[News] Post a Political News Story

Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

Zimmerman's lawyer is right-wing nutball Larry Klayman, the guy who founded Judicial Watch and then sued it after he left.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Zimmerman's lawyer is right-wing nutball Larry Klayman, the guy who founded Judicial Watch and then sued it after he left.

Good thing Judicial Watch was able to find a suitable replacement with their current president Tom Fitton who was really perplexed yesterday as to how House Democrats "somehow obtain[ed]" Giuliani's phone records, but was adamant that doing so "abused" Trump's constitutional rights

Paleocon wrote:

sh*t like this hurries me along to arriving at the conclusion that the nation is not worth saving and I should just brace myself for a Chinese century.

Time to brush up on my Mandarin.

Firefly future will be here before you know it

I wonder how people are going to "both sides" this sort of scumminess:

Fact check: NC Democrat mostly right about Trump plan to cut food stamps

Stele wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

sh*t like this hurries me along to arriving at the conclusion that the nation is not worth saving and I should just brace myself for a Chinese century.

Time to brush up on my Mandarin.

Firefly future will be here before you know it

Honestly, I don't really think we're going to make it to space as a species.

bnpederson wrote:
Stele wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

sh*t like this hurries me along to arriving at the conclusion that the nation is not worth saving and I should just brace myself for a Chinese century.

Time to brush up on my Mandarin.

Firefly future will be here before you know it

Honestly, I don't really think we're going to make it to space as a species.

My bet is still on "Elon Musk accidentally triggers Kessler Syndrome, humanity is trapped on the planet forever."

bnpederson wrote:
Stele wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

sh*t like this hurries me along to arriving at the conclusion that the nation is not worth saving and I should just brace myself for a Chinese century.

Time to brush up on my Mandarin.

Firefly future will be here before you know it

Honestly, I don't really think we're going to make it to space as a species.

Zefram Cochrane invents warp drive in 2063. Most of us will be dead from war or old age by then, but humanity's future is bright.

JeffreyLSmith wrote:
bnpederson wrote:
Stele wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

sh*t like this hurries me along to arriving at the conclusion that the nation is not worth saving and I should just brace myself for a Chinese century.

Time to brush up on my Mandarin.

Firefly future will be here before you know it

Honestly, I don't really think we're going to make it to space as a species.

Zefram Cochrane invents warp drive in 2063. Most of us will be dead from war or old age by then, but humanity's future is bright.

We definitely, definitely live in the terran timeline though

A reminder that Star Trek's future requires humanity to go through World War 3, which ends with a nuclear holocaust ten years before Cochrane invents the warp drive. Also we haven't had a eugenics war yet (it was supposed to happen in 1996).

Stengah wrote:

A reminder that Star Trek's future requires humanity to go through World War 3, which ends with a nuclear holocaust ten years before Cochrane invents the warp drive. Also we haven't had a eugenics war yet (it was supposed to happen in 1996).

America's 200+ year love affair with white supremacy is an ongoing eugenics war.

Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses
Whole academy classes, are the same that burn crosses

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Y930zB7.png)

Investigation underway after 'completely inappropriate' DCR training photo found

WSAZ wrote:

An investigation is underway Thursday after a "completely inappropriate" photo was found by members of the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety (DMAPS).

The photo of Basic Training Class Number 18, which shows 37 corrections officer trainees in a Nazi salute, has been deemed "hurtful, disturbing, and highly insensitive" by the DMAPS Cabinet Secretary Jeff Sandy.

A spokesperson for DMAPS said that The Division of Corrections leadership became aware of the photo on the day of graduation, Nov. 27, when it was distributed among the graduates.

At least 50 interviews, including all 37 people in the photo, have been conducted by corrections investigators since the photo was found last Wednesday, Sandy said. The final interview was conducted Wednesday morning and all tape has been brought to Charleston to be reviewed by the inspector general.

These employees were hired in July and had not yet started working at their assigned corrections facility, Sandy said.

A sign that says "Hail Byrd" is above the members of the class. A spokesperson for DMAPS said that the individual being referenced was a training instructor for the class.

Many but not all of the employees in the photo have been suspended during the investigation, Sandy said. A spokesperson for DMAPS tells WSAZ that the suspensions are unpaid as per DCR policy. There is no timetable on how long the investigation will last.

Commissioner Betsy Jividen has directed all copies be destroyed to "keep its harm from spreading" and to "preserve high standards and professionalism of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety."

I have never been more ashamed to be from WV. And wtf is that black guy in the back doing?

OG_slinger wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Zimmerman's lawyer is right-wing nutball Larry Klayman, the guy who founded Judicial Watch and then sued it after he left.

Good thing Judicial Watch was able to find a suitable replacement with their current president Tom Fitton who was really perplexed yesterday as to how House Democrats "somehow obtain[ed]" Giuliani's phone records, but was adamant that doing so "abused" Trump's constitutional rights

Looks like I called Tom Fitton a con-artist enough that he blocked me on Twitter.

That photo makes a good pairing with Barr's recent comments about how police should be treated with respect like soldiers.

It's been less than 80 years since the US was literally fighting nazis on battlefield and painting them as the ultimate evil enemy. Heck, a good chunk of American identity is built on the idea that we're the world's nazi puncher and now we're just tossing around nazi salutes to our president, in the military, and police force. That's a pretty quick turnaround.

"Today’s conservatism is the opposite of what liberals want today, updated daily.". If Nazi salutes will make liberals cry, then Nazi salutes are the order of the day.

Kehama wrote:

It's been less than 80 years since the US was literally fighting nazis on battlefield and painting them as the ultimate evil enemy. Heck, a good chunk of American identity is built on the idea that we're the world's nazi puncher and now we're just tossing around nazi salutes to our president, in the military, and police force. That's a pretty quick turnaround.

