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

[Tendrin]

"biologically female" or "biologically women" is usually used to deny trans people their identity. It also ignores the fact that Biology, as a science, knows that there are more than 2 genders in nature. Assigning the labels "woman" and "man" to people is an overly simplified social process, not a biological fact.

This is correct.

Moreover, if we're going to start demanding women have a certain level of low-testosterone to compete, we are going to find that some cis women with high testosterone, which exist, will be magically barred from competing. Caster Semenya is a real life example of this occurring. It's as unfair to ban her as it would be to ban Phelps for his ridiculously long limbs.

Trans women do not magically come to dominate sports. The reality of anti-androgens and estrogen's impact on the body is real, and bone density and muscle mass are actually lost in the process of transition.

[Tami]

Texas Man Fired, Under Police Investigation Due to Online Threat Over Whole Foods Mask Policy

A Dallas-area man has landed in hot water for making gun threats while peacocking about Whole Foods' coronavirus precautions on Facebook.

Screenshots of a Facebook rant allegedly posted by Kevin Bain, an administrative manager at law firm Thompson & Knight LLP, started to go viral on Twitter last Friday.

"No more masks. Any business that tells me to put on a mask (Whole Foods on Lomo Alto) in Dallas will get told to kiss my Corona ass and lose my business forever," the now-removed post allegedly said.

"It's time to stop this BULLSHIT," it continued. "Do I have to show the lame security guard outside of a ghetto store my CV19 test results? I will show him my Glock 21 shooting range results. With Hornady hollow points. Pricey ammo, but worth it in this situation. They have reached the limit. I have more power than they do......they just don't know it yet."

[PaulBullion]

Texas Man Fired, Under Police Investigation Due to Online Threat Over Whole Foods Mask Policy

But muh first and secund amundments

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Texas Man Fired, Under Police Investigation Due to Online Threat Over Whole Foods Mask Policy

Typical ammosexual who gets his panties in a bunch over having to follow rules. Pathetic!

[The no face guy]

This is correct.

Moreover, if we're going to start demanding women have a certain level of low-testosterone to compete, we are going to find that some cis women with high testosterone, which exist, will be magically barred from competing. Caster Semenya is a real life example of this occurring. It's as unfair to ban her as it would be to ban Phelps for his ridiculously long limbs.

Trans women do not magically come to dominate sports. The reality of anti-androgens and estrogen's impact on the body is real, and bone density and muscle mass are actually lost in the process of transition.

Anti androgens do not drastically affect the male autonomy that a transgender woman receives at birth, enough to take away their advantage in competing in woman's boxing or mixed martial arts. All the drugs and inhibitors are not going to change this. The difference between the male and female autonomy is quite apparent, it is related to reproductive roles and evolutionary adaptations. Perhaps one day we will be able to biologically eliminate gender, but we do not have the technology to do that yet.

If you want to argue that Fallon Fox should be competing in women's boxing and mixed martial arts, than be my guest.

What we do know from MRI brain scans, is that transgender woman appear to use the same neuro pathways that women do as opposed to men, which supports the case, that being transgender is not (as the religious right claim) a psychological defect, but rather a scientific empirical reality. Which is why I support transgender identity, but once you start denying scientific empirical evidence in order to support your political claims that biological gender does not exist or can be interchangeable , your entering into the subjective world of right wing wing nuts like Alex Jones and Ann Coulter, and you give them license to start spewing their false claims.

[Kieran_Frost]

The left also overeached and created a backlash that turned people like Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray into cult heroes overnight, because they were seen as fighting the good fight against the tyranny of political correctness. A lot of people weren't privy to the fact that the far left switched from economics to cultural issues (ie from the workers controlling the means of production, to banning the wearing of black witch hats on Halloween because its is a sign of racism & white supremacy???) It's far left because it's claims are so subjective that your treading into Alex Jones fruit loop land.

Look, I get what you were trying to say, I just feel (when prompted) you didn't pick the best examples. There has been a noticeable (avoidable) backlash against some more draconian left-wing/PC/cancel culture opinions; and it isn't being addressed or talked about. It could all be avoidable, if people were just kinder and more patient and recognised no-one is born "woke." Everyone has to learn what is and is not okay/fair/offensive etc at some-point. You don't come out the womb knowing it all. And the tolerance of that understand is missing a lot of the time (which is ironic, since it's born from the ideal of "tolerance/acceptance"). Too often history and historical characters are tarred and feathered based on modern sensibilities, with no nuance for the time period they came from. And it seems arbitrary, sometimes. And often a wish to discuss the issue, rather than be embraced as debate, is gaslighted. Again... ironic...

