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

[numberthirty]

Since this one probably won't get too many mentions from the usual suspects in the mainstream media outfits...

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs...ulin-price-cap

Biden calls cost of prescription drugs in U.S. ‘unconscionable’ in push for insulin price cap

[CaptainEurope]

Meanwhile, out in actual reality?

There is not just a "Vaccine..." that was not a possibility in the "McDonalds..." example...

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSt...-pill-84253107

In spite of your "the pandemic is over" Mantra, people still get very ill, people still die. More people will get very ill and die because the mask mandate was ended.

[numberthirty]

In spite of your "the pandemic is over" Mantra, people still get very ill, people still die. More people will get very ill and die because the mask mandate was ended.

Politely?

That bit in blue simply does not compute...

Sort of assumes that what is in blue is where the folks in question will wind up, no?

While I still think that it is too soon, personally?

I'm not so sure that folks who even actually wind up catching a mild case during this stretch are going to be looking to sue.

Right or wrong, lots of folks are ready to take the training wheels off.

Past that obvious bit?

Folks just pointed out that your "Sue The Pants Off Of..." hope is just not that likely. For a few different reasons. Which folks have pointed out.

[worstblogever]

That bit in blue simply does not compute...

This doesn't help the forum's discussion of whether or not this account belongs to a bot.

Also, it shows a general lack of awareness for what actually is happening to real people, and the impact upon actual human lives.

Therefore, again, consistent with account.

Let's all please stop doing our part to spread misinformation, and insisting "it's over" while a new variant is on the horizon.

[numberthirty]

This doesn't help the forum's discussion of whether or not this account belongs to a bot.

Also, it shows a general lack of awareness for what actually is happening to real people, and the impact upon actual human lives.

Therefore, again, consistent with account.

Let's all please stop doing our part to spread misinformation, and insisting "it's over" while a new variant is on the horizon.

That's like saying McCarthy was actually discussing who "Was..."/"Was Not..." Reds...

Exactly.

I never really had any issue with Tulip not being a "White..." lady in the AMC series. Didn't even have much of an issue with that the character was essentially something almost completely written for the small screen.

Just had an issue that it was essentially Preacher in name only.

That they went out of their way to find a nice "White..." Jesse Custer, and made sure he looked the part?

It didn't amount to much when he wasn't really anything like "Comics..." Jesse Custer.

That character(Anna...) wanted to put a midnight screening of the film The Decline Of Western Civilization on.

What color was her hair going to be? Strawberry blonde?

While it's certainly tough to get one's hands on?

It is probably the work that I am the most fond of personally.

Lots of aspects from the pair's other works all in one place.

Never mind that it is "Pulp..." fan hog heaven.

There is no reasonably worthwhile reason to do so.

The last time it was a functional imprint(The Wild Storm...) was the best the IP has ever been. Probably as good as it ever could be.

Rolling the dice on screwing that ride off into the sunset up with whatever might come of a new imprint?

It's just not a very good idea.

While you have a pretty good point...

All I could think was -

"So, You Seriously Thought You Were Just Going To Sneak A Reworked Pump Up The Volume Past Me And I Wasn't Even Going To Notice?"

Also...

Uh, let's just say that I can recall kids actually arguing about if The Smiths even were a good band. Never mind that it was an absolutely settled matter at the time.

SYFY's Deadly Class was getting it closer to "Right..." than this.

One other thing that seems kinda obvious...

The Smiths' record that actually was released that year?

It ain't exactly a platter full of "Rebellious Teen..." rallying cries.

(A guy could go on. Wouldn't stop McCarthy from looking for "Reds...", but you get the picture...)

[Catlady in training]

Not surprisingly, red states have a 35% higher suicide rate than blue states on average. The 10 reddest states have a suicide rate of 65% higher than the 10 bluest ones. For them, it's a feature, not a bug.

That's an interesting statistics. Can't say it surprises me, wonder what the reasons are. More laws targeting minorities and/or human rights? More bullies in general? Better access to guns? All of the above?

Meanwhile, the government of Moldova has called in the Russian ambassador in the country after Russia has cranked up bellicose rhetoric against Europe's poorest country. They are using many of the same lies used against Ukraine months ago (i. e. a Russian minority being suppressed, Moldova being traditionally Russian etc). If Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, the war there will only be the beginning.

If only Ukraine and eastern NATO countries have been warning others about that for the past 2 months...

[thwhtGuardian]

This doesn't help the forum's discussion of whether or not this account belongs to a bot.

