All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[jetengine]

Which is wonderful, you're still human like the rest of us. You're not perfect. Ben Carson's a neurosurgeon who's sold best selling books, had a movie about his life with Cuba Gooding Jr. and the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery for John Hopkins - he also believes the Egyptian pyramids were made to to be grain silos. Nobody is immune to propaganda. In your last response you were repeating GOP propaganda of how they view Democrats. You're not as above us as you think you are. You have blinds spots of all sorts of American politics from what I've picked up in our conversations. Which is fine, we all have that.



Why are you buying into the GOP's propaganda about Democrats when you know this? You most assumably have absurdly high expectations for Democrats over Republicans and your own politicians. I do give a damn, that's why I'm talking to you. What you're missing is that we can't ignore the elephant shaped party in the room and conservatives in the Democratic party. I may not care, personally, about what the GOP says but millions of people do and they have the propaganda networks to make that stick with the American public. You're underestimating how powerful they are, were they as easy to defeat as you're suggesting why didn't the Justice Democrats clean up in every district in '18? Why hasn't the left dismantled their operations?



Leftists tried this, they failed miserably. You need to examine why your own politicians failed you.



So does everybody else. But wanting something isn't the same as being able to accomplish it. Sander sure hasn't been able to give you this while he's been in office, and the left's movement have crumbled to dust more then the Democrats from their attacks on our liberties.

Please, stop hollering and start strategising. The GOP are. They may look stupid but they know what to do to win elections.



We try, that's part of fighting. Fighting in politics isn't reduced to simply attacking people by bludgeoning them into submission, that has the opposite affect the it's your go-to tactic. Your own politicians ave failed to make your tactics work and they've gotten significant opportunities to do so. Why have they failed?



It's been in the open since Nixon, you're finally noticed it. You're not going to stop them by relying more on platitudes over strategies.

This entire post is completely ignoring the introspection I asked of you to do of yourself and the movement - which you refuse to hold to the same standards as the Democrats. You're not going to learn anything by sticking your head in the sand of your own movement's flaws or grow as a person so you're not caught off guard in the general by Trump and the GOP if Sanders is the nominee. This is why it's vital to have proper expectations, rather than demanding the world to bend to your will when you don't have the power to do it.



Other candidates make sure they make those voting blocs are solid, Sanders doesn't. He expects them to show up without doing the work to gain their trust.

Edit: Sanders needs to be careful with this, or this will happen to him in the general.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019...erJumbo-v2.png

The blue represent the Tories, red is for Labour.

I wouldnt use that map tbh. The 2019 election is very different from the US and its parameters dont match. I know the USA thinks Corbyn is our Bernie but he's not.

[Steel Inquisitor]

I wouldnt use that map tbh. The 2019 election is very different from the US and its parameters dont match. I know the USA thinks Corbyn is our Bernie but he's not.

There are differences, like with Brexit, but there are similarities, too. Corbyn and Sanders aren't candidates with nothing in common. They share some of the same weaknesses. Blowing off moderates for die hard supporters is one of them. It's not like the left hasn't lost badly like that in modern American politics, look at the election Reagan won.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ge1984.svg.png

Leftists need to take Corbyn's loss as a warning alarm, not go into denial.

[Tami]

I have 3 degrees.
I've lived in several countries.
I've lived in several states.
I raised a daughter now serving in the USAF.
I served in the USAF as an ATC.
I fight for people.
I was almost murdered twice fighting for people.
I do Planetary analysis as a NASA volunteer.
I write Horror/Sci-FI for Youtube and reddit subs and channels.
I publish a comic based on Egyptian Mythology.
I do Photography and deal with all sorts of people and situations.
I VOLUNTARILY go in and explore abandoned buildings and areas.
I camp and hike alone.

I bring all this up to show that, I'm fairly immune to propaganda from any side, including Sanders.
Republicans lie, and they lie a lot.
Democrats lie too.
I don't expect perfection, I expect you to actually give a damn and stop pearl clutching about what the GOP thinks of you.
You can build allies and coalitions, but every now and then you need to clean the house.

