Politics & Stuff

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When Russia sanctioned Canada, it barred leaders from all major federal parties, including conservative leaders.

But when Russia sanctioned the U.S., it barred Democratic leaders only. It didn’t name a single GOP leader. The signal couldn’t be clearer.

 

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Biggest ÚS Oil Giants Made 'Eye-Popping' $205 Billion in Profits in 2021: Report

Now, fossil fuel giants are trying to "cash in on inflation and the crisis in Ukraine," said one critic.

 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/15/biggest-oil-giants-made-eye-popping-205-billion-profits-2021-report

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In advancing HB2779, a bill modelled after the Texas abortion law, Tennessee Rep. Rebecca Alexander (Republican) says that it would be permissible for any family member of a rapist to sue the victim of rape for proceeding with an abortion. The bill is moving forward to full committee.

 

 

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President Zelensky shows the United States Congress a video of his nation being destroyed by Vladimir Putin's forces, and tells America: "Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace."

 

 

[Fernando 6,585]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

President Zelensky shows the United States Congress a video of his nation being destroyed by Vladimir Putin's forces, and tells America: "Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace."

 

 

All good but not good enough to convince US to do any military help. 

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what the fuck is wrong with RW America???

horrifying, especially the 2nd video when played on loop

🤬

 

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‘Indianettes’ Drill Team Not Allowed to Wear War Bonnets, But Are Allowed to Chant ‘Scalp ‘Em’ During Disney Magic Kingdom Performance

https://wdwnt.com/2022/03/indianettes-marching-band-drill-team-not-allowed-to-wear-war-bonnet-during-disney-performance/

Above is an example of one of the headdresses the twirlers and captains of the drill team — which is from Port Neches-Groves High School in Texas — wear, via Beaumont Enterprise.

Spillers indicated that members of the Indians Marching Band had worn headdresses at Disney Parks in the past, but that they were now barred from wearing them.

Headdresses, or war bonnets, are traditionally worn by Native American chiefs and warriors. It is generally considered offensive when anyone who hasn’t earned the honor of the war bonnet wears them.

Simon Moya-Smith, a journalist and citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, told MTV in 2014, “The headdress is reserved for our revered elders who, through their selflessness and leadership, have earned the right to wear one. It’s a spiritual garb, not just cultural; it’s not merely an addition to one’s attire. Wearing one, even an imitation headdress, belittles what our elders have spent a lifetime to earn.” The marching band performed at Magic Kingdom yesterday, March 15. 

 

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Mostly-Black Town In Tennessee Loses Financial Control Just As Millions of Dollars Roll In

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mostly-black-town-in-tennessee-loses-financial-control-just-as-millions-of-dollars-roll-in/ar-AAVd8lD

With Tennessee Senator Jon Lundberg’s dog, Nash, keeping an eye on the proceedings, Tennessee Deputy Comptroller Jason Mumpower speaks at the 2019 Regional Legislative Breakfast Friday, Jan. 11, 2019. Mumpower this week assumed control of the finances of Mason, Tenn., a small, mostly-black town that sits adjacent to the site of a multi-billion-dollar new auto plant planned by Ford Motor Co.

A tiny, majority-Black town in Tennessee which was poised to benefit from a massive investment from Ford Motor Company has instead been taken over by the state’s comptroller.

 

Mason, Tenn., has about 1,500 residents. Most of its elected officials are Black and members of the Democratic party, in stark contrast with the mostly-white and Republican-controlled Tipton County government as well as Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower, who on Tuesday took the step of seizing control of Mason’s finances.

Mumpower’s power grab comes after he’d given Mason’s government a choice between relinquishing its charter–essentially giving away control of the town to Tipton County–or having him step in and assume control of the municipality’s budget and spending powers. According to Tennessee Lookout, a local government watchdog website, Mumpower says the move was necessary to address financial mismanagement in Mason.

But the city’s elected officials aren’t so sure about that.

From Tennessee Lookout:

Mason officials have pushed back on Mumpower’s assessment. The town ended up in a half-million-dollar financial hole caused in large part by fraud and embezzlement during prior administrations, Rivers said. Rivers said she and other officials have been working hard to pay off debts accrued under those previous administrations.

Rivers and other town officials have questioned why Mumpower or other state officials did not intervene before now. Mason, which still serves as home to descendants of freed slaves, was led by White officials for more than a century. The town’s first Black Mayor, Gwen Kilpatrick, assumed office in 2015 after allegations of fraud and mismanagement led to the resignations of nearly all City Hall officials, who were White. Mason residents have elected Black leaders ever since. Mason’s current mayor, vice mayor and five of its six aldermen are Black.