But even at the time a shockingly large proportion of Americans would have preferred to side with the Nazis by standing neutral. In fact we almost certainly would have had Japan not forced the issue.

a larger proportion that trump's base of support now in fact, we've always preferred to revise our own history to make us look better than we are.

Something about that photo makes me think they weren't intentionally doing the Sieg Heil but I could be wrong. It's not that I would be shocked if they were but something about it makes me think they were doing something close enough that made sense in the moment (raise your right hand in triumph!). And yes I know there is the Hail Byrd up top and what Sieg Heil means ... maybe I'm used to the crisp German precision and these folks are sloppy Or I'm just numb to outrage and looking for any excuse to stave off madness ...

PissedYeti wrote:

Something about that photo makes me think they weren't intentionally doing the Sieg Heil but I could be wrong. It's not that I would be shocked if they were but something about it makes me think they were doing something close enough that made sense in the moment (raise your right hand in triumph!). And yes I know there is the Hail Byrd up top and what Sieg Heil means ... maybe I'm used to the crisp German precision and these folks are sloppy Or I'm just numb to outrage and looking for any excuse to stave off madness ...

Much like Americans generally suck at doing respectful bows in countries that employ them, the idea that they're just bad at it is basically my default when it comes to Americans doing any other country's "thing" like this, gestures, whatever.

PissedYeti wrote:

Something about that photo makes me think they weren't intentionally doing the Sieg Heil but I could be wrong. It's not that I would be shocked if they were but something about it makes me think they were doing something close enough that made sense in the moment (raise your right hand in triumph!). And yes I know there is the Hail Byrd up top and what Sieg Heil means ... maybe I'm used to the crisp German precision and these folks are sloppy Or I'm just numb to outrage and looking for any excuse to stave off madness ...

I would bet that there were several hardcore Nazi ringleaders and the rest just did it for the lulz - hence the half ass salutes in jest. Of course they all should still lose their jobs and have a red flag out in their HR files so that no other LE agency ever hires them again.

And for what it’s worth - their pictures should also not be blacked out.

jdzappa wrote:

And for what it’s worth - their pictures should also not be blacked out.

I thought the SAAAAME thing.

There’s a conservative civil war raging — over porn

Social conservatives are ready to launch a new national war on pornography.

It’s been nearly 50 years since the Nixon administration’s “War on Porn” and more than two decades since the signing of the Communications Decency Act, the first major federal effort to regulate online pornography. But pornography continues to be a target of Republicans at the state level; in addition, the 2016 Republican Party platform stated that “pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions.”

This fall, Republican members of Congress asked the Department of Justice to “declare prosecution of obscene pornography a criminal justice priority.” Conservative commentators also argue that government power can — and should — put a stop to pornography for the benefit of the “common good.” By doing so, social conservatives argue that they can alter American culture itself.

Terry Schilling, executive director of the American Principles Project, a conservative think tank, argued in October in the Catholic magazine First Things that efforts to regulate pornography are part of a broader phenomenon. “In our time, a new conservatism is being born — one less interested in managing our nation’s decline than in using political power to promote virtue, public morality, and the common good,” he wrote. “Conservatives need to overcome their fear of governing the nation that elected them.”

In doing so, social conservatives are facing opposition from libertarians as well as fellow conservatives. They argue that efforts to ban or otherwise tighten regulations on pornography is the kind of overreach they have long stood against.

As Reason Magazine editor-in-chief Katherine Mangu-Ward told me, “What you’re seeing now is this rise of a much more authoritarian and state-oriented variant of conservatism and it just says, ‘You know what? Actually, never mind. Let’s take away the bad choices. Let’s make some bad choices illegal.’ This has long been a characteristic of the American left.”

The fight over pornography is emblematic of a larger fissure within movement conservatism, one centered on crucial questions over how the powers of the state should be used or what the point of conservatism even is. Should conservatism focus on advancing individual freedoms — even the freedom to make bad decisions — or on advancing the “common good” and family values?

“We say we’re conservatives. Well, what the hell are we trying to conserve? And maybe that question really is the central question of this whole debate,” said the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, a social conservative who has argued in favor of a total ban on pornography.

The same conservatives that have zero problem with their messiah paying hush money for rawdoggimg a porn star

For thee but not for me, as it were.

Remember when Ted Cruz tweeted some porn? Yeah conservatives.

Prederick wrote:

There’s a conservative civil war raging — over porn

As Reason Magazine editor-in-chief Katherine Mangu-Ward told me, “What you’re seeing now is this rise of a much more authoritarian and state-oriented variant of conservatism and it just says, ‘You know what? Actually, never mind. Let’s take away the bad choices. Let’s make some bad choices illegal.’ This has long been a characteristic of the American left.”

It's forever been a characteristic of the American right, but some people pretend not to see it.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Prederick wrote:

There’s a conservative civil war raging — over porn

As Reason Magazine editor-in-chief Katherine Mangu-Ward told me, “What you’re seeing now is this rise of a much more authoritarian and state-oriented variant of conservatism and it just says, ‘You know what? Actually, never mind. Let’s take away the bad choices. Let’s make some bad choices illegal.’ This has long been a characteristic of the American left.”

It's forever been a characteristic of the American right, but some people pretend not to see it.

They don't even see it in themselves all that often either, to be fair.

Stele wrote:

Remember when Ted Cruz tweeted some porn? Yeah conservatives.

Let's be fair, he didn't tweet it, he just got caught liking incest porn. Because he stands for families.

He's okay with many positions on family.

Chaz wrote:

He's okay with many positions on family.

Oof, well done