I want to CRUSH the current GOP. CRUSH THEM!
I want them to bend the knee and then we can get back to a functional government.

How do you negotiate with a party that senses how weak you are, and the slightest critique makes you back down?
Don't have the votes for Gun control. Carry your ass in the street and preach till your throat hurts. NEVER.STOP! Support people who WILL fight.

Trump is just a symptom of the sickness in America. I've seen America in better days, but this ain't even the worst. It's just out in the open now.

The only true way of being immune to propaganda is to not allow yourself to be exposed to it. There was a news article recently about a reporter who set up an experiment where he, with fill knowledge of that it was, allowed himself to be exposed to propaganda. He admitted that it had an effect on him, though he was able ot back away early enough not to let it take control.

I tend to play it safe and not expose myself to everything that is out there. Even as a scholar of information and psychology, I need to approach it carefully. And even then I make mistakes.

The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President

[jetengine]

There are differences, like with Brexit, but there are similarities, too. Corbyn and Sanders aren't candidates with nothing in common. They share some of the same weaknesses. Blowing off moderates for die hard supporters is one of them. It's not like the left hasn't lost badly like that in modern American politics, look at the election Reagan won.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ge1984.svg.png

Leftists need to take Corbyn's loss as a warning alarm, not go into denial.

I disagree. Britain's situation is fairly different and going "Well their both socialists see!" is irrelevant. People say Bernies weak yet Corbyn has been voted leader of the labour party with record numbers, similarly his vote against May during the last General Election was a record high for any labour leader. Unlike Bernie he actually had proof he can get support.

The issue is Brexit has fucked everything up. Yeah moderates were an issue in the labour party but to be frank their opinion is poison in uk politics right now. They either want blairite neo liberal red toryism or they fucked off to the Lib Dems who got crushed so hard their dust motes.

Plus our entire print and mainstream media has heavy conservative ties. So there were lies pumped out on an insane level. Theres 80 year old political pundits saying this was the dirtiest election they've EVER seen. Impartial fact checkers noted 88% of Tory ads were straight up lies.

All people want is brexit done and over with come hell or high water, despite the constant warnings of economic damage or the torys explicitly saying they'll destroy our rights.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of Arizona State Senator Steve Yarbrough, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives who was one of the co-sponsors of Arizona’s draconian anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, sued former Governor Jan Brewer for approving the Medicaid Expansion in Arizona, and voted for Arizona’s version of the Birther Bill, as well as trying to nullify that United Nations’ Agenda 21 environmental conspiracy, presumably because he thinks it somehow is a plot for global domination. Yarbrough is also yet another Republican we’ve profiled who supports drug testing welfare recipients, in spite of how failed of a policy that’s been whenever it’s been implemented around the country. Yarbrough has also voted to attempt to nullify federal firearms laws, and voted to pass legislation that would force Arizona businesses to also accept gold and silver as legal tender. On social issues, Yarbrough is also an extremist, though, having once tried to pass what amounted to a “Personhood Plus!” bill that said life started at ovulation, and was the sponsor of Arizona’s own attempt at passing a “religious freedom” bill to stop same sex couples from getting married once the Supreme Court started working towards overturning bans on it. Steve Yarbrough was term-limited in 2018, and was so was desperate to find a way to hang onto his office, he actually submitted legislation in his last term to try and re-write the law on term limits for Arizona State Senators to be four-year terms, so that he would get eight more years before he would actually be term-limited in the way the law is written. It fortunately failed and he’s now out of office.

