US politics general thread

[konfab]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/11/us/politics/unite-the-right-2018-dc-rally.html

Remember you silly proles. If Trump says he condemns all forms of racism, it actually means he is endorsing white supremacy.

 

[cerebus]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/11/us/politics/unite-the-right-2018-dc-rally.html

Remember you silly proles. If Trump says he condemns all forms of racism, it actually means he is endorsing white supremacy.

Good to see him taking a stand ahead of the protests.

 

[Techne]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/11/us/politics/unite-the-right-2018-dc-rally.html

Remember you silly proles. If Trump says he condemns all forms of racism, it actually means he is endorsing white supremacy.

He also didn't condemn Hitler and Bernie never condemned Stalin. Obviously Nazis and socialists then.

 

[greg0205]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/11/us/politics/unite-the-right-2018-dc-rally.html

Remember you silly proles. If Trump says he condemns all forms of racism, it actually means he is endorsing white supremacy.

That moment when you willingly surrender 40 years of what you've seen with your own eyes and heard with your own ears, 'cos your Coppertone christ tweets *ALL Americans*. Sad.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/11/us/politics/unite-the-right-2018-dc-rally.html

Remember you silly proles. If Trump says he condemns all forms of racism, it actually means he is endorsing white supremacy.

Good to see him taking a stand ahead of the protests.

Let's not kid ourselves. This is his 'both sides' nonsense re-branded. "All forms" is just a BS false equivalence and a way not to address the actual issue.

I mean, how hard would it be to say "white nationalism has no place in the MAGA movement". The fact that he still cannot bring himself to do it says it all. And the fact that he expounds racism himself constantly negates his empty words anyway.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

I'm not defending him, but why are his crazy theories that have hurt a few people any worse than say the New York Times who for months claimed that their were WMD's in Iraq and subsequently justified the war in Iraq where hundreds and thousands of people were affected by an unjust war. Was this not also fake news? Does the fact that the NYT apologised mean they are redeemed and deserve to not be censored? How long before another major media house presents fake evidence of something that leads to a major incident?

Regarding them apologising re. their Iraq war coverage. How do you think publications should respond? Double down, lie and refuse to apologise? Like Alex Jones does?

They apologised less than a year after the war started and have been exposing some of the biggest scandals in the war.

As for why they have credibility, you can start here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_won_by_The_New_York_Times

They broke the NSA domestic spying story, they broke stories about the Pentagon using retired generals as TV/radio hosts pushing propaganda for the Iraq war, they broke stories about lobbyists effectively controlling members of Congress and Attorneys General, they broke stories about foreclosure/mortgage abuse, about the CIA's torture programme, about the drone programme and JSOC's 'kill list', about US entanglement in Pakistan with the Pakistani Taliban, their climate change coverage is unmatched, stories about oil spills and cover-ups, water toxification by corportations, political corruption, the Weinstein scandal, etc. etc.

Also by and by. Youtube is not a private company. Google is a publicly traded enterprise owned by the Alphabet company. Tax payer money was used to create google.

This is a joke... right? :erm:

 

[S7wede]

Regarding them apologising re. their Iraq war coverage. How do you think publications should respond? Double down, lie and refuse to apologise? Like Alex Jones does?

They apologised less than a year after the war started and have been exposing some of the biggest scandals in the war.

As for why they have credibility, you can start here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_won_by_The_New_York_Times

They broke the NSA domestic spying story, they broke stories about the Pentagon using retired generals as TV/radio hosts pushing propaganda for the Iraq war, they broke stories about lobbyists effectively controlling members of Congress and Attorneys General, they broke stories about foreclosure/mortgage abuse, about the CIA's torture programme, about the drone programme and JSOC's 'kill list', about US entanglement in Pakistan with the Pakistani Taliban, their climate change coverage is unmatched, stories about oil spills and cover-ups, water toxification by corportations, political corruption, the Weinstein scandal, etc. etc.



This is a joke... right? :erm:

I didn't say they lacked credibility, I asked where we drew the line for fake news and being censored. It doesn't matter how many times a media outlet is right, it's only important when they are wrong and what we as a society do about it. Censorship is dangerous because it always starts on the fringes, like Infowars who are the crackpot crazies and quickly moves into speech that while not against the rules per say, is difficult to hear or unpopular. Just look at what twitter is currently doing. They call it dehumanizing, but it doesn't break their TOS. My problem is who gets to decide what is dehumanizing speech? Their is a clear political bias with most of the current censoring / suspensions / bannings.

