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

[Dalak]

There is this: Students paddled by public school staff after participating in walkout in Arkansas

The kids chose the paddle here, not that it should even be an option in the first place. I still can't wrap my head around punishing a literal gunshot victim of a school shooting for protesting it though.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Hillary isn't running. She said her political career is over. I know some people to who having her to hate isncentral by c'mon.

And Sanders is everywhere in the media. Biden and Sanders need to stay out in 2020z

There’s no reason why two of the strongest candidates for 2020 should stay out. This is why people keep relitigating 2016 you have a bunch of salty rabid Hillary supporters who have “if I can’t have it, nobody can”. Imagine being the person who says “I want the most popular politician in the country to NOT run for President”.

[Iron Maiden]

Is that still even legal?

It goes on a state by state basis. Indiana allows for corporal punishment in their public schools statutes but I think a lot of school districts choose not to use it. They probably figure there would be legal entanglements with parents taking cases to court. I do recall a local incident when a couple of parents came to the school and started thumping on the teacher for that reason.

[PaulBullion]

Nestle dropped Fox as a whole, not just her.

Bwahahahahaha!

I'm not quite sure why Nestlé bothered. They're universally hated by the left. I can't think of a single more hated company since National Fruit cleaned up their act.

[Tendrin]

There’s no reason why two of the strongest candidates for 2020 should stay out. This is why people keep relitigating 2016 you have a bunch of salty rabid Hillary supporters who have “if I can’t have it, nobody can”. Imagine being the person who says “I want the most popular politician in the country to NOT run for President”.

Yeah, that's not why.

[Kevinroc]

I'm not quite sure why Nestlé bothered. They're universally hated by the left. I can't think of a single more hated company since National Fruit cleaned up their act.

Optics. They understand optics.

[PaulBullion]

Extremely unlikely and it pays to be skeptical of anything with the name 'Dworkin' attached to it. Dude's a grifter.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...ing-con-artist

Yup. I quickly stopped following him on twitter when he started every tweet about an angry e-mail he'd written with BREAKING NEWS!

[Tami]

Trump distracts America from the task of facing three existential threats

Donald Trump’s daily assaults on American democracy and the pillars of America’s role in the world are disastrous – and they are also distracting America from even bigger global challenges. At just the moment when the United States must be joining together with the rest of the world to confront three existential threats – climate change, challenges to democracy, and the rise of China – Americans are forced to spend every waking minute mitigating Trump’s damage.

In Trump’s America, it’s hard to keep up. The news and controversies come so quickly they eat into each other’s news cycles. Actions by the Trump administration that previously might have brought down a presidency (or at least merited a congressional inquiry) pass in a matter of hours as the next jaw-dropping scandal explodes.

As Trump forces America’s attention span to shrink (was that even possible?), we are unable to address the three threats that could fundamentally endanger American national security.

[Tami]

I'm not quite sure why Nestlé bothered. They're universally hated by the left. I can't think of a single more hated company since National Fruit cleaned up their act.

Call me ignorant, but why? Why are they hated?

[PaulBullion]

If she were homely and fat, nobody would pay any attention to her.

Is she considered attractive by the straights, then?

[PaulBullion]

Call me ignorant, but why? Why are they hated?

Long story. Here is a good overview.

Child labor, unethical promotion, manipulating uneducated mothers, pollution, price fixing and mislabeling – those are not words you want to see associated with your company. Nestle is the world’s largest foodstuff company, and it has a history that would make even hardcore industrialists shiver.

[Tami]

‘We have to organize like the NRA’: outdoor industry takes on Trump

One morning in early December, about 50 employees of the outdoor brand Patagonia gathered in front of a projector screen in a building on their Ventura, California, campus. A scene they had expected, but that nevertheless seemed surreal to them, unfolded on television: Donald Trump announced he was shrinking two national monuments in Utah. After he had finished, staff did a final legal review of a webpage they had prepared earlier and published it.

On Patagonia’s site, the words “The President Stole Your Land” appeared in large white letters against a black background.

“We were flattered with how viral it went and how provocative it ended up being,” said John Goodwin, brand creative director for Patagonia.

On Thursday, Patagonia lobbed another volley in the fight for public lands: that message reappeared on the Patagonia homepage, with the addition of “and You Were Lied To”. An accompanying blogpost calls the monument reductions “deliberate and directly influenced” by the energy industry.

In a lot of industries, mixing business and politics so blatantly might seem taboo. But when it comes to America’s protected landscapes, outdoor companies have determined that the benefits far outweigh the risks and launched an unprecedented effort opposing the Trump administration. In the face of efforts to open up public land to mining and drilling, big outdoors has begun to flex its muscles.

“What we have to do as an industry,” said Peter Metcalf, the founder and recently retired CEO of the climbing company Black Diamond Equipment, “is organize in the same way that the NRA and the right-to-lifers have, and make public lands a primary, binary voting issue.”

[Mister Mets]

Curious about this. What if Trump doesn't make it to year 4? If he is forced out of office one way or another. How do you think his supporters would react?

I'd imagine many would see it as further proof the system's rigged against them, and would stay home in future elections.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Yeah, that's not why.

Do you have a good reason why you think the most popular politician in your country and the most eligible politician tied to on one of the best turnouts for a campaign in the Democratic Party’s modern history shouldn’t run? Or is it that they are both old or something.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump distracts America from the task of facing three existential threats

A damn good article. Of those three existential threats, Trump doesn't believe in climate change, probably never has and he brought that poisoned mindset to Washington. As for challenges to democracy, Trump loves being a strongman like Putin and Duerte and attacks any institution, from the media to the FBI that dares to question his authority. As for that lack of congressional inquiry into the sordid actions of his administration, Trump knows he can get away with anything short of murder (and maybe even that) while the GOP runs interference on his behalf and protects him at every turn. Neither Trump, or the GOP cares about those threats, all that matters to them is staying in power, at all costs.