[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.

Seth wrote:

Apologies for a double post - I should probably make a “2022 election thread” for this, but I should also probably acknowledge it might be early for such a thing.

Anyway, I’m still pretty confident trump won’t run for president again - due mostly to his long history of cowardice —

His ego and narcissism rule his life. If he is still alive, he will be running for president.

Yeah, I would be willing to take on just about any bet that if that man is alive, he's running for President in 2024.

In other news, I have to post this somewhere because I want to try and keep the Sports threads pure, but:

@SportsLawGuy wrote:

2) 2) Rep. Buschon (R-IN) expressed a fear that the “Chinese Communist Party” may use college athlete NIL rights to their political advantage, which was the first time I had heard that concern.

YO C'MON MAN

JC wrote:
Seth wrote:

Apologies for a double post - I should probably make a “2022 election thread” for this, but I should also probably acknowledge it might be early for such a thing.

Anyway, I’m still pretty confident trump won’t run for president again - due mostly to his long history of cowardice —

His ego and narcissism rule his life. If he is still alive, he will be running for president.

If his ego and narcissism aren't enough he'll run again because he's discovered that he can make absolute bank from the rubes that donate to him, from all the conservative politicians and groups who want to rent the lists his 2020 campaign put together, and the fact he can convert campaign donations into personal cash by hosting events (and encouraging other groups to host events) at Trump properties. At this point politics is probably one of his largest cash flows.

Ain't no probably about it, OG.

I don’t remember which interview it was but earlier this year he said the only thing that would prevent him from running in 2024 was dire news from a doctor.

Fingers crossed then

ruhk wrote:

I don’t remember which interview it was but earlier this year he said the only thing that would prevent him from running in 2024 was dire news from a doctor.

Even that statement from him is bullsh*t. He truly believes that the power of positive thinking can get him anything he wants.

It would have to be dire physical symptoms, not dire news from a doctor, to potentially give him pause. Any diagnosis from a doctor not conforming with Trump’s worldview would simply be dismissed as fake news. And don’t forget, his doctors have proven to be sycophants. He’ll never be given dire news. He’s the healthiest man on earth.

A judge ruled against Alex Jones in two of his Sandy Hook defamation lawsuits for repeatedly failing to comply with court requests. He’s now liable for all damages, which could potentially be enough to kill his conspiracy empire.

On a related note, Alex Jones has turned into several previously undocumented shades of red.

ruhk wrote:

A judge ruled against Alex Jones in two of his Sandy Hook defamation lawsuits for repeatedly failing to comply with court requests. He’s now liable for all damages, which could potentially be enough to kill his conspiracy empire.

Can we please add a very special "f*cking love it" button?

ruhk wrote:

A judge ruled against Alex Jones in two of his Sandy Hook defamation lawsuits for repeatedly failing to comply with court requests. He’s now liable for all damages, which could potentially be enough to kill his conspiracy empire.

We'll see. I've played enough D&D to know it takes a lot of hits to kill a Giant Slime.

Prederick wrote:
ruhk wrote:

A judge ruled against Alex Jones in two of his Sandy Hook defamation lawsuits for repeatedly failing to comply with court requests. He’s now liable for all damages, which could potentially be enough to kill his conspiracy empire.

We'll see. I've played enough D&D to know it takes a lot of hits to kill a Giant Slime.

I’m sure he’ll survive in some form but he’s been just skating by ever since he got deplatformed and has already had to scale back a lot of stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has to sell his studio and is doing shows from his house this time next year.

I sort of enjoyed forgetting he was still alive.

It's like the forget that we live in a recorded society now a days....

During a rally in Georgia over the weekend, former President Donald Trump invited Lance Cpl. Hunter Clark to the stage, implying he was the Marine in a viral video who lifted a child over a wall at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

"We're also honored to be joined by one of the Marines who bravely served in Kabul during the withdrawal," Trump said, "and helped evacuate children over ... the airport wall. You saw him. He did a great job."

IMAGE(https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2021/08/000_9LF3GY-640x400.jpg)

Clark told the audience Saturday: "I am the guy that pulled the baby over the wall and it's definitely probably one of the greatest things I've ever done in my entire life." Clark then thanked the audience for their support before leaving the stage.

Someone's underpants are smoking...

