All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[mojotastic]

I thought this was a good lil piece of political news.



Saudi Arabia hasn't had a movie theater in 35 years. The first movie to be played? Black Panther!!! Wakanda Forever.

Times are a changing. Conservatives function is to delay change. They serve a purpose I guess. But change comes regardless, thus they always seem like the bad guys.

Wasnt the Emoji movie already the first movie screnned in SA in 35 years?

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...-a8161401.html

[Tazirai]

Religion is a cancer upon this nation. It's their own words and they weren't tricked into answering them.

These people Truly believe God made America the greatest country ever.

Wow!

Trump is God's vessel?

We are NOT a Christian Nation. I repeat We are NOT a Christian Nation. We are a Nation with a lot of Christians. That's the difference.


Researchers Discover Common Thread Among Christians Who Voted For Trump
This could explain why some evangelicals are willing to overlook that Trump is not a choir boy.

Wasnt the Emoji movie already the first movie screnned in SA in 35 years?

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...-a8161401.html

The first film ( Live action or not) in an Actual movie theater in 35 years. With the Promise to grow into more theaters.

[Tazirai]

DOWN goes Williamson. That SOB gt trounced. Why does the media think COnservative voices are more important than Liberal or Progressive voices is beyond me.
They're gonna call you the liberal Media regardless if 99% are Conservatives. Stop bowing your heads to them.

Atlantic Fires Kevin Williamson After Suddenly Realizing He Believes The Things He Says
“I have come to the conclusion that The Atlantic is not the best fit for his talents, and so we are parting ways,” Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote.

[Mr. Mastermind]

There's a big difference between being pro-life and expressing an opinion that women who've had abortions should be killed; the former is not out of the pale of an open discussion while the latter is filth that taints the entire conversation by just being entertained as a serious view point.

If you believe abortion is murder, you should think women should be punished for the decision like other murderers. The pro-life line of "it's the doctors that should be punished!" reveals they don't actually view abortion as murder deep down.

Calling for women to be hanged for having an abortion is, however, Williamson being an incredibly awful right wing commentator. He doesn't mean it, he does it to offend for the sake of offending. If The Atlantic wants to hire thoughtful writers, Williamson would be the last person to pick. The liberal obsession with the Never Trumpers has got to end, they represent a tiny minority of conservative opinion and most in the media are leftovers from the Bush administration. Williamson's problem with Trump is that he isn't elitist enough, which should tell you everything about him.

Would the people opposing this decision support hiring Khmer Rouge for the New York Times to freshen up their comments section? Or does this free speech fetish only apply to conservatives?

[thwhtGuardian]

There is a key distinction here that might not matter for many.

My understanding of his comments was that it was about a policy going forward, with the understanding that this would be unlikely to actually be put into law, rather than an explicit endorsement of ex post facto or extralegal punishment. I don't know how much this matters to anyone, whether there's someone else who thinks the idea that in the future abortion can have the maximum criminal penalty possible is acceptable to discuss, but advocacy of prosecuting anyone for things they did in the past when these were legally and fully protected by the law is going too far.

There are two further problems with the Atlantic's decision.

I think people should be honest about the implications of their views, and the decision encourages a moral cowardice in which people are unwilling to say what they believe, or to openly consider the implications. Late-term abortion is a rather icky procedure, and people who advocate for it should be honest about what they want, rather than sanitizing it. People who want police officers to change their procedures and open fire less should be willing to discuss the downside of what they want (greater risk for police officers which does mean more dead cops) in addition to the upsides (other people get to live; probably resulting in a net gain in terms of lives saved.)

The belief that abortion should be treated as a serious crime is one that is held by a non-trivial percentage of Americans. It's not going to go away if there's a refusal to engage it, and when people who hold these positions are marginalized or realize that they should keep quiet, the main result is that the public and the media are less informed.

It's not much of a distinction, if he's even willing to voice such a possible policy, no matter how slim, I think it's a safe bet that he believes it's a just policy so why split hairs?

And the marginalization of regressive ideas is the natural course of a society as it advances, right now only 40% of US citizens supports a pro-life stance where most or all abortions should be illegal but among those 30 and under it's currently just 35% and for those under 25 it's only 20% so as the older generations pass on we're going to see the acceptance of those past views decline. This isn't new either, we've seen the same thing with the womens rights movement, the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement so it's no surprise to see it here.

[Gray Lensman]

If he has been hiring a more diverse staff, than that is a step in the right direction and I apologize for having faulty information on that. Thanks for the clarification.