Also to respond to your last part, My bad. I didn't realise that it was incorporated into a privately held company on September 4, 1998. I will happily admit I was wrong on that point.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

I didn't say they lacked credibility, I asked where we drew the line for fake news and being censored.

It's important to differentiate between 'fake' news, bias, and misleading/inaccurate/incomplete reporting.

It doesn't matter how many times a media outlet is right, it's only important when they are wrong and what we as a society do about it.

This is a bit absurd, don't you think? Of course it matters how many time they're right.

Censorship is dangerous because it always starts on the fringes, like Infowars who are the crackpot crazies and quickly moves into speech that while not against the rules per say, is difficult to hear or unpopular. Just look at what twitter is currently doing. They call it dehumanizing, but it doesn't break their TOS. My problem is who gets to decide what is dehumanizing speech? Their is a clear political bias with most of the current censoring / suspensions / bannings.

In this case Twitter/YouTube/Facebook gets to decide, since it's their platforms and no one has the right to a private platform, especially if they've broken their TOS.

I agree it's good to be wary of censorship generally, but targeted harassment isn't simply crackpot views (which Jones has been spouting for years and years). I mean, good grief - parents of the kids who died in the Sandy Hook massacre can't visit their child's grave because they get harassed, and others have had to move twice. Not to mention the loon that went into a pizza place with a gun, etc.

It also doesn't really seem that there is much bias in the way outrage mongers claim.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

https://www.apnews.com/2fab5cc446fa49ec9eb44fd1d6220dfc

President Donald Trump is pulling numbers out of thin air when it comes to the economy, jobs and the deficit.

He refers to a current record-breaking gross domestic product for the U.S. where none exists and predicts a blockbuster 5 percent annual growth rate in the current quarter that hardly any economist sees. Hailing his trade policies in spite of fears of damage from the escalating trade disputes he’s provoked, Trump also falsely declares that his tariffs on foreign goods will help erase $21 trillion in national debt. The numbers don’t even come close.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

'Bikers for Trump' founder says he sells Trump shirts made in Haiti because American-made products are too expensive

The founder of “Bikers for Trump” said he sells pro-Trump T-shirts made in Haiti because American-made products are too expensive.

“If I get a T-shirt made in the USA, it’s going to cost about $8 more,” Chris Cox told The New York Times. “I looked far and wide to try to get a shirt made in America, it’s just they get you, they gouge you.”

The comment came as part of the Times’s wider look at the reactions of pro-Trump motorcyclists to President Trump’s feud with Harley-Davidson.

According to the Times, many bikers say they will turn against the company once it moves forward with its decision to move some production overseas, placing their loyalty to the brand second to their loyalty to Trump.

Cox, the Times reported, is one of the motorcyclists organizing other bikers to boycott Harley-Davidson for moving production overseas, despite selling foreign-made products himself. He is leading efforts to push the company to give generous severance to employees who may lose their jobs as a result of the changes.

Somehow this isn't a parody.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Documenting Hate: Charlottesville

For the past year, FRONTLINE and ProPublica have been investigating how the violent and infamous rally in Charlottesville last year became a watershed moment for the white supremacist movement. Correspondent A.C. Thompson shows how some of those behind the racist violence went unpunished and shines a light on the rise of new white supremacist groups in America.

 

[cerebus]

Cool story.

Have you escaped an all out fire on the deck of your aircraft carrier, helped a fellow sailor escape and then have a bomb explode nearby filling your body with bomb fragments?

How well would you hold up after being bayoneted, being repeatedly tortured, beatings every 2 hours for weeks that were so sever you have lifelong disabilities and solitary confinement for 2 years out of an imprisonement for 6 years?

You do realise he was offered early release as a propaganda exercise and refused to go unless junior officers were released ahead of him?

But yeah I forgot your so Alpha, he was obviously so Beta, you would probably have single handily defeated North Vietnam over a weekend.

Didn't you know NBFTW was captured by the Viet-Cong then they made him play Russian roulette and he flipped and killed all his captors with their own guns?

