Political Randomness

[Skinypupy]

Fuck.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis announced Sunday he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The Atlanta congressman said he learned about his cancer during a routine medical visit earlier this month.

Doctors informed him that his cancer is stage 4. Lewis said he plans to continue serving the 5th Congressional District during his treatment.

Lewis released the following statement:

“I have been in some kind of fight- for freedom, equality, basic human rights - for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now.

“This month in a routine medical visit, and subsequent tests, doctors discovered Stage IV pancreatic cancer. This diagnosis has been reconfirmed.

“While I am clear-eyed about the prognosis, doctors have told me that recent medical advances have made this type of cancer treatable in many cases, that treatment options are no longer as debilitating as they once were, and that I have a fighting chance.

"So I have decided to do what I know to do and do what I have always done: I am going to fight it and keep fighting for the Beloved Community. We still have many bridges to cross.

"To my constituents: being your representative in Congress is the honor of a lifetime. I will return to Washington in coming days to continue our work and begin my treatment plan, which will occur over the next several weeks. I may miss a few votes during this period, but with God’s grace I will be back on the front lines soon.

“Please keep me in your prayers as I begin this journey.”

The loss of Lewis would be a massive one at any time, and especially so right now.

[Daehawk]

If Trump had a tv show would it be called The Bitcher?

[Holman]

The loss of Lewis would be a massive one at any time, and especially so right now.

The loss of leaders with actual experience of the Civil Rights struggle will be immeasurable.

Before the last one is cold in the ground, right-wingers will be rewriting history to insist that none of it was ever about access to the ballot and that that the marches and protests were all about lowering taxes on millionaires.

[YellowKing]

Don't forget that the Republicans are the party of Lincoln, so technically they freed the slaves and thus can never be accused of racism.

[Isgrimnur]

Don't forget that the Republicans are the party of Lincoln, so technically they freed the slaves and thus can never be accused of racism.

Back when they were Yankees.





Red and dark blue are your standard party representations.

[malchior]

Star Wars wasn't killed by a crappy story - it was all the 'libtard' shit that killed it.

*Note* I snipped out normal commentary but make no mistake this is expert level propaganda. They weave the evil in with the normal to ground it.

Feminist Politics
From those first moments in The Force Awakens where Rey scolds Finn to stop holding her hand as they try to outrun some bad guys, you could tell Kennedy’s vision was not to thrill us with a marvelous adventure, but rather to instruct us, to lecture us.

This awful woman actually thinks it’s sexist for a man to grab a woman’s hand as they attempt to outrun people looking to kill them.

What kind of lunatic puts such a thing in a Star Wars movie?

If you don’t like the idea of a man showing some self-sacrifice and chivalry due to the biology that allows him to run faster, then don’t show him holding her hand at all!

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst came in Last Jedi, where Kennedy allowed the only character with any real potential — Oscar Isaac’s swashbuckling Poe — to be turned into an ignorant, sexist pig who gets his comeuppance at the hands of the The Girlzzzzz. Not only was it terrible storytelling, it killed their most charismatic character, the only one who came close to the original stars, the one with the most potential to shine in Skywalker.

...

Affirmative Action Hires

It used to be that when women and minorities showed up in movies, the public thought nothing of it. But now that Hollywood is advertising how awesome they are to embrace “diversity” and “inclusion,” it undercuts all of this because instead of merit-based actors and characters, we see an affirmative action hire, which is insulting to the audience and to the actor.

By patting themselves on the back like white plantation owners announcing their own virtue to the world, Hollywood’s doing the cause much more good than harm. America had been pretty close to colorblind before all this “representation” nonsense launched. Now we’re being forced to see color and gender, and of course we’re going to reject something that takes us backwards.

...

Anti-Male
Kathleen Kennedy is so immature she couldn’t offer us strong female protagonists without bashing men.

Going back more than 80 years, to the era of Stanwyck, Crawford, Hepburn, Hayworth, Davis, and countless others, Hollywood has delivered strong, independent female protagonists without the childish crutch of male bashing. The fact that Kennedy couldn’t do this just proves she’s an immature baby.

[Paingod]

In this time of intense division and insanity, we cannot forget the multiple horrific scandals that rocked the Obama administration and how continually disgraced our nation.

[Isgrimnur]

Affluenza teen gets jail time:

Ethan Couch appeared in adult court for the first time Monday, when a judge announced he is ordering the 19-year-old to serve four 180 day terms consecutively, one term for each of the four people who died in a 2013 drunken driving wreck involving the teen.

