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

[kidfresh512]

Right-Wing Groups Target Pride Events Amid Rising Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric

Panda Dulce was just about to begin her Drag Queen Story Hour on Saturday in San Lorenzo, Calif., when a group of eight to 10 men marched into the library yelling homophobic and transphobic slurs. When the men arrived—including one wearing a shirt with an image of an AK-47 that said “kill yr local pedophile”—everyone else fell silent, she said.

“They called me a groomer, a pedophile, a tranny, an ‘it,’” Panda Dulce said in a statement shared with TIME. “My heart hammered. I had a complete freeze response.”

Law enforcement responded quickly, no one was hurt, and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating the men, who were identified as members of the far-right Proud Boys organization, for their role in a potential hate crime. But the incident left the LGBT community in San Lorenzo shaken. It was not alone.

At least 11 different LGBTQ Pride events across the United States have been disrupted by right-wing protesters or delayed due to threats of violence in the past two months, according to research by TIME and the progressive media watchdog group Media Matters. Those numbers reflect a “step up in aggressive activity targeting LGBTQ people,” compared to recent history, according to Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow with Right Wing Watch, a project by the progressive group People For the American Way.

One reason for this uptick is that anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, for a time largely relegated to rightwing groups, is now widely used among mainstream conservatives, says Lawrence Rosenthal, the chair of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies. “There is a legitimacy to it now,” he says. “That point of view is now more or less the formal point of view of the Republican Party.”

[Kevinroc]

It's more complicated than just phony Republicans winning rural voters. Some Republicans have struggled with presenting the right image to swing voters. It's why Romney lost.

One significant issue is that some of the ways educated politicians like to communicate are off-putting to working class voters.

Progressive writers are more likely to think in terms of what the country can give people, but not's the political fight between Democrats and Republicans. Many voters think they'll be better off if government picked its battles better, and kept roads paved without trying to avoid culture war fights, where the rural voters are more likely to agree with Republicans.

These people aren't "phony Republicans." The anti-LGBTQ+ people are the Republicans. This is who they are.

[babyblob]

This needs to be pointed out about Trump.

Trump tells the Proud Boys to stand by. Then the Proud Boys admit they were going to kill Pence and Polosi if they had gotten them as per the hearings and the Proud Boys own words.

Trump calls these scum special people and he loves them and to this day will not speak out against them.

[worstblogever]

This needs to be pointed out about Trump.

Trump tells the Proud Boys to stand by. Then the Proud Boys admit they were going to kill Pence and Polosi if they had gotten them as per the hearings and the Proud Boys own words.

Trump calls these scum special people and he loves them and to this day will not speak out against them.

The Proud Boys were placed on the Miami-Dade County election board by the Republican Party there.

They put... the domestic terrorists who attempted a coup on Jan. 6th... in charge of their party's elections, after that conspiracy to overthrow the government.

The GOP is officially a white nationalist, fascist party that supports domestic terror. That's who they have chosen to be.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

Manchin and Sinema are bought and paid for due to weak campaign finance regulations. Bidens HR1 bill had the beginnings of new campaign finance reform laws and regulations. It didn’t pass because of Manchin and Sinema. More Democrats in the Senate would’ve gotten it passed. How do we get more Democrats into office?

In my opinion, properly vetting candidates in the primary.

[Madam-Shogun-Assassin]

.

Second, I'm not sure every Democratic Senator would support controversial legislation if it weren't for Manchin or Sinema. Would they abolish the filibuster or work to make abortion legal until a woman goes into labor, or is it a convenient excuse for swing-state Senators to just blame two people the base already hates when it comes to the failure of potentially controversial legislation?

Never thought I'd agree with this guy lol

[Emperor-of-Dragons]

The problem with primary voting is that I've heard stories of moderates and conservatives voting in the primary just to defeat the progressive
Democrat candidate, only to then turn around and vote for the conservative Republican in the general. So even if the Republican lose, it won't be towards a progressive Dem. They were all on social media bragging about it. They've been doing that for awhile. Doesn't hurt (or help I guess) that some Dems actively go after progressive candidates too in the primaries with a shit ton of money, some apparently from rightwing donors. I guess a enemy of my enemy is a friend kinda treachery.

[AnakinFlair]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/15/healt...lay/index.html

It never rains, but it pours....

