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

[Gray Lensman]

Several years ago, I used to go to Chick-fil-A almost weekly for their chicken salad sammiches which, in my opinion, were to die for. But, when I learned about the company’s anti-gay stance, I dropped the chain like a live grenade. And it sounds like they’ve only gotten worse.



The incredible lengths the GQP have gone to protect Trump far surpasses insanity. And the kicker is that devotion is glaringly one-sided, Trump would leave the party in a New York minute if he felt Qpublicans weren’t kissing his ass enough.

I'd suggest Super Chix, but they are only slightly less Republican than Chick-fil-a, which is in turn actually less right wing than....drum roll please....Applebee's.

Only a handful of chains actually lean left, Starbucks (just don't even think of unionizing), Chipotle, and perhaps the only "both sides" brand (as in donating equally to both sides), Dunkin Donuts.

[godisawesome]

There’s also this regarding mobile homes and even just ranches and, say, upper level apartments without a shared shelter area, like the one I live in - tornadoes are like reverse roulette wheels. There’s a tiny chance it actually hits your town and area, so myself and others sometimes just keep in mind a place to go to if the weather reports a re bad enough, or just accept that they’re not in a good spot of it does hit them.

It’s like the reverse of hurricanes, where you know they’re coming and they’re going to hit a massive area.

[nose norton]

This one has detailed refutals: https://oalexanderdk.substack.com/p/...ur-hershs-pipe

What I find curious is if, and if so why you find Hersh's "one anonymous source" story more believable than the ones detailing other theories on what happened?

Because the other theories are obviously a reaction to Hersh's. We've heard no explanation for months, and now we have two different "explanations" in a matter of weeks. Neither of the two make sense, sources aside.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I saw some clips of the Tik Tok hearings. I'm embarrassed for the GOP. They are going by what the far right says is going on, not by facts.

[Spike-X]

Muslim TikTok comedian ‘attacked’ over Jeffrey Marsh criticism

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/...arsh-criticism

“ Shumirun Nessa, a British Muslim woman with more than seven million followers on TikTok, says she has been targeted after posting about Jeffrey Marsh, an American non-binary activist.”

“ The clash began last month, when Marsh, who uses they/them pronouns, said in a video: “Stop telling trans people that we’re inspirational.”
Nessa used that video as the background for her own clip, calling on Marsh to “stop telling kids to go on your Patreon and chat to you privately without their parents knowing”.”

“She said Marsh encouraged children to message them privately on Patreon – another platform for online content creators, and likened their content to grooming.”

My understanding is that these claims have all been thoroughly disproven.

[Catlady in training]

Russia to station nuclear weapons in Belarus

The announcement to station weapons in Belarus comes only days after Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow, during which Russia and China issued a joint statement saying "all nuclear powers must not deploy their nuclear weapons beyond their national territories, and they must withdraw all nuclear weapons deployed abroad."

On Sunday, a top security adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia's plans are a "step towards internal destabilisation" of Belarus and predicted anti-Russian sentiment in the country would grow. "The Kremlin took Belarus as a nuclear hostage," Oleksiy Danilov wrote on Twitter.

And exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said that Russia's deployment of tactical nuclear weapons "grossly contradicts the will of the Belarusian people".

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In their mild defense, ours is a two party system, and no way could Trump defect to the Democrats. And for all the talk about Trump going third party, I doubt his ego would allow him to do so, given the history of failure that's followed them.

Quite true, but no third party candidate has the gravitas or Pied Piper appeal of Trump. And while not even his cult of personality could carry him to the Oval Office as an independent, the fear of losing his fanatical base frightened Qpublicans enough to force them to suck up to Caramel Caligula because they wouldn’t have the votes to challenge the Democrats in a presidential election without his supporters.

[Mister Mets]

In their mild defense, ours is a two party system, and no way could Trump defect to the Democrats. And for all the talk about Trump going third party, I doubt his ego would allow him to do so, given the history of failure that's followed them.

It's difficult to predict what Trump's ego would let him do, or how rational he is in understanding precedents.

He was willing to back mediocre candidates who soothed his ego, even if that reduced his chances of getting preferred policy outcomes because these candidates were more likely to lose the general election.

Obviously, he can't go back to being a Democrat for a host of reasons (The Democrats hate him; He's in his mid-70s so he can't exactly strategize long-term) but there's a lot he could do to sabotage Republicans. Playing with a third-party bid, and at the very least suggesting supporters could sit out the general election, would be options.

[JackDaw]

It's difficult to predict what Trump's ego would let him do, or how rational he is in understanding precedents.

He was willing to back mediocre candidates who soothed his ego, even if that reduced his chances of getting preferred policy outcomes because these candidates were more likely to lose the general election.

Obviously, he can't go back to being a Democrat for a host of reasons (The Democrats hate him; He's in his mid-70s so he can't exactly strategize long-term) but there's a lot he could do to sabotage Republicans. Playing with a third-party bid, and at the very least suggesting supporters could sit out the general election, would be options.

Is there no chance at all of Trump actually trying to help the Republicans by supporting another candidate?

[Vakanai]

Is there no chance at all of Trump actually trying to help the Republicans by supporting another candidate?

It's Trump, he doesn't help other people unless it's to further help himself somehow. He doesn't care about the Republican party because he isn't a republican. He doesn't have political beliefs beyond those of all fascist leaders - aka his political beliefs are really "me me me!" Trump's entire belief system, his driving force, guiding light and principle is "me me me!" He doesn't have loyalty to others, he seeks loyalty to himself.

[CaptainEurope]

Because the other theories are obviously a reaction to Hersh's.

What makes you think that? Seems nobody has been taking Hersh seriously since his Assad blunders, and those other theories have been months in the making.

[CaptainEurope]

Trump 44, DeSantis 30, Pence 5, Haley 3, Cruz, T. Scott, Pompeo 1, Noem, Youngkin 1, Sununu 0

Latest Reuters poll. Not seeing the "DeSantis Deflated" trend yet in this poll, but Kristi Noem looks just about ready to take off.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

This race is clearly going to Nikki Haley. The Republicans are now gonna vote a woman into office after years of wishing they'd stay in the kitchen ! lol

[WestPhillyPunisher]

This race is clearly going to Nikki Haley. The Republicans are now gonna vote a woman into office after years of wishing they'd stay in the kitchen ! lol

Yeah, Nimrata is really winning over the masses!

[hyped78]

My understanding is that these claims have all been thoroughly disproven.

What claims? Shumirun Nessa's claims that she's been attacked over her anti trans stance? Do you have a link? I haven't seen anything on that.

Last I've seen on this (and this has been running for a while) was:
"After being doxxed and photos started circulating of her without a hijab, Shumirun deleted the TikToks criticising Jeffrey. She also urged her supporters to stop sending threats to content creators who are slamming her."