On this date in 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled Alice Novoa, a former write-in candidate for Governor of Arizona in 2014, who was trying a tad bit harder to get on the ballot to be Arizona Secretary of State in 2018, and failed miserably in both attempts to be elected to office. Novoa first came onto the scene in Arizona politics, however, back in 2010, and by that we mean she showed up at a rally in support of the mostly unconstitutional anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, where she appeared alongside Neo-Nazis, militia groups, conspiracy theorists, nativists, and other lunatics. She qualifies for at least two of those categories of attendees. Novoa was more than happy to be interviewed by the Phoenix New Times at that event, where she introduced herself as a candidate for Justice of the Peace in Douglas, Arizona before warning the paper of a conspiracy that includes pro-Aztlan forces, the Catholic Church and radical Muslims intends to take back the Southwest and get rid of all white people. This massive conspiracy went all the way to Pope Benedict, and her source of information was “the Internet”. (Because we all know if there’s one thing that’s been proven through the years, is how often and effective team-ups between the Pope and Muslims can be, right?) Not long after Alice Novoa’s latest failed attempt to be elected to office in 2018, she emerged in headlines with a new Birther conspiracy, as the day before the 2018 general election, she filed a lawsuit against Democratic Arizona state legislator Racquel Teran, claiming that she isn’t actually an American citizen. This would be the second time, however, that Novoa has attempted to disqualify Teran from office, pulling the same insane and racist trick back in 2012. You would think that after Teran presented her birth certificate six years ago and that lawsuit was dismissed immediately, that would have been the end of it, but Alice Novoa is a special kind of nutter. Anyway, we’re not sure how many times Novoa decides to keep running for some kind of elected office in spite of being patently insane, but we’re going to set aside her profile at this time and profile a different wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 834-40, since this was established in July 2014.)

[worstblogever]

Kelly Townsend

Welcome to what is the 834th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be profiling Kelly Townsend, a member of the Arizona House of Representatives who has held office since 2012, and ignoramus of rapidly escalating status.

Now, the most infamous moment of Kelly Townsend’s career is honestly not any sort of hyper-conservative victory, but is an incredible self-own. In May of 2018, Townsend was demonizing Arizona teachers on Twitter, and complaining about “socialists” who support public education and want to be paid to teach children (THE NERVE!). And at that point, a user named “Peppercoyote” came along to put her in her place as a loon. But another commentator noted that Peppercoyote’s profile pic was a fur suit, and their profile listed them as a musician who attends furry conventions, and said, quote:

”Imagine going to all this trouble to get elected to the state legislature of Arizona only to get logically destroyed by a furry.

Poor Townsend was confused, and asked a question you should never ask on the internet:

”please educate me as to what a furry is."

Another user tried to warn Townsend that she was opening up a veritable Pandora’s Box, writing,

"Ma'am, I'm not really sorry for what's about to happen to you"

Which only made Townsend ask “Is that some kind of threat?” before all hell broke loose. As Furries came in waves to share their fursonas, pictures of fur-cons and all sorts of furry porn cartoons, Townsend tried to play it cool when someone asked if they could draw her in her fursona, and she agreed, provided it was of herself as a lioness. They obliged… and then immediately Rule 34 of the internet kicked in and they started making porn of the Kelly Townsend as an anthropomorphic lion being violated in colorful ways (we’re not going to link to it, and we won’t judge you if such a thing ends up in your search history). While we often note when CSGOPOTD candidates we profile waste the public’s time by supporting bills that declare “pornography is a public health crisis”, Townsend might be the one person who we’ve seen do so that we kind of understand where the crusade’s coming from, based on what she saw in her Twitter feed in the day she was “enlightened”.

Now, before anyone goes and feels bad for Kelly Townsend, keep in mind that only four months prior to her Fur Frenzy, that she posted an image of a topless protester in the Arizona state capitol during the annual Women’s March, and decided to justify that such a form of expression against the government would have justified it if that protester had been raped by a passerby. Quote:

"I hope the history books say it was I who gave a warning to women everywhere that if you continue down this path you will have no defense when you are sexually harassed or even worse, raped."

In February of 2019, Townsend’s idiocy on social media continued as she posted an image of herself with teardrops drawn on her face with makeup as a form of protest against abortion. Now, a rallying symbol like that might make sense, but unfortunately, tear-drop tattoos are already a gang-affiliatted thing to indicate when you’ve murdered someone. When this was brought to Townsend’s attention, she claimed she was aware of the connotation, but went with her “pro-life” post that made it look like she was confessing to murder, saying the teardrops were a “visible reminder of how sad it is that some advocate for infanticide.” Spoiler alert: Literally no one advocates for “infanticide,” defined by the law as “the crime of killing a child within a year of birth.”