Also, it shows a general lack of awareness for what actually is happening to real people, and the impact upon actual human lives.

Therefore, again, consistent with account.

Let's all please stop doing our part to spread misinformation, and insisting "it's over" while a new variant is on the horizon.

Eh, I don't agree with some of his stances but he's hardly a bot and he's not spreading disinformation here just pointing out that if one tried to sue an airline for getting covid because of the airlines mask policies then that person would be facing a serious up hill battle. That's not disinformation that's just the truth. On top of that saying that it's not the same as suing McDonalds over burns isn't disinformation either, and again that's just stating the truth as the hypothetical airline case is in fact much different than the coffee case.

[worstblogever]

That's an interesting statistics. Can't say it surprises me, wonder what the reasons are. More laws targeting minorities and/or human rights? More bullies in general? Better access to guns? All of the above?

If only Ukraine and eastern NATO countries have been warning others about that for the past 2 months...

Moldova might be invaded just because they are poor, and would be likely EASIER for Russia to roll through so Vlad gets some victory to celebrate back in Moscow, rather than the drubbing his forces are getting throughout Ukraine.

[worstblogever]

In 2015, in 2016, and in 2017, “Crazy Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Randy Forbes, the U.S. House Representative for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District and the founder of the Republican Prayer Caucus shortly after taking office back in 2001. We noted that Forbes’ religious fervor is problematic, especially because he’s a big ally of David Barton, the exposed fraud who posits an alternative history of the United States where our Founding Fathers created the country as a Christian nation. Forbes is always quick to waste Congress’ time on meaningless resolution to reaffirm the national motto as “In God We Trust”, and when the American Humanist Association sent letters to members of Congress asking them to honor the separation of church and state guaranteed in our Constitution back in 2012, Forbes declared it a violation of HIS 1st Amendment rights that they would even ask, and that they were trying to censor how he talks about his faith. As you might expect from a modern Republican, Forbes’ Christian faith seems to be greatly diminished whenever bills come up regarding helping the sick or poor, like Jesus actually talked about, but he certainly is a zealot when it social issues like abortion or gay rights are up for discussion, trying to deny both whenever possible. On the latter, Forbes argued against the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, was one of the first Republicans in 2004 to talk about a Constitutional amendment for a same sex marriage ban, and insisted on getting in the last word on the floor of the House to argue against ENDA, so that gays could continue to be discriminated against in the workplace. Not surprisingly, he now also supports measures that would allow Christian businesses to discriminate against the LGBTQ community based on their “religious faith”. Forbes’ paranoia and Christian victimization continued in the past year since we talked about him, most notably in October of 2015 when he spoke at a prayer rally at his home church in Chesapeake, Virginia, and he told the gathered throng about a massive conspiracy under way where funding was being funneled to systematically aim at “killing and destroying faith in America”. That of course, isn’t the only conspiracy theory he’ll beat to death, as even after four years over hearings over Benghazi hearings, Rep. Forbes was still campaigning on the “scandal”, and posting a survey on social media to his constituents if more taxpayer dollars needed to be spent investigating the non-story. And now… some good news. Due to redistricting in Virginia, in the 2016 elections, Forbes didn’t think he had a prayer of winning office in Virginia’s 4th, as it would lean far more to the left than it did previously. So instead, he chose to take a crack at challenging fellow GOP Congressman Scott Taylor over in Virginia’s 2nd District. Taylor won out with 53% of the vote, and as such, Randy Forbes was left without a place in Congress for the first time in 16 years. Frankly, we’re wondering what took so long.

[CaptainEurope]

Politely?

That bit in blue simply does not compute...



Past that obvious bit?

Folks just pointed out that your "Sue The Pants Off Of..." hope is just not that likely. For a few different reasons. Which folks have pointed out.

Time will tell. Your country is not called "Litigation Nation" for nothing.

Everybody on that plane entered into a contract with the airline under the assumption there would be masks on board. Some hated the idea, to some it was a comfort and possibly the only reason they took the risk. The airline chose to change the rules while people were trapped in the plane. If you don't see judges and juries taking umbrage with that, you've lived a sheltered life.

