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

[Tendrin]

I read somewhere that there also has been a massive Spanish language campaign in Florida spreading false news and baseless allegations about high ranking Democrats like Kamala Harris. People calling into radio shows etc.

Absolutely.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...tinos-n1284897

[Tami]

UK warns Moscow is planning to install pro-Russian leader in Ukraine

The UK warned on Saturday that Russia was plotting to install a pro-Moscow leader in Ukraine at a time of mounting western alarm over an imminent Russian invasion of the country.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it had evidence that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was seeking to install a puppet regime as it considers whether to invade — and named Yevhen Murayev, a former Ukrainian MP, as a potential leader favoured by Moscow. It did not release that evidence.

Liz Truss, UK foreign secretary, said that the revelation “shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine and is an insight into Kremlin thinking”.

She added: “Russia must de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy. As the UK and our partners have said repeatedly, any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs.”

[JB]

Absolutely.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...tinos-n1284897

Perhaps the Democrat campaign message to Latino and Hispanic voters for the midterms should be "If you voted Republican in 2020, you were brainwashed and fell for propaganda." I'm sure that will be a hit.

The article mentions radio ads in New Jersey smearing Biden, but Biden won the Hispanic vote by a large margin in NJ so I don't think they fell for it.

This is a good article highlighting some of NJ Hispanic voters' concerns a month before the election.
https://www.nj.com/politics/2020/10/...nequality.html

“Here in New Jersey we don’t see a candidate campaign targeting the Latino community," said Mirian Aguilar, a resident of New Brunswick. "The issue of immigration, which has always been important, was not even mentioned in the presidential or vice presidential debate. They have talked a lot about COVID, which has strongly affected us Latinos, but they do not say anything about specific help for people who do not have the luxury of working from home.”

For Jei Mota, who resides in Edison, the pandemic is one of the main issues of the election campaign. However, he regrets that the candidates do not propose concrete measures to help people who cannot pay the cost of the treatments, nor aid for those who have not been able to pay the rent on their houses or who lost their jobs and now cannot afford to feed to their families.

“This is an important issue for the voters. But beyond the precautions to avoid the infection, not much has been said on how the problems that the pandemic has already created will be solved. There are no clear proposals,” said Mota. “This must be taken into account when voting.”

[JB]

Let’s look at the Goya situation for some fun. The CEO came out expressing his support for Trump in 2020. Immediately there was a call to boycott their products, AOC leading the charge in all her wisdom.

It backfired spectacularly and Goya had one of its best years, unable to keep products on the shelves and shattering their own records. In fact, sales skyrocketed in white conservative AND white liberal areas. The liberals obviously didn’t agree with his politics but they definitely didn’t agree with trying to boycott a company started in the kitchen of an immigrant from Puerto Rico. The message was if you don’t fall in line with Democrats, we’ll harm your business.

AOC was named Goya’s employee of the year.

[Gray Lensman]

Let’s look at the Goya situation for some fun. The CEO came out expressing his support for Trump in 2020. Immediately there was a call to boycott their products, AOC leading the charge in all her wisdom.

It backfired spectacularly and Goya had one of its best years, unable to keep products on the shelves and shattering their own records. In fact, sales skyrocketed in white conservative AND white liberal areas. The liberals obviously didn’t agree with his politics but they definitely didn’t agree with trying to boycott a company started in the kitchen of an immigrant from Puerto Rico. The message was if you don’t fall in line with Democrats, we’ll harm your business.

AOC was named Goya’s employee of the year.

I'm having trouble processing the phrase "immigrant from Puerto Rico" since they are covered under US birthright citizenship.

[JB]

I'm having trouble processing the phrase "immigrant from Puerto Rico" since they are covered under US birthright citizenship.

The company was started in 1936 prior to the official establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952. And like many in Puerto Rico, the family is originally from Spain.
They defied odds with their success, their first storefront being in lower Manhattan and eventually expanding to Brooklyn, and then to New Jersey where their headquarters has been located since the 70's.
They recently started an $80M expansion and have 26 manufacturing and distribution facilities. They served as a template and inspiration for future minority-owned businesses.

[Tendrin]

Perhaps the Democrat campaign message to Latino and Hispanic voters for the midterms should be "If you voted Republican in 2020, you were brainwashed and fell for propaganda." I'm sure that will be a hit.

The article mentions radio ads in New Jersey smearing Biden, but Biden won the Hispanic vote by a large margin in NJ so I don't think they fell for it.

This is a good article highlighting some of NJ Hispanic voters' concerns a month before the election.
https://www.nj.com/politics/2020/10/...nequality.html

All of this fails to address the fact that there is a large, sweeping misinformation campaign aimed by rich donors at latino voters. It exists. It needs to be dealt with. Pretending that people aren't being lied to relentlessly doesn't do that.

'Democrats could communicate better', sure, but no amount of communication can avoid being drowned out by lies if they aren't shut down at their source.