Which makes it even more strange that Townsend came out hard in May of 2019 as an anti-vaccination nut, despite how vaccines can save children’s lives. A day after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey went on record that he was pro-vaccination, Townsend responded online with her thoughts (or lack thereof) on the matter, which included the following quote:

”Dearest friends and people of Arizona, it seems we are prepared to give up our liberty, the very sovereignty of our body, because of measles. I read yesterday that the idea is being floated that if not enough people get vaccinated, then we are going to force them to. The idea that we force someone to give up their liberty for the sake of the collective is not based on American values but rather, Communist.”

Just… wow.

Feel free to peruse Townsend’s extremely conservative voting record, that is littered with votes for some of the most insane bills Arizona Republicans have drafted, including her sponsorship of HB 2338, to allow concealed carry near public schools (And we thought her opposition to raising teacher’s wages was the worst thing she might have been doing to educators and kids) her co-sponsorship of SB 1367, which would have required physicians to attempt to revive any fetus they were attempting to abort or be fined $5,000, repeatedly supporting work requirements for Medicaid recipients (many of whom are physically incapable of working and that’s why they’re on Medicaid…) and her support for Arizona Republicans’ insane bills to try and make gold and silver legal tender.

Kelly Townsend is mercifully term-limited in 2020, and this is likely her motivation for “acting out” as much as she has the past two years. She needs to prove to Republican voters that she’s bats*** crazy enough to win the GOP Primary for a seat in the upper chamber and get into the Arizona State Senate or potentially another higher office available in November. Her district is a poor suburb on the east end of the Valley of the Sun, known for being a retirement community that caters to elderly winter visitors from other states as tourists, and cares nothing for the youth of the area, their education, or well being, instead just granting as low of tax rates locally as they can (we would know, we grew up in State District AZ-16). With any luck, though, this might be the first and only time we profile her.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I disagree. Britain's situation is fairly different and going "Well their both socialists see!" is irrelevant. People say Bernies weak yet Corbyn has been voted leader of the labour party with record numbers, similarly his vote against May during the last General Election was a record high for any labour leader. Unlike Bernie he actually had proof he can get support.

The issue is Brexit has fucked everything up. Yeah moderates were an issue in the labour party but to be frank their opinion is poison in uk politics right now. They either want blairite neo liberal red toryism or they fucked off to the Lib Dems who got crushed so hard their dust motes.

Plus our entire print and mainstream media has heavy conservative ties. So there were lies pumped out on an insane level. Theres 80 year old political pundits saying this was the dirtiest election they've EVER seen. Impartial fact checkers noted 88% of Tory ads were straight up lies.

All people want is brexit done and over with come hell or high water, despite the constant warnings of economic damage or the torys explicitly saying they'll destroy our rights.

It was a very different ejection. Brexit was the primary issue in that election, the places where Corbyn’s party was supposed to be strong also supporter Brexit, Farage has all his people stand down to help Johnson, also Corbyn spent the whole time being vague and not giving a real stance on the primary issue besides not wanting to go all in like Johnson wanted.

It effectively was a one issue election and the bulk of Corbyn’s electorate weren’t sympathetic to his side on the issue and all his enemies unified. It wasn’t about his ideology

[aja_christopher]

"Authoritarianism experts say time is running out for Americans to stop Trump"

"If Americans are concerned that President Donald Trump and Republicans are moving the US toward becoming a one-party, authoritarian state, they are running out of time to stop them, experts warned. Trump has exhibited autocratic impulses since his 2016 campaign and from the moment he entered the White House. The president has attacked virtually every democratic institution in the US when he's felt its actions were unfavorable to his agenda or public appearance. Meanwhile, he pushed traditional US allies away while openly embracing many of the world's most repressive leaders.

These trends have raised concern among top experts on authoritarianism, fascism, and democracy, but they've often said that the robust political system in the US, with its checks and balances and constitutional norms, has prevented Trump from becoming a full-blown authoritarian and doing whatever he wants. Since Trump was acquitted in the Senate earlier this month after being impeached in the House over his dealings with Ukraine, there's been a White House purge of impeachment witnesses, and Attorney General William Barr has intervened in the trial of a close associate of the president, Roger Stone. And the experts' tone has changed dramatically.

