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

[WestPhillyPunisher]

At what point do we have to wonder if Donald Trump isn't trying to kill Americans, either just because he's spiteful that we don't love him enough, or because it saves Putin the work of doing it in a war later.

I think it’s more the former than the latter, though Trump seems to have made like Pontius Pilate and washed his hands of the virus.

[Tami]

How Trump Could Lose the Election—And Still Remain President | Opinion

The second pathway to subverting the election is even more ominous—but we must be cognizant of it because Trump is already laying the groundwork for how he can lose the popular vote, and even lose in the key swing states necessary for an Electoral College victory, but still remain president.

This spring, HBO aired The Plot Against America, based on the Philip Roth novel of how an authoritarian president could grab control of the United States government using emergency powers that no one could foresee. Recent press reports have revealed the compilation by the Brennan Center at New York University of an extensive list of presidential emergency powers that might be inappropriately invoked in a national security crisis. Attorney General William Barr, known for his extremist view of the expanse of presidential power, is widely believed to be developing a Justice Department opinion arguing that the president can exercise emergency powers in certain national security situations, while stating that the courts, being extremely reluctant to intervene in the sphere of a national security emergency, would allow the president to proceed unchecked.

Trump actually tweeted on June 22: "Rigged 2020 election: millions of mail-in ballots will be printed by foreign countries, and others. It will be the scandal of our times!" With this, Trump has begun to lay the groundwork for the step-by-step process by which he holds on to the presidency after he has clearly lost the election:

• Biden wins the popular vote, and carries the key swing states of Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania by decent but not overwhelming margins.
• Trump immediately declares that the voting was rigged, that there was mail-in ballot fraud and that the Chinese were behind a plan to provide fraudulent mail-in ballots and other "election hacking" throughout the four key swing states that gave Biden his victory.
• Having railed against the Chinese throughout the campaign, calling Biden "soft on China," Trump delivers his narrative claiming the Chinese have interfered in the U.S. election.
• Trump indicates this is a major national security issue, and he invokes emergency powers, directing the Justice Department to investigate the alleged activity in the swing states. The legal justification for the presidential powers he invokes has already been developed and issued by Barr.
• The investigation is intended to tick down the clock toward December 14, the deadline when each state's Electoral College electors must be appointed. This is the very issue that the Supreme Court harped on in Bush v. Gore in ruling that the election process had to be brought to a close, thus forbidding the further counting of Florida ballots.
• All four swing states have Republican control of both their upper and lower houses of their state legislatures. Those state legislatures refuse to allow any Electoral College slate to be certified until the "national security" investigation is complete.
• The Democrats will have begun a legal action to certify the results in those four states, and the appointment of the Biden slate of electors, arguing that Trump has manufactured a national security emergency in order to create the ensuing chaos.
• The issue goes up to the Supreme Court, which unlike the 2000 election does not decide the election in favor of the Republicans. However, it indicates again that the December 14 Electoral College deadline must be met; that the president's national security powers legally authorize him to investigate potential foreign country intrusion into the national election; and if no Electoral College slate can be certified by any state by December 14, the Electoral College must meet anyway and cast its votes.
• The Electoral College meets, and without the electors from those four states being represented, neither Biden nor Trump has sufficient votes to get an Electoral College majority.
• The election is thrown into the House of Representatives, pursuant to the Constitution. Under the relevant constitutional process, the vote in the House is by state delegation, where each delegation casts one vote, which is determined by the majority of the representatives in that state.
• Currently, there are 26 states that have a majority Republican House delegation. 23 states have a majority Democratic delegation. There is one state, Pennsylvania, that has an evenly split delegation. Even if the Democrats were to pick up seats in Pennsylvania and hold all their 2018 House gains, the Republicans would have a 26 to 24 delegation majority.
• This vote would enable Trump to retain the presidency.

[Mister Mets]

The communications chief at Boeing has resigned following an employee's complaint about a 1987 paper he wrote about why women shouldn't serve in combat. He admits that he was wrong 33 years ago, but he's still out.

Boeing Communications Chief Resigns Over Decades-Old Article on Women in Combat

SEATTLE — Boeing Co's communications chief Niel Golightly abruptly resigned on Thursday, following an employee's complaint over an article the former U.S. military pilot wrote 33 years ago arguing women should not serve in combat.

