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

[shooshoomanjoe]

Maybe I'm not up to date on my evil anti-semite bingo card...but could someone explain what is antisemitic here? Maybe it's because I don't know the context of the cartoon?

Outside the fella with the big nose, I don't recognize any anti-Semitic tropes either but this is what this websites says:

Campaign Against Antisemitism is calling upon Katherine Viner, editor-in-chief at The Guardian, to resign after the newspaper published an antisemitic cartoon on Friday night.

The now-deleted cartoon, drawn by Martin Rowson, depicted Richard Sharp, who last week resigned as Chairman of the BBC, and evoked several antisemitic tropes.

Mr Sharp, who is Jewish, is portrayed with a large nose and swarthy, gruesome features, like those commonly seen in Nazi propaganda about Jews.

Mr Sharp is seen to be carrying a box containing, among other items, a puppet of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Nazi, Soviet and other antisemitic propaganda has consistently portrayed Jews as puppet masters, secretly pulling the strings and manipulating politics.

The box Mr Sharp is holding in the cartoon appears to read “Goldman Sachs” and contains a squid. He formerly worked at Goldman Sachs, which was once described in a Rolling Stone article as a “vampire squid”.

However, one must ask, why is that foregrounded in a cartoon about his resignation from the BBC? Nazi and Soviet propaganda portrayed Jews as tentacled monsters, controlling and sucking the life from society, and since medieval times, Jews have been cast as miserly moneymen exploiting workers to enrich themselves.

Also featured in the grotesque cartoon is a pig vomiting blood. In antisemitic images, pigs often refer to the ‘otherness’ of Jews for not eating pork, whilst blood can be a reference to the medieval ‘blood libel’ which accused Jews of drinking the blood of non-Jewish children, leading to massacres of Jews.

Also the Guardian's EiC is apparently very anti-Israel if that means anything.

[JackDaw]

Maybe I'm not up to date on my evil anti-semite bingo card...but could someone explain what is antisemitic here? Maybe it's because I don't know the context of the cartoon?

The context of the cartoon was that Richard Sharp who is Jewish worked for Boris Johnson when Bojo was Prime Minister. He (Richard Sharp) helped to arrange a substantial loan for Bojo.

Afterwards Bojo effectively arranged for Richard Sharp to become chairman of the BBC. Some people believed it was deeply suspect, that effectively Bojo was repaying a favour. Oh…and that the degree of connection between the 2 men, meant BBC neutrality was hopelessly compromised . Richard Sharp didn’t declare his role in procuring the loan during questioning carried out before job appointment.

I personally think the cartoon is more an attack on Bojo than Richard Sharp.

But I guess the main reasons the cartoon is perceived as anti-Semitic are the squid image associated with mountains of money, the reference to Goldman Sachs (those tend to suggest a Jewish conspiracy to control the world through financial manipulation), and the exaggeration of Richard Sharp’s features in particular the lengthening of the nose.

[Darkspellmaster]

Maybe I'm not up to date on my evil anti-semite bingo card...but could someone explain what is antisemitic here? Maybe it's because I don't know the context of the cartoon?

So Quoting from DaveRich here explaining.

The depiction of Richard Sharp in today's
@guardian
cartoon falls squarely into an antisemitic tradition of depicting Jews with outsized, grotesque features, often in conjunction with money and power. It's appalling. Here's why 🧵

First, the face. Here's how the Nazis did it. And how the Soviet Union did it. And modern-day Jew-haters. Antisemites have often imagined Jews as ugly and physically repulsive, focusing specifically on these features.

Then the squid. Yes, Sharp worked for Goldman Sachs, which was famously described in
@RollingStone
as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money"

The problem is that a squid or octopus is also a common antisemitic motif, used to depict a supposed Jewish conspiracy with its tentacles wrapped around whatever parts of society the Jews supposedly control. Especially money. Are those gold coins in the box with Sharp's squid?

You might argue that outsized facial features and tentacles are common to other topics too, so it's just a cartoon thing. Except where something has a long and familiar antisemitic history, it takes on a different meaning when you apply it to Jews.

Or to put it another way: you might draw Boris Johnson as a gorilla and nobody would mind. But if you drew a black politician that way, it would be racist. Same principle applies here.

.....


One more thought: the physical characteristics given to Sharp in the cartoon - the nose, lips etc - are racial characteristics. Antisemitism can be racism. Just in case anyone was still unsure about that.

Hope this helps.

[Kirby101]

What Sharp really looks like.



cartoon

[thwhtGuardian]

What Sharp really looks like.

That definitely helps. along with the descriptions above. I thought he just looked like Richard Nixxon.

[Tami]

Florida’s rightwing governor Ron DeSantis backs Kemi Badenoch’s ‘war on woke’





To those who live on the other side of the Atlantic from me, can anyone give more conetxt about who Badenoch is?