Only one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, voted to convict Trump of abuse of power in his Senate impeachment trial. Romney was also one of just two GOP senators to vote in favor of an ultimately failed motion to call witnesses. (All 15 Senate impeachment trials before Trump's had witnesses.) With their vote, Republicans blocked potentially crucial testimony from the president's former national security adviser John Bolton.

Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, has since been excoriated by fellow Republicans and treated as a pariah.

Stanley said there should have been mass protests in the streets after the vote against witnesses, warning that the absence of significant public outcry served as "a further sign to the party in power that they can go ahead and do what they want."

From the moment he entered the Republican primary in 2015 to his impeachment five years later, Donald Trump has ignored advice to moderate and change and, in his view (which is largely correct), won. He has tested the boundaries of people and institutions several times and found them to be bendable and weak," said Cas Mudde, a political scientist at the University of Georgia who's an expert on populism, extremism, and democracy.

"There is absolutely no reason for him to stop pushing," he added. "It goes against both his personality and his experience."

Mudde said the only question is whether there is still a breaking point for the Republican Party.

"Note that Trump has not changed the institutions, so the powers are still there," he said. "This is all about the courage and willingness of Republicans to stand up for the rule of law and to the president. It's almost all of the Republican Party," Stanley said. "Mitch McConnell already showed that he has no loyalty to the rule of law when he denied Obama the right to appoint Supreme Court justices ... It's a much deeper problem."

He added: "We need conservatives and Republicans to stand up for the rule of law, and if we don't have that, it's over. If Americans are truly concerned with Trump's "abuse of power," Ben-Ghiat said, the best strategy is for voters to mobilize and use "their electoral power to vote out these authoritarians while they still can." But with a president who was just impeached on allegations that he solicited foreign election interference, and with Republican lawmakers who appear fully willing to enable his behavior, Stanley said he was not particularly optimistic about Election Day in November.

"I don't know what would happen in the absence of mass protests," Stanley said. "I'm not at all sanguine about the fairness of the upcoming elections."

He added: "As they've shown, they'll do whatever they can to hold on to power."

[aja_christopher]

Blowing off moderates for die hard supporters is one of them. It's not like the left hasn't lost badly like that in modern American politics, look at the election Reagan won.

Much of their movement is rooted in the lie that "moderates don't win" despite Obama winning twice and moderates recently dominating the midterm elections.

The same goes for (moderate) Hillary beating (progressive) Sanders by millions of votes, despite being (by their own estimation) a "terrible" candidate.

They can't talk facts because they know the facts are against them -- that's why they usually just attack other candidates and the Democratic party instead.

If progressives (Sanders) were as strong as they claim, there would be no need to lie about moderates in comparison -- their record would speak for itself.

Absent an actual record of success, however, they have to try to make moderates look like failures in order to make Sanders look like the better option.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The really worrisome part of it all is that Republicans KNOW the country is slip-sliding into full blown authoritarianism under Trump, and they don’t give a ****. For them, all they care about is power, tax cuts and stacking the courts, in that order.

[aja_christopher]

The really worrisome part of it all is that Republicans KNOW the country is slip-sliding into full blown authoritarianism under Trump, and they don’t give a ****. For them, all they care about is power, tax cuts and stacking the courts, in that order.

They know they can't win in the future based on demographics alone, and they are attempting to consolidate power before that happens.

This is one of the primary reasons they keep attacking the voting rights of "minorities" and doubling down on racist and xenophobic invective in order to "fire up" their base voters -- they are leaning on overt racism because they know it helps them win elections, at least in the short term, and they are gambling that they can prevent their inevitable decay by diminishing our democracy as much as possible before that happens.

------
"The single biggest threat to Republicans' long-term viability is demographics.

The big picture: The numbers simply do not lie. America, as a whole, and swing states, in particular, are growing more diverse, more quickly. There is no way Republicans can change birth rates or curb this trend — and there's not a single demographic megatrend that favors Republicans.

