All purpose news and politics thread part VII: News & Politics Total Landscaping

[Mister Mets]

Water boys gonna carry water.

How so?

It fell on Easter once so far by pure chance, are you saying no holidays should fall in late March and most of April just because the rare year where they'll overlap? Please...

This Holiday didn't fall on Easter by pure chance.

The date was selected so as not to be close to pride month.

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/30/12415...andall-crocker

If you can choose the date, it makes sense to avoid days that could be Easter Sunday, especially if there's an effort to persuade ordinary people to be political allies.

*face palm* Hmm, something that has been March 31 since its beginning and Biden had nothing to do with it (the same as he has nothing to do with Trump being tried for numerous crimes that Trump chose to commit including the insurrection) or Trump using a day Christians allegedly revere as a day of hope and triumph and turning it into his standard hate tirade? Which is worse?

Doesn't this violate gag orders and other restrictions laid down by judges to prevent Trump from trying to whip up violence and threats towards witnesses, judges, their families, and others? Also, orders restricting him from trying to have these cases tried in the courts of the public opinion of his hate-filled, sad and ignorant supporters?

My only hope is that, tomorrow, or whenever these judges are back on the bench, Trump finds his f*t @$$ in jail for endlessly flaunting and ignoring court orders with his usual entitled attitude that he can do whatever he wants. By now, it must be obvious for heaven knows how many times over that he is never going to obey these orders and Donny conman needs to finally learn for the irst time in his seven decades that there are consequences he cannot avoid.
Oh,

I know he probably hopes it happens and that it will cement his win with his moronic base. But, to paraphrase Jon Stewart: Yes. people facing the consequences of their actions in a courtroom should always be decided by popularity and popular opinion.

The gag orders tend to be narrowly tailored to prevent Trump from making gross comments about people with less power than judges and prosecutors.

[Tendrin]

How so?

It's what you do.

If you can choose the date, it makes sense to avoid days that could be Easter Sunday, especially if there's an effort to persuade ordinary people to be political allies.

They don't actually care about this, and it's not actually a problem for two things to share the same day once a decade when one of those things has a floating date. You are, as usual, finding a way to make this the fault of the people *not* mounting a full-scale bigoted breakdown.

[JackDaw]

J K Rowling seems determined to get arrested on her return to Scotland ( under the terms of the new act that has just been passed by Scottish Parliament that makes misgendering people a hate crime in some circumstances) .

[Mister Mets]

What I see is humoring Mets when he nitpicks definitions/terminology or brings up outside studies/math/interpretations (As shown in innumerable quotes, including what he just quoted) gets used as evidence that one is being dishonest when convenient. That's why in the case of The Week I no longer accept evidence from anywhere but the only study they cited & the article itself and I generally independently verify any evidence posted by Mets otherwise. I've always encouraged others to independently verify stories/sources in the past, so if people decide to do the same to any links I post because of this opinion then I encourage it anyway.

In the spirit of that encouragement:

So, what is your argument that the article obviously lied? Because you have made different claims at different times.

Did the reporter lie because people who identify as genderqueer, nonbinary, etc. are not trans, so anyone informed about the topic would only include them in the umbrella term of trans is doing so for shock value? Even if this fits the Human Rights campaign definition.
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...92#post6029692

Or did the reporter lie because they're not limiting the definition of trans to people who are going for specific types of gender affirming-medical care?
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...42#post6385542

Did the reporter lie because they didn't include trans women and cis men when calculating percentages of students raised as girls (who are by definition not going to be trans women or cis men)?
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...47#post6040947

Did the reporter lie because 4.2% rounds closer to 4%, so it's more accurate to say it was an increase from 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 25 (or to be pedantic, an increase from 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 23.8, rather than an increase from 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 20?
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...92#post6029692

Did the reporter lie because 0.5% of respondents did not have a listed identity in a selection that includes cis woman, trans woman, cis man, trans man, nonbinary, genderqueer, intersex and agender. It doesn't include terms like two-spirited, or various neopronouns.
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...97#post6387397

Did the reporter lie because he or she should have assumed that males are more likely to identify in gender non-conforming ways?
https://community.cbr.com/showthread...41#post6386141

It does appear that the data backs up what the reporter said about a spike in identification rates, so the whole point about doing your own research isn't relevant here. The research backs up the claim.

In addition, people doing their own research because they don't trust the media is what leads to them going down Q-Anon rabbit holes.

J K Rowling seems determined to get arrested on her return to Scotland ( under the terms of the new act that has just been passed by Scottish Parliament that makes misgendering people a hate crime in some circumstances) .

That will be a clusterfuck.

[JackDaw]

That will be a clusterfuck.

It will be.

I hope the Scottish Parliament has given more thought and care to the wording of the new law than they did with earlier legislation in same area (trans rights). If not Rowling will win the PR battle, and trans rights will probably suffer a setback.

