas being upset about a black man principal sharing a photo of his white wife, but these people are not prominent Republicans, and they claim to be upset by tattoos.)

The article isn't really about liberals vs conservatives.

At earlier periods, there tended to be liberals and conservatives in both political parties. We've recently had more ideological sorting, although forced sterilization became legal in the United States around the time of prominent left-wing Democrats like William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson starting changing the perception of the party.

There's a lot of confusion about the story, which is a bit more complicated than the memes.

Ivermectim is used against parasites in the third world, and approved for that purpose in the United States.

The rumors that it was successful (not a lot of evidence on that) against Covid led to a shortage, which led to people taking the horse version. But the headlines lead others to think that the only legitimate form of the medicine is the one for horses, which also leads to a skewed understanding of it all.

Ivemectin can be prescribed for human use, but not for COVID. There is no OTC version of Ivermectin for human use, and that is for a reason.

If medical science, the CDC, the FDA, and so on ever say that Ivermectin can be prescribed by doctors for treatment of COVID, then okay. But until then, it shouldn't be used by anyone.

Too many people are getting seriously sick using the version fro animals.

[Tami]

TikTokers flood Texas abortion whistleblower site with Shrek memes, fake reports and porn: Critics of Texas’s new law have been filing hundreds of fake reports to the whistleblowing website in hopes of crashing it

Pro-choice users on TikTok and Reddit have launched a guerrilla effort to thwart Texas’s extreme new abortion law, flooding an online tip website that encourages people to report violators of the law with false reports, Shrek memes and porn.

The law makes it illegal to help women in Texas access abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. To help enforce it, anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life established the digital tipline where people can send anonymous information about potential violations.

“Any Texan can bring a lawsuit against an abortionist or someone aiding and abetting an abortion after six weeks,” the website reads, and those proved to be violating the law can be fined a minimum of $10,000. An online form allows anyone to submit an anonymous “report” of someone illegally obtaining an abortion, including a section where images can be uploaded for proof.

But pro-choice users had other ideas, bombarding the site with false reports and fabricated data through a campaign primarily organized on Reddit and TikTok.

Though the site was launched a month ago, the fake reports came flooding in on the eve of the bill’s enactment. One TikTok user said they had submitted 742 fake reports of the governor, Greg Abbott, getting illegal abortions.

In a tongue-in-cheek caption, the user encouraged others to do the same: “It would be a shame if TikTok crashed the ProLifeWhistleBlower website.”

[thwhtGuardian]

Racism is denounced on the right.

I am unaware of any prominent Republicans who are opposed to interracial marriage, or who think that Larry Elder's race disqualifies him from being Governor of California. (There was the argument about some idiots in Texas being upset about a black man principal sharing a photo of his white wife, but these people are not prominent Republicans, and they claim to be upset by tattoos.)

The article isn't really about liberals vs conservatives.

At earlier periods, there tended to be liberals and conservatives in both political parties. We've recently had more ideological sorting, although forced sterilization became legal in the United States around the time of prominent left-wing Democrats like William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson starting changing the perception of the party.

There's a lot of confusion about the story, which is a bit more complicated than the memes.

Ivermectim is used against parasites in the third world, and approved for that purpose in the United States.

The rumors that it was successful (not a lot of evidence on that) against Covid led to a shortage, which led to people taking the horse version. But the headlines lead others to think that the only legitimate form of the medicine is the one for horses, which also leads to a skewed understanding of it all.

Republicans most definitely haven't disavowed racism...it's literally the whole point of their redistricting and voting rights laws. On top of that they applaud groups like the Proud Boys, allow KKK and neo-nazi groups to attend their rallies with out a peep in response and think comments like "there might be some kkk groups that are fine" is an entirely defensible comment.

[Ragged Maw]

TikTokers flood Texas abortion whistleblower site with Shrek memes, fake reports and porn: Critics of Texas’s new law have been filing hundreds of fake reports to the whistleblowing website in hopes of crashing it

Disturbing subject matter warning before I go further:

I still think nothing short of a criminal case complete with evidence including televised video/audio of a Texas dude bragging that he raped and impregnated his girlfriend/wife and then kept her tied up to a bed while force-feeding her for at least 6 weeks before letting her go will capture enough hearts and minds to get Texas to consider backing down on their new law.

The whole attempt to make the law unenforceable via hotline trolling is a salve, but might not be successful forever (especially since hating on the libs is a rallying cry, anyways).

[green_garnish]

Racism is denounced on the right.

Depends on what you mean by denounced. Does the right say "racisim is bad"? Of course. Do they promote and enact policies that are racist? Obviously. Do they block attempts to enact policies that defies racism? Again, it's kind of obvious.

I would hope, for example, that it is not your position that caging families of foreign heritage was not racist, and I would hope that it is not your position that only one party wanted to do this (and still defends it).

