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.
So both my journalist and conservative online circles are talking about the recent case of small town Alabama mayor and Baptist pastor Bubba Copeland being outed by conservative media as a trans woman but also potential stalker. He then killed himself.
The website that broke the news -1819 news - did so in a terrible way. They posted Copeland’s secret transgender Instagram account which included explicit photos plus his interest in sissy porn. Totally uncool, since it seems his wife was in a number of the shots and OK with it.
The ethical dilemma about outing Copeland comes down to his legal but still disturbing behavior. He had allegedly posted some creepy pics of teens online without their permission. He also wrote fan fiction where he fantasized about killing a neighbor. Add to this that he seems to be your standard GOP Bible thumping pastor/hypocrite and there’s a big part of me who thinks he should have been outed but not in a salacious way.
So just wanted to bring this here to see if I’m off base. I recognize that revealing hypocrisy is not worth a man’s life, and I also see this being a major chilling effect on other in the closet trans women. There’s probably some angles I’m missing so I’m posting this here for discussion.
I agree with the journalism experts cited at the end of the article:
Tom Arenberg, an instructor at the University of Alabama’s journalism department, agreed in a blog post he published Sunday. Reporters must weigh the possible public good of publishing a story against the harm that it might cause.
“But as with any media dilemma, you also have to answer the next question: Was he harming anyone inside or outside of the congregation?” Arenberg wrote in the post.
Reporting on Copeland’s private life was irresponsible, Bauer said. In his blog post, Arenberg agreed.
“Carefully deciding when private matters deserve public attention is one thing,” he wrote. “Deciding you’re the morality police is another. When politics gets put ahead of ethics, people get harmed.”
These extreme right-wing "news" websites are concerning on many levels. There's one in my area that blasts public education and any local figure that doesn't toe the alt-right conservative line. They contributed to the divisiveness of the pandemic and, IMO, add no value to the discussion.
ETA: I will say that their constant FOIA requests for public emails does keep our school board on its toes, as a reminder that there is no privacy for public officials. In this case, it sounds like the mayor/pastor was not using any public-facing media for their private life. Since there was nothing illegal going on, I think it was out of bounds to blast it like they did.
I agree with the journalism experts cited at the end of the article:
Tom Arenberg, an instructor at the University of Alabama’s journalism department, agreed in a blog post he published Sunday. Reporters must weigh the possible public good of publishing a story against the harm that it might cause.
“But as with any media dilemma, you also have to answer the next question: Was he harming anyone inside or outside of the congregation?” Arenberg wrote in the post.
Reporting on Copeland’s private life was irresponsible, Bauer said. In his blog post, Arenberg agreed.
“Carefully deciding when private matters deserve public attention is one thing,” he wrote. “Deciding you’re the morality police is another. When politics gets put ahead of ethics, people get harmed.”
These extreme right-wing "news" websites are concerning on many levels. There's one in my area that blasts public education and any local figure that doesn't toe the alt-right conservative line. They contributed to the divisiveness of the pandemic and, IMO, add no value to the discussion.
ETA: I will say that their constant FOIA requests for public emails does keep our school board on its toes, as a reminder that there is no privacy for public officials. In this case, it sounds like the mayor/pastor was not using any public-facing media for their private life. Since there was nothing illegal going on, I think it was out of bounds to blast it like they did.
I’m fortunately just another state employee so I’m not too worried about public scrutiny, but it’s always there in the back of my mind that I never do anything to get me in the news.
Like I said, for me the point this crossed over into possible news is the threatening slasher erotica using real names and sexual memes involving pics of young teens at his church taken without their permission. But I listened to some conservative podcasts and it sounds like those things came to light only after the first article which was pretty much “ew gross closeted man.”
So just wanted to bring this here to see if I’m off base. I recognize that revealing hypocrisy is not worth a man’s life, and I also see this being a major chilling effect on other in the closet trans women. There’s probably some angles I’m missing so I’m posting this here for discussion.
Personally, I feel the point at which something crosses the line from "journalism" into "harassment" is the point at which it's none of the public's damn business.
