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

[Mister Mets]

E: We're not even talking about Drag Queen Story Hour, but a Drag hosted Bingo event (which was held inside a church). If you got that confused how do you know it has nothing to do with Vaudeville and/or is worthy of being protested? And if you didn't want to discuss Gay Culture why even bring it up? Remember that this started when you responded to someone complaining about how the GoP didn't have such a problem with Drag until pretty recently.

We may be talking past one another if you think I've said anything about whether the event is worthy of being protested. I thought it was inaccurate to say that it's primarily an offshoot of vaudeville. If you want to suggest that the drag hosted bingo is more about Milton Berle and Monty Python aficionados than the separate culture of drag queens, that seems dishonest.

I'm not sure what the comment " if you didn't want to discuss Gay Culture why even bring it up?" refers to. I have no problem discussing it. I brought it up because drag queens are identified as part of that culture.

You bring up how the GoP didn't have such a problem with Drag until pretty recently, which is a fair point. It seems to be that Republicans were okay with it when it was in adult spaces, like bars or cable TV. Something in a school, or a library aimed at children, or even a church, is different.

However this isn't about the truth, it's about an opinion piece that theorizes that the Jury won't accept 2 Witnesses, and you framing it as if they are without merit entirely seemingly in order to make it appear like Gaetz is innocent of these crimes you don't believe he's guilty of. In fact you are doing so while ignoring the Venmo evidence and saying that it doesn't matter if he sought a pardon for crimes he wasn't charged for yet.

We should be encouraged not to go to such lengths to defend horrible people, or excuse what they did simply because it cannot be proved in a court of law.

What I've posted about the opinion piece is truthful. I did not spin it, or leave out important context.

As for the Venmo evidence, what should I do with the information that Matt Gaetz gave money to a guy who might have given it to an 18 year old?

So the rumors on the Internet that there is a bounty on his head because he helped a lover get an abortion are not true?

If they're not, it makes anyone sharing them look bad.

[Dalak]

We may be talking past one another if you think I've said anything about whether the event is worthy of being protested. I thought it was inaccurate to say that it's primarily an offshoot of vaudeville. If you want to suggest that the drag hosted bingo is more about Milton Berle and Monty Python aficionados than the separate culture of drag queens, that seems dishonest.

I'm not sure what the comment " if you didn't want to discuss Gay Culture why even bring it up?" refers to. I have no problem discussing it. I brought it up because drag queens are identified as part of that culture.

You bring up how the GoP didn't have such a problem with Drag until pretty recently, which is a fair point. It seems to be that Republicans were okay with it when it was in adult spaces, like bars or cable TV. Something in a school, or a library aimed at children, or even a church, is different.

Literally no one said it's primarily an offshoot of vaudville, and pretending that they don't have drag in children's cartoons from Looney Toons to modern ones is part of why the sudden problem with drag is an issue.

What I've posted about the opinion piece is truthful. I did not spin it, or leave out important context.

As for the Venmo evidence, what should I do with the information that Matt Gaetz gave money to a guy who might have given it to an 18 year old?

Opinion pieces aren't fact and thus not Truth. Even then you left out that one of the witnesses didn't even have any reasoning given as for why she was likely to be dismissed as I pointed out earlier. And as for the Venmo you'll apparently belittle and dismiss it like everything else.

[CaptainEurope]

If they're not, it makes anyone sharing them look bad.

In the Michael Jackson song sense?

Anyway, just asking questions.

[AnakinFlair]

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fled his home to avoid being served with subpoena, court record says

They should wait for him to have a campaign event, then serve him on stage. Of course, it would be even funnier if he takes off through the crowd to avoid getting served.

[Catlady in training]

Russian media announce early 'referendum' count results with 'yes' votes in excess of 97%
https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...08ef7e8107b386

Russian media have announced early results from the four widely-derided “referendums” staged by pro-Russian proxy authorities in four occupied areas of Ukraine – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson

As widely predicted, authorities are claiming an overwhelming majority of the public there want to be annexed by the Russian Federation.

RIA Novosti reports that with approaching a quarter of the “votes” counted in each of the four referendums, all the regions have voted by at least 97% to be absorbed into Russia.