Early indications aren’t encouraging.(When the relevant minister was questioned they initially asserted Rowling couldn’t be arrested, but when challenged on that, changed that to “she may be, it is up to the Police to decide”. That is…I think unfair to the Police. People passing new legislation should have a very clear idea about what constitutes a crime under the new law.)

[Catlady in training]

It will be.

I hope the Scottish Parliament has given more thought and care to the wording of the new law than they did with earlier legislation in same area (trans rights). If not Rowling will win the PR battle, and trans rights will probably suffer a setback.

Early indications aren’t encouraging.(When the relevant minister was questioned they initially asserted Rowling couldn’t be arrested, but when challenged on that, changed that to “she may be, it is up to the Police to decide”. That is…I think unfair to the Police. People passing new legislation should have a very clear idea about what constitutes a crime under the new law.)

So, just to be clear. Is your argument that when a person does her best to intentionally break he law, it is the fault of the people who created the law that they didn't give her enough room to be bigoted?

[JackDaw]

So, just to be clear. Is your argument that when a person does her best to intentionally break he law, it is the fault of the people who created the law that they didn't give her enough room to be bigoted?

No, nothing like that (not sure how you could interpret what I actually wrote that way.)

My main concern is that the Scottish Parliament has not given sufficient thought to the wording of the law, in particular the best way to maintain a good balance between free speech and preventing speech deliberately calculated to harm others.

When the minister concerned cannot say definitively whether what Rowling has done constitutes a crime or not (under the new law) it suggests to me the law has not been well thought through.

[Mister Mets]

It will be.

I hope the Scottish Parliament has given more thought and care to the wording of the new law than they did with earlier legislation in same area (trans rights). If not Rowling will win the PR battle, and trans rights will probably suffer a setback.

Early indications aren’t encouraging.(When the relevant minister was questioned they initially asserted Rowling couldn’t be arrested, but when challenged on that, changed that to “she may be, it is up to the Police to decide”. That is…I think unfair to the Police. People passing new legislation should have a very clear idea about what constitutes a crime under the new law.)

I'm definitely in agreement that sloppy laws are bad, and there should be a clear sense of when what someone says will violate the law.

I saw her comments on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/statu...47068944265615

It'll be interesting to see if there will be any effort to use the law to go after her. The PR would not be good.

[Catlady in training]

No, nothing like that (not sure how you could interpret what I actually wrote that way.)

My main concern is that the Scottish Parliament has not given sufficient thought to the wording of the law, in particular the best way to maintain a good balance between free speech and preventing speech deliberately calculated to harm others.

When the minister concerned cannot say definitively whether what Rowling has done constitutes a crime or not (under the new law) it suggests to me the law has not been well thought through.

But in case of Rowling, we know she is doing it to hurt others. You admitted that she seems determined to get arrested, so no matter how worded it would be, she will probably say something that deliberately falls under that definition.

[Gray Lensman]

It's what you do.



They don't actually care about this, and it's not actually a problem for two things to share the same day once a decade when one of those things has a floating date. You are, as usual, finding a way to make this the fault of the people *not* mounting a full-scale bigoted breakdown.

I wonder how atheists took it when Easter fell on April Fools Day, and how evangelicals took that.

[Jack Dracula]

J K Rowling seems determined to get arrested on her return to Scotland ( under the terms of the new act that has just been passed by Scottish Parliament that makes misgendering people a hate crime in some circumstances) .

With so many important, actual injustices in the world, picking personal pronouns as her hill to die on just seems so ridiculous.

[skyvolt2000]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv26l9RuhtA

STOP THE ATTACK ON HBCUs: National Mass Press Conference

[Tuck]

No, nothing like that (not sure how you could interpret what I actually wrote that way.)

My main concern is that the Scottish Parliament has not given sufficient thought to the wording of the law, in particular the best way to maintain a good balance between free speech and preventing speech deliberately calculated to harm others.

Wait until comments about Israel-Palestine end up tied up in this dumb law.

[JackDaw]

But in case of Rowling, we know she is doing it to hurt others. You admitted that she seems determined to get arrested, so no matter how worded it would be, she will probably say something that deliberately falls under that definition.

I actually disagree with you on the first point (that her motive is to deliberately hurt others). I think her driving force has been fear…the fear of women’s only spaces being compromised. I think her actions are misguided, but if you look at earlier impact of poorly worded legislation by the Scottish Parliament you might have some glimmer of sympathy for her behaviour.

I think she is certainly willing to be arrested for what she’s already said, partly because she does not accept it is “hate speech”. My own guess is she will not say anything that makes her arrest a complete formality (she will want to have a defendable case if it ever comes to court).

[CaptainEurope]

So, the Trump Media stock is sliding down fast (not quite free fall, but was down 25% shortly after markets opened, 35 percent over the past 5 business days), after it was revealed that Truth Social posted a loss of 58 million in 2023...