The article isn't really about liberals vs conservatives.

You mean the article you quoted? That was my point. We were talking liberal vs conservative, Democrat vs Republican, and you completely changed the subject to progressive vs not progressive of 100 years ago as if it's the same thing. Please don't do either of those things. It's dishonest, disruptive, blindsiding, and a weak attempt to completely change the focus of the conversation from something you evidently don't want to get into too much detail about.

At earlier periods, there tended to be liberals and conservatives in both political parties.

At the period that early, 40-60 years after the birth of the GOP, the distinction between the parties was at least as divisive as it is now. End of slavery and reconstruction were still in most people's memory. If you supported those things, you were progressive and liberal, and probably identified as Republican. If you wanted a return to pre-Lincoln policies, you were conservative and probably identified as Democrat. There was no more "there are very nice people on both sides" then there are today.

The period you are thinking of is during the depression and WWII, when ideologies tended to cross party lines in often vociferous ways.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

A school ordered a student to quarantine. His dad and 2 men confronted the principal with zip ties, official says.

The article was behind a paywall, so I couldn’t read it, I’m curious to know if those knuckledraggers were white. If they were, them I’m gonna take a wild guess and assume they weren’t arrested.

[Tami]

Disturbing subject matter warning before I go further:

I still think nothing short of televised video/audio evidence of a Texas dude bragging that he raped and impregnated his girlfriend/wife and then kept her tied up to a bed while force-feeding her for at least 6 weeks before letting her go will capture enough hearts and minds to get Texas to consider backing down on their new law.

The whole attempt to make the law unenforceable via hotline trolling is a salve, but might not be successful forever (especially since hating on the libs is a rallying cry, anyways).

Don't kid yourself, even graphic images of violence against a woman in any way, shape, or form, won't be enough to sway the Anti-Abortion Far Right and Male Domination through Control, Suppression, and Repression lobby in places like Texas.

Dealing with this is like traversing the worlds most difficult Dungeon RPG, filled with traps, monsters, magicians, armies of armed fighters, zombies, vampires, dead ends, deep abysses, dangerous paths, and nearly impossible to solve riddles.

1st You need to get legislation passed through Congress, avoiding the perils of the Filibuster, the Tricks of the Republicans, the obstruction of the Manchins and Sinemas, and the Antiabortion army.

2nd You need to find a way to enforce the legislation in states that refuse to. A perilous journey full of pitfalls, Far Right aggressors, and the riddles of misinformation by Right Wing TV Pundits.

3rd You need to survive the Court challenges. Make your way up through the terrifying passageways of lawsuits and legal challenges, From conservative judges, through appeals courts, then you have to face off against the many headed Big Boss, the Supreme Court.

If you fail, then you have to do it all over again until you get it right. Before time runs out.

[Tami]

The article was behind a paywall, so I couldn’t read it, I’m curious to know if those knuckledraggers were white. If they were, them I’m gonna take a wild guess and assume they weren’t arrested.

Yes, they were white and the cops were brought in, but there was no mention if charges were leveled against them.

[Ragged Maw]

Don't kid yourself, even graphic images of violence against a woman in any way, shape, or form, won't be enough to sway the Anti-Abortion Far Right and Male Domination through Control, Suppression, and Repression lobby in places like Texas.

Dealing with this is like traversing the worlds most difficult Dungeon RPG, filled with traps, monsters, magicians, armies of armed fighters, zombies, vampires, dead ends, deep abysses, dangerous paths, and nearly impossible to solve riddles.

1st You need to get legislation passed through Congress, avoiding the perils of the Filibuster, the Tricks of the Republicans, the obstruction of the Manchins and Sinemas, and the Antiabortion army.

2nd You need to find a way to enforce the legislation in states that refuse to. A perilous journey full of pitfalls, Far Right aggressors, and the riddles of misinformation by Right Wing TV Pundits.

3rd You need to survive the Court challenges. Make your way up through the terrifying passageways of lawsuits and legal challenges, From conservative judges, through appeals courts, then you have to face off against the many headed Big Boss, the Supreme Court.

If you fail, then you have to do it all over again until you get it right. Before time runs out.

Fair point about the legal process being labyrinthine as f**k. But at least that hypothetical “landmark” incident holds up a proverbial mirror that everyone can point to, and cant really be erased as it will come up again and again, and so on.

[PwrdOn]

Republicans most definitely haven't disavowed racism...it's literally the whole point of their redistricting and voting rights laws. On top of that they applaud groups like the Proud Boys, allow KKK and neo-nazi groups to attend their rallies with out a peep in response and think comments like "there might be some kkk groups that are fine" is an entirely defensible comment.