"Regarding the viral photo that began circulating around August 20, 2021, the Marine identified in that particular image was not LCpl Clark," Kelton Cochran, a spokesman for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit said in a statement.

Cochran added, "The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) has initiated a command investigation regarding LCpl Hunter Clark's attendance at the event last weekend to determine if any DoD policies were violated."

The Defense Department generally prohibits active duty members from speaking at partisan political gatherings.

I don't know which is worse - the way they lie without blinking or the way their base doesn't care if it is true or not.

Who is more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows them?

Rezzy wrote:

I sort of enjoyed forgetting he was still alive.

Don't worry, his pal Joe Rogan will have him back on the podcast to say "Alex really isn't who he is on his show" and all will be well again. Alex Jones will then be back in the spotlight once more.

SallyNasty wrote:

I don't know which is worse - the way they lie without blinking or the way their base doesn't care if it is true or not.

It's the perfect grift. Either he lies, and no-one challenges it, or he gets challenged on his bullsh*t, doubles down on the lie and claims cancel culture/censorship. He wins either way.

Vrikk wrote:
Rezzy wrote:

I sort of enjoyed forgetting he was still alive.

Don't worry, his pal Joe Rogan will have him back on the podcast to say "Alex really isn't who he is on his show" and all will be well again. Alex Jones will then be back in the spotlight once more.

Oh Christ, that's exactly what's going to happen.

Prederick wrote:
Vrikk wrote:
Rezzy wrote:

I sort of enjoyed forgetting he was still alive.

Don't worry, his pal Joe Rogan will have him back on the podcast to say "Alex really isn't who he is on his show" and all will be well again. Alex Jones will then be back in the spotlight once more.

Oh Christ, that's exactly what's going to happen… again.

FTFY

The judge just ruled against Alex Jones again in his third Sandy Hook case for the same reason as the prior two. He’s being sued by several other families as well so it’s possible these hits could keep coming.

In all three rulings, the Texas judge ordered the default judgments because “an escalating series of judicial admonishments, monetary penalties, and non-dispositive sanctions have all been ineffective at deterring the abuse” caused by Jones’ repeated unwillingness to turn over documents related to the cases.

How bad do these documents have to be that he'd rather lose the lawsuit automatically than turn them over?

Well this is a new level of F'd up... Couldn't figure out which topic to post it in...

Alabama GOP governor signs bills to use Covid-19 relief funds to build prisons into law

Washington, DC (CNN)Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law Friday a number of prison infrastructure bills that will use coronavirus relief funds to build new prisons in the state, calling it a "pivotal moment for the trajectory of our state's criminal justice system."
The proposal included using up to $400 million of federal Covid-19 relief money, up to $785 million in bonds and no more than $154 million from the state general fund to add prisons and renovate others.
The state Legislature gave the package final approval Friday.

According to Ivey-

The use of federal money on prisons would help all Alabamians, who pitched the idea as lessening the burden for taxpayers while prisons are built.

Nadler's letter of protest

Nadler wrote:

Directing funding meant to protect our citizens from a pandemic to fuel mass incarceration is, in direct contravention of the intended purposes of the ARP legislation and will particularly harm communities of color who are already disproportionately impacted by over-incarceration and this public health crisis.

The answer to the problem of prison overcrowding and aging facilities is not the construction of more prisons, rather it is to invest directly in better care for individuals currently incarcerated and to take meaningful steps to decarcerate whenever possible. The ARP is a historic effort to provide urgent assistance in a time of great suffering. It should not be used to worsen our national problem of over-incarceration.

I hope that Nadler and Yellen can somehow prevent this...

It totally screams of distraction from the horrible leadership only enhanced by the out of control pandemic in southern states.

Just unf*cking believable the things people are doing in a pandemic. Riots, terrorism, throat cutting abortion rights, etc. Some of these darkest timeline things are so hard to stomach

And we are supposed to refrain from turning a blind eye to these people seeing repercussions (perhaps lethal) to their actions.

If there is such a thing as karma, we should be entering a 100 year golden age any year now. And this is just from the sh*t we've accumulated over the last 20 years. (not even counting the Reagan 80's "calastrophy")

There’s no such thing as karma.

As a society we should absolutely insist that people who commit destructive acts be held accountable for their actions.

RawkGWJ wrote:

As a society we should absolutely insist that people who commit destructive acts be held accountable for their actions.