I think I may have found a partial answer to my question

They call it ‘national conservatism’ but it’s a divisive, far-right movement. Why are Tories embracing it?

In a fortnight’s time, a remarkable two-day political conference is going to be happening in central London. The people speaking in its debates and discussions come almost entirely from the political right: they will include the home secretary, Suella Braverman, her cabinet colleague Michael Gove, and a host of voices from media outlets such as the Daily Telegraph and GB News.

What will sit at the heart of proceedings, says the event’s official blurb, are “the idea of the nation” and “the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing”. The foes and bugbears that will be decried include “political theories grounded in race”, and “a powerful new Marxism”.

The banner under which everyone is coming together was conceived in the US, and in the context of recent(ish) European history it may have a somewhat unsettling ring. But there it is: the people who will be addressing audiences at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster between 15 and 17 May are seemingly happy to endorse the theory and practice of “national conservatism”.

[Malvolio]

What Sharp really looks like.



cartoon

Well, I am wondering why he's depicted as bald. He does have a big nose and pronounced lips, though. As a Jew, I don't really see it as antisemitic. But maybe it's because I'm not that familiar with British politics. I am somewhat familiar with Goldman Sachs, though and they have their hands in a lot of pies, on both sides of the Atlantic, regardless of their religion.

[Malvolio]

Yeah, I chose to just link to it for a reason.

Anyway:

How bad is it for Ron DeSantis? He’s polling at RFK Jr.’s level

This is weird. Desantis polls around 20% and it means he's way behind and doesn't have much of a chance against Trump. But RFK Jr. polls around 20% and Biden is suddenly supposed to be worried. How does that work?

[Gray Lensman]

This is weird. Desantis polls around 20% and it means he's way behind and doesn't have much of a chance against Trump. But RFK Jr. polls around 20% and Biden is suddenly supposed to be worried. How does that work?

RFK Jr. is a kook who should be polling in the single digits at best, preferably under 2. DeFascist was once seen as the alternative to Benedict Donald. The first is a bit worrisome, the second can be seen as a relief.

[Kirby101]

RFK Jr's numbers are ALL name recognition. When we get to the primaries, he will be a foot note.

But I will predict this, if Biden wins the nomination by 75% to 80%, the press will call him a wounded President.
If Trump then wins the nomination by 51%, the press will say he has a clear mandate from his Party.

[worstblogever]

RFK Jr's numbers are ALL name recognition. When we get to the primaries, he will be a foot note.

But I will predict this, if Biden wins the nomination by 75% to 80%, the press will call him a wounded President.
If Trump then wins the nomination by 51%, the press will say he has a clear mandate from his Party.

So, so true.

And the press are so, so bad at what they do with election coverage.

[Mister Mets]

This is weird. Desantis polls around 20% and it means he's way behind and doesn't have much of a chance against Trump. But RFK Jr. polls around 20% and Biden is suddenly supposed to be worried. How does that work?

RFK Jr. does not have traditional qualifications for office, and is mainly known for stupid positions on vaccinations. It's a bit worrisome if he's polling at twenty percent, because it suggests that other candidates may have more appeal. He does likely have much more of a ceiling.

DeSantis is seen as the top primary opponent to Trump. He is a big-state Governor. Trump's also not running as an incumbent, so there are different expectations.

It is worth noting that DeSantis hasn't announced yet (which is likely to come with a boost), and we're about nine months from the earliest primaries and caucuses.

DeSantis is also stronger in the state polls.

[Robotman]

RFK Jr. is a kook who should be polling in the single digits at best, preferably under 2. DeFascist was once seen as the alternative to Benedict Donald. The first is a bit worrisome, the second can be seen as a relief.

I think it has more to do with people not knowing how much of a loon RFK Jr. is and they just see the recognizable Kennedy name. Plus a lot of democrats are just desperate for an alternative to Biden.

[Gray Lensman]

I think it has more to do with people not knowing how much of a loon RFK Jr. is and they just see the recognizable Kennedy name. Plus a lot of democrats are just desperate for an alternative to Biden.

