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

[numberthirty]

Never mind that there was a time where you could have said any of that "Backlash..." nonsense about African Americans/Irish immigrants/Italian immigrants.

Should we just have told them "Hey, tough break..." until we could get blockheads to rethink whatever garbage they had against each one of those groups?

[AnakinFlair]

Oh WBE, I've got another winner for you. And from my home state, of course.

Missouri GOP Lawmaker Sparks Outrage After Asking Nonbinary Teen To Go On Record About Their Genitals

Republican Elaine Gannon, a Missouri state senator, sparked significant outrage after she asked a nonbinary teenager to go on record about their genitals during a meeting regarding transgender students playing sports.

The teenager, a 14-year-old named Avery who told The Advocate they had been testifying against anti-trans bills with their mother “for years,” appeared incredulous when they heard Gannon's line of questioning.

The video, taken during a hearing to discuss Missouri State Senate Bill No. 781, a measure that would ban trans women and girls from participating in sports teams that match their gender identity first garnered attention on Reddit before catching the eye of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

The Missouri GOP state senator began with the following: “You’re in the ladies’ room and then you realize somebody else in there doesn’t have a female’s … has a male body instead of a female’s body. I mean, it just causes some issues there."

When Avery told her there is no issue, stressing Gannon should simply "let people go to the bathroom" and noting school bathrooms have several toilets with stalls, Gannon told Avery other people "don’t realize because you have such long hair."

Gannon then proceeded to ask Avery if they were "going to go through the procedure," a reference to gender affirmation surgery.

Avery, visibly taken aback, challenged Gannon's question:“You think we’re going around forcing our genitalia in people’s faces? We’re trying to go to the bathroom. … No one is looking at your genitals.”

Avery's mother, Debi Jackson, clarified the question, demanding if Gannon was "asking a 14-year-old on public record about genitals and if people could see that." Gannon simply responded she was "seriously just curious."

[Totoro Man]

Justice Clarence Thomas was reported to have been hospitalized with flu like symptoms. While I despise the man, and his harridan of a wife, I hope he’ll recover.

hey, at least he urged the Supreme Court to reconsider qualified immunity. so, there's at least ONE thing he's proposed that I agree with.

if cops didn't have qualified immunity (or police unions) we might see them acting quite a bit differently!

[Mister Mets]

It clearly indicated I meant more than a subtitle.

BTW When you post:


describing how you felt when you responded, I think a simple mad is better than the pissed off you used.

-----



If this was more than an internet forum and a classroom some might pick their words better, but everyone on the planet is biased in their point of view and you'll hardly ever get a completely un-loaded question or answer. So it's easy to use that as an excuse to dodge practically anything.



No, you said that people might have been influenced by it but gave no hint of how administrators of grade schools that have been there since before CRT was sensationalized would have studied it in order for it to influence their opinions, let alone anything else other than a theory you had that made it the majority of teachers. You could give no numbers, give no hint that anything done was due to CRT as opposed to being a moral person, and gave no hint that you took the question seriously by doing so.



And you said the harm came from it being done badly but gave no hint that you had even read about it being done wrong once. Nor did you try to guess how often such harm came or in what percentage compared to the non-harmful variety, just asserted that there was harm caused without proof.



If someone is going to ban something and declare it is child abuse you can bet the burden of proof is on them, and if someone was going to support such actions when they're already been exposed to many links about how it's not in a prolonged argument about a scandalous book they should surely have something to back it up. As has been shown the CPS across the country has been investigating these situations for years and if any story had arrived of parents forcing their children to transition had merit the conservative media would be crowing about it day in and day out. Thus we don't need time for long term studies to be concluded for such news to be disseminated.



Yes, ignoring the reason why it was brought up in the first place which was to show that supporting the GOP who support Trump and his policies is supporting Trump and his policies.



No, facts would not sway this crowd. We have evidence of that needing to me mentioned by a Mod every few days in regards to The Steal.