Automotive giant Ford is planning to invest a reported $5.6 billion in a massive new electric vehicle and battery facility dubbed Blue Oval City, which will sit just four miles from Mason. According to the Tennessee Lookout story, the main highway between Memphis and Blue Oval City, as well as a rail line and other critical infrastructure run right through Mason.

That puts Mason likely on the cusp of a huge windfall in tax and development revenues, none of which its elected mayor or city council will control with Mumpower in charge.

The situation recalls other incidents of white officials moving to take control of municipal spending from Black ones.

In 2018, the public development authority in Duquesne, Pa., transferred $1.3 million from the city’s development funds to a private nonprofit entity controlled by an all-white board that included former city officials, just before the city’s first Black woman mayor, Nickole Nesby was sworn into office. Duquesne, a Pittsburgh suburb, sued to get the money back and its city council agreed to a settlement that allowed the money to stay with the private group while having the city appoint someone to its board of directors. Nesby opposed the deal.

 

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Rivers and other town officials have questioned why Mumpower or other state officials did not intervene before now. Mason, which still serves as home to descendants of freed slaves, was led by White officials for more than a century. The town’s first Black Mayor, Gwen Kilpatrick, assumed office in 2015 after allegations of fraud and mismanagement led to the resignations of nearly all City Hall officials, who were White.

this is some 'how many jellybeans are in the jar' type of racist shit

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I think Israel should jump in Ukraine and help. 

Since no one will help Ukraine. They have no choice because Russia next target is Israel. So might as well jump at it before they get attack by Russia, Iran and others. 

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 Armed Pro-Trump Canvassers Are Going Door-To-Door With Big Lie 'Intimidation'

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/colorado-voter-intimidation-lawsuit-naacp_n_62396cb5e4b009ab92fc9673

 

Civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit against political canvassers, some of them armed, who pounded on voters’ doors in Colorado with questions about what they claimed was a rigged presidential election.

Interrogating residents about baseless claims of election fraud and photographing their homes amounted to a “voter intimidation campaign” in violation of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan Act, alleges the suit filed in U.S District Court in Colorado by the NAACP, the Colorado League of Women Voters of Colorado and Mi Familia Vota.

The suit accuses the U.S. Election Integrity Plan, which organized the canvassers, and three of its leaders of violating the Voting Rights Act through “intimidating, threatening and coercive conduct,” often in neighborhoods with a high number of people of color. It asks the court to declare the canvassing intimidation and harassment, and to order it stopped.

The canvassers often display badges, the lawsuit says, and are encouraged to carry weapons. They confront voters “for allegedly casting fraudulent ballots” and take photos of people’s homes, according to the suit.

The group uses such tactics across Colorado and in several other states, the suit says. It was founded by supporters of former President Donald Trump after he lost the 2020 election and began spreading his widely debunked lies about election fraud. Funders, according to the suit, include MyPillow guy Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of Trump’s bogus claims.

“Defendants’ objectives are clear,” the suit says. “By planning to, threatening to, and actually deploying armed agents to knock on doors throughout the state of Colorado, USEIP is engaging in voter intimidation.” A U.S. Election Integrity Plan representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

 

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Republicans Debate Executing Women Over Abortion

https://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/bud-kennedy/article259670215.html  (video at the link)

Should Texas punish abortions by putting teenage girls and women to death?

Or not?

That’s the current debate in the Republican Party of Texas, where outlawing abortion is no longer a question of “if” or “when” but a question of whether to kill women for getting one.

North Richland Hills Republican David Lowe swears his campaign in the May 24 runoff election has nothing to do with killing women.

“I’m not even a fan of the death penalty,” he told a Republican women’s club luncheon last week in downtown Fort Worth.

But then he went on to praise a House bill last session that would have made ending a pregnancy a potential capital crime..

In other words, Texas could kill the woman, along with anyone who encouraged her or helped.

Lowe’s final comment was chilling.

“Do we all agree that abortion is murder?” he asked the crowd.

“Absolutely. There should be consequences for it.”

Of all the opponents, Lowe — an Afghanistan war veteran and longtiime Dallas County party volunteer — chose to run against District 91 state Rep. Stephanie Klick, a five-term House member from the Haltom City-North Richland Hills-Watauga district.

Klick, a 35-year nurse, has been a low-key House leader in Texas’ one-step-at-a-time effort to end abortion.

So far, Texas has reduced abortions by about 10%.