Senators publicly condemning homosexuality while having an unnecessarily wide stance in the men's bathroom? Governors bemoaning the decline of "family values" while having an illicit affair? Presidents talking about how a major epidemic is just "the flu" while getting the best experimental medical treatment available? Elected officials taking gobs of money from the oil and gas industries and turning around and telling the people that climate change isn't real?
Yeah. Those are probably things that people should know about.
Who Taylor Swift is dating? Where Princess Diana is heading in that car? What Beyonce's hair looks like first thing in the morning?
I don't care if they're "famous people". Those things aren't important, and if you're following these people around to try to figure them out, you're a stalker. (Or you just want a vague hint of what Taylor's next hit single might be about - but I digress.)
Unless this guy, who apparently sometimes in private preferred not be a guy, was doing something to specifically promote or harm transgender individuals, it's none of anyone's business what that person did in their own time.
Qanon Shaman plans to run as a libertarian for US congress, representing AZ.
https://www.axios.com/2023/11/12/jan...
AZ 8th congressional district comprises the far NW Phoenix metro area and a lot of rural lands. I’m not certain, but I believe a win is not beyond the realm of possibility.
God, I hope not. Rural Arizona has more than its share of crazies and Trumpers, though, so I can't discount the possibility.
Qanon Shaman plans to run as a libertarian for US congress, representing AZ.
https://www.axios.com/2023/11/12/jan...
AZ 8th congressional district comprises the far NW Phoenix metro area and a lot of rural lands. I’m not certain, but I believe a win is not beyond the realm of possibility.
Hah! Called it like a month ago in the picture thread:
I fully expect Chansley will eventually be an elected Representative so maybe he’ll get another chance at the Speaker Chair.
I honestly don’t know what his chances are, though. Half the MAGA crowd thinks he’s a CIA plant trying to make them look bad and he’s enough of a New Age quack that he might scare off the other half once they hear him speak on the campaign trail.
Any chance he can split the vote and give it to a dem?
sigh. We are so f*cked.
seven days to go before a full on government shutdown and speaker Mike Johnson gives Congress a long weekend so he can fly to Paris to give the keynote at an international nazi convention.
Wait I thought felons couldn’t vote in many states, much less hold office.
You're half right. They can't vote, but they CAN be voted FOR.
sigh. We are so f*cked.
seven days to go before a full on government shutdown and speaker Mike Johnson gives Congress a long weekend so he can fly to Paris to give the keynote at an international nazi convention.
That's a feature, not a bug.
It's like the party that supports authoritarian rule wants to cripple the third of the government that would be least influenced by a dictator.
Trump going full Schicklgruber was completely predictable, but it is still jarring.
What's jarring is that he is still the frontrunner of their party. Doing this hasn't dampened his cults worship of him.
It's amazing how there are (so far) no consequences for his stochastic terrorism and full-on fascism.
Bannon's "flood the zone with sh!t" statement was prophetic. Trump has transmitted so much noise in the last ten years that it's nearly impossible to sift through it for signal and pin him on anything. Meanwhile he's moved on to the next manufactured outrage. His followers don't care because he makes them feel good. Facts, hypocrisy, and shame are weak.
I remember as a kid when Reagan was running, hearing the term 'populism' for the first time, and wondering why it was a bad thing. What a turning point for our country.
I don't know that populism necessarily has to be a bad thing. There are folks that accused FDR, for instance, of being "populist" and Bernie DEFINITELY hits a lot of populist buttons.
It isn't always wrong to point out that the system is not serving ordinary people and requires fundamental change. Hell, half the folks on this forum are so frustrated by the status quo that they are advocating revolution rather than four more years of Biden the technocrat.
I am not advocating demagogues, but I populism isn't an immediate disqualifier.
Agreed. I don't know about leading up to his election, but a cult of personality has definitely grown around JFK as well.
Populism when helping to distribute wealth and state power to the masses is good. Populism when it is using a collected majority to discriminate against and persecute marginalized groups... not so much.
As Trump Vows Vengeance Against ‘Vermin,’ Republicans Look The Other Way
"I don’t use that kind of language, but it’s a free country,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Donald Trump vowing to purge his political opponents.
Agreed. I don't know about leading up to his election, but a cult of personality has definitely grown around JFK as well.