Time served

Ethan Couch, the young Texas man at the center of the so-called affluenza case, was released from jail this morning.
...
"[Couch] will now serve the remaining six years of his period of community supervision under the terms and conditions imposed by the court," his lawyers, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn, said in a statement to ABC News. "From the beginning, Ethan has admitted his conduct, accepted responsibility for his actions, and felt true remorse for the terrible consequences of those actions.

WaPo

Ethan Couch, the Texas man whose “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunk-driving crash fueled fierce debate over the role of privilege in the criminal justice system, was arrested Thursday and charged with a probation violation.

Authorities booked the 22-year-old in Tarrant County Jail, where he was being held without bond, records show. Couch is accused of testing positive for THC in a mandatory drug test that was part of his probation, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
...
In an unrelated case, Couch’s father, Fred, was sentenced in 2016 to a year of probation for impersonating a police officer. When police were called to a domestic disturbance in North Richland Hills, Tex., Fred Couch flashed a badge and told them he belonged to police reserves. In reality, he was a volunteer with a local search-and-rescue team.

[Daehawk]

Winning family.

[Isgrimnur]

Fort Worth

Ethan Couch, the so-called affluenza teen, was in the Tarrant County Jail on Friday, but only until about 1 p.m., according to David McClelland, chief of staff with the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.

Couch, 22, will be given another drug test and his attorneys, Reagan Wynn and Scott Brown, said in a statement that they expected the re-test will show that Couch has not violated any of the conditions of his probation.
...
According to the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, probation officers reported that Couch had a “weak positive” THC result on a drug patch which he wore for monitoring purposes. He was booked into jail Thursday.

But probation officials said they “did not have confidence in the result,” the District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Friday.

“Until final testing, we cannot tell if the patch result was actually THC,” the statement said. “We cannot tell whether the ‘weak positive’ was caused by legal CBD oil or illegal marijuana.”

[malchior]

This isn't necessarily anything but an amateur tracked a private flight from Moscow to Fort Lauderdale this weekend. They stayed about a day and then flew back to Moscow. The plane reputedly belongs to the CEO of Russian state owned bank Sberbank.

[Smoove_B]

At this point, my only wish is that I'm alive when the reports about everything that was happening right before and during the Trump administration are made public. I have no doubt these types of things are exactly how they look and what we don't know is much, much worse.

[Holman]

At this point, my only wish is that I'm alive when the reports about everything that was happening right before and during the Trump administration are made public. I have no doubt these types of things are exactly how they look and what we don't know is much, much worse.

What's going to burn is that, even if Trump is defeated politically, he's going to get away with so much that will never be fully investigated and never charged. He'll go to his grave as a "controversial politician" rather than a full-on traitor.

And one of his kids will probably parlay unpunished Trumpism into a senate seat.

[Kraken]

At this point, my only wish is that I'm alive when the reports about everything that was happening right before and during the Trump administration are made public. I have no doubt these types of things are exactly how they look and what we don't know is much, much worse.

What's going to burn is that, even if Trump is defeated politically, he's going to get away with so much that will never be fully investigated and never charged. He'll go to his grave as a "controversial politician" rather than a full-on traitor.

And one of his kids will probably parlay unpunished Trumpism into a senate seat.

One of Trump's superpowers is using the legal system to throw shade into a future that never quite comes. If you have enough money, you can stave off justice until your enemies are worn down. Meanwhile, keep generating new scandals so that everybody forgets to care about the old ones. You don't need to win lawsuits, you just need to keep them perking into obscurity.

[pr0ner]

[Holman]

There are many phone- or web-notification schemes out in the wild warning you that your IP has been compromised by thieves or pedos. Their goal is to get access to your acccount passwords and etc.

Hopefully Krugman is just an unlucky Boomer here.

[malchior]

Is that you Pete Townsend?

[pr0ner]

There are many phone- or web-notification schemes out in the wild warning you that your IP has been compromised by thieves or pedos. Their goal is to get access to your acccount passwords and etc.

Hopefully Krugman is just an unlucky Boomer here.

Looks like he deleted it.

[Holman]

Looks like he deleted it.

(It was Paul Krugman announcing that he had received a [probably dubious] web notification that his account had been hacked by possible thieves or pedos. Krugman wondered allowed whether he was being targeted by QAnon of Pizzagate fame.)

[malchior]

[malchior]

Folks - remember - it totally isn't white resentment and racism masquerading as 'traditionalism'. To be straight here, this is a cautionary tale about how the GOP will often seize on any racist point to get more power. Then they'll get to work rigging the rules so they never will lose power again. Congrats to WaPo for finding this microcosm.