[worstblogever]

It was on this date in both 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Mary Franson, who was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in, yup, you guessed it, in the 2010 Tea Party Wave. Had we to sum her up in but a few words, we would sum it up with “off-brand Michele Bachmann”. Her voting record represents that, what with votes across the board for any anti-choice legislation, a vote for a transphobic bathroom ban, votes against same sex marriage, and votes against raising the minimum wage during the greatest period of income inequality in our nation in at least a century. It isn’t just a matter of Franson being homophobic like Bachmann, either, she’s fine with outright hating all sorts of people who disagree with her… Democrats, mass shooting survivors, the poor… in fact, the only quote we can find about her sticking up for another person is Roy Moore, who she sees as a victim and not a racist old pedophile (more on that in a moment). So brace yourselves, and get ready for the deranged roller coaster that is Mary Franson…

• March 2nd, 2012: Franson sits down for a delightful video recording where she compares people being allowed to receive food stamps to “feeding wild animals”. Delightful rhetoric, there.
• April 5th, 2012: It’s one thing to be a Republican who doesn’t care much for environmental protection. It’s a whole other thing to be Mary Franson, and to make the ridiculous statement that “Earth Day is a pagan holiday”.
• July 18th, 2012: Mary Franson apologized for her earlier remarks about people on food stamps being like “wild animals”. It must not have been a sincere apology, because on this date, she repeated the same statement.
• September 24th, 2012: With Minnesota about to vote to change the state constitution to legalize same sex marriage, Mary Franson loses her damned mind, and begins not only rambling about the consequences it would have on public education (?), but rambles on enough to say that “homosexuality is not normal behavior”.
• January 31st, 2013: Franson begins her second term in office with a bang, beginning to spout insane and disproven conspiracies about links between vaccines and autism.
• April 9th, 2014: In a hearing over a bill that would offer anti-bullying protections to LGBTQ youth in schools, Mary Franson declares it “fascism”. Because fascist regimes have such a wonderful track record of supporting LGBTQ youth, right?
• November 8th, 2017: The 2017 off-year election went very well for Democrats, and a lot of history was made around the country, including several transgender candidates reaching office. One of them was Danica Roem, who became the first transgender member of the Virginia state legislature. Well, Mary Franson couldn’t resist getting on Twitter to weigh in, saying, “A guy who thinks he’s a girl is still a guy with a mental health condition.”
  Transphobia at its finest, to be sure.
• December 18th, 2017: There’s paranoid, and then there’s Mary Franson. A group of school students for Alexandria Area High School reached out to her on Twitter, to get her to meet with them, and she refused, saying, “It’s not a legislator’s duty to meet with a proudly partisan Democrat group.” Yes, she admits she refuses to talk face to face with a Democrat, even if they’re still her constituent.
• December 19th, 2017: I gets even wilder, after she took heat for this stance, she tried claiming her reason for not meeting with the kids would be that they would “falsely” accuse her of sexual assault, just like people did to Roy Moore to sabotage his campaign for U.S. Senate in Alabama:
  

  “A man’s life was destroyed in AL. 40 years ago he met with minors alone and they recently accused him of horrendous actions. In the world of we must believe every sexual harassment claim, I would think my approach is beyond reasonable. All it takes is one perceived action and my life is destroyed. The life of my family is destroyed. That is a risk I will not take.”

  Oh yeah, she’s nuts.
• March 28th, 2018: Just when you think Mary Franson couldn’t get any more disgusting, she decided to attack the survivors of the mass shooting at Parkland High School, and compare them to the Hitler Youth.
  Her history is wrong, as Germany did not enact massive gun control, that’s a right-wing myth… but it’s revolting that she attacked the victims of a mass shooting so callously.
• November 15th, 2019: Franson begins spreading lies about drag queen storytelling sessions at children’s libraries, claiming that there is pervasive pornographic content by such performers and drug use that make them “inappropriate” candidates to read to children.
• December 10th, 2020: Mary Franson spent most of the Covid-19 pandemic raging against mask mandates set in place by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, and she turned some heads on this date for shaming the Governor for supposedly “holding meetings without a mask”. Fact-checkers noted, however, that it was just the latest example of her being a dishonest twit, as the photo was taken in December of 2019, weeks before the first Covid-19 case was even in the United States.
• January 10th, 2021: After participating in several “Stop the Steal” rallies in Minnesota, and the results of The Big Lie that Mary Franson actively participated in included the deaths of Capitol Police officers, and very nearly the deaths of members of Congress, she waited another four days to post a meme to joke about the riot she helped incite, like the grotesque harpy she is.
• November 19th, 2021: Franson, on Twitter, attacks a local Pho restaurant for wanting proof of vaccination for their customers, referring to the vaccinated as “the mRNA people” and calling the restaurant’s policy “medical status segregation”, when it’s their right as a business in the interests of public safety.

