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

[numberthirty]

Garbage politics, but cards on the table.

Back when he said "Trump won't be looking out for you. He will be looking out for me."?

He was not joking.

[Username taken]

Attachment 118203

Laughing at them is definitely helpful.

I actually laughed out at this.

[Tendrin]

I actually laughed out at this.

Good! It's also very true.

[numberthirty]

Katie Porter having to point out the obvious...

[worstblogever]

On this date in2015, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” ran a profile of Jacob Dorsey, who was a 19 year old candidate for a seat in the Wisconsin House of Representatives in 2014, who was obliterated in the election for his seat not because of his age, and surely not because the Wisconsin GOP didn’t support him (he was given $1,000 by the party for his campaign from them directly, and even got a photo-op with Gov. Scott Walker)… but it was more of his Twitter account that destroyed his chances. He probably should have went back and deleted all the posts where he casually used gay and/or racial slurs, declared his hatred of President Obama and other “urban bastards”, wished for another Civil War, and declared “f*** Abe Lincoln”, which indicated he hadn’t checked who founded the party he was a member of. Dorsey decided to slink back into college at BYU-Idaho.

In both 2016, and in 2017, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of South Carolina State Senator Lee Bright, who kept trying to get Creationism taught in South Carolina schools. He galvanized his support base of Tea Partiers over the next several years with increasingly inflammatory rhetoric, winning re-election in 2012, and finishing second in the GOP primary race to try and unseat sitting U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham in the 2014 elections. In January 2010, Lee Bright was quoted by a local journalist in South Carolina as saying, “If at first you don’t secede, try again,” in a discussion about states’ rights. In August 2013 Bright gave a speech where he warned against “IRS Brownshirts enforcing Obamacare”, as well as claiming that “FEMA is training a militia” while warning against “terrorist nations” sending people to execute a “Southern border invasion”, specifically mentioning the Muslim Brotherhood of perpetrating such an action. In December 2013, Bright argued that able-bodied food stamp recipients “shouldn’t eat”, claiming that many of them “have the nicest nails, and the nicest pocketbook and the nicest car”, and that the United States should completely eliminate its social safety net because it’s “the role of the church”. He finished that discussion by comparing the IRS to Nazi Germany and stated his belief that South Carolina troops will turn against President Obama, advising his allies that "If the Tenth Amendment won’t protect the Second, we might have to use the Second to protect the Tenth.” Shortly after the Newtown Massacre, Bright made the classy decision to campaign for U.S. Senate by auctioning off an AR-15 assault rifle, the weapon that Adam Lanza used to murder 26 people in the Newtown Massacre. In April 2014 Bright was interviewed by Josh Duggar saying that Republicans need to have the courage of Bashir al-Assad and Vladimir Putin in dealing with gays, and not allow an “indoctrination” of the “homosexual agenda”. In June 2015, days after the tragic shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina that was perpetrated by Dylann Roof, a white nationalist motivated by Confederate iconography… the one positive that came out of the tragedy was that a majority in the South Carolina state legislature were willing to discuss removing the Confederate flag from state property, such as the state capitol. Almost immediately upon hearing that news, however, Lee Bright lost his damned mind, and comparing removing the flag to a “Stalinist purge” and gave a rambling defense of the Stars & Bars on the floor of the South Carolina legislature where he added “the Confederate flag is a proud symbol of freedom”, before soon raving wildly about “the devil taking control of his land”, abortion clinics in black neighborhoods “committing genocide”, how “gay marriage is a national sin” and how President Obama and the White House displayed the “abomination colors” when it was legalized. In a 2016 runoff election against Scott Talley, Lee Bright was defeated by a total of 299 votes.