I think that convincing the apathetic to care is a losing game, as if they don't care by now there's nothing going to stir them. If COVID isn't going to get them voting after blatant child abuse of asylum seekers, then child abuse of transgender youth isn't going to sway them.



Laws shouldn't be used to restrict peoples rights to which bathroom they use, or restrict anyone's right to anything based on bigotry. The fact that you are trying to make this about laws making others respect others in responce is telling. BTW, that you are still talking about the 'proven advantages to being born male' means you should go back and read the many links I mentioned. There was a long running discussion involving it between a few liberal posters that I'm sure you couldn't have missed even if you didn't read the links, but TL;DR trans girls are far less effective in sports than you and others might think.

-----





This deserved 2 different responses?

Bottom line: If it wasn't classified as Child Abuse there's no reason to go after anyone. A ban on anything requires a reason, and if it wasn't Child Abuse it would be something just as outrageous, clearly disingenous, and based in bigotry.

I do hope to end the back and forth about the subtitle, but it really wasn't clear that you were just referring to a book by its subtitle, and not making any further comment about it.

Informed people should be able to ask a non-loaded question. There may on occasion be a slight back and forth, because people have blind spots. The idea that we shouldn't expect this in a message board creates a Catch-22, if there's any expectation of a response. No one can respond accurately to a loaded question. You might address the substance of the point, although this requires guessing it accurately, which can't always happen. People have different media sources and priorities. And there can still be the criticism that the question wasn't addressed perfectly, although it can't be addressed completely because there's an objectionable premise.

On CRT, I explained how most teachers would be influenced in a small way. I welcome follow-up questions. One obvious wrinkle in message board discussions is that there's a finite amount of time to respond, so if someone has a bunch of questions on several different topics, the other person won't be able to go into high amounts of detail on each point.

There was an interesting podcast discussion where radio host Mike Pesca noted the problem with the expectation that people be able to quantify a recent development. If something is recognized as a hidden problem, there will be a shortage of empirical evidence. For example, when Americans started to recognize that child abuse was a problem, there was a lack of relevant police reports.

I've written about bad DEI practices before. For example, I've written about implicit bias training can backfire.

https://www.wpr.org/researcher-despi...ually-backfire

A New Yorker profile on Christopher Rufo, a leader in the backlash against CRT in education, covers some dumb examples of DEI training.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annal...al-race-theory

Regarding Trump, people here would generally have reacted the same way about any Republican president. There will always be culture war conflicts.

On the topic of laws and rights, there are frequently some conflicts. If we're coming up with policies, we need a legal rationale and to negotiate different interests.

Some people won't be persuaded by facts. Some will. A major problem is the shortage of facts given the discomfort the media has about this issue.

The New York Times did a piece about doctors debating whether trans teens need therapy before hormones, and there was a lot of internal pushback.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/h...mentsContainer

Regarding what you see as apathy, there are drawbacks to a lot of policies. If the United States took in more families seeking asylum, more people seeking to live in the United States would take children along with them. People can be sympathetic to children and conclude that puberty blockers are a bad idea.

There are proven advantages in sports to being born male. Elite male athletes have more cardiovascular capacity, greater muscle mass, higher tendon mechanical strength, and denser bones, in addition to being stronger and taller with greater wingspans. Hormone-replacement therapy will not replace these and other competitive advantages. If I'm not responding to links on the topic, it's because I'm familiar with multiple facets of the argument.

https://www.newyorker.com/sports/spo...trans-athletes

I want to be clear what the controversy is about which is why I mention the specifics. It's relevant to consider the degree to which people on this forum would be opposed to a blanket ban on hormone therapy for minors in a state. We're in agreement that it's a bad idea to go after parents, but that's the easiest fight for progressives, which sidesteps the question of what they really want.