We are possibly going to see an interesting fallout, at somepoint, from all of this; if it's not already happening now (which is very well might be).

[Mister Mets]

The problem I see with these right wing internet and media personalities is that they invariably get much larger platforms than equivalent voices on the left. Everybody at this point knows who Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Alex Jones, etc. are, but even the most radical left leaning folks would be hard pressed to really point out any equivalent voices on the other side of the aisle, despite the fact that liberals decisively outnumber conservatives and thus you would think there would be a much bigger audience. But this is sort of how the moneyed interests in this country have steered the conversation, because by simply giving these alt rights types a platform they can spread their views among the public, while still having plausible deniability when pressed on whether they support these views themselves. Just look at these lockdown protests, while most respectable media figures have not voiced support for them, simply by giving them so much coverage, they started a conversation about opening up, a conversation nobody in their right mind wanted or needed. Meanwhile, any discussion of progressive policy initiatives is completely shut out of the public sphere, and even as the virus highlights so much of what was wrong with our society, people still are led to believe we can flip a switch and everything will go back to the way it was. I just find it pathetic that the right is constantly complaining about deplatforming, while any objective analysis of the situation would indicate that they are getting a much bigger platform than their discredited viewpoints and limited audience would warrant.

I don't think there's any danger of left-wing media personalities failing to get platforms.

George Stephanopoulos worked in the Bill Clinton administration, and has been at ABC for decades, running their Sunday morning talk show since 2002. There are plenty of TV news shows run by people who probably have not voted for a Republican presidential candidate in some time (Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, etc.) Ezra Klein and the Vox media group get a decent amount of attention. And then there's public radio

Alex Jones gets coverage, but it's generally not favorable. I don't think Shapiro and Peterson get attention because moneyed interests like them. They got attention because they found an audience. If the Chapo Trap House got near those numbers, it would get more publicity.

The idea that liberals outnumber conservatives in the United States is consistently disproven by polls.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/275792/...ally-2019.aspx

The states hold the elections, and in the US, it is a lot harder to delay elections because the date is, I believe, enshrined in the constitution.

Any decisions to delay the election are made by the States and Congress.

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/...ntial-election

Democrats control the House of Representatives, so changes will not occur without their consent.

But doesn’t it then make it difficult to discuss issue of whether it’s appropriate for all women to compete in women’s sports events?

Perhaps a formulation like “Perhaps trans women should not be allowed to compete in women’s events...” is okay?

Or are you suggesting term “cisgender” allows better phrasing in issues like this? (That was completely new term to me, just looked up meaning...so obviously not sure of way it should be properly used.)

If the idea is that women shouldn't typically be competing against men, there do have to be some rules on distinguishing between women in an athletic context.

[Tendrin]

Anti androgens do not drastically affect the male autonomy that a transgender woman receives at birth, enough to take away their advantage in competing in woman's boxing or mixed martial arts. All the drugs and inhibitors are not going to change this. The difference between the male and female autonomy is quite apparent, it is related to reproductive roles and evolutionary adaptations. Perhaps one day we will be able to biologically eliminate gender, but we do not have the technology to do that yet.

You mostly mean 'develops a as a result of puberty', mostly. You're showing you don't understand these things as well as you think you do.

[Mister Mets]

Point taken, he did however win the blue wall by increasing the white vote by a rather large margin, particularly Pennsylvania.

Now that Trump's Utopian Kool Aid has become reality, I think Biden will take Michigan, and probably Pennsylvania as well, though that state has had a lot of manufacturing pour in as a result of Trump's initiative to increase defense spending by a rather large amount. Brilliant political tactics by the way, if your trying to keep those mid west states under a Republican umbrella.

As for the Electoral College vote, I think Democrats need to stop dwelling on that because it's near impossible to get changed. To change it you would need, two-thirds of the U.S. House of Representatives, two-thirds of the Senate, and three-fourths of the states. Good luck with that.

The best option they have right now, is pouring as much money as they can into Florida, to help the ground support troops in that State get their supporters out and voting. If you lose Florida, it's a hard road for Biden to beat Trump.