The timing of the US Fed's action on inflation is a little maddening. I'm speaking as an economist/risk manager (my actual profession) now.

I'm not mad because they've done the wrong thing but prices have been trending upwards for a while now. Whatever the reason was, action needed to be taken a lot earlier. It now appears that the US Fed is "spooked" which should never, ever be the case.

From an economic/political perspective, the very first thing Biden should have done was revoke a couple of the Trump tariffs. That would have had an immediate impact on the CPI (even if its not so significant, the impact would still have been there). Biden ordering the Oil and Gas to explain why they are cutting production is a good step but there's still stuff the Biden Administration could and should have done earlier.

Serious question- does President Biden have the authority to revoke Trump's tariffs? Could he do that by executive order? Or could the courts block him from doing that?

It feels like a lot of the times I hear of Biden trying to revoke something Trump did with his own executive orders, his orders get blocked by some random right-wing judge.

[numberthirty]

Most adults realize that campaign "promises" aren't actually promises. Do you really think that Presidential candidates have the magical power to predict the Congress that they will get stuck with after the Election? Do you really think that a President has some magical power to supersede Congress and enforce his will because they made a campaign "promise"? How well do you think it would play out on the campaign trail if a candidate pitched "Well, gosh! We're going to try to get some things done, but I don't know if we can because I might not get the Congress I wanted and the filibuster, well, you know...." Yeah, that candidate sounds like a real fucking winner, don't they? I'm sure that candidate would have a real shot of getting elected, because they are so honest (Spoier: No, they wouldn't!) Nobody would vote for somebody that sounded that spineless. They want candidates who sound confident that they can get the things accomplished that they say they want to do. Hence, the campaign "promise". If you think that Bernie Sanders would have accomplished one tenth of his promises by now, then you are living in a fucking fairy tail, my man!

It's amazing just how often it comes down to...

"Hey, is there any possible way that we can attempt to make this about dogging Sanders?..."

[Kirby101]

It never rains, but it pours....



Serious question- does President Biden have the authority to revoke Trump's tariffs? Could he do that by executive order? Or could the courts block him from doing that?

It feels like a lot of the times I hear of Biden trying to revoke something Trump did with his own executive orders, his orders get blocked by some random right-wing judge.

Yes, he has already started to.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/23/polit...ina/index.html

https://www.axios.com/2022/06/14/sco...p-china-tariff

[Zauriel]

The problem with primary voting is that I've heard stories of moderates and conservatives voting in the primary just to defeat the progressive
Democrat candidate, only to then turn around and vote for the conservative Republican in the general. So even if the Republican lose, it won't be towards a progressive Dem. They were all on social media bragging about it. They've been doing that for awhile. Doesn't hurt (or help I guess) that some Dems actively go after progressive candidates too in the primaries with a shit ton of money, some apparently from rightwing donors. I guess a enemy of my enemy is a friend kinda treachery.

How right you are. No wonder Joe Manchin won the election.

Democrats keep saying “democracy requires everyone to make sacrifices”, but the reality is ‘everyone’ never includes rich people.

It’s always the poor & working class both at home & abroad who make sacrifices while the rich get richer.

It’s not democracy at all. It’s oligarchy.

[Zauriel]

Most adults realize that campaign "promises" aren't actually promises. Do you really think that Presidential candidates have the magical power to predict the Congress that they will get stuck with after the Election? Do you really think that a President has some magical power to supersede Congress and enforce his will because they made a campaign "promise"? How well do you think it would play out on the campaign trail if a candidate pitched "Well, gosh! We're going to try to get some things done, but I don't know if we can because I might not get the Congress I wanted and the filibuster, well, you know...." Yeah, that candidate sounds like a real fucking winner, don't they? I'm sure that candidate would have a real shot of getting elected, because they are so honest (Spoier: No, they wouldn't!) Nobody would vote for somebody that sounded that spineless. They want candidates who sound confident that they can get the things accomplished that they say they want to do. Hence, the campaign "promise". If you think that Bernie Sanders would have accomplished one tenth of his promises by now, then you are living in a fucking fairy tail, my man!

The only campaign promise that Joe Biden has kept is the one he made to his Wall Street donors when he told them that “nothing would fundamentally change.”