[Totoro Man]

the more I read about this Kinzhal missile the less it makes sense. if this thing really has the range that they claim it has... why are they launching it from tactical aircraft? they could just launch it from the ground. why are the range figures given for this missile suspiciously similar to the effective range of the Mig-31 and Tu-22M? and y'know what, when you subtract the differences in range based on the launch platform... you're left with the same number, about 550 kilometers (about 341) miles.

now the map I've got here presumes upon a 600 mile range. each circle shows a 600-mile strike radius from Belgorod, Novorssiysk, and the area east of Homyel. notice how launch sites in Russia could be used to hit anywhere in the Ukraine? well, if their missile could actually fly 600 miles they wouldn't even need to mount it on aircraft to hit most of the Ukraine.

even the 341 mile figure seems a bit suspicious. I'm not sure you can combine the speeds they're claiming with that sort of range.

and then there's the claim that it's "guided". if it flies as fast as they say it does you wouldn't even need to guide the weapon if you were close enough. hell, I'm not sure AI could respond that quickly to make corrections at the speeds they're claiming it has.

some missiles have really long ranges... like the Tomahawk cruise missile. but they achieve this range by flying at lower speeds; a slow and steady burn. I just don't see a hypersonic missile getting that sort of range.

it honestly looks like a high-velocity point-and-shoot weapon. the speeds their claiming might be true. but the 'warhead' could very easily be the airframe of the missile hitting the target. it would be similar to the HVAR that got used by the Allies in WW2. right now, it kinda looks like a really big and expensive AGM-65 Maverick.

600 mile radius.jpg

I dunno, I'm not an expert or anything... but I used to read Air Forces Monthly and Aviation Week and Space Technology every month at the library for years. and, this thing just sounds too good to be true. I certainly wouldn't be on the receiving end of it... but, I can't help but feel this is a propaganda stunt to demoralize the Ukrainians and their supporters.

[4saken1]

At Mexico border, anti-war Russians worry about their fate as Ukrainians enter U.S.

All things considered, this is not all that surprising.

I imagine their odds at ultimately getting asylum are still better than if they were Haitian.

[The Cool Thatguy]

I wonder if the hyper sonic missile is just Russia trying to flex for the rest of the world.

I don't want Russia to win, but as experts have said, mass matters. Russia has enough bodies and weapons to grind down Ukraine. But their losses do signal to everyone else their weakness, and certainly costs them in regards to prestige

[worstblogever]

I wonder if the hyper sonic missile is just Russia trying to flex for the rest of the world.

I don't want Russia to win, but as experts have said, mass matters. Russia has enough bodies and weapons to grind down Ukraine. But their losses do signal to everyone else their weakness, and certainly costs them in regards to prestige

Russia's failures in Afghanistan took years.

Their current failure in Ukraine seems assured less than a month in.

[worstblogever]

In 2015, in 2016, and in 2017, “Crazy Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of former Washington State Senator Pam Roach, who we noted for a quarter century was a terror in the Washington State Legislature, with reports of her mistreating or threatening staffers (including once reportedly brandishing a firearm to do so), and giving the middle finger to a colleague over the terrible offense of moving her beloved bouquet of roses that she insists on having delivered every day (not caring that her colleague moved them because they’re allergic). She was forced into anger management classes by her own caucus, and when they allowed her back from them too soon, they were sued for allowing her to return and “create a hostile work environment”. Roach, of course, believes she is being unfairly treated in all of these incidents, and played the victim card, saying that she has fewer rights than “somebody who burgles the house, who rapes a child that causes a fire and causes a building to go down”. The Washington GOP set up a primary challenger for her in 2014, who lost to her because he was a convicted sex offender. Her temper tantrums make the fact that she’s pro-death penalty, anti-LGBTQ rights, pro-transphobic bathroom bans, and anti-abortion including in cases of rape or incest seem almost forgettable, in comparison to the drama she brings. Pam Roach barely won re-election in the 2014 elections after the state GOP attempt to give her a primary challenger, so she took a hint and decided to not run for her seat in the Washington State Senate in 2016. We will retire her FRED profile at this time and go ahead and take a look at a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 663-25, since this was established in July 2014.)