In recent years, the number of sports teams with names like “Chiefs” or “Tomahawks” has been dwindling as schools reckon with the fact that many Native Americans and others consider these mascots to be offensive racial caricatures.

But in a departure from the trend, officials in Killingly, Conn., voted on Wednesday to reinstate the “Redmen” as the local high school’s mascot, over objections from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Nipmuc Tribal Nation. The decision came just months after Killingly High School’s sports teams were rebranded as the “Red Hawks,” sparking fury among longtime residents and sweeping a Republican supermajority into office during November’s school board election.

[LawBeefaroni]

Folks - remember - it totally isn't white resentment and racism masquerading as 'traditionalism'. To be straight here, this is a cautionary tale about how the GOP will often seize on any racist point to get more power. Then they'll get to work rigging the rules so they never will lose power again. Congrats to WaPo for finding this microcosm.

In recent years, the number of sports teams with names like “Chiefs” or “Tomahawks” has been dwindling as schools reckon with the fact that many Native Americans and others consider these mascots to be offensive racial caricatures.

But in a departure from the trend, officials in Killingly, Conn., voted on Wednesday to reinstate the “Redmen” as the local high school’s mascot, over objections from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and Nipmuc Tribal Nation. The decision came just months after Killingly High School’s sports teams were rebranded as the “Red Hawks,” sparking fury among longtime residents and sweeping a Republican supermajority into office during November’s school board election.

Their Town council meetings are archived and damn, that is a white as fuck room.

[Paingod]

I did a quick take of the "This tweet is unavailable" link and my mind had translated it as "This tweet is unbelievable" as I was assuming it came from Trump. No shit. My brain assumes error messages are about his presidency now. I think I may be subconsciously waiting for the Matrix to reboot so we can try again.

[LordMortis]

I couldn't figure out if this goes in Warren Sideshow, the Trump thread, the global warming thread, or I dunno where else, so it goes here. It Canadian anyway, right...

Big Energy squaring off against... Big Energy...

https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/01/10/Quak ... -Fracking/

In the last decade, as The Tyee has reported in numerous articles since 2011, the petroleum industry has repeatedly broken seismic records in the vast Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and has caused geologic changes, especially in the Montney shale basin in northeastern B.C.

It has triggered thousands of earthquakes including dozens of significant felt events reaching a magnitude 3 or 4.6.

The primary culprit is fluid injection, including hydraulic fracturing and the injection of toxic waste water deep into the ground.

Fracking blasts significant amounts of water, chemicals and additives into shale rock over short periods, while waste water disposal injects large amounts of water over long periods of time. Both technologies can change pressures along fault lines and cause earthquakes.

The problem for dam engineers is that industry-made quakes behave differently than natural events by causing severe ground motions caused by shallow industry induced quakes.

Earthquakes triggered by hydraulic fracturing can exceed “what the natural hazard was in the first place” explained seismic hazard expert Gail Atkinson to the Tyee in 2015.

In addition they pose real risks to infrastructure only built to withstand natural earthquake hazards. Seismic jolts caused by fluid injection can create more damaging ground motions at lower magnitudes than natural quakes due to their shallowness, explained Atkinson.

I had no idea that the US began publishing seismic activity related concerns to fracking in 1976 related to concerns by the DOD in 1969. And we just keep plodding along.

[Smoove_B]

It explains so much:

We focus on the elections that almost no one else cares about but that have major short & long term impacts.

For example: These textbooks help create conservative teenagers who become lifelong GOP voters. Fixing them is one piece of the puzzle to turning a state like TX blue.

[Isgrimnur]

WaPo

In a petition for Supreme Court review, filed on Monday, lawyers for the young woman are asking the justices to vacate Carter’s conviction for involuntary manslaughter in the July 2014 death of Roy, who poisoned himself with carbon monoxide in a Kmart parking lot in Fairhaven, Mass., after exchanging text messages and speaking twice on the phone with Carter on that summer day. She lived about 50 miles away in Plainville, Mass.

CNN

The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would not take up the case of Michelle Carter, a woman serving a 15-month sentence for her part in her boyfriend's death by suicide.

Carter had asked the justices to take up her case, arguing that her conviction three years ago for involuntary manslaughter -- based on her words alone -- violated her First Amendment rights.

[hepcat]

It explains so much:

We focus on the elections that almost no one else cares about but that have major short & long term impacts.