His exit leaves Boeing trying to fill the crucial role for the fourth time in less than three years, just as it is battling to shore up its brand after the prolonged safety grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX jetliner.

The job has become the industry's biggest hot seat as Boeing fends off criticism for its handling of the 737 MAX crisis.

"My article was a 29-year-old Cold War navy pilot's misguided contribution to a debate that was live at the time," Golightly said in a statement included in Boeing's announcement.

"My argument was embarrassingly wrong and offensive. The article is not a reflection of who I am; but nonetheless I have decided that in the interest of the company I will step down," Golightly said.

According to an excerpt on the U.S. Naval Institute website, the December 1987 article titled "No Right to Fight" said: "At issue is not whether women can fire M-60s, dogfight MiGs, or drive tanks. Introducing women into combat would destroy the exclusively male intangibles of war fighting and the feminine images of what men fight for - peace, home, family."

Golightly told staff in an email seen by Reuters on Thursday that the exclusion of women at the time was "government policy and broadly supported in society. It was also wrong."

Golightly declined to comment beyond Boeing's statement and his email.

Golightly's departure after just six months on the job, during which he was said to be introducing sweeping changes, followed the board's review of an internal anonymous ethics complaint that flagged his article.

He decided to step down after discussions with Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun and others, Golightly said in his email.

This is kinda nuts, right?

[JackDaw]

The communications chief at Boeing has resigned following an employee's complaint about a 1987 paper he wrote about why women shouldn't serve in combat. He admits that he was wrong 33 years ago, but he's still out.



This is kinda nuts, right?

I think so.

It’s got to point where I think anybody with any nous ought to steer clear of putting anything into the public record.

[Joker]

The digging up of past tweets, articles, interviews etc where a bad opinion was expressed is sort of getting out of hand.

The idea that you are not allowed to grow, and move on from past transgressions, or bad opinions is ridiculous. Especially when these bad opinions aren't out of line with the common opinion at the time.

Context is important. You can't expect George Washington to be Woke.

[BeastieRunner]

This woman -

https://twitter.com/KassieMcClung

Is a part of this outfit -

https://twitter.com/readfrontier

Based on this piece of reporting -

https://twitter.com/readfrontier/sta...61547271065603



It feels like they are pretty darn close to "On The Level..."

Here is her take on the rates...

https://twitter.com/KassieMcClung/st...30512059744261

I did more sleuthing, Frontier appears to be a right-wing rag that even the local right-wing rags despise.

That aside ...

That's one opinion versus several hundred different ones. And the majority of them thought COVID was a liberal hoax 2 months ago. Clearly, they have woken up to the reality that people are getting sick and dying.

So, what is your point? IS Frontier the ONLY source that matters here? I am confused; help me out.

[Tami]

Family in mourning for ‘gentle and kind’ son, whose death in Lewis Morris Park has been ruled a suicide

Amani Kildea, 20, whose body was found hanging in Lewis Morris Park over the weekend, was remembered this week as a “beautiful young man” with a sensitive soul and an endearing sense of humor.

“Everyone who met him, who knew him, young and old, admired him and loved him. He doubted that, but we knew it to be true,” his father, the Rev. Tom Kildea, said in an online tribute.

Kildea said Amani took his own life.

Amani Kildea was black. The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed its suicide finding in a statement Wednesday aimed at quelling public speculation, amidst national concerns that hangings of black or Hispanic men in California, Texas and New York could signal a white supremacist backlash against the Black Lives Matter movement. Those deaths have been ruled suicides.

After a spokesperson for the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office initially declined to comment about the Washington Township resident’s death, except to say the matter was under active investigation by county authorities, Prosecutor Fredric Knapp followed up with a brief statement:

“The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office ordinarily does not issue public
statements on active investigations. However, given the fact that unsubstantiated statements have circulated on social media, there exists a need to provide more information to the public at this time. There is no cause to believe there is any criminality involved. The Morris County Medical Examiner has determined the manner of death as suicide.”

I don't know what to believe, this is getting stranger and stranger.