Ukrainian officials have described the process, which began on Friday, as a “propaganda show”, and western officials have said that the results will not be recognised.

Only 97%?


Russia to boycott Oscars as cultural isolation deepens
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...lation-deepens

Russia will not submit a film to the Oscars this year, the first time the country has boycotted the prestigious film awards since the fall of the Soviet Union, as Moscow’s cultural isolation deepens.

“The presidium of the Film Academy of Russia has decided not to nominate a national film for the Oscars award of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2022,” the Russian academy said in a statement on Monday.

Earlier, Mikhalkov told the Russian state-run Tass news agency that Russia had nothing to gain by participating in this year’s Oscars, proposing instead to create an equivalent prize for countries of the post-Soviet region.

“It seems to me that choosing a film that will represent Russia in a country, which in reality currently denies the existence of Russia, simply does not make sense,” he said.

LOL


Meta takes down ‘influence operations’ run by China and Russia
https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...ina-and-russia

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has said it has removed a pair of “influence operations” run by China and Russia, which aimed to sway views on the US elections and the war in Ukraine.

The Russian network, the largest the company has disrupted since the war began, targeted audiences across Europe and the UK, and incorporated a “sprawling network” of websites impersonating news websites including the Guardian, according to Meta.

“It presented an unusual combination of sophistication and brute force,” said Meta’s Ben Nimmo and David Agranovich in a blogpost announcing the takedowns. “The spoofed websites and the use of many languages demanded both technical and linguistic investment. The amplification on social media, on the other hand, relied primarily on crude ads and fake accounts.

“Together, these two approaches worked as an attempted smash-and-grab against the information environment, rather than a serious effort to occupy it long term.”

The Russian actors primarily targeted Germany, but also made an impact in France, Italy, Ukraine and the UK, and began operating in May this year. A network of fake websites, including clones of the Guardian, Der Spiegel and Bild, posted original articles criticising Ukraine, Ukrainian refugees and sanctions on Russia. Those articles were then promoted across a vast array of internet services, from Facebook and Instagram, through Twitter, Change.org “and even LiveJournal”, the largely-defunct blogging site.

The fake Guardian website promoted by the group contained a story, supposedly written by Jonathan Freedland, headlined “False Staging in Bucha Revealed”, which purported to reveal that “a bloody provocation with dozens of civilian bodies was prepared by the Ukrainian military to accuse Russia of mass murder” in Bucha. Other than the story itself, the website was a perfect copy of the Guardian’s, right down to up-to-date “most viewed” links and a request to grant permission for cookies.

China’s operation in the US targeted people on both sides of the political spectrum: one wing posted memes attacking Joe Biden and the US left, while another did the same but hit out at the Republican party. Another, posting in Chinese, criticised the US over geopolitical issues, while a fourth targeted residents of the Czech Republic with anti-government memes.

But the operation was largely a flop. “Only the Czech-focused cluster saw some engagement, specifically a few hundred signatures on its petitions on domestic petition websites,” Meta’s report says.

That may, in part, be down to the apparently strong labour rights of the Chinese actors: “These accounts largely stuck to a shift pattern that coincided with a nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday work schedule during working hours in China – 12 hours ahead of Florida and six hours ahead of Prague,” the report says. “They appear to have had a substantial lunch break, and a much lower level of posting during weekends. This meant that the operation was mostly posting when Americans were sleeping.”

Both influence operations were taken down as violations of Meta’s “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” rule, defined as “coordinated efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal, in which fake accounts are central to the operation”. The company has faced criticism in the past for applying a circular definition of such behaviour to justify takedowns, allowing campaigns run by western lobbyists to operate promote messages using fake groups by arguing that they aren’t using fake accounts to do so – because the accounts haven’t been banned for coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fled his home to avoid being served with subpoena, court record says

Ahhh, another law and order Qpublican doing law and order things.

[AnakinFlair]

So Mitch McConnell just came out in strong support of the Electoral Count Act Reform, proving once again that a stopped clock is right at least twice a day.

[numberthirty]

...

What I've posted about the opinion piece is truthful. I did not spin it, or leave out important context.