For example: These textbooks help create conservative teenagers who become lifelong GOP voters. Fixing them is one piece of the puzzle to turning a state like TX blue.

This part is enough to infuriate anyone with at least a 4th grade education, I would think:

Here’s another example: Teenagers in both states will learn about the Harlem Renaissance and debates about the movement’s impact on African-American life.

But Texas students will read that some critics “dismissed the quality of literature produced.”

Every critic alive who isn't a part of the klan will gladly tell you of the greatness of such writers like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.

[LordMortis]

Just heard an "OK Senator" as a sort of extension of "OK Boomer" to mean something akin to shorthand for "It's clear to anyone with any level of knowledge about the topic that you have absolutely no idea what are talking about. For the love of all that is good in this world please do not try to exercise any authority." I like it.

[LawBeefaroni]

Just heard an "OK Senator" as a sort of extension of "OK Boomer" to mean something akin to shorthand for "It's clear to anyone with any level of knowledge about the topic that you have absolutely no idea what are talking about. For the love of all that is good in this world please do not try to exercise any authority." I like it.

Sounds like a Radiohead album.

[Defiant]

[pr0ner]

Yep, my state seems ready to explode soon. The Democratic party wants to do a *LOT* now that they actually have full control, and many Republicans and gun rights activists are up in arms, literally.

[LawBeefaroni]

Yep, my state seems ready to explode soon. The Democratic party wants to do a *LOT* now that they actually have full control, and many Republicans and gun rights activists are up in arms, literally.

"Blackface and Klan costumes? Resign now!"
"But I...um...I hate guns?"
"Ok, Awesome!"


The pendulum spends no time in the middle anymore. Every red county will be a gun sanctuary county in contrast with state law and every blue city/county will be gun free in contrast with federal law.

[Isgrimnur]

The Hill

President Trump will hold an Oval Office event on Thursday to celebrate the release of updated guidance on religious prayer in public elementary and secondary schools.

White House Domestic Policy Council Director Joe Grogan told reporters Thursday morning that the guidance, which hasn’t been updated since 2003, “will remind school districts of the rights of students, parents and teachers, and will empower students in others to confidently know and exercise their rights.”
...
The Supreme Court has held that state-organized prayer in public schools violates the First Amendment, but students are allowed to pray alone or in groups. The updated guidance is meant to underscore that right.

The updated guidance is one of three actions the Trump administration is taking on Thursday that Grogan described as a continued effort by the president to “defend the constitutionally protected right to the free exercise of religions.”

[LordMortis]

Buzzfeed's version of the same thing and other stuff for "religious freedom day"

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/do ... eral-money

[Defiant]

All Your Base Are Belong to the FBI

The FBI has arrested three alleged members of The Base — which authorities describe as a "racially motivated violent extremist group" — on charges that range from illegal transport of a machine gun to harboring aliens, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.

A law enforcement official tells NPR that the three suspected members of The Base had discussed going to a controversial pro-gun rally in Virginia next week.

[Holman]

All Your Base Are Belong to the FBI

The FBI has arrested three alleged members of The Base — which authorities describe as a "racially motivated violent extremist group" — on charges that range from illegal transport of a machine gun to harboring aliens, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.

A law enforcement official tells NPR that the three suspected members of The Base had discussed going to a controversial pro-gun rally in Virginia next week.

Wait--"The Base"?

This is a neo-Nazi group, but it's hard not to ponder the name when "the base" is the English translation of "Al Qaeda."

I'm willing to guess that they were up to no good, seriously.

[hepcat]

It's short for Ace of Base. Although I suspect that attacking the rally with boom boxes blaring All That She Wants would have been even more tragic.

[LordMortis]

I thought they wanted to be The Base because it's all about them. Isn't that exactly what Trump's following believe? Really his campaign should be licensing rights from Meghan Trainor, shouldn't he? Don't tell me she was Nazi too?

[hepcat]

Give me enough time and I'm sure I could create a wiki page linking Meghan Trainor to Joseph Goebbels, sure.

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter for persuading her boyfriend to kill himself, was released from prison Thursday, months ahead of schedule due to good behavior.

Carter, now 23, began serving a 15-month sentence in February, but she earned time off her sentence for good behavior, according to Jonathan Darling, spokesman at the Bristol County Sheriff's Office.
...
Carter was active in work and education programs in prison, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said, calling her a model inmate.

"When we say model inmate we talk about involvement in programs, no disciplinary issues, and she met that criteria for all of us," he said.