[shooshoomanjoe]

The company was started in 1936 prior to the official establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952. And like many in Puerto Rico, the family is originally from Spain.
They defied odds with their success, their first storefront being in lower Manhattan and eventually expanding to Brooklyn, and then to New Jersey where their headquarters has been located since the 70's.
They recently started an $80M expansion and have 26 manufacturing and distribution facilities. They served as a template and inspiration for future minority-owned businesses.

Still, Puerto Rico has been a US territory since the end of the Spanish American war. No one alive should be called an immigrant from Puerto Rico

[Mister Mets]

Let’s look at the Goya situation for some fun. The CEO came out expressing his support for Trump in 2020. Immediately there was a call to boycott their products, AOC leading the charge in all her wisdom.

It backfired spectacularly and Goya had one of its best years, unable to keep products on the shelves and shattering their own records. In fact, sales skyrocketed in white conservative AND white liberal areas. The liberals obviously didn’t agree with his politics but they definitely didn’t agree with trying to boycott a company started in the kitchen of an immigrant from Puerto Rico. The message was if you don’t fall in line with Democrats, we’ll harm your business.

AOC was named Goya’s employee of the year.

Yeah, that effort at a boycott was dumb.

Biden sent lethal aid to Ukraine. I hope things don't escalate there. We don't need more wars.

We don't.

But it is also important to establish that we shouldn't have a return to the pre-World War 2 environment of nations invading their neighbors. That would likely lead to more war and conflict.

It's better to have a line in the sand now, rather than to have Russia benefit from bad practices.

I noticed the right loves to use fear mongering tactics on their base. Fox has been going on about Hillary running in 2024 and their base is riled up. However, I can't find any information on Hillary saying she's going to run.

My impression is that it's more wishful thinking, although it is also something likely to get old people to click on an article.

Hillary Clinton is making no moves to challenge Biden or Harris in 2024, and I haven't really seen anyone on the left calling for her to do that.

[JB]

Still, Puerto Rico has been a US territory since the end of the Spanish American war. No one alive should be called an immigrant from Puerto Rico

We'll agree to disagree because this is a sensitive topic (my family is from Ponce). After the pro-independence movement in the early 1900's, the US gave Puerto Ricans "citizenship" to quell the uprisings but it was granted by Congress and not the Constitution so we were not allowed to vote and didn't have the same protections as American citizens. Many strongly believe citizenship wasn't truly granted until the commonwealth was established, when we could vote and were granted equal rights. Until then the US government could veto any law enacted on the island as they wished, and non-white Puerto Ricans were mostly restricted from moving to the mainland. To this day there is great debate on whether Puerto Ricans should push for statehood, enhanced commonwealth status, or independence.

In any case, the calls for the boycott were wrong and won't be soon forgotten.

[Mister Mets]

This is true. I am continually saddened that these Americans, who support these legislation by almost 2 to 1, continually elect Republicans who will never support them. In the case of the BBB, it's 80%. The imbalance in population in the Senate is one reason it is this close, but more it's people who don't understand what is really happening in Washington. The Republican Senators who are stopping this will bare no consequences from their voters. Unfortunately. It has beco9me increasingly clear that people do not vote with their brains.
And the sad thing is, with just a few Republicans who say they are moderate, like Collins or Romney, these would pass. But instead, nothing will happen, and the voters will blame the Democrats for not passing things in an evenly divided Senate, with to recalcitrant Senators and a completely obstructionist GOP. As if giving Congress to the GOP will get anything done. They will deplore the "gridlock", say stupid stuff like "why doesn't Congress...?" and then vote for a Party with no plans, whose only objective will be blocking Judges.

The popularity of the green new deal agenda isn't as simple as progressives advertise.

Voters generally like getting stuff. They don't like paying for stuff.

A month ago, the Build Back Better Act had 41% support.

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/10/10628...messaging-woes

Other polls show it at around 49 percent, which isn't great for something really expensive.

https://morningconsult.com/2021/11/2...r-act-polling/

If the increased spending results in tax increases for middle-class Americans, or is blamed for higher inflation, that will also cause political problems.

It's worth noting there was plenty of Republican support for the infrastructure bill. 19 Republicans voted for it in the Senate.

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/10/10264...structure-bill

There was less support in the House, but at that point it was no longer seen as a standalone bill, but as part of the larger package including Build Back Better. That was the white house messaging.

This supports my idea that we may able to get more stuff passed if bills are smaller and allowed to pass on their own merits.

Maher also offered a platform to Ann Coulter. But both Coulter and Yiannopolous got almost universally booed on Maher's show, so I don't think we have to worry too much about their appearances on Real Time flipping anyone to the right wing.

