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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The GOP are running a campaign on hate, misinformation and fear mongering and they still have a good chance of taking both houses. Dems need to figure out why so many Americans are so easily aligning with those views.

I’m of the opinion it mostly boils down to fear. For so many Americans, mainly white Americans, they realize they’re no longer at the top of the societal food chain and are either unable or unwilling to join the great melting pot this country’s become, and that makes them afraid that perhaps they no longer have a place in a country they no longer recognize. As any Star Wars fan will tell you, fear leads to anger, then to hate, that’s what Donald Trump and the GQP tapped into, with help from their propaganda arm, Faux News, bringing to the surface ugliness that had always been just under the surface until Trump made it fashionable during his term in the White House to openly express hatred for anything that wasn’t white, male, straight, god fearing and gun loving. Make America Great Again became more than just a slogan, rather the marching orders for a hideous objective to turn the clock back a hundred years, back to a time when blacks rode in the back of the bus; women were barefoot, pregnant and chained to the stove; and gays were so deep in the closet, you’d never know they existed, and, most of all, whites were in charge. The people who support today’s GQP, reduced to a domestic terror organization are a lost cause, it’s the young people who’s minds haven’t been perverted that Democrats need to reach, to demonstrate that hate isn’t the way, that togetherness and acceptance of everyone, regardless of race, creed, religion or sexual preference will help the country unite and move forward.

[Username taken]

Boebert is now leading.

[Tendrin]

Hey look another thing conservatives were incredibly wrong about.

Masks have been a cultural flash point since the start of the pandemic, and mask mandates in schools have been especially incendiary. Critics have argued that there is no strong evidence to prove that masks slow the spread of Covid, and that in any case children weren’t wearing the right kinds of masks or weren’t wearing them properly.

Now a research paper details a so-called natural experiment that occurred when all but two school districts in the greater Boston area lifted mask requirements in the spring. Researchers took that opportunity to make a direct comparison of the spread of Covid in masking and non-masking schools.

The bottom line: Masking mandates were linked with significantly reduced numbers of Covid cases in schools.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/h...ols-masks.html

[Iron Maiden]

Boebert is now leading.

Bah! I was hoping that lead would hold

[kidfresh512]

Boebert is now leading.

Ugh. If she does hang on to win with a slim lead, will be one of those 'what if' races. Since it was kind of a shock that it was so close 'what if' the possibility had been identified earlier and Democrats targeted it harder with more resources.

[Jack Dracula]

Most of these elections are way closer than they really should be given the objectively flawed Republican candidates and a near unprecedented turnout of Democratic voters, especially those 18-25 years old.
I sincerely hope Democratic leadership examines where they went wrong.

[babyblob]

Most of these elections are way closer than they really should be given the objectively flawed Republican candidates and a near unprecedented turnout of Democratic voters, especially those 18-25 years old.
I sincerely hope Democratic leadership examines where they went wrong.

The fact that Walker was so close and they have to go to a run off is very troubling sign to me.

I know the whole own the Libs and that excuse will be used too often and keep Democrats from looking at the real problems or how the Hell Walker was able to get so close

[kidfresh512]

Senate Dems pump $7M into ground game for Georgia runoff

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is spending $7 million on field operations in the Georgia Senate runoff, kicking off an expensive overtime race that could give the winning party control of the Senate.

The DSCC’s multimillion-dollar expenditure on its ground game will fund direct voter contact programs, particularly door-to-door canvassing, according to details shared first with POLITICO. The DSCC’s program will fortify get-out-the-vote work conducted by a constellation of nonprofits, PACs and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock‘s campaign.

“We know talking directly to voters through a strong, well-funded ground-game is critical to winning in Georgia, and we’re wasting no time in kick-starting these programs in the runoff,” DSCC chair Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said in a statement.

Putting a ready-made field operation in place may prove especially important in 2022, since Georgia shortened its runoff period from nine weeks to four weeks. Field organizers will not be able to register new voters, so the primary focus will be on turning out the party’s base again — those who voted either in November 2022 or in the last round of Senate runoffs in Georgia, when Warnock and fellow Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff won in January 2021.

Reminds me to donate a few bucks to Warnock

[Kevinroc]

I'm hoping control of the Senate doesn't hinge on the GA run-off. Again.

(Still would love it if Warnock kept that seat.)

[kidfresh512]

Alex Jones ordered to pay $473M more to Sandy Hook families

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Infowars host Alex Jones and his company were ordered by a judge Thursday to pay an extra $473 million for promoting false conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook school massacre, bringing the total judgment against him in a lawsuit filed by the victims’ families to a staggering $1.44 billion.

Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis imposed the punitive damages on the Infowars host and Free Speech Systems. Jones repeatedly told his millions of followers the massacre that killed 20 first graders and six educators was staged by “crisis actors” to enact more gun control.

“The record clearly supports the plaintiffs' argument that the defendants' conduct was intentional and malicious, and certain to cause harm by virtue of their infrastructure, ability to spread content, and massive audience including the infowarriors,” the judge wrote in a 45-page ruling.

Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said he hopes the award sends a message to conspiracy theorists who profit from lies.

“The Court recognized the ‘intentional, malicious ... and heinous’ conduct of Mr. Jones and his business entities,” Mattei said in a statement.

[Iron Maiden]

It looks like Boebert will win by maybe 1,000 votes or less.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The fact that Walker was so close and they have to go to a run off is very troubling sign to me.

I know the whole own the Libs and that excuse will be used too often and keep Democrats from looking at the real problems or how the Hell Walker was able to get so close

The problem, in my opinion, is nothing more complicated than simple partisan divide. If Osama bin Laden were still alive and ran for the Senate in Georgia as a Republican, right wingers would have voted for him before they would ANY Democrat. That’s how poisoned the political atmosphere is today. It certainly didn’t help that, last I heard, there had been some 80,000 plus votes for a third party candidate, Democrats need to do more outreach with independents, learn why they vote the way they do.

[numberthirty]

Most of these elections are way closer than they really should be given the objectively flawed Republican candidates and a near unprecedented turnout of Democratic voters, especially those 18-25 years old.
I sincerely hope Democratic leadership examines where they went wrong.

Man, I just about fell over laughing at that one...

If they didn't see it months ago?

What makes you think that there is even so much as an outside chance that this will be the "Wake Up Call..." where Democrats finally get a clue?

[numberthirty]

I'm hoping control of the Senate doesn't hinge on the GA run-off. Again.

(Still would love it if Warnock kept that seat.)

The guy will literally be running in a run-off where Trump might not be in play to help Warnock.

For starters?

This would be a really, really good time for what Abrams can actually accomplish should Trump stay out of it to really say just how much of an operator she actually is.

While I'd hope that she lives up to the hype?

The Democrat is literally in a run-off going up against a guy that folks in this thread predicted would be the worst Republican showing in this particular race ever.

[Mister Mets]

This guy's an interesting politician. The Attorney General of Iowa has announced his plan to run for another term. He has been in office for ten terms, and these haven't even been consecutive. He ran for Governor in 1990, lost, went into private practice and then ran again in 1994. He was first elected in 1978, although he was the losing Democratic candidate in 1974. He didn't even have a Republican opponent in 2018.

https://www.kcrg.com/2021/09/18/tom-...lection-plans/

And he conceded. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...e/69610291007/