 

[rietrot]

Let's not kid ourselves. This is his 'both sides' nonsense re-branded. "All forms" is just a BS false equivalence and a way not to address the actual issue.

Lol I can't believe I agree with you. One side march peacefully with tiki tourches. The other side is violent and burns and destroy stuff. Definitely only one side needs to be condemned.

 

[cerebus]

It's amazing how the ban hammer seems to only fall in one direction.

I know it seems like the right wing pundits are in the middle of a great purge by liberal media outlets but it's a myth that they propagate because they love to play the victim. Fact is Alex Jones violated the terms of service of every platform holder many times until they finally snapped and banned him for very good reasons, particularly his repeated theory that Sandy Hook survivors were actors.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politi...eat-free-speech-campus-right-wing-fantasy#amp

 

[rietrot]

I know it seems like the right wing pundits are in the middle of a great purge by liberal media outlets but it's a myth that they propagate because they love to play the victim. Fact is Alex Jones violated the terms of service of every platform holder many times until they finally snapped and banned him for very good reasons, particularly his repeated theory that Sandy Hook survivors were actors.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politi...eat-free-speech-campus-right-wing-fantasy#amp

How does that violate the terms of service?

 

[greg0205]

Lol I can't believe I agree with you. One side march peacefully with tiki tourches. The other side is violent and burns and destroy stuff. Definitely only one side needs to be condemned.

You forgot the part where one of those peace loving nazis drove his car into the “violent” crowd and killed Heather Heyer.

Fun fact: Did you know that after a spate of threats from those peacenik nazis, Heather’s mother has to keep the site of her grave secret to protect her own safety as well as the safety of the folk who work at the facility.

Also, and I can’t believe I have to say this, you’re defending nazis... No dinner for you. Now go to your room and think about what you’ve done.

 

[RanzB]

You forgot the part where one of those peace loving nazis drove his car into the “violent” crowd and killed Heather Heyer.

If ever you needed proof rietrot has just been trolling this whole time..

 

[cerebus]

You forgot the part where one of those peace loving nazis drove his car into the “violent” crowd and killed Heather Heyer.

Fun fact: Did you know that after a spate of threats from those peacenik nazis, Heather’s mother has to keep the site of her grave secret to protect her own safety as well as the safety of the folk who work at the facility.

Also, and I can’t believe I have to say this, you’re defending nazis... No dinner for you, now go to your room and think about what you’ve done.

 

[greg0205]

If ever you needed proof rietrot has just been trolling this whole time..

I think he's touchy this morning 'cos thousands of folk met peacefully to laugh his thirty mates out of Washington at the Unite The Right rally yesterday.

 

[RanzB]

Florida candidate poses with fake diploma after questions about her credentials

SARASOTA, Fla. - A Republican candidate for the Florida House lied about having a college degree and posed with a fake diploma after a news outlet questioned her credentials.

Melissa Howard, who is running in Florida's 73rd House District near Sarasota, had claimed she graduated with a bachelor's degree from Miami University in Ohio.

However, FLA News Online, a political news website, citing the National Student Clearinghouse, reported Howard did not graduate from the Ohio college. Howard said the story was false and posted a picture of her and her mother on Facebook with a framed diploma.

The news site apologized to Howard and briefly retracted the story. However, a closer look at the diploma found several inconsistencies.

According to the photographed diploma, Howard graduated with a degree that doesn't exist at Miami University in Ohio. The school offers a bachelor of science degree in business, not a bachelor of science degree in marketing. The photographed diploma also includes a signature of Robert Johnson, the then-dean of the graduate school, not of the school of business.

Miami University General Counsel Robin Parker later confirmed to FLA News that Howard attended the university, but did not graduate from the school.

Howard did not respond directly to requests for comment. On social media, Howard said her husband was being treated at a hospital for heart problems. He has been released.

"Melissa is focused on her family -- not fake news this morning," Anthony Pedicini, a campaign consultant, told FloridaPolitics.com.

By Saturday afternoon, Howard had deleted her Twitter account and deleted several posts about her educational credentials from Facebook.

Howard faces Tommy Gregory in the Republican primary on Aug. 28.

Taking her cues from the orange cheeto.