No Public Option.
No $15 minimum wage.
No student debt cancellation.

Joe Biden is back pedaling on his moderate campaign promises so no he is not “exceeding expectations.”

He is maintaining the status quo & revealing just how right-wing the so-called Democratic party really is.


In 2022, while the federal minimum wage will remain at $7.25 per hour for non-tipped employees and $2.13 per hour for tipped employees,

[CSTowle]

Most adults realize that campaign "promises" aren't actually promises. Do you really think that Presidential candidates have the magical power to predict the Congress that they will get stuck with after the Election? Do you really think that a President has some magical power to supersede Congress and enforce his will because they made a campaign "promise"? How well do you think it would play out on the campaign trail if a candidate pitched "Well, gosh! We're going to try to get some things done, but I don't know if we can because I might not get the Congress I wanted and the filibuster, well, you know...." Yeah, that candidate sounds like a real fucking winner, don't they? I'm sure that candidate would have a real shot of getting elected, because they are so honest (Spoier: No, they wouldn't!) Nobody would vote for somebody that sounded that spineless. They want candidates who sound confident that they can get the things accomplished that they say they want to do. Hence, the campaign "promise". If you think that Bernie Sanders would have accomplished one tenth of his promises by now, then you are living in a fucking fairy tail, my man!

It's true, politicians have to bulls##t and know they're not going to accomplish most of what they promise. So long as they can accomplish some or be seen fighting strongly to do so most of their voters will give them credit, and even most of their critics realize the political reality of trying to accomplish anything without total Party control of all 3 branches.

That said, 30 has a point in that you can't then turn around (as centrist Democrats often do on this board and elsewhere) and say, "there's no way Bernie could have accomplished everything he promised". No s##t. Even he knew that. Difference was, push come to shove, there's not a person alive who seriously believes he wouldn't have fought as hard as he could have to try to do it. Vs a Hillary who you knew would be testing the wind on even moderate proposals if it might hurt her reelection chances.

I think critics knew (and know) that, but it's probably embarrassing when your candidate of choice is someone with little in the way of consistent political principles beyond acquiring power and status and you're trying to knock down someone who's been consistent in their beliefs and willingness to fight for them for decades, usually on the right side of history since way before it was acceptable to the mainstream.

Especially when deep down they probably agree more with Bernie's stance on things than a Hllary's (at least the last 5 years version of her). No need to retroactively apologize for Iraq, "traditional marriage" support, don't ask/don't tell, etc. Probably explains a little of the vitriol folks supposedly on the left have for Bernie, people know they're settling for less with folks like Hillary and Biden and somehow blame him for existing and being a viable alternative they convince themselves has no chance (which ends up as a self-fulfilling prophecy).

[kidfresh512]

Non-Montana media succeed in disclosing Gianforte’s location – Tuscany

While the Governor’s Office has declined to reveal the location of Gov. Greg Gianforte during Montana’s unprecedented flooding disaster, the national news outlet Newsy reported that the state’s top elected official and his wife were vacationing in Tuscany.

On Thursday, Newsy was the first to report Gianforte’s location, achieving what Montana’s numerous news outlets couldn’t despite repeated requests for information from Helena. The Governor’s Office has said it does not “reveal the location of the governor” when he’s out of the country, citing security reasons.

The office has said it will share more information upon Gianforte’s return home, which was expected to occur on Thursday night.

“Newsy obtained a photo of Gianforte and the first lady at a restaurant in Casole d’Elsa, which is a small village in the Tuscany region of Italy,” Newsy reported on Thursday. “The photo is time-stamped at 9:31 p.m. local time Wednesday.”

Weird. I mean its a natural disaster he was on "vacation" before it happened. But, why all the damn mystery after the fact and waiting so long to return? But, whatever the voters get what they asked for. He body slams reporters so don't expect him to bother telling you he will be back to deal with the disaster in person after a little vacay.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Non-Montana media succeed in disclosing Gianforte’s location – Tuscany



Weird. I mean its a natural disaster he was on "vacation" before it happened. But, why all the damn mystery after the fact and waiting so long to return? But, whatever the voters get what they asked for. He body slams reporters so don't expect him to bother telling you he will be back to deal with the disaster in person after a little vacay.

Following the poor example of Fled Cruz I see.