“Abolishing abortion is important, but we can do that without giving women the death penalty,” Klick told the luncheon.

She talked about how pregnancy clinics counsel many teenage girls. At 18, they’d be eligible for the death penalty.

“Do we want to give those young girls the death penalty?” Klick asked.

“ ... I don’t think it’s necessary to sentence women to death that had an abortion.”

If you’re wondering how killing women became a pivotal Republican issue, that just shows how extreme this Texas primary and runoff have become.

Strong, steady, rock-solid conservatives are up against outlandish challengers accusing them of fixing elections, mutilating children or enabling abortions..

Some other runoffs statewide match faith-and-values candidates who both want Texas governed by the Bible.

They just can’t agree on whether to use the Old or New Testament.

Lowe has said he filed against Klick mainly not over abortion, but because Texas has failed to outlaw using hormones or rarely used medical procedures to affect children’s or teenagers’ gender.

In an interview with a political website, Lowe’s message to LGBT Texans — an estimated population of 1.1 million — was: “Keep your hands off our children.”

Lowe is also aligned with a Texas affiliate of Abolish Human Abortion, which calls for an immediate halt to abortion regardless of court decisions or law.

Arlington Republican state Rep. Tony Tinderholt filed Texas’ first such bill in 2017.

The more recent 2021 version by Royse City Republican state Rep. Bryan Slaton would make ending a pregnancy anytime after fertilization a potential capital crime.

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Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project Puts the Ginny Thomas Scandal in Perspective.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/25/2088163/-Rick-Wilson-puts-the-Ginny-Thomas-scandal-in-perspective

So Rick Wilson of the Lincoln project has basically demonstrated in a pretty nice Twitter rant, the hollowness and hypocrisy of the Republican party regarding the Ginny Thomas scandal, but also how Republicans have really become masters at working the referees and how outrageous that has become.   To save time I’ve consolidated the thread in a quote below: 

Quote

 

Imagine for a moment what the Republicans would say if the spouse of a Supreme Court Justice nominated by a Democrat joined in a conspiracy..to overthrow a free and fair American election. Imagine she or he was part of a conspiracy to launch a violent, shock-and-awe attack on the Capitol in its furtherance. An attack that led to lives lost, our Capitol desecrated.

 

Imagine their response as she was discovered in the days leading up to the attack to be texting and emailing a Democratic White House Chief of Staff, encouraging him to illegally overturn the election and promote lurid conspiracy nonsense. Imagine she promoted the idea Republicans were "being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.”

 

Now imagine her husband was the sole vote to protect the losing President from scrutiny. I'll tell you what they'd do.They'd burn Washington to the damn ground.They'd salt the earth.They'd call for sanctions, impeachment, removal.

Their powerful media apparatus would turn it into a 24/7 scandal story that would never ever disappear. Facebook would amplify (and monetize!) a million pages calling for the removal of said Justice.

 

They'd hold hearings and drag every person involved before them...in a televised Great Spectacle.  It would become a centerpiece of their messaging for ages. It would be a drumbeat about the corruption of the opposing party.It would motivate no end of earnest op-eds from the gentry media.

 

The GOP silence now is telling. They've become masters are working the media refs. This isn't a trivial little scandal. It's real, it stinks, and it's outrageous.

 

One of the reasons I wanted to post this is because right now, Democrat's in the Senate are demanding Clarence Thomas recuse himself from any cases involving Jan 6th or Trump’s election.

To me that seems about 1/1000th as strong as it should be.  Democrats should be demanding Thomas recuse himself permanently from the Supreme Court! They should be calling for hearings They should be asking their colleagues during the current confirmation fight why they are not speaking out about this outrage?  They should be talking about the corruption of past decisions. This isn’t even the first time with the Thomas's.  Democrats should be loudly pointing out if you don’t Believe in Free elections or Democracy itself, how can you be trusted to serve on the highest court in the land? 

In my opinion we can learn from Republicans on messaging.  They would salt the earth as Rick Wilson has stated. I realize we don’t have talk radio and our own news network but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something. We need bring the kind outrage Republicans would to this issue. We need to call on our elected officials and ask for hearings ask for resignations We need to embrace the power of spectacle. 

MAKE THIS WOMAN TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS!!!!  PUT IT ON TELEVISION!! Don’t say things like “This is disturbing!” call it an attack on our Democracy. IT IS! Call it Corruption. IT IS! Say that this has placed  the entire legitimacy of the Supreme Court in question. IT HAS!!  Just don’t be mild in your response. 

 

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insanity reigns

at this rate the yanks are careening towards a civil war

 

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Based