On this date in 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Mark Cole, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing District 88 since 2001, and man voted most likely to be a chin donor in his high school yearbook. And, suffice to say, there’s not much interesting to say about the first half of his career. Since 2010 though…

In February of 2010, Mark Cole made a name for himself for sponsoring legislation to outlaw medical insurance companies or employers from implanting microchips in people. Which… wasn’t actually a thing that anyone was doing, but Mark Cole wanted to fear-monger and convince he would put a stop to. Specifically, he started to rant about how he was on a mission to prevent the Anti-Christ.

"My understanding -- I'm not a theologian -- but there's a prophecy in the Bible that says you'll have to receive a mark, or you can neither buy nor sell things in end times. Some people think these computer chips might be that mark."

Now, that’s pretty nutty, even for a lot of the fear Republicans wanted to propagate around the time the Affordable Care Act passed. Well, that’s not the only piece of legislation that Mark Cole sponsored that’s cringeworthy. In January of 2016, he sponsored a piece of transphobic bathroom legislation aimed at school children that actually asked that the genitals of the children be inspected to determine their “anatomical sex” and then assign which restroom they should be allowed to use in school. Because THAT isn’t inherently creepy. Let’s hire people to inspect the kiddos’ bits and pieces.

While Cole did survive the bloodbath the Virginia GOP endured in the 2017 election, he hasn’t changed much in the new term, including that he blocked the passage of an Equal Rights Amendment in the state in February of 2018. He countered by sponsoring anti-immigrant legislation to prohibit the creation of sanctuary cities. The rest of his voting record, of course, shows him as being wildly anti-choice, pro-gun, and pro-death penalty.

Mark Cole won re-election in the 2019 elections with 55% of the vote possibly because he showed up at the polling station in his district handing out fliers that were on blue paper to mislead voters to think he was the Democratic candidate on the ticket.

Fast forward about a year, and Mark Cole was writing letters to Mike Pence prior to the insurrection of 1/6/21, asking him to not certify Virginia’s electoral votes even though Joe Biden won his state handily, and e-mailing a video to all his constituents of former Trump staffer Steve Bannon yelling about how Democrats were going to “steal this election”. That move got him rebuked by his own party and removed from his Committee post in the Virginia State Assembly. Mark Cole of course, true to his party, did not learn his lesson, sponsoring two new bills aimed at voter suppression and intimidation.

We are thrilled to report this seditious motherf***er withdrew from the ballot prior to the 2021 GOP Primary for his seat, realizing he didn’t have a prayer of winning office on the heels of that. Now that he is out of office, we will offer him our finest, “GOOD RIDDANCE AND F*** OFF” salutes.

[CSTowle]

Good luck with that. Private industry very often doesn't like spending on things like computer security, since it costs money and time and doesn't add to the bottom line. Short sighted, stupid, sure, but that's what I've seen.

Likely they'll wait it out for government subsidies to upgrade. They're going to want it for liability and PR reasons, but if they can get it on the back of the taxpayers why not?

A small added factor for inflation is that people prefer goods to services right now. A percent of the population is nervous about Covid and not going out as much as they want.

The quality of services has likely diminished. There are less people performing so-called low-skilled work, which means it's going to take longer and won't be as good. Because of supply chain issues and other concerns, costs are higher and some staples will not be available, which means that if you want to go to a restaurant, you're on average paying more for worse, slower and less reliable service. Which further incentivizes people to spend money on goods.

On energy issues, the main conservative arguments would be various Democratic policies make domestic energy production riskier. Why undertake a complex process if President AOC might outlaw it in ten years? There's also a concern that sponsoring renewable energy will send money to people to have the best connections rather than the best product.

With Afghanistan, the main questions are about how it was handled (IE- not securing airports.) It's probably not that big a deal now, because other issues have taken priority.

There are other major problems with Covid than Trump's shortcomings. Obesity correlates with Covid complications, and America is a fat country.

With the border, I do think it would be a good idea to have more legal immigration. But that doesn't mean we can't do more to secure the border (IE- go after Visa overstayers.)

