[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.

DSGamer wrote:

It’s funny to think of WWE being tagged as “not a sport” when you have over the hill UFC fighters taking dives against YouTubers in boxing. Dudes coming out of retirement with 8 days notice.

IIRC It goes back to them wanting to hold a show in Atlantic City at a time when sporting events were banned there. They rebranded themselves as sports-entertainment.

I just love the irony of this article title.

Barrett Concerned Republican-Packed Supreme Court Seen As Partisan

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett expressed concerns Sunday that the public may increasingly see the court as a partisan institution.

Justices must be “hyper vigilant to make sure they’re not letting personal biases creep into their decisions, since judges are people, too,” Barrett said at a lecture hosted by the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center.

LOL.

University of Louisville’s McConnell Center

Because, of course

That's not what they call their wastewater plant?

Because this fits with the post I made above

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/sGCSSGA.jpeg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/cSV6WPj.png)

farley3k wrote:

I just love the irony of this article title.

Barrett Concerned Republican-Packed Supreme Court Seen As Partisan

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett expressed concerns Sunday that the public may increasingly see the court as a partisan institution.

Justices must be “hyper vigilant to make sure they’re not letting personal biases creep into their decisions, since judges are people, too,” Barrett said at a lecture hosted by the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center.

LOL.

Yeah. The lady doth protest too much.

As always, Wonkette gets down to brass tacks.

Well, no sh*t, lady. You just overruled the viability framework of Roe and Casey on the goddamn shadow docket, and you greenlighted a bounty system on pregnant women to make it happen. You were so hot to blow up abortion rights, you couldn't even wait to do it this fall with that 15-week ban out of Mississippi. So, yeah, we're treating the decisions as "results-oriented," because that's what they are.
RawkGWJ wrote:
Seth wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:

I predict that this trend of unsanctioned boxing matches between odd D-list celebrities will end soon. The fights are awful.

Hopefully we’ll see MGK knock out McGregor before 2021’s Celebrity Deathmatch reboot is canceled.

See. This is the perfect example. I give zero effs about that event. I’ve already seen McGregor legitimately lose against some of the most talented MMA athletes.

I get that, but from all reports I've seen, these things are making $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. There's a reason Floyd Mayweather did one of these, and it's because he got a huge payday from it. As long as there's interest (and the "watch your favorite YouTubers punch each other badly for 8 rounds" genre only appears to be growing), I don't think this is going anywhere.

I don't like either of them, but Paul v. Canelo/Mayweather would be one of the biggest PPVs of recent memory. There is a very large audience for this stuff, and they're probably at least a decade younger than the youngest GWJer.

fangblackbone wrote:
University of Louisville’s McConnell Center

Because, of course :(

I know. My alma mater got rid of papa John's name on the stadium but can't get rid of Mitch on the poli sci building when he has done much more damage to this country.

Stele wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:
University of Louisville’s McConnell Center

Because, of course :(

I know. My alma mater got rid of papa John's name on the stadium but can't get rid of Mitch on the poli sci building when he has done much more damage to this country.

I don't know...Papa John's pizza is SO bad.

So today's the day when we discover if CA is going to remain CA or become another FL or TX for at least another year and change.

The recall process needs to be abolished or at least changed to require 60% or even 55% to pass. I mean less than 10 people (even some out of state) put up a few million dollars to possibly install a worst of the worst Trumpist governor. He flippin mentored the human rights criminal Stephen Miller!

Despite Pandemic, Poverty Declined Thanks To Stimulus Checks

The coronavirus pandemic threw millions of Americans into unemployment last year, leading to the first drop in household income from work since 2011, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

But even though the official poverty rate also increased, a supplementary measure that accounts for stimulus payments found that poverty actually fell while incomes rose.

In other words, the public health calamity turned out not to be an economic calamity, or at least less of one, thanks to government programs that provided people with assistance. Government programs that provided people with health insurance probably helped people too, although the evidence on that is a little murkier.

Not long after the first coronavirus cases had been confirmed in the U.S., Congress enacted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, creating a massive payroll subsidy for small businesses, the largest-ever expansion of unemployment insurance, and an unprecedented $1,200 relief payment for the vast majority of American adults.