And there is a reason why Democratic candidates lose in certain precincts and some of it has to do with an obsession with shutting people up, as if that will solve the problem that the person was talking about. Sure, they're full of ****, but changing the words or shutting them up entirely doesn't really help the people who are hurting. For instance, several years ago, Susan Olsen, the actress who played Cindy Brady on the Brady Bunch, had a once a week gig as a commentator on some conservative radio show. Well, she said something that got her in trouble. I don't remember exactly what she said, but I do remember that I disagreed with it and thought that she was full of ****. But that's not the point. The point is that I first heard about it not by actually listening to the radio show, but by way of an e-mail from Daily Kos urging me to sign on to a petition to get Susan Olsen thrown off the radio show. I did not sign the petition. I don't like the idea of firing people for what they say. But the petition worked and Olsen was thrown off of the show. I later got another e-mail from Daily Kos crowing about their big win. Of course, nothing else changed, just the loss of a one day a week gig for a former child star. But the e-mail crowed as if they had just won Brown vs. Board of Ed. See, I want to know exactly what people like Coulter and Yiannopolous are saying. I don't want a summary from some group screaming, "You won't believe what they said this time!" And if Bill Maher doesn't give them a platform, someone else will, probably FOX News or someone similar who will just agree with everything they say. At least Bill Maher challenges them.

And finally, like I said before, even if Bill Maher is an *******, it doesn't mean he's always wrong. Sometimes, he says things that no one else will say, but need to be said.

Yiannopolous's downfall came after he appeared on Maher, when some earlier comments were discovered, and he reacted badly to that. He's said and done some messed up things since then, although Maher can't be blamed for not predicting that. It may ultimately be a good thing that Maher gave Yiannopolous a platform, as it led to people realizing he's a nutjob.

Va. Gov. Youngkin’s assertive first week in office leaves Republicans jubilant, Democrats fuming

Did he break any promises? Did he suggest to voters that he wouldn't provide funding for charter schools, provide for more resource officers in schools, or insist on the use of voter ID? Was anyone under the impression he would keep a gasoline tax?

[Tami]

Did he break any promises? Did he suggest to voters that he wouldn't provide funding for charter schools, provide for more resource officers in schools, or insist on the use of voter ID? Was anyone under the impression he would keep a gasoline tax?

My guess is that most of the voters that voted for him only heard 'Parent's Rights' and that everything else went in one ear and out the other. There are many different kinds of voters, including the One Issue kind. Those voters tend to latch onto a single issue (Parent's rights (aka don't teach my children about things that will make me uncomfortable), Abortion (both sides), Immigration, Economy, etc.), and vote by that criteria alone.

[seismic-2]

Donald Trump posted a photo to social media showing him giving a thumbs-up as he was seated behind a bunch of cans of Goya products lined up across the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. The President of the United States was selling Goya beans from the White House. That's just the sort of classy act we came to expect of him, of course. Ivanka Trump, who was officially a Senior Adviser to the POTUS, also posted a photo showing her holding a can of Goya Beans and hyping the advertising slogan. Ethics wasn't a big priority of the Trump administration, of course.

[JB]

Donald Trump posted a photo to social media showing him giving a thumbs-up as he was seated behind a bunch of cans of Goya products lined up across the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. The President of the United States was selling Goya beans from the White House. That's just the sort of classy act we came to expect of him, of course. Ivanka Trump, who was officially a Senior Adviser to the POTUS, also posted a photo showing her holding a can of Goya Beans and hyping the advertising slogan. Ethics wasn't a big priority of the Trump administration, of course.

Yeah this was a week or two after the calls for the boycott. I wish he wouldn't have gotten involved but of course he's not one to waste an opportunity to stoke the flames. He did something similar with Wendy's I believe.

[skyvolt2000]

My guess is that most of the voters that voted for him only heard 'Parent's Rights' and that everything else went in one ear and out the other. There are many different kinds of voters, including the One Issue kind. Those voters tend to latch onto a single issue (Parent's rights (aka don't teach my children about things that will make me uncomfortable), Abortion (both sides), Immigration, Economy, etc.), and vote by that criteria alone.

The funny thing is those rights have ALWAYS been there.

The issue is too many parents view school as DAY CARE for their kids and don't care.

CRT is NOT taught in schools. No teacher is blaming white folks for everything because no text book does that. And no state or school board would EVER approve of a book that does that.

And I find it funny those who list books that "do" teach CRT are ignoring so many other book. Funny Jerry Craft's New Kid is on that list and nothing by Zane is. I guess kids having access to black erotica isn't an issue.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/an...ewsntp&pc=U531

Thousands of protesters from across the country — including some of the biggest names in the anti-vaccination movement — gathered Sunday for a rally against vaccine mandates in the nation’s capital

A few thousand had arrived on the Mall late Sunday morning. Some were white-haired; others were being pushed in strollers. Most were White and many wore gear with slogans supporting former president Donald Trump. A group of men in front of a cart with a “Don’t Tread On Me” flag started a chant of “Let’s go Brandon” and “F--- Joe Biden” at around 10:30 a.m. to cheers. The few who wore masks risked the tirades of a man screaming “Take those masks off!” and “It’s all a lie!”

The marchers carried posters and flags that included false statements such as “Vaccines are mass kill bio weapons” and “Trump won.” A bus was parked beside the Washington Monument, wrapped in signs with “ARREST OR EXILE" and displaying pictures of Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates and Jacob Rothschild — the last an echo of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories involving the Rothschild family. A speaker blared Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What doesn’t kill you).”