I can see, maybe one or two, but there have been so many across the country, all dying the same way. And nothing in the article suggests that he was troubled, suicidal, or in any way likely to take his own life. And if so, why hanging?

I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I just don't see the logic in this or on any of the others.

[BeastieRunner]

Family in mourning for ‘gentle and kind’ son, whose death in Lewis Morris Park has been ruled a suicide



I don't know what to believe, this is getting stranger and stranger.

I can see, maybe one or two, but there have been so many across the country, all dying the same way. And nothing in the article suggests that he was troubled, suicidal, or in any way likely to take his own life. And if so, why hanging?

I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I just don't see the logic in this or on any of the others.

CAVEAT:
I am not downplaying the issue.

1) Suicide often doesn't have a logic we understand till much later.
2) Suicides tend to inspire and spread when it is done in a fashion like this.
3) Political suicides often use symbology like these.
4) It is an odd string of coincidences and I hope they don't turn into something more sinister.

[Mister Mets]

I did more sleuthing, Frontier appears to be a right-wing rag that even the local right-wing rags despise.

That aside ...

That's one opinion versus several hundred different ones. And the majority of them thought COVID was a liberal hoax 2 months ago. Clearly, they have woken up to the reality that people are getting sick and dying.

So, what is your point? IS Frontier the ONLY source that matters here? I am confused; help me out.

His main point was that the idea that 100% of those tested for Coronavirus in a state ended up testing positive is bs according to one person he considers to be an expert.

There have been others who noted an alternative explanation for those results, including Chris Hayes (quoted earlier) and the web article everyone's citing, which now includes a correction (and was smart enough to put the correction in the headline.)

https://www.politicususa.com/2020/06...lsa-rally.html

CAVEAT:
I am not downplaying the issue.

1) Suicide often doesn't have a logic we understand till much later.
2) Suicides tend to inspire and spread when it is done in a fashion like this.
3) Political suicides often use symbology like these.
4) It is an odd string of coincidences and I hope they don't turn into something more sinister.

Yeah, the idea that people are inspired by particular types of suicides makes as much sense as the idea that there's a national wide of racist murders. I wonder if it might be something like suicide by cop, where someone tries to kill themselves in a way that gives their family another explanation.

[Jackmando7]

I think we can all thank Trump for this!

[WestPhillyPunisher]

How Trump Could Lose the Election—And Still Remain President | Opinion

It’s already common knowledge that Trump is desperate to remain in office to stave off a criminal trial in New York City that could send him to prison, so he’ll do anything to win a second term, so, any and all dirty tricks are on the table.

[Iron Maiden]

At what point do we have to wonder if Donald Trump isn't trying to kill Americans, either just because he's spiteful that we don't love him enough, or because it saves Putin the work of doing it in a war later.

It's all of the above

Sometimes I start to believe that if there is a God there also is a Devil ... and I think Trump is an agent of Evil. Is there a grave somewhere with a jackal in it? I'm going to have to stop watching the Omen!

[AnakinFlair]

It’s already common knowledge that Trump is desperate to remain in office to stave off a criminal trial in New York City that could send him to prison, so he’ll do anything to win a second term, so, any and all dirty tricks are on the table.

Well, Barr just had the head of the Eastern District of New York's US Attorney's Office removed, so it feels like he's trying to get all of the cases against Trump squashed or terminated before the November elections.

[Kuro no Shinigami]

I think it is also due to the fact that it is much easier to isolate an island than anywhere else. New Zealand, Japan, and Iceland also have very low case counts.

Yeah, true. It must be great to live on an island isolated from anywhere else. Last I heard, American Samoa still had no confirmed covid case at all.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Yeah, the idea that people are inspired by particular types of suicides makes as much sense as the idea that there's a national wide of racist murders. I wonder if it might be something like suicide by cop, where someone tries to kill themselves in a way that gives their family another explanation.

The difference is that, sadly, in America, we have had a nationwide epidemic of racial mass murder before. Right wing terrorists are an issue we have, and we have a president who coddles Nazis.

I don't believe that it's impossible that a bunch of African Americans have committed suicide via hanging. When it comes to morbid trends, there's always a little bit of 'follow the leader' (good bye serial killers, hello mass shooters).

But I'd have an easier time believing it if the FBI or some other, non local authority investigated it.