The stimulus payments, in particular, had a big effect, boosting incomes by 4% and lifting more than 11 million households above the poverty line, for a 2.6 percentage point decrease in the poverty rate to 9.1%, according to the Census Bureau’s supplemental poverty measure.

The official poverty rate measure, which omits the payments because they were technically tax credits, increased by 1 percentage point to 11.4%, while the median income for households, not counting the payments, ​​declined 2.9% to $67,521.

It wasn’t the first time Congress sent out stimulus payments, but it was the first time lawmakers sent payments even to households that had no incomes at all, meaning the money was especially effective at pushing households above the poverty line.

Congress followed the CARES Act payments with a round of $600 checks in December and then a $1,400 payment earlier this year. The payments proved popular, and Democrats set up recurring monthly checks of as much as $300 per child for most households this year.

Now Democrats are hoping to continue the child payments through 2025, but are facing some opposition from members of their own party. And Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key vote in the Senate, said Sunday that he doesn’t think households with no work income should be eligible for the payments.

“Don’t you think, if we’re going to help the children, that the people should make some effort?” Manchin said.

Children had higher poverty rates than adults or seniors in 2020, according to both the supplemental and official poverty measures. Experts have said the monthly child payments wold likely reduce child poverty substantially.

90% of global farm subsidies damage people and planet, says UN

Almost 90% of the $540bn in global subsidies given to farmers every year are “harmful”, a startling UN report has found.

This agricultural support damages people’s health, fuels the climate crisis, destroys nature and drives inequality by excluding smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, according to the UN agencies.

The biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, such as beef and milk, received the biggest subsidies, the report said. These are often produced by large industrialised groups that are best placed to gain access to subsidies.

farley3k wrote:

90% of global farm subsidies damage people and planet, says UN

Almost 90% of the $540bn in global subsidies given to farmers every year are “harmful”, a startling UN report has found.

This agricultural support damages people’s health, fuels the climate crisis, destroys nature and drives inequality by excluding smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, according to the UN agencies.

The biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, such as beef and milk, received the biggest subsidies, the report said. These are often produced by large industrialised groups that are best placed to gain access to subsidies.

Not to mention fossil fuel subsidies

groups that are best placed to gain access to subsidies

Is that the flip side of the 'you gotta have money to make money' conundrum?

Danjo Olivaw wrote:
groups that are best placed to gain access to subsidies

Is that the flip side of the 'you gotta have money to make money' conundrum?

Pretty much!! You gotta have BIG money in order to bribe lawmakers into passing laws which give subsidies to the people and corporations who have the BIG money and are bribing law makers to…

It’s the American political lobby system.

If hungry impoverished children were the ones with the BIG money then they could lobby politicians to pass laws which give subsidies to hungry impoverished children. You know. Bootstraps and all that kind of stuff. And pulling yourself up. The poor hungry kids need to work harder that’s all.

This is why unions were neutered. Too much lobbying for liberal and progressive policies.

Robear wrote:

This is why unions were neutered. Too much lobbying for liberal and progressive policies.

Except police unions! Yay!

fangblackbone wrote:

So today's the day when we discover if CA is going to remain CA or become another FL or TX for at least another year and change.

The recall process needs to be abolished or at least changed to require 60% or even 55% to pass. I mean less than 10 people (even some out of state) put up a few million dollars to possibly install a worst of the worst Trumpist governor. He flippin mentored the human rights criminal Stephen Miller!

A year distraction and $400 million of taxpayer money spent and the recall was called for Newsome 20 minutes after the polls closed.

@caylenb wrote:

the worst thing about this waste of a f*cking recall election is Newsom has almost always been a snakey piece of sh*t, and a lot of the red counties are just going to be more galvanized by this loss vs. officials actually trying to help with some legitimate concerns!!!

I was surprised by how quickly it resolved- I was expecting to watch it all night at work and it seems like there was a massive lead on “No” votes within minutes of the polls closing.

ruhk wrote:

I was surprised by how quickly it resolved- I was expecting to watch it all night at work and it seems like there was a massive lead on “No” votes within minutes of the polls closing.

When the OC finished counting the EV and the NO lead was so large that every single ED vote going YES wouldn’t overturn it it was clear we had a blowout.