Why it matters: President Trump’s short-term calculation to stir up white voters with race-baiting rhetoric might very well echo for a generation.

About last night: Trump paused while speaking at a "Make America Great Again" campaign rally in Greenville, N.C., to savor supporters' new roar: "Send her back!" I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down," Trump said. "They never have anything good to say. That's why I say, 'Hey if you don't like it, let 'em leave, let 'em leave.'"

The context, from AP: "Not since George Wallace's campaign in 1968 has a presidential candidate — and certainly not an incumbent president — put racial polarization at the center of his call to voters."

The Hispanic share of the population has grown in every state since 2000, according to Census data.
Hispanic people now make up a quarter of the population in Florida, almost a third of the population in Arizona and 39% of Texas — all Trump states in 2016 that are becoming more winnable by Democrats. Florida and Texas, two of the big electoral giants that voted for Trump, are witnessing the fastest non-white population growth.

Next year, the entire under-18 population will be majority non-white, according to Brookings demographer William Frey.
In less than a decade, the under-30 population will be majority non-white.

Between the lines: Trump clearly thinks this is good short-term politics.
Truth is: It's unknowable, though highly debatable.
Long-term, it seems unambiguous: If you need more African American and Hispanic voters, maligning and marginalizing them strikes even some inside this White House as stupid politics."

-----
"Fresh from handing President Trump a victory in his impeachment trial, the U.S. Senate has moved to install federal judges who have expressed disdain for the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 law that struck down rules across the South that kept African-Americans from the ballot box. Overturning voting-rights protections tends to benefit Republicans, who have said states, not the federal government, should decide the particulars of how elections are conducted.

Some scholars even believe that weakening the Voting Rights Act ahead of the 2016 election helped Trump win the presidency."

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-is-elev...185115809.html

[aja_christopher]

Republicans understand why "minority" votes are important even if many Democrats don't -- that is a large part of their success in major elections.

------
"Meanwhile, voting rights for minority groups have faced sustained assault. After Shelby, a myriad of discriminatory voting practices have been implemented both in jurisdictions previously covered by Section 5 and those that were not. Many of these practices are subtle and occur at the local level, allowing them to fly under the radar now that the advance notice protections of Section 5 are gone.

These practices range from the consolidation of polling places to make it less convenient for minority voters to vote (black voters, nationally, wait twice as long as white voters to vote), to the curtailing of early voting hours that makes it more difficult for hourly-wage workers to vote, to the disproportionate purging of minority voters from voting lists under the pretext of "list maintenance."

Before and for three years after Shelby, the Department of Justice was at least an engaged partner in the fight for civil rights, and one with capacity and resources which civil rights organizations could not match. Times are different now. While the DOJ's more recent inactivity is troubling, its few recent affirmative steps in the voting rights arena during this period are more so. Since Donald Trump's inauguration, the Department of Justice has reversed or retreated from prior positions in at least three significant voting rights matters, including two in which it abandoned claims of intentional discrimination.

The DOJ's reversal of positions signals to lawmakers that there is a degree of tolerance for voting discrimination. It runs the risk of being perceived as a wink-of-the-eye to those who would push the limits of discriminatory tactics, and a cold shoulder to those vulnerable populations who have counted on the federal government to have their backs.

What the President is really pushing for with his comments about voter identification and voter fraud are the sort of more stringent voter ID statutes that courts have found to be racially and ethnically discriminatory. Most of these statutes require photo IDs, less likely to be possessed by minority voters, and exclude those -- like public employment and public university IDs -- more likely to be possessed by minority voters.

And what the President was also pushing was the discredited myth of voter fraud. Texas's voter ID law, for instance, has now been declared unlawfully discriminatory. In the 10 years leading up to the law's original passage, there were only two known instances of in-person voter fraud out of 20 million votes cast.

Similarly, allegations of widespread noncitizen voting have been grossly overstated in the past, as the Ohio secretary of state's study of recent elections proved. The placement of any noncitizens on the rolls is usually the result not of intentional fraud, but of administrative error. The remedy to this is not restrictive requirements, such as proof of citizenship documentation, which impacts minority groups disproportionately, but rather better training and oversight of the administrative process.