As for the Venmo evidence, what should I do with the information that Matt Gaetz gave money to a guy who might have given it to an 18 year old?

...

Here's the really obvious problem...

Even in a world where I know good and well that American politicians really, really don't like to hold other American politicians to account?

If anything like this is anything like what actually took place? There has got to be a way better than "Really, Really..." good reason that an American politician looked at it, and said "I'll Fold..."

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5...-cash-to-teen/

Gaetz paid accused sex trafficker, who later sent same amount of cash to teen girls: report

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) in 2018 paid an accused sex trafficker who later sent the same amount of cash to teen girls, according to a report from The Daily Beast.

Gaetz sent two Venmo transactions amounting to $900 to accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg in May 2018. He labeled the first transaction “test” and the second transaction “hit up _____,” with the alleged nickname of a young woman.

Greenberg later sent money to three girls labeled as “Tuition,” “School” and “School” that totaled $900.

[worstblogever]

So Mitch McConnell just came out in strong support of the Electoral Count Act Reform, proving once again that a stopped clock is right at least twice a day.

Ted Cruz was the lone vote against, because he'd like to be the center of seditionist attention again in 2024, and has no shame.

[Tami]

Ted Cruz was the lone vote against, because he'd like to be the center of seditionist attention again in 2024, and has no shame.

Maybe he expected to be one of many against votes and was surprised when no one followed him.

You'd think he'd get the message about now.

Sometimes I wonder, maybe the reason Cruz did as well as he did in 2016 is that the Republican voters were actually voting for the dumbest candidate and he came in second to Trump, because no one can be as dumb as Trump.

[Tendrin]

Ted Cruz was the lone vote against, because he'd like to be the center of seditionist attention again in 2024, and has no shame.

I'd largely argue that while the reform is ok, McConnel knows it's a safe vote because it does nothing to stop the Supreme COurt from instituting the independent state legislature doctrine.

[Malvolio]

Russian media announce early 'referendum' count results with 'yes' votes in excess of 97%
https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...08ef7e8107b386



Only 97%?
[/URL]

Well, they didn't want to gild the lily, you know?

[Tendrin]

Well, they didn't want to gild the lily, you know?

It's not really about the vote totals anyway, it's about enforcing compliance from the population.

[worstblogever]

It's not really about the vote totals anyway, it's about enforcing compliance from the population.