Without having checked on his staffers I think that the fact of Vermont being possibly the whitest state in the entire country makes it difficult to get diverse hires from there - and anyone in Congress who doesn't hire from his or her district will have to answer some angry questions. I lived across the lake from Vermont for most of my life, and even the boonies in waaaaay upstate NY (as in North of Albany upstate, not barely outside NYC upstate) has more diversity than the places I have been to in Vermont.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Can Bernie do anything wrong? In your mind, can he do anything wrong? If anyone is the least bit critical, do you always need to rush in and declare anyone speaking against him a shill for the "Establishment"?

The particular critique being discussed was misleading and disingenuous

[worstblogever]

That is a potential criminal penalty for serious crimes.

There's a big difference between being pro-life and expressing an opinion that women who've had abortions should be killed; the former is not out of the pale of an open discussion while the latter is filth that taints the entire conversation by just being entertained as a serious view point.

Someone should also remind Mister Mets how stochastic terrorism works, and how Williamson was, whether consciously or unconsciously, daring some of the anti-choice monsters out there to start women who approach abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood centers.

Which, hey, at least they're not bombing or shooting up the places like they usually do like rational people, right?

[numberthirty]

It's not as if his congressional staff is secret, it's a matter of public record available right on his site. Just going off of the names I recognize here are some of the people on his staff who are not white vermonters: Jacob Gillison, Britt Weinstock and Donni Turner. And those are just the ones I remember, you can google the whole staff if you like.

If he has been hiring a more diverse staff, than that is a step in the right direction and I apologize for having faulty information on that. Thanks for the clarification.

Where, exactly, did you get this faulty information?

It might go a ways towards proving someone wasn't just taking a swipe at Sanders with absolutely nothing to back it up while hoping folks would just take it as a likely possibility.

Because when you look at the actual reality...

- Jacob Gillison: Since 2014

He had also previously worked for John Lewis.

[numberthirty]

Okay on what he actually said... where's the lie?

The Democratic Party has lost a record number of seats since 2008. If it's goal is to win elections, it's an absolute failure. And that's ignoring how it's a right of centre party with no desire to change America in a truly meaningful way. He doesn't even attack Obama's horrible Presidency in that quote.

Yeah...

Taking cracks at Sanders seems to be more important that actually dealing with if he said there was true before you try to twist it into a personal swipe at former President Obama and only that.

[RumpusMagoo]

Without having checked on his staffers I think that the fact of Vermont being possibly the whitest state in the entire country makes it difficult to get diverse hires from there - and anyone in Congress who doesn't hire from his or her district will have to answer some angry questions. I lived across the lake from Vermont for most of my life, and even the boonies in waaaaay upstate NY (as in North of Albany upstate, not barely outside NYC upstate) has more diversity than the places I have been to in Vermont.

Not untrue, but as someone who went to the University of Vermont and just came back from the state today, I need to say that Vermont is an awesome, progressive place to live and raise kids. I'd move there today if I could.

[Malvolio]

DOWN goes Williamson. That SOB gt trounced. Why does the media think COnservative voices are more important than Liberal or Progressive voices is beyond me.
They're gonna call you the liberal Media regardless if 99% are Conservatives. Stop bowing your heads to them.

Atlantic Fires Kevin Williamson After Suddenly Realizing He Believes The Things He Says
“I have come to the conclusion that The Atlantic is not the best fit for his talents, and so we are parting ways,” Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote.

It's one thing when Rachel Maddow has Pat Buchanan on, because she will actually challenge him on his cockamamie opinions. But we don't need Wolf Blitzer to have on one conservative mouthpiece after another, just so that CNN can say that they present both sides of an issue. I don't mind having conservative voices on my TV. I just want them to have accountability when they spout bullshit.

[ed2962]

The plain fact that the guy admitted that he only found two Youtubers who did what they threatened marks him as candid rather than disingenuous.

Nothing rambling about his speech to me: he's saying the same thing I've said here, that you can't measure wrong by quantity. Even if there are more anti-SJWs burning comics than SJWs, guess what? It's still a dubious action no matter who does it, not illegal but questionable in its moral compass.

The antifa remark, while not directly relevant to comics, speaks to a repressive mentality in modern liberalism, and so is relevant in a cultural sense.

Yeah...nope.


Now, what should we get? Gin? Vodka?

[numberthirty]

While we are discussing the minority staff that Sanders doesn't have, here is a name I did not see mentioned...

https://twitter.com/ErikaAndiola?ref...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

https://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarra...rvE#.rvp30Oy6o

Bernie Sanders Just Hired The Best Known Immigration Activist In The Country

[numberthirty]

But, yeah...

Let's ignore that he gave that lady a position so folks can try to change the tune to the minority staff member that Sanders very clearly had.