I don't know that JFK really qualifies as populist though. My understanding is that in populism, you have to assert that the system is fundamentally broken, that it no longer (or never did) serves the "common man", and that radical change is necessary to provide some kind of justice or fairness. JFK was popular for sure, but he was also very establishment.
To me, folks that ring the populist bell are folks like Bernie Sanders, AOC, FDR, Ross Perot, and yes Donald Trump.
I think they meant that JFK has become an *icon* of a populist cult (QAnon), not that he was one. Big difference. Qanon is like an armed cargo cult, hollowing out the symbols and events of the past and leaving behind just images to be manipulated to keep their members in thrall, without understanding any of them at all. And they are proud of that.
I've been warning people of what will happen with Republicans in various ways since 1979. I had all sorts of bad scenarios over time, and a few of them actually happened (I do worry a lot so I'm pretty good at catastrophizing). But the after-effects of the Tea Party that led directly to Trump have astounded and disheartened me. What I thought were the worst-case scenarios for the "Party of Responsible Adults" have been blown to pieces and left in a heap miles back on the road to today. It turned out that the GoP, in building its constituency on lies and consensual delusions, destroyed its protective internal filters ("we care about reality, we want to learn from the past, we need to work with Democrats to moderate them and move the country in the right direction") and has itself been parasitized and puppeted by monsters just like the fungal ants.
And this model has been adopted all over the world, encouraged by serious Russian propagandists. It's beyond horrifying, because soon we may live inside this new dystopia. (And if you think we live in one now, well, just wait...)
The Speaker of the House has no bank accounts
There are no retirement accounts, no money-market funds, no stocks, no crypto, not even a basic checking or savings account. Even more peculiar, his disclosures have never listed any checking or savings accounts on any of the forms he has filed going back to 2016, the year he was elected to Congress.
He keeps cash stashed in his ark. It's his "rainy day fund".
I'll see myself out.
I think they meant that JFK has become an *icon* of a populist cult (QAnon), not that he was one. Big difference. Qanon is like an armed cargo cult, hollowing out the symbols and events of the past and leaving behind just images to be manipulated to keep their members in thrall, without understanding any of them at all. And they are proud of that.
I've been warning people of what will happen with Republicans in various ways since 1979. I had all sorts of bad scenarios over time, and a few of them actually happened (I do worry a lot so I'm pretty good at catastrophizing). But the after-effects of the Tea Party that led directly to Trump have astounded and disheartened me. What I thought were the worst-case scenarios for the "Party of Responsible Adults" have been blown to pieces and left in a heap miles back on the road to today. It turned out that the GoP, in building its constituency on lies and consensual delusions, destroyed its protective internal filters ("we care about reality, we want to learn from the past, we need to work with Democrats to moderate them and move the country in the right direction") and has itself been parasitized and puppeted by monsters just like the fungal ants.
And this model has been adopted all over the world, encouraged by serious Russian propagandists. It's beyond horrifying, because soon we may live inside this new dystopia. (And if you think we live in one now, well, just wait...)
Yeah. The Right Wing coopting of JFK is one of the weirder aspects of an already weird movement. Do they think that some f*ckwit like Barry Goldwater loved JFK?
No one can ever again claim that the Republicans are the "mature" party.
What an utter sh*tshow.
I dunno, he seems restrained, for a MAGA idiot. At least he didn't bring a firearm to the chamber. Or try to beat the union guy to death with a blackthorn cane...
Imagine getting suckered into that. "For a cup of coffee and a discussion, what did you think, Senator?" Mullin is going to lose sleep over that gaffe.
And honestly that UPS guy smirking behind his boss was the best. He knew what was coming.
It passed on a bipartisan basis by a vote of 336 to 95 – with 209 of the votes coming from Democrats.The bill was opposed by 93 Republicans and two Democrats.
Anyone got a head of lettuce handy?
The two-step plan extends funding until January 19 for priorities including military construction, Veterans Affairs, transportation, housing and the Energy Department. The rest of the government — anything not covered by the first step — would be funded until February 2.
So now we get two possible shut downs a few months from now instead of one? Or more likely the military, etc. gets everything and they start hand-wringing about spending for "anything not covered by the first step".
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