On this date in 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, who was first elected to office back in 2012 by a little less than seven thousand votes. Forest is a political legacy, as the son of former Congresswoman and rubber room candidate Sue Myrick, who spent four years serving under former Gov. Pat McCrory during his administration, during some of the more dismal policy failures the Tar Heel State has seen in several years (that are a lot of the reason why McCrory was only a one-term governor). Perhaps the biggest political disaster of the McCrory regime was North Carolina’s HB 2, a transphobic bathroom ban that allowed for the discrimination of LGBTQ citizens whose passage ended up costing the people of North Carolina over $3.7 billion in lost revenue due to several groups boycotting the state as a result and even some corporations choosing to move their operations elsewhere. And as the economic fallout from passing such a socially conservative law began to take its toll, a few more moderate members of the GOP around North Carolina started to admit that maybe… maybe they went too far. Dan Forest is most certainly not one of those reasonable souls. You see, Dan Forest is a true Fundamentalist believer to his core. And he sat down with Tony Perkins, yes THAT Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council (which is still an anti-gay hate group) to tout the importance of HB 2, insisting that “if it protects one child or one woman "from being molested or assaulted, then it was worth it." Note the wording… IF. Because, and I know this might be shocking, there were no transgender attacks upon women or children in restrooms. There never were. But that didn’t stop Forest from lying his *** off about what the bill was meant to do, saying"Well, our bill does not discriminate against anybody. In fact, the Charlotte ordinance was amazingly discriminatory against especially women and girls who no longer had the freedom to walk into a restroom and know that they would be safe and secure in that restroom without a man walking in or a pedophile or a predator walking into that bathroom." Now that we’ve established that Dan Forest has some issues with the LGBTQ community, in particular the “T”, what with hanging out with anti-gay hate groups and defending an anti-gay discrimination law…. Let’s talk about why this is going to matter going forward… one of the worst kept secrets right now in North Carolina politics is that when Forest is term-limited in 2020, he’s going to take a shot at preventing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper from getting a second term in office. GOP Congressman Mark Meadows already let the cat out of the bag, and Forest is already attacking his sitting Governor for wanting to repeal the widely unpopular HB 2, and claiming that Roy Cooper, intends to we quote, “a 'Look But Don't Touch' policy in our bathrooms.” That doesn’t sound like someone who is backing off of his bad move, does it? But the levels of fanaticism already look to be well ingrained farther than even that. For years now, Forest has begun organizing a “Christian retreat” for political donors and allies known as “Black Mountain Weekend” where political players from North Carolina who cut their teeth working for monsters like Jesse Helms get together, hopefully without wearing hoods while they discuss a “Christian worldview”. And while Forest seems more than thrilled to discriminate against the LGBTQ community, he doesn’t discriminate nearly as much with the kind of company he keeps with fellow people at his retreat. Like Robin Webster, a Faith preacher who believes that you can help turn a gay person straight by beating it out of them. Every legal method of exploiting 501 (c3) law is being pushed, and apparently the bounds of the law aren’t enough for Forest’s backers, who already this year have gone far enough to donate an entire TV studio’s worth of equipment to Forest… illegally. He's more than willing to collect all the donor money from the heads of charter schools at the cost of selling out North Carolina’s education system to them later on. Not shockingly, Dan Forest has made some speeches of late that sound a wee bit like something a God-fearing white nationalist would say, including his June 28th, 2019 barn burner where he began ranting about how “no nation has survived the diversity and multiculturism that the United States faces today.” Here’s a hint for spotting bigots, everyone… when they speak about diversity as if it’s a contagious disease upon the populace, that’s a huge tell. Another one? When you’re spreading lies about immigrants attacking “tens of thousands of kids” in your state, and when you get called out for that disgusting lie, claiming that you “heard it from one lady” as if that’s a valid excuse to say something so irresponsible and hateful. Dan Forest did make the inevitable run for Governor of North Carolina in 2020 as we were dreading, but then we were relieved when he lost to Roy Cooper, earning only 47% of the vote in the effort. As he is now out of office, we will set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1074-50, since this was established in July 2014.

[Tendrin]

More on the debunked pseudoscience being peddled here.

https://neurosciencenews.com/gender-...m-BNg40EWKCrBM

The ROGD hypothesis perpetuates the fear that says, ‘you shouldn’t let your kids hang out with trans people.’ It’s harmful,” Bauer said. “Socially, that’s a really horrible message and ostracizing for youth who are trans or non-binary.”

The 2018 study—conducted through an online survey of parents—also sparked concerns around offering gender-affirming medical care to youth, fearing it might be regretted later in life.

While many have taken aim at the study’s methods, a test of the theory using clinical data from actual teens and adolescents had never been completed until now.

Findings from Trans Youth CAN!—a study of youth referred for blockers or hormones at 10 clinics in Canada—were recently published in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Researchers analyzed clinical data from 173 Canadian trans adolescents seen in 10 gender clinics. They tested for 13 factors that would be consistent with the ROGD hypothesis, including social contagion factors like the influence of online groups, as well as variables related to mental health and maladaptive coping.

Bauer and her team found nothing in their analysis to support rapid-onset gender dysphoria being a distinct clinical phenomenon.

Gosh. It's almost like Shrier is peddling an anti-trans propaganda that is made up of the same crap that was slung at gay people.

I'm sure the people who were trying to give plaudits to Shrier for bringing up 'important points' will take them back now that she's been even more thoroughly debunked, right?

[worstblogever]

Hirsh Singh

Welcome to what is the 1074th original profile here at “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Hirsh Singh, who was a candidate for Governor of New Jersey in both 2017 as well as 2021, and was a failed challenger for New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District in the House in 2018, and Senator Corey Booker’s seat in 2020. Which, sure seems like he’s deserving of the term “perennial candidate” so far, what with four failed efforts to get elected to office in five years’ time.

