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

[Malvolio]

It plays right into the normal=good, abnormal=bad paradigm. We don't want to believe that neo-Nazis or white supremacists could be otherwise "normal." But the fact is, they are. A lot of them look normal and if you saw them shopping in the local supermarket, you wouldn't know how evil they are just by looking at them. But that scares us, doesn't it? We would much rather have them look just as monstrous on the outside as they are on the inside. We would love for all of them to wear "White Power" t-shirts at all times, and some of them do literally wave a flag (a Confederate flag, of course), but many of them know enough to keep a low profile. Yes, Trump ascendance has brought a lot of them out into the light and some of them will stay there, but a lot of them will know enough to go back to keeping a low profile.

The lesson here is to not let that make us complacent. Just because there hasn't been a KKK rally in awhile doesn't mean that they no longer exist. We have to remain constantly vigilant. As I learned in Hebrew school lessons on the Holocaust: Never forget.

[PaulBullion]

Here is a twitter thread about a crazy right wing conspiracy website that is out there radicalizing young nazis... and that was just endorsed by the president:

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/934612249368555528

[worstblogever]

On this day in both 2014, in 2015, and in 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted its first two profiles of Ira Hansen, of the Nevada House of Representatives, who was quickly forced out of being Speaker of the Nevada House after people actually realized he had a staggering history of making outrageously ugly comments… including his time as a radio talk-show host where he made anti-Semitic remarks, made sexist arguments against women in the military, advocated for a “masturbation tax”, and that he once said the Oklahoma City Bombing was a “false flag” attack that the Clinton administration was actually responsible for. He also writes columns from an office with a Confederate flag hanging on the wall, slanders Martin Luther King Dr.’s legacy, refers to President Obama as a “negro”, a term he’s fond of, makes arguments as to Hispanics and African Americans of being of lower intelligence than whites, and blames illegal immigrants for tuberculosis cases without any evidence to support that racist claim. Hansen’s bigotry also expands to gays, as he likes to conflate homosexuality with child abuse, including him blaming the abuse of children by Catholic priests on gays. Of course, when Hansen’s past as an author and talk-radio figure came back to force him to pass and not accept his role has Nevada House Speaker, he gave a non-apology apology where he said his remarks were only being “taken out of context”. What can’t be taken out of context is Hansen’s staunch pro-gun attitude, his support for transphobic bathroom laws, or the fact that he mentioned President Eisenhower’s “Project Wetback” as a model for what the United States should implement to handle undocumented immigrants (without remembering how deadly that campaign proved for those Mexicans, with up to 88 deaths resulting in a single day.

And, wouldn’t you know it, even though Ira Hansen is a pretty clear racist and a bit of a paranoid conspiracy theorist, he managed to be re-elected to a fourth term in the 2016 elections by having the benefit of running unopposed. In 2018, his plans are to divide and conquer, as he has decided to make a run for Nevada State Senate to replace the retiring Don Gustavson, and Ira’s wife Alexis will run for his seat in the Nevada House. So… now Nevada could potentially have two loony Hansens in their ranks. Great.

[PaulBullion]

Trump also attacked CNN International (widely regarded to be much better journalism than regular CNN) as being fake news while wishing there was a global FoxNews version. At the same time, Putin required CNNI to register as a foreign agent.

Are you not entertained?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Mother Of Vegas Survivor Pleads With Lawmaker To Change Gun Laws

“Our schools, hospitals, concert venues and churches are now all battlefields.” And that's just how the NRA and the gun lobby wants it.

**********

Trump Is Quietly Making It Even Harder To Report Sexual Harassment And Discrimination

The White House has been trying to shut women up this whole time. No surprise there, given Trump is notorious for saying "Grab 'em by the p***y."

**********

The GOP Crusade Against Obamacare’s Mandate Says A Lot About How The Party Changed

They were the ones who first put the idea on the agenda. Why the 180? Because that uppity black man who was president before Trump put that into law, therefore, it had to be rescinded.

**********

NYT Accused Of Normalizing White Nationalism In ‘Nazi Sympathizer’ Profile

The profile follows Tony Hovater, a newlywed who loves “Seinfeld” and Panera Bread, and also believes the Holocaust was overblown. Ugly, flat out ugly.

**********

Welcome To The Class War

Financial capital is people, my friend.