Regarding Russia, there is a good question about what Trump would do differently. The main argument may be that Putin would consider him too unpredictable, but Biden has handled it well, sharing intel to avoid Russia being able to claim a pretext for invasion, and allowing European nations to lead, preventing Putin from framing this as an issue of standing up to America.

On the bolded, you could say the same about everything from pipelines to aircraft parts to the stationary they use in Federal offices. And they have a point. But that's on lack of regulation and oversight, and a bit of (sadly) how politics works. Treating the renewable energy industry differently is more about partisan politics and being backed by the horses with the big money (Big Oil) than it is about "corruption" that's already rampant anywhere anything's being subsidized. Same thing will likely happen if/when we're paying for cybersecurity for the private sector as I was responding to about the comment above.

On obesity, a good point and I'd love to see us take some steps towards helping that out. Stop subsidizing high-fructose corn syrup use as a sugar substitute (good luck running in Iowa on that platform), encourage physical fitness and better diet, etc. But when you have half the country clutching their pearls over wearing a mask and getting a shot I don't see them being on board for more (even good) advice coming from what they call "the Nanny State". Sadly freedom means freedom to be wrong/ignorant/and unhealthy too.

On Trump's "unpredictability", I'd say he was one of the most predictably pro-Putin/pro-strongman Presidents we've ever had (we've had dealings with others before, but we were installing them to do our bidding and not fawning over them as something to aspire to). I can't imagine Putin actually fearing a Trump response.

[Tendrin]

If we want to deal with obesity, pay people better and shorten the workday so people can sleep.

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/phys...sity-and-sleep

[numberthirty]

Meanwhile, out in actual reality...

https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/fi...tay-report.pdf

Total Overstay Rate

CBP determined there were 55,928,990 in-scope nonimmigrant admissions1 to the United States
through air or sea ports with expected departures occurring in FY 2019, which represents the
majority of air and sea annual nonimmigrant admissions. Of this number, CBP calculated a total
overstay rate of 1.21 percent, or 676,422 overstay events. In other words, 98.79 percent of the
in-scope nonimmigrant entries departed the United States on time and in accordance with the
terms of their admission.

[CaptainEurope]

I have also noticed some comments that are frighteningly similar to Russia's talking points. I don't think either that there are any professional trolls here (except for the one poster who's name begins with "X", I wouldn't be so sure there), but the problem is that Russia's propaganda gets spread not only by professional trolls, but by many people who genuinely believe that and spread it further, especially thorough facebook. It' like cancer. It has been ignored for too long and now there's no effective way to go against it, because even reasonably people will scream about freedom of speech, underestimating how dangerous some of that misinformation is, as if we didn't see for the past two years the effects it had on the fight against the pandemic.

Rolling Stone had a decent article about how those fake accounts place the Kremlin talking points:

That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It

The purpose of the Tyra account, we believe, was not to spread heartwarming messages to Americans. Rather, the tweet about Warrick Dunn was really a Trojan horse to gain followers in a larger plan by a foreign adversary. We think this because we believe @IamTyraJackson was an account operated by the successors to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA). Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted the IRA for waging a massive information war during the 2016 U.S. election. Since then, the IRA seems to have been subsumed into Russia’s Federal News Agency, but its work continues. In the case of @IamTyraJackson, the IRA’s goal was two-fold: Grow an audience in part through heartwarming, inspiring messages, and use that following to spread messages promoting division, distrust, and doubt.

And I would add "distractions, division, distrust, and doubt."

[CaptainEurope]

Or just be honest.
It's not hard.

The very bad MAGA version of "The Onion", the Babylon Bee, is banned from twitter for not deleting their transphobic tweet. There are reasons people start their transphobia with "I'm not transphobic BUT".

[CaptainEurope]

I've explained my position on this subject several times in detail now with you and others here. I'm getting pretty tired of it.

Every bit of negativity hurts our chances in 2024. While people continue to spread it here, I'll continue to point that fact out.

Yet when I want to talk about insanely positive jobs reports and how that will affect people and the economy, I get crickets here.