We will lead off by noting Hirsh Singh has done his part in Republicans’ efforts to make false claims of election fraud, as is now party ideology, waiting until February of 2021 to demand a recount in his loss in his U.S. Senate race in 2020. He also claimed that mail-in balloting is “unconstitutional” which would be news to all of the active-duty military members in the United States who have been using that to participate in our democracy for decades. Singh apparently wanted to overturn his loss in the GOP Primary so he could have been the guy who got buried at the polls by Sen. Corey Booker.

But no, Singh isn’t convinced he’s the only one who has been screwed by election fraud conspiracies, given that as late as June of 2021, he was still spreading Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that he actually won the 2020 election. Singh’s 2021 campaign featured not only lying about election fraud, but lying and claiming he had the endorsement of Donald Trump (his opponent, Jack Ciatterelli did), but he was disqualified from the GOP debate because he refused to get vaccinated or be tested for Covid-19 prior to it. It seems unlikely that had he advanced out of the primary, that he would have beaten Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in a statewide race in a blue state, given that he went on record that mask mandates to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in public schools were “child abuse”.


Hirsh Singh finished third in the GOP Primary for Governor of New Jersey in 2020, getting 21.6% of the vote. He has yet to announce any 2022 runs for office, and New Jersey will be better off not having him being a toxic presence in its politics.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Not noted transphobe Dave Chapelle blocking development of affordable housing!



https://deadline.com/2022/02/dave-ch...an-1234930470/

Scratch a transphobe and inevitably you'll find their politics suck in countless other ways.

The older you get, the more conservative you get...if you have millions of dollars

[Tendrin]

The older you get, the more conservative you get...if you have millions of dollars

Wealth really *does* rot your brain.

While I'm sure there may be a more nuanced explanation and I'm sure Chapelle's defenders will show up with it, it doesn't look great at the moment for the guy to wield his wealth in what seems like a particularly NIMBY way.

[Dalak]

Debunked is a strong word, implying that she's been proven wrong when that's not what happened with the studies. The primary criticisms are that she interviewed parents and not adolescents, and that she referred to a study by Lisa Littman which was corrected to note that it was a hypothesis based on parent reports. I am unaware of anyone disproving Littman's observation that there is a notable increase in youth seeking medical care related to being trans.

Apparently there is now according to Tendrin, besides the fact that interviewing anyone not directly involved (AKA not the Kids in question) leads to faulty data and false assumptions. Thus 'debunked' is quite fitting IMO.

Looking at transcripts of interviews, Shrier appears to respond to criticism. Has she evaded any tough questions in her many interviews?

A counterargument could be that her interviews tend to be with friendly sources, but there's a problem with the media in that the people you would trust to ask her tough questions don't want to interview her, because they'll face a lot of pushback from the left. As a result, she won't be pushed on the points that you'd like to see her respond to.

Are you making that argument? You often will present arguments you aren't making so I want to be sure.

Besides that, the question was not if she dodged questions but if she actually acknowledged the flaws in the science she has based her theories on and admitted that made her theories just as flawed. Did she? Otherwise you are shifting things away from a direct question again, I admittedly already assumed the answer to be no but that doesn't change it.

I have no problem with harmful lies as the limit for when we declare journalists beyond the pale, but this would apply to all journalism. It would also seem that most lies would be considered harmful in a journalism context.

I doubt that most of them are harmful to people, but if you want to expand that definition to include companies too that might ring true.

I didn't ask for clarification because I didn't realize you were referring to a book by its subtitle. That's what the main argument was about. In order to ask for clarification, I'd have to recognize the misunderstanding.

Again, your words:

I did think the argument was weak, <SNIP> I don't think it's fair to expect me to come up with a better version of your argument.

You thought a single sentence question was a weak argument, and when you don't understand arguments you will often ask for clarification - like with a troll who spreads misinformation and promotes political violence whom the mods here call out and you've claimed we need to understand how to debate. That you just responded to what was literally said in a flippant way was clearly disrespectful, and that you got upset when I called you out on it confirms it. I could use this to claim that it's because I'm on the opposite side in politics, but I think you were just trying to stick it to someone honestly. Regardless of why you were clearly being disrespectful.

[Xheight]

On Voter Rights, the main things Democrats are trying to do are the things they've always wanted to do (federalization of elections, Election Day as a national Holiday, bans on mandating photo ID, etc.) rather than anything that's a specific response to 2020.
Republicans suggested a clarification of the Electoral Count Act, which the Democrats' omnibus bill doesn't touch, but Schumer called that insufficient and offensive.
https://www.newsweek.com/schumer-sla...l-plan-1666599

It'll probably be done soon enough.