We absolutely should and we absolutely won't.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
In all three rulings, the Texas judge ordered the default judgments because “an escalating series of judicial admonishments, monetary penalties, and non-dispositive sanctions have all been ineffective at deterring the abuse” caused by Jones’ repeated unwillingness to turn over documents related to the cases.

How bad do these documents have to be that he'd rather lose the lawsuit automatically than turn them over?

I think it likely comes down to two possibilities:

-they requested documents he claimed to have on air but which don’t actually exist. Jones constantly insists that he has “seen the white papers” and has documented proof of his wild claims but mysteriously never seems to get around to actually showing this proof and it’s finally come around to bite him.

-the documents they requested have to do with the operations of Infowars. The podcast Knowledge Fight has pretty convincingly shown that Alex is involved in some extremely questionable business practices and is at least partly funded by Russian oligarchs. He is almost certainly involved in stuff that could open him up to further legal consequences.

Fillet that emeffer and grill him up.

If there is such a thing as karma, we should be entering a 100 year golden age any year now. And this is just from the sh*t we've accumulated over the last 20 years. (not even counting the Reagan 80's "calastrophy"

Well you could look at it either of two ways. If karma is real, American society has got a massive bill to pay down. 2020 may have paid off Wounded Knee and Mai Lai.

Or more likely we are entering the standard 250 year boom bust cycle of empire. It’s just a question of if we crash soft (aka UK post WW II) or supernova (aka Maya or Rome).

While we bluster about microchips in our arms, this real conspiracy is happening:

MAGA World Has Raised Nearly $2M for Marine Who Wants to ‘Bring the Whole f*cking System Down’

FYI, this one probably doesn't go quite like you think:

A Marine officer who called for his supporters to help him “bring the whole f*cking system down” and who is now sitting in a military jail, has become a hero in MAGA world despite slamming former President Donald Trump for “dividing our county.”

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller became famous in August of this year after videos he posted to Facebook went viral. In the videos, Scheller criticized U.S. military leadership’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and said they should be held accountable for the deaths of 13 Marines—one of whom Scheller said he was close to.

While the initial video was focused on criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, a second video posted a few days later on Scheller’s LinkedIn account took a darker turn, when the Marine echoed rhetoric used by pro-Trump insurrectionists on Jan. 6.

“Follow me, and we will bring the whole f*cking system down,” Scheller said in the video.

At the time, Scheller said he was planning on resigning his commission, but he was instead relieved of his command and told to stop posting content on social media.

But he refused, and for the last month has continued to post messages slamming everyone from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to former President Barack Obama.

He also slammed Trump. “I was told by everyone to kiss the ring because of your following and power,” Scheller wrote in a Facebook post last Saturday. “I refuse. While I respect your foreign policy positions, I hate how you divided the country. I don’t need or want your help. You do not have the ability to pull US together. You may even win the next election. But your generation’s time is running out.”

While Trump himself has not commented on Scheller’s case, the former president’s son, Don Jr., has tweeted support for the Marine, but such support was not welcome.

‘Tell your son to stop tweeting about me,” Scheller wrote. “Your whole family knows nothing about U.S. or our sacrifices. I could never work with you. I’d rather sit in jail and be released with a dishonorable than make compromises in my beliefs.”

On Twitter, Scheller’s case was flagged by Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers, who took time out from promoting conspiracy theories about the Arizona vote recount to spread more conspiracies about Trump being reinstated.

Other GOP lawmakers who lined up behind Scheller are Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Madison Cawthorn. Meanwhile, a group of dozens of Republicans, led by Rep. Louie Gohmert, signed a letter calling for the military to release Scheller.

The right-wing media ecosystem also supported his cause: Scheller’s parents appeared on Fox News’ top-rated Tucker Carlson show on Wednesday night, before appearing on Glenn Beck’s show on Thursday night, and Fox News host Laura Ingraham shared a link to the Pipe Hitter fundraiser.

While it seems that most Trump supporters are willing to overlook or ignore Scheller’s anti-Trump comments, others aren’t willing to do so.

“Scheller is anti-Flynn and anti-Trump,” one Telegram user called American Backwoods wrote in a major QAnon channel. “I think he’s a Judas goat.”

Of course, the power of this particular brand of rhetoric is that he can sit and scream for days that he hates Trump, and they'll use him anyway.