And yet, in spite of all that, Republicans felt no need to have anyone run against Mary in the primary for her seat in the state legislature, and because of the conservative make-up of that district, she still coasted to victory with 68% of the vote. We can only end this post by posting the link again to the time Franson released a video on Facebook Live where a gust of wind blew the campaign sign she was holding around so it spun and smacked her in the face. It’s the little things that help.

[shooshoomanjoe]

In spite of your "the pandemic is over" Mantra, people still get very ill, people still die. More people will get very ill and die because the mask mandate was ended.

Saw my kid's childhood friend the other day. Asked her how her dad is doing and she said he died this Jan of COVID. We are living as if COVID is gone.

[worstblogever]

Saw my kid's childhood friend the other day. Asked her how her dad is doing and she said he died this Jan of COVID.

Saw an article that the leading cause of deaths of children in 2020 was guns. This was during a pandemic, when you might have thought Covid-19 would get up there, but no, even while socially distanced, guns in America killed the most children.

Conservatives would also like to pretend this threat to the populace is "over" or not worth worrying about, while instead, they obsess about whether or not the kids that survive have the same gender and genitals they got at birth. Because priorities! "We don't care if you live or die, but if you do, DON'T BE QUEER, KIDS!"

Entire movement would be a joke if they weren't currently a fascist threat.

[Tendrin]

Speaking of horrible GOPers and the murderous stoking of trans-panic:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2063735.html

A campaign fundraising message from a Republican congressional candidate in Michigan baselessly accuses President Joe Biden of “forcing” young children to learn about “gender reassignment surgeries,” directing text message recipients to an appointment confirmation for “your child” to receive a “gender reassignment surgery tomorrow at 9am.”

But let's pretend this is about something, *anything* else, other than a desire to cleanse trans people from public life. I live with a trans woman. I fear for her safety in the coming months and years.

Meanwhile, the right has turned to accusing anyone who disagrees with them of being a 'groomer'. Meanwhile....

An astonishingly comprehensive Google document of these offenders, complete with more than 800 citations and links, can be found under the rubric of #RepublicanSexualPredators (https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...fh0XgvcWL8/pub). It has apparently been maintained and updated scrupulously for years—and undoubtedly will be added to for years to come.

This list includes more than a few already familiar names, from serial killers such as Dennis Rader and Ted Bundy (who—did you know?-- attended the 1968 GOP national convention) to serial child molester Dennis “Coach” Hastert, the longest-serving Republican House Speaker, sent to prison six years ago. It includes Kenneth Starr, the Clinton-era inquisitor booted out of Baylor University as chancellor for protecting rapists; Roger Ailes, the late Fox News chief and manic sexual harasser; several conservative bishops who notoriously covered up for pedophile priests; and many, many others guilty of harassment and other offenses that fall well short of felonies.

Anyone who peruses the #RepublicanSexualPredators list will find a shocking aggregation of convicted pedophiles, child rapists, and child pornographers. Among the notables are a former staff researcher for Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, whose 2017 arrest sparked a brief scandal, and a couple of well-known Republican fundraisers from the nation’s capital. Others were county commissioners, party chairmen, city council members, state legislators, and so on down the list, covering almost every level of officialdom.

https://www.nationalmemo.com/-2657200953

[Tendrin]

Ben Shapiro has a dire warning for companies attempting to “go woke” following the Florida House passing a bill to take away Disney’s self-governing status in the state.

On Thursday’s episode of The Ben Shapiro Show he said “I am the most free market person on the right. I’m an extraordinarily pro-free market person. I don’t believe that generally the government should crack down on the operations of businesses.”


“I think more freedom for businesses is good,” Shapiro said. “I think lower taxes for business are good for the economy, for Florida, for the economy of the United States, more broadly. However, corporations have to stand up for their own free market bona fides and they have to not become tools of the people who wish to destroy freedom in this country on behalf of leftist group think.”

He continued, “If you decide to just become a woke corporation that does the bidding of your democratic taskmasters. Don’t be surprised when you get clocked with a legislative 2X4.”

“F around and find out!” he warned.

Shapiro, following DeSantis' lead, arguing that companies that engage in social progressivism should be punished. This seems like a pretty terrible precedent that DeSanthis has set, but of course, it will be embraced whole heartedly to 'own the libs' and punish their voters as well.

Republicans are the pro-abuse party.