Not really true that. Pushing at both the Fed and State level goes on still to EXPAND vote by mail and early voting drop boxes. Particularly when security measures are added to to such methods like in S. Carolina with ID numbers the Democrats balk. GA is still reviewing video of drop boxes that harvesters apparently forgot about when Abrams claimed fraud.

One of those bills, H.4919, is currently sponsored by more than 40 House Republicans, and its lead sponsor is the highest-ranking member of the chamber, Speaker of the House Jay Lucas, R – Darlington.
Lawmakers heard public testimony on the bill during a Wednesday subcommittee meeting, when it received mixed reviews from speakers.
One part of the bill, which would expand early in-person voting and make it more uniform from county to county, was largely welcomed.
It would require two weeks of in-person early voting before Election Day, every day except Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and people would not need a reason or an excuse to vote early in person, as they do now.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed new legislation on Monday that will make voting by mail a permanent fixture in the Golden State's future elections.

- Sep 27, 2021

January 29, 2021 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) introduced new legislation on Thursday to give millions of Americans the option to vote from home. The Vote at Home Act seeks to expand vote by mail access, provide voters with pre-paid ballot envelopes to return their mail ballots and enact automatic voter registration.

That last one is in the same month as Jan. 6th - Locking in a dubious method is a HUGE part of the agenda and EC reform is not reform either but an opportunistic advance by majoritarianism to nullify the effects of the EC to grant States rights of designating electors and having a review process. The objection process itself is woefully as it already is and turning it into a rubber stamp erodes confidence rather than building it. People seem to think that this is the first time it has happened.

It has. 1969, 2001, 2005, and 2017 against Trump.

[JB]

Katie Porter having to point out the obvious...

I agree with Porter. Thanks for posting the clip.

[Tendrin]

Apparently there is now according to Tendrin, besides the fact that interviewing anyone not directly involved (AKA not the Kids in question) leads to faulty data and false assumptions. Thus 'debunked' is quite fitting IMO.

There is also no 'spike' in transitions amongst girls, per overall population data.

Population data shows increased numbers of LGBT people in the youngest generation studied (Gen Z) and increasing in all categories in the acronym above all previous generations, and not just in transgender identity. There is no research showing that more trans boys come out than trans girls, despite Shrier’s claim of a “sudden spike in transgender identification among teen girls [identifying as boys].”

In fact, the data showed the number of young LGBTQ people identifying as lesbian doubled compared to the previous generation, whereas the number of young LGBTQ people identifying as trans went up only by a few points, again disproving the false theory that teen girls are falling prey to a “spike” in gender transition.

The lesbian identity information is important because there's a whole lot of fearmongering in certain circles around 'where have all the lesbians gone', using the idea that gay women are becoming 'confused' and thinking they're 'trans' instead. It's nonsense that isn't happening.

What is instead happening is a combination of factors. Increased visibility of transgender people and children at all levels of society followed by a deliberate movement of the hard-right to weaponize them as a wedge issue. This is the exact same anti-gay playbook that was used before. Exactly. The. Same. The same arguments, the same wedge-issue and language garbage. It's a bold effort to try to carve the T off LGBT to make it easier to dial back LGB rights in general. Heck, just look at the 'don't say gay' bills in Florida.

[Xheight]

Jury Trial Ordered for CNN’s Don Lemon Over Sexual Assault Allegations
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politic...tions-n1557362

CNN can't catch a break.

The problem is that reporters have become entertainers and hucksters like they originally were and this myth of objective news is really of a moment in history that comes from John Dewey and midcentury hopes for an informed democracy.

Lippmann associates this view of what he calls “the omnicompetent citizen” with Thomas Jefferson. Of course Jefferson spoke of a democracy on the scale of a village, where all citizens had sufficient knowledge about their environment to make reasonable choices in the context of their self-interest.

Interestingly the person who was most like Trump, Jackson blew that notion apart soon after in american politics

Lemon is just more of the fake window dressing of looking like America when what percent of America is a rich gay guy (cough Cooper) I don't exactly know. (I want to know where all the Latino reporters are on either side btw) That might be why the jury trial is not a choice.

[Tendrin]

I'm so sorry, WBE.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state lawmaker who has won praise from former President Donald Trump for his attempts to illegally reverse President Joe Biden's win in Wisconsin filed paperwork Thursday to run for governor, a move that would shake up the Republican primary.

State Rep. Timothy Ramthun, a conspiracy theorist who was also disciplined last month by Republican leadership over false election claims, filed paperwork with the state creating a gubernatorial campaign committee on Thursday. The move came after his campaign website was up briefly on Wednesday before being taken down after he was contacted by news outlets.

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