Evidence that the suburban realignment is sticking.

I’m honestly very relieved. Having Elder as governor would have been infuriating. Almost as bad as DT as POTUS.

IMAGE(https://bohemian.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2020/12/film-112.jpg)

Larry Elder loses bid to recall Gavin Newsome

California has some real problems, and yet all the GOP could muster was a loud radio host who was yelling about election fraud before the ballots even started being counted.

Good job, Republicans.

Vrikk wrote:

California has some real problems, and yet all the GOP could muster was a loud radio host who was yelling about election fraud before the ballots even started being counted.

Good job, Republicans.

Who was best known for saying that slaveowners and their descendants should receive reparations.

Vrikk wrote:

California has some real problems, and yet all the GOP could muster was a loud radio host who was yelling about election fraud before the ballots even started being counted.

Good job, Republicans.

Given that right wing radio host is becoming an endangered species thanks to covid, you would think Larry would make different choices.

But then, the fact that he doesn’t is why he’s an endangered species.

I’m honestly very relieved. Having Elder as governor would have been infuriating. Almost as bad as DT as POTUS.

The only thing better about an Elder governorship is that he would be up for re-election in a year.

The reason the tally was so quick is all the mail in ballots are allowed to be counted beforehand. The results cannot be announced until 8 pm on election day. So more than 60% of the vote was released in minutes.

f*ckin Kornaki though... I am still worried he gave opening to conspiracy and fraud nutbags when they initially showed the tally for Santa Clara county. It was alarming and did not look good for Newsom until you realized that there was a problem. That county includes San Jose with over a million population and it was showing like 70% in with only ~150K votes.

The other thing that bothered me was they should have talked about Bakersfield's county. It is where McKarthy is from and the only real population center that is heavily Trumpist. That county could have easily picked up half a million votes FOR the recall. If it did, it characterizes the recall in one light. If it didn't? Then the recall was as complete a $300 million joke as you can imagine.

edit: and it looks like Kern county was only able to muster 51K votes for the recall. It was as expected, a total joke and waste of money in a state that is on fire...

The Public Religion Research Institute just dropped a new poll about the January 6th insurrection. It covers a lot of territory, but the overwhelming message it gives is that Republicans have lost their goddamned minds and are living in a fantasy world thanks to conservative media.

As you can see, Republicans who trust far-right news sources like Newsmax and OANN think their orange god is essentially blameless while the true villain of 1/6 was Antifa. Fox News watchers aren't much better. But just to emphasize how much those right-wing media sources f*ck people up, you can see that Republicans who watch mainstream news sources have radically different views about who was responsible for 1/6 than their deluded conservative cousins.

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

The poll also shows just how much white evangelical Protestants have become the engine for these beliefs (and, to a lesser extent, that other religious groups are loath to call out white evangelical Protestants for those quite f*cked up beliefs).

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/enSRj0S.png)

For reasons that I'll never understand 34% of Americans still hold favorable views of Trump, while 64% hold unfavorable views of him, including a 51% majority of Americans who hold very unfavorable views of him. This, depressingly, is better than his numbers in January when 31% of Americans viewed Trump favorably and 67% unfavorably, with 54% who viewed him very unfavorably.

About one-third of Americans agree that “President Trump is a true patriot” (34%), compared to 63% who disagree, including nearly half (49%) who completely disagree. These views have not changed since January 2021. Unsurprisingly, nearly 80% of the people who think Trump is a true patriot are Republican (34% Independent and 7% Democrat).

The poll found that 71% of Republicans agree with the statement "The 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump." Nearly a year on and we're at seventy freakin' one percent, which is higher than the 58% percent that was reported right after the election. 23% of independents agree.

Because of that 29% of Americans think the 2020 election was stolen.

Proving yet again how terrible they are, white evangelical Protestants were the only religious group where a sizable majority (61%) believed the election was stolen from Trump. White mainline Protestants and white Catholics were also highly problematics with 40% and 39% respectively believing the election was stolen from Trump.

Taken together you can see how wide the gap in partisan beliefs of Republicans have become and, in most cases, how those beliefs are extreme outliers compared to the rest of the country.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/o76xVxa.png)

If religion is the opiate of the masses, what does that make religion and television, or religious television?