The right in the pre-Trump days had sort of perfected the art of talking out of both sides of its mouth, since the official party organs and "respectable" media figures would merely hint at, but officially disavow, all manner of racist conspiracy theories, while leaving it to all of the trashy right wing websites and FB boomer memes to say the quiet part out loud. Of course, once Trump came around they kind of lost the plot, because the base responded so well to him "telling it like it is" that the standard GOP playbook of weasel words and plausible deniability didn't really hit home anymore, so anyone who wasn't slavishly devoted to him was labeled a RINO and devoured by the MAGA crowd.

Nowadays, those same old Republicans, and some utterly clueless moderate Democrats, seem to think that now since Trump is gone people want to see the old GOP of smarmy two-faced liars come back, because ya know, the extreme right and extreme left are both just as bad and we should denounce them both equally! This seems to be what Mets is going for as well, and honestly I just can't for the life of me imagine who this would actually appeal to. Actual Republican voters overwhelmingly prefer the Trump approach, and while the party functionaries are perhaps correct to recognize that this overt racism from the base kind of undermines what little credibility they have left by spilling the beans on their true agenda, it's kind of late to undo that now.

Fair point about the legal process being labyrinthine as f**k. But at least that hypothetical “landmark” incident holds up a proverbial mirror that everyone can point to, and cant really be erased as it will come up again and again, and so on.

They have enough seats on the SCOTUS now to reverse Roe even if one of them defects. If Breyer takes his sweet time and doesn't retire before the Democrats lose the Senate, they may end up with a 7-2 majority in the near future. As I see it, they passed this ridiculous law in Texas specifically to invite a legal challenge, knowing that it will eventually get kicked up to the highest court and give them a pretext for striking down Roe once and for all.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Here’s what’s slithering down the pike for anti-vaxxers if Ivemectin comes up short as a cure:

Brazilian viper venom shows promise as drug to combat COVID-19

[worstblogever]

Racism is denounced on the right.

Bulls*** it is.

Trump told four women of color in Congress to "Go back to where they came from" and all but four Republicans in the GOP House refused to even vote for a resolution to condemn him for it.
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/16/74223...mp-tweets-raci

They don't denounce it if one in every fifty members of the party have the simple decency to make that stand.

GTFO of here with your gaslighting.

[Tami]

Biden orders declassification of Sept. 11 investigation documents

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is ordering the widespread declassification of information collected during the U.S. investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks following growing pressure to do so from family members of the victims.

The order lays out specific timelines over the next six months for the release of the documents, with some set to be released as early as next week’s 20th anniversary of the terror attacks. Information should only remain classified if its release would pose a clear national security risk, and shouldn't remain classified “in order to conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error or to prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency.”

“Information collected and generated in the United States Government's investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks should now be disclosed, except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise,” Biden said in an executive order directing the declassification.

[kidfresh512]

Bulls*** it is.

Trump told four women of color in Congress to "Go back to where they came from" and all but four Republicans in the GOP House refused to even vote for a resolution to condemn him for it.
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/16/74223...mp-tweets-raci

They don't denounce it if one in every fifty members of the party have the simple decency to make that stand.

GTFO of here with your gaslighting.

Not to mention almost all the GOP tried to get millions of black voters ballots disqualified and incited an insurrection when that wasn't working. And lets not even go to the GOP gerrymandering specifically targeting minorities with the express goal of limiting minority representation.

Sprinkle oh top of that the Voter suppression bills they raced to state houses all over the country specifically targeted to minimize and restrain minority voters based on the data and voting patterns from past elections.

[BeastieRunner]

Don't kid yourself, even graphic images of violence against a woman in any way, shape, or form, won't be enough to sway the Anti-Abortion Far Right and Male Domination through Control, Suppression, and Repression lobby in places like Texas.

Dealing with this is like traversing the worlds most difficult Dungeon RPG, filled with traps, monsters, magicians, armies of armed fighters, zombies, vampires, dead ends, deep abysses, dangerous paths, and nearly impossible to solve riddles.

1st You need to get legislation passed through Congress, avoiding the perils of the Filibuster, the Tricks of the Republicans, the obstruction of the Manchins and Sinemas, and the Antiabortion army.

2nd You need to find a way to enforce the legislation in states that refuse to. A perilous journey full of pitfalls, Far Right aggressors, and the riddles of misinformation by Right Wing TV Pundits.

3rd You need to survive the Court challenges. Make your way up through the terrifying passageways of lawsuits and legal challenges, From conservative judges, through appeals courts, then you have to face off against the many headed Big Boss, the Supreme Court.

If you fail, then you have to do it all over again until you get it right. Before time runs out.

Fair point about the legal process being labyrinthine as f**k. But at least that hypothetical “landmark” incident holds up a proverbial mirror that everyone can point to, and cant really be erased as it will come up again and again, and so on.

If life begins at 6 weeks, then everyone in Texas should start suing to collect on life insurance policies after a miscarriage.

That will stop the antics. When money gets involved ... then they'll care.