Hopefully things will shift once RFK Jr. starts talking where cameras can film it.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published profiles of Joel Kleefisch, a former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, and the husband of former Wisconsin Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, who had over a decade long history of writing extreme anti-abortion legislation in Wisconsin, as well as his attempt to amend the Wisconsin state constitution to include a ban on same sex marriage. Kleefisch’s ugliest legislative efforts, however, seem to be when he has supported bills to change child support payment rules on behalf of a wealthy campaign donor of his, and the specific change to the law that Kleefisch was asking for would have allowed a specific deadbeat dad and donor to get off scot free. But the most hypocritically frustrating thing in Joel Kleefisch’s voting record would have to be his fervent support for Wisconsin’s strict new Voter ID laws, because he insisted the statistically non-existent problem of in-person voter fraud is widespread, and we need to put a stop of it. There is, however, actual video of Joel Kleefisch pushing buttons on the desks of absent legislators in the Wisconsin Assembly to vote on their behalf as he sees fit, which IS actual in person Voter Fraud but Kleefisch has zero problem with that kind. He also wanted to eliminate the age restriction on hunting so that parents can take their two or three-year olds out to bag a buck (really). Oh, and did we mention that on a local conservative talk radio show, Joel Kleefisch defended his belief that Jesus co-existed at the same time as the dinosaurs? Because yes, that also really happened. Kleefisch also failed in his efforts to find a back-door around the 4th Amendment to allow Gov. Scott Walker to drug test welfare recipients, in the form of a bill he filed that would have required all high school students who participate in an extracurricular activity or park a car on a school campus to undergo random drug testing. And mercifully, after 2018, Kleefisch called it a career after seven years of stupidity in office.

On this date in 2019, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Matt Manweller, a former schoolteacher and former member of the Washington House of Representatives from 2012-2018. And sure, legislatively, he might not have been the wildest extremist we’ve seen, with the harshest things we could find in his voting record being his minority party votes in a blue state against things like minimum wage increases, a ban on bump stocks, or any bill that would try to make it easier to register to vote in the state. No, the real reason we’re profiling Manweller is the wave of accusations of sexual assault and misconduct that plagued him during his tenure at Central Washington University and forced him to resign in disgrace in September of 2018. How bad were they? Well, one of his accusers mentioned that he had an improper sexual relationship with her when she was still his 17 year old underage student (and she had a diary from the time proving it). Adding to the scumbag factor is as a legislator, Manweller’s voting record also showed he voted against a bill to allow victims of sexual assault to receive permanent orders of protection against their attackers, instead of just temporary ones, and that he considered how he was pressured to leave office “McCarthyism”.

On this date in 2020, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Robert Hyde, a 2020 Republican candidate seeking to become the next U.S. House Representative from Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District, one of five members of the GOP seeking to unseat Democratic Congresswoman Jahana Hayes. Now, the first time Robert Hyde made the news during his early candidacy was when in December of 2019, he posted a vulgar, sexist tweet directed at Sen. Kamala Harris when she dropped out of the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary. Thus, the media wanted to learn more about the MAGA meathead running for Congress who said awful things about Sen. Harris, and lo and behold, they discovered he had plenty of cash lying around to donate money to Trump’s SuperPAC, but alas, could not find a single dime to give towards child support he owes. But it didn’t take long before the rabbit hole got deeper. During the Trump impeachment hearings, word came out that Robert Hyde was a known associate of Lev Parnas, aka one half of Lev & Igor, aka one of the two goons who worked for Trump and Rudy Giuliani who were involved in trying to smear Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and help pressure Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 elections. Text messages between Giuliani and Hyde seemed to show that he may have offered help in providing surveillance on Yovanovitch’s whereabouts and daily movements. Because, y’know, it’s a good look to be spying on a U.S. Ambassador, especially one who was threatened to “go through some things” by Trump. It seems that Robert Hyde is simply a little remora trying to swim with some bigger sharks by hanging out around the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., and is nothing more than a deadbeat landscaper who threw around enough cash to make the acquaintance of said sharks and is in way, way over his head. And he has a history of paranoid behavior, including a raving outburst that was deranged enough to have security escort him off the premises of Mar-A-Lago that had him involuntarily committed in May of 2019. Robert Hyde had little to no campaign staff, and with all the controversy, withdrew from the race. He instead has decided it would be a good idea to run for U.S. Senate in 2022… and he’s almost definitely going to implode in that effort.

On this date in 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” profiled Eric “EJ” Parker, who ran for District 26 of the Idaho State Senate in 2020, and yes, was a member of the 3% Militia group that pointed assault rifles at government agents from the Bureau of Land Management during the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014. Of course, Parker was charged and plead guilty to misdemeanors to avoid jail time. Eric Parker then spent several months trying to whip up Islamophobia in rural Oregon in “anti-refugee protests”, and in January of 2016, Parker took part in the occupation at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. So of course, he found allies within the Idaho GOP like Heather Scott who thought that it would be great to try an elect an anti-government domestic terrorist into the Idaho State Senate. Facebook, however, did not find Parker’s candidacy so innocent, removing him and all of his campaign pages from their platform in August of 2020 as part of a sweep that removed those who would use violent rhetoric and encouraging violence against the government. The scary part is, Eric Parker was not completely rejected by voters in his attempt to overthrow the government from within, still getting 44% of the vote in 2020 in his attempt to reach office. We will temporarily breathe a sigh of relief he didn’t make it to office, and set aside his profile at this time to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1097-55, since this was established in July 2014.