There is the idea of the national popular vote interstate compact, where various state legislatures are making an agreement to cast their state's electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote (it goes into place when states representing 270 electoral votes agree it.)

https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation

So there is another way it could pass, even if it's likely to be difficult. Swing states would lose power under this system, so they're not very eager to join. It's also more of a left-wing cause celebre, so there isn't currently red-state movement towards it.

Implementation would also have some likely problems, as states have different policies on running elections. It's one thing when a state's policy affects its own electoral votes, but nothing outside of it. It's another if a state's policies affect the national vote tally.

So, in essence, Nunes said that Garcia can't win that election on his own merit, that the party has to cheat in order to hold onto that seat. That fair play and honesty no longer has a place in today's GOP (if it ever did).

Not quite.

He's saying that the Republican party has to use the system put in place by a Democratic governor. He certainly believes that Democrats are engaging in ballot harvesting.

[The no face guy]

Look, I get what you were trying to say, I just feel (when prompted) you didn't pick the best examples. There has been a noticeable (avoidable) backlash against some more draconian left-wing/PC/cancel culture opinions; and it isn't being addressed or talked about. It could all be avoidable, if people were just kinder and more patient and recognised no-one is born "woke." Everyone has to learn what is and is not okay/fair/offensive etc at some-point. You don't come out the womb knowing it all. And the tolerance of that understand is missing a lot of the time (which is ironic, since it's born from the ideal of "tolerance/acceptance"). Too often history and historical characters are tarred and feathered based on modern sensibilities, with no nuance for the time period they came from. And it seems arbitrary, sometimes. And often a wish to discuss the issue, rather than be embraced as debate, is gaslighted. Again... ironic...

We are possibly going to see an interesting fallout, at somepoint, from all of this; if it's not already happening now (which is very well might be).

I apologize if I didn't pick the best examples, someone brought up Joe Rogan and that's how it got started. I tend to be very liberal on gender issues. I just feel that claims of truth should be based on objective empirical facts, and the one thing that the far left and right seem to have in common, is that they both abandon objectivity to make subjective claims not based in reality.

In my opinion, the draconian far left is the reason why people like Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray have become political celeberties on the right, they are able to point at their irrationality, and easily attract followers and a strong fan base.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Criminal group that hacked law firm threatens to release Trump documents





If they really do have any info on Trump, it would be karma if they did release it.

Hmm, I heard something about this. Didn't think it was real. Fingers crossed!

[Gray Lensman]

Anti androgens do not drastically affect the male autonomy that a transgender woman receives at birth, enough to take away their advantage in competing in woman's boxing or mixed martial arts. All the drugs and inhibitors are not going to change this. The difference between the male and female autonomy is quite apparent, it is related to reproductive roles and evolutionary adaptations. Perhaps one day we will be able to biologically eliminate gender, but we do not have the technology to do that yet.

If you want to argue that Fallon Fox should be competing in women's boxing and mixed martial arts, than be my guest.

What we do know from MRI brain scans, is that transgender woman appear to use the same neuro pathways that women do as opposed to men, which supports the case, that being transgender is not (as the religious right claim) a psychological defect, but rather a scientific empirical reality. Which is why I support transgender identity, but once you start denying scientific empirical evidence in order to support your political claims that biological gender does not exist or can be interchangeable , your entering into the subjective world of right wing wing nuts like Alex Jones and Ann Coulter, and you give them license to start spewing their false claims.

Another thing is that auto-immune disorders affect women at something along the lines of 4 times the rate of men. Except when dealing with transgender women (Male at birth), who suffer from auto-immune disorders at the same rate as other women, not the lower rate their sex organs would otherwise imply. I learned that one from SciShow.

[InformationGeek]

And here's Ron Johnson going conspiracy mode.

Today, Senator @ChuckGrassley and I received a list of individuals who requested the unmasking of Lt. General Michael Flynn and others who received access to that information.

We are making this information public and pushing for additional relevant disclosures because the American people have a right to know the full truth.

[The Cool Thatguy]

And here's Ron Johnson going conspiracy mode.

I wonder if Flynn, at this point, has any self respect left.

[The no face guy]

Another thing is that auto-immune disorders affect women at something along the lines of 4 times the rate of men. Except when dealing with transgender women (Male at birth), who suffer from auto-immune disorders at the same rate as other women, not the lower rate their sex organs would otherwise imply. I learned that one from SciShow.

Interesting, yet another piece of potential evidence to support transgender identity, if you have the link to study, I would like to read it.