[PaulBullion]

My favorite thing: CNN got twice as many likes and retweets as the President.

[Mister Mets]

If that was, say, the focus of the article, I think that could almost work as an eyeopener for people. Talk and interview people who were shocked to learn about their family, friends, coworkers, and such. Interview people of color to talk about their worries with the rise of racism that may feel even closer to home and is hidden almost out of sight despite being around you. There's better ideas there, but no... no...

The article's not in a vacuum. There are plenty of times pieces about people of color worried about the rise of racism. This one also did have reactions from current and former acquaintances.

[Darkspellmaster]

My favorite thing: CNN got twice as many likes and retweets as the President.

Love the hashtag too. Facts first, a perfect sumation of the job of the news and jounalism.

As fot the Times, just what are they thinking. I mean I get what they're trying to do but the article didn't come off right at all. Horrible representation there in regard to how these crazys should be perceived.

[Iron Maiden]

Trump also attacked CNN International (widely regarded to be much better journalism than regular CNN) as being fake news while wishing there was a global FoxNews version. At the same time, Putin required CNNI to register as a foreign agent.

Are you not entertained?

They're not even bothering to be subtle anymore about their collusion.

[Malvolio]

Mother Of Vegas Survivor Pleads With Lawmaker To Change Gun Laws

“Our schools, hospitals, concert venues and churches are now all battlefields.” And that's just how the NRA and the gun lobby wants it.

**********

Trump Is Quietly Making It Even Harder To Report Sexual Harassment And Discrimination

The White House has been trying to shut women up this whole time. No surprise there, given Trump is notorious for saying "Grab 'em by the p***y."

**********

The GOP Crusade Against Obamacare’s Mandate Says A Lot About How The Party Changed

They were the ones who first put the idea on the agenda. Why the 180? Because that uppity black man who was president before Trump put that into law, therefore, it had to be rescinded.

**********

NYT Accused Of Normalizing White Nationalism In ‘Nazi Sympathizer’ Profile

The profile follows Tony Hovater, a newlywed who loves “Seinfeld” and Panera Bread, and also believes the Holocaust was overblown. Ugly, flat out ugly.

**********

Welcome To The Class War

Financial capital is people, my friend.

Again with the "normalizing." I hate to tell everybody, but evil has always been normal. Unfortunately, evil is part of human nature, and for too many people, it's easier to be evil than to be good.

[TheInvisibleMan]

The article's not in a vacuum. There are plenty of times pieces about people of color worried about the rise of racism. This one also did have reactions from current and former acquaintances.

heres the difference

POC (including myself) might actually die or be injured because of ******* mcgee over there with his 4 cats and lunches at Panera believes black and brown people are "less than"

how about a whole series of articles from minorities about how their mother, their sister, their brother is terrorized by this c**tbag and other c**tbags like him in America 2017

[Tami]

heres the difference

POC (including myself) might actually die or be injured because of ******* mcgee over there with his 4 cats and lunches at Panera believes black and brown people are "less than"

how about a whole series of articles from minorities about how their mother, their sister, their brother is terrorized by this c**tbag and other c**tbags like him in America 2017

It's not just racism, I find that in the news media you are more often to see articles on just one side instead of both. Even something like Trump supporters, how many news articles have their been about Trump supporters versus how many news articles have their been about people who aren't? This happens with other social issues as well and I can't understand why, what with so many media outlets and online news sites these days.

[PaulBullion]

Conyers is stepping down as ranking Dem on House Judiciary Committee. "After careful consideration and In light of the attention drawn by recent allegations made against me, I have notified the Democratic Leader of my request to step aside."

[wjowski]

Do your part to protect net neutrality.

https://www.battleforthenet.com/

It's far too late to 'do our part'. That ship sailed in 2014 and 2016.

[Mister Mets]

It's not just racism, I find that in the news media you are more often to see articles on just one side instead of both. Even something like Trump supporters, how many news articles have their been about Trump supporters versus how many news articles have their been about people who aren't? This happens with other social issues as well and I can't understand why, what with so many media outlets and online news sites these days.

It does make sense to feature articles on one side of a topic. It's not about partisanship as much as it is limited space. An article on two sides of an issue will have to be almost twice as long to capture both sides in the same level of detail. And there's the question of whether the two sides are a sufficient representation of the topic (probably not.)