The combination of the effective elimination of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the DOJ's actions and inaction, and the administration's touting the mantras of voter suppression presents a perfect storm not seen since the days preceding the enactment of the momentous civil rights legislation in the 1960s."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/06/opini...ion/index.html

[Tami]

John Kelly Finally Lets Loose on Trump

MORRISTOWN, N.J.—Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the former National Security Council aide and impeachment witness President Donald Trump fired Friday, was just doing his job, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told students and guests at a Drew University event here Wednesday night.

Over a 75-minute speech and Q&A session, Kelly laid out, in the clearest terms yet, his misgivings about Trump’s words and actions regarding North Korea, illegal immigration, military discipline, Ukraine, and the news media.

Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, said that Vindman is blameless and was simply following the training he’d received as a soldier; migrants are “overwhelmingly good people” and “not all rapists”; and Trump’s decision to condition military aid to Ukraine on an investigation into his political rival Joe Biden upended long-standing U.S. policy.

Vindman was rightly disturbed by Trump’s phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July, Kelly suggested: Having seen something “questionable,” Vindman properly notified his superiors, Kelly said. Vindman, who specialized in Ukraine policy at the National Security Council at the time, was among multiple U.S. officials who listened in on the call. When subpoenaed by Congress in the House impeachment hearings, Vindman complied and told the truth, Kelly said.

[JackDaw]

It was a very different ejection. Brexit was the primary issue in that election, the places where Corbyn’s party was supposed to be strong also supporter Brexit, Farage has all his people stand down to help Johnson, also Corbyn spent the whole time being vague and not giving a real stance on the primary issue besides not wanting to go all in like Johnson wanted.

It effectively was a one issue election and the bulk of Corbyn’s electorate weren’t sympathetic to his side on the issue and all his enemies unified. It wasn’t about his ideology

That’s probably true (that it wasn’t about his ideology)...much more about his perceived lack of competence and his perceived lack of patriotism.

I think it’s probably realistic to say that doubts about his competence were probably fair...it’s astounding that he didn’t realise that the “Brexit” policy the Labour Party had taken in the 2 years before was really, really unpopular in traditional Labour strongholds.

Equally surprising that the main architect of that unpopular policy...Sir Keir Starmer...is a front runner to replace him as Labour leader.

[Tami]

'War on the poor': Las Vegas's homelessness crackdown takes effect

As those ‘lodging’ on sidewalks face jail time, the city claims humanitarian motives. But homeless advocates warn of dangerous long-term impacts

Outside a Taco Bell in south-east Las Vegas, Skateboard Mike crossed an empty parking lot and pointed at the tent encampment that had built up on the ledges of a storm drain.

Skateboard Mike, whose real name is Michael Brinkman, lives nearby, spending his nights in a hole he dug in a dirt lot. The space is filled with couch cushions, and Brinkman, 42, usually tops the hole with cardboard and tumbleweed to avoid being exposed.

“It’s not that we’re here. It’s that they see us,” Brinkman said.

Las Vegas recently began cracking down on people living outdoors. In November, the city council approved a law that made sitting, resting or “lodging” on sidewalks a misdemeanor punishable with up to six months in jail or fines of up to $1,000 in most neighborhoods.

“I don’t blame them,” Brinkman said of community support for the ordinance. “That’s where a majority of the homeless people stay, in the wash or the tunnels. As you can see, it becomes an eyesore. Trash is the biggest problem.”

Some say the tipping point in lawmakers’ attitudes was “poop on a stoop”.

Tired of finding human waste outside his office in downtown Las Vegas, attorney Jerry Gillock in September used a shovel to deliver feces to the steps of city hall. Gillock was soon on the 11 o’clock news for the second time in four months demanding action regarding people sleeping, using drugs and relieving themselves outside his law practice.

At the time, the Las Vegas mayor, Carolyn Goodman, was already preparing what may be the most draconian homelessness ordinance in the United States.