Pretty sure taking a poll at gunpoint would skew the results, yeah.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, as well as 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from New York's 2nd Congressional District, Peter King, a repeated fear-monger of practitioners of Islam in America, who has insisted that amongst American Muslims there is a “looming threat”, in a manner that makes the late Sen. Joe McCarthy give a thumbs up from beyond the grave. In 2016, Rep. King called for 24/7 surveillance of all mosques in the United States, which would be a simultaneous violation of both the 1st and 4th Amendments. King is also one of the biggest defenders of the CIA torturing detainees at Guantanamo Bay Prison, and has tried defending it by lying and saying the intel that led to the United States locating and killing Osama bin Laden was acquired by waterboarding prisoners (it wasn’t). Rep. King contradicted the CIA’s torture report by saying, “no one was severely hurt” by the practices because no one was cut or stabbed. But the fact that Peter King is willing to fabricate stories to push his agenda should come as little surprise, when you consider he literally dismissed CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien for correcting him in an interview by yelling at her, “I DON’T CARE WHAT FACT-CHECK SAYS.” This also came into play in our second look at Congressman King, who blamed the death of Eric Garner not on police, but on Garner for being obese. He also once gave an interview where he referred to the Japanese as the racial slur "Japs", and refused to apologize for doing so. King was re-elected to a fourteenth term in Congress in 2018, squeaking by with only 52% of the vote. Since the Trump administration began, he's tackling the issues that really matter to Americans like... ah, we're just kidding... he dedicatED most of his energy towards attacking members of the intelligence community and the press for investigating and reporting on Donald Trump's presidential campaign colluding with Russia to win the presidency in the 2016 election. Back in December of 2016, he actually was suggesting that it was just "rogue" CIA officers claiming the Russians hacked the election. Which in hindsight, makes him look really stupid since every single agency in our intelligence community agree the Russians were influencing our election. They have the Trump campaign on tape talking about it in intercepts while they did it, there's been numerous confirmed meetings between Trump campaign officials and Russians, and of course now after the fact, there are people in the Russian government literally bragged about what they did on Russian television. So, hey, maybe we should get on preventing the Russians from interfering in future elections, like immediately, right? Maybe Peter King would like to do something about that? Well, apparently as long as he and members of his party win, he could give a s***, as he's been using hearings to discuss the matter to instead complain that information is reaching the media via "leaks". He has continued carrying water for Trump and his cronies at every opportunity to cast doubt on the investigators, including within the past week or so when he was justifying Donald Trump releasing all the information about the FBI’s investigation of Carter Page using a FISA warrant. This is a man who is supposedly the GOP's top guy on national security, incidentally. We’ll note that this is also the same man who tried hand-waving away outrage over the Trump administration’s family separation policy on immigration in June 2018, unfazed about children being locked in cages by ICE or the potential fallout from it, being quoted as saying, “Americans care more about Americans.” Again, if you aren’t American enough to Peter King, you’re not even really a human being. Now, Peter King has spent the past two decades portraying himself as the ultimate patriot and that anyone who disagrees with his extreme views on terrorism are just not committed to loving America as much as he does. That pattern held all the way into May 2018, where as the owner of the New York Jets announced he would not punish players who took a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence in our country, Peter King lost his goddamned mind, and compared players kneeling during the anthem to “giving Nazi salutes” in a response on Twitter that also declared it was “time to say goodbye to the Jets”. When Rep. King was criticized from many angles for his comments, he, of course, doubled down on them. Peter King was continuing to wilt as resistance towards his re-election in 2020 grew, as he just caved to a lawsuit after he was banning his own constituents from contacting him on Facebook. Now, for years, Peter King outperformed the Cook Partisan Voting Index lean for his district, which supposedly has a +3 Republican lean, and now, in 2020, Peter King has finally accepted no amount of playing to the xenophobic crowd would keep him afloat. He announced he would retire at the end of this term of Congress on November 12th, 2019 and left office only days before the Capitol Attack, oddly silent as a national security expert that Congress was about to be attacked by Trump supporters.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Winnie Heartstrong, a failed 2018 candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates who somehow found herself halfway across the country to be a 2020 candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District. Heartstrong, was not JUST an adherent of the Qanon conspiracy theory sharing hashtags, but she went on a Qanon podcast in July of 2020, and when asked if she followed the conspiracy theory she answered by calling QAnon “very clever” and a “perfect way to deal with a very ... diffusive evil.” She went on to say that “If there's really a Q movement behind me, and I welcome that. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I salute you, I thank you, and I pray for your protection.” Heartstrong decided to also promote her own brand new stupid conspiracy theory, that the murder of George Floyd was “faked”. Oh yeah, you might want to sit down for this next bit. In her own warped reality, the fabricated video of Floyd being choked to death by Derek Chauvin was staged, and there is no such person as George Floyd… it’s a character made up and portrayed by former NBA player Stephen Jesse Jackson. But that’s not all… she added that the face is neither that of George Floyd nor Stephen Jesse Jackson, but a “deepfake” face of an unknown other individual. Heartstrong also wanted to know why nothing was ever heard from Floyd’s mother, who he called out for as he died (Mrs. Floyd died herself in 2018), and had nothing to say about the fact that his death was filmed by several people, and that a body of a George Floyd definitely arrived at the morgue. But she capped off her insensitive, ignorant-ass conspiracy theory by declaring that she had “taken her first breath in the same hospital George Floyd took his last breath” (Floyd took his last breath on the street until he was suffocated, not in a hospital). This… was most of her campaign. This ugly, stupid trolling of a man’s death at the hands of a racist cop with a track record of brutality. We really don’t feel it’s necessary to discuss any of her other ludicrous political stances like supporting Personhood. Winnie Heartstrong still got 38% of the vote in the Republican primary for this seat. we’ll set aside her profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1141-55, since this was established in July 2014.