The Random Politics Thread

[CousinsCowgirl84]

I’m pretty sure Mike Lendell is the Tiger King of pillows….

[China]

 

[China]

Pelosi slams McCarthy over mask mandate opposition: 'He’s such a moron'

 

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is increasingly growing tired of Republican Minority leader Kevin McCarthy's antics and attempts to impede the work of the House.

 

Tuesday night, following CDC's updated guidance that masks should be worn by both the vaccinated and unvaccinated in high-transmission areas of the country, the Attending Physician of the United States Congress ordered masks be worn in the House when people are in groups.

 

McCarthy immediately lashed out on Twitter, falsely claiming the decision to bring back the mask mandate is anti-science, which is false.

 

 

When asked about McCarthy's claim, Pelosi told reporters the Minority Leader is a "moron."

 

 

[LadySkinsFan]

My friends and I always pronounce moron with a long "o" and emphasis on the first syllable. Especially as regards to politicians.

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

Just talking to GOP leadership

Edited November 16, 2021 by Cooked Crack

[The Evil Genius]

 

[China]

Noem's Daughter Says She's Quitting Real Estate Business

 

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's daughter on Tuesday said she would quit the real estate appraiser business following scrutiny over whether her mother used her influence to aid her application for an appraiser license.

 

Noem's daughter, Kassidy Peters, slammed a legislative inquiry and news reporting on the episode in a letter to Secretary of Labor Marcia Hultman. She also released a document that a legislative committee was seeking to subpoena. Lawmakers were zeroing in on the timeline of a meeting Noem called last year that included Peters and key decision-makers in a government agency that had moved days earlier to deny her application for an upgrade to her appraiser certification.

 

“I am writing you today to express my disappointment and anger that my good name and professional reputation continue to be damaged by questions and misinformation concerning the Appraiser Certification Program,” Peters wrote to Hultman in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press. KSFY first reported the contents of the letter.

 

She told Hultman she would turn in her appraiser license by the end of the year, adding “I’m angry and I can acknowledge that this has successfully destroyed my business.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[LadySkinsFan]

1 hour ago, China said:

Noem's Daughter Says She's Quitting Real Estate Business

 

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's daughter on Tuesday said she would quit the real estate appraiser business following scrutiny over whether her mother used her influence to aid her application for an appraiser license.

 

Noem's daughter, Kassidy Peters, slammed a legislative inquiry and news reporting on the episode in a letter to Secretary of Labor Marcia Hultman. She also released a document that a legislative committee was seeking to subpoena. Lawmakers were zeroing in on the timeline of a meeting Noem called last year that included Peters and key decision-makers in a government agency that had moved days earlier to deny her application for an upgrade to her appraiser certification.

 

“I am writing you today to express my disappointment and anger that my good name and professional reputation continue to be damaged by questions and misinformation concerning the Appraiser Certification Program,” Peters wrote to Hultman in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press. KSFY first reported the contents of the letter.

 

She told Hultman she would turn in her appraiser license by the end of the year, adding “I’m angry and I can acknowledge that this has successfully destroyed my business.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

 

Oops, sorry your mom couldn't save your business through grift. Too bad you can't do it on your own without mommy "influencing" the government agencies that control your industry.

[Cooked Crack]

Talk about fumbling the bag

[Captain Wiggles]

One too many hits to the head for Gina methinks. 🤭

Edited November 19, 2021 by clietas

[China]

Judge temporarily blocks New York Times from publishing Project Veritas materials

 

A New York trial judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the New York Times from publishing some materials concerning the conservative activist group Project Veritas, a rare step that the newspaper said violated decades of First Amendment protections for the process.

 

The order by Justice Charles Wood of the Westchester County Supreme Court covers memos written by a Project Veritas lawyer and obtained by the Times.

 

Wood scheduled a hearing for next Tuesday to consider a longer prohibition against publication, and whether the Times should remove references to privileged attorney-client information in a Nov. 11 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/us/politics/project-veritas-journalism-political-spying.html article about Project Veritas' journalism practices.

 

"This ruling is unconstitutional and sets a dangerous precedent," Dean Baquet, the Times' executive editor, said in an emailed statement.

 

"When a court silences journalism, it fails its citizens and undermines their right to know," he added. "The Supreme Court made that clear in the Pentagon Papers case, a landmark ruling against prior restraint blocking the publication of newsworthy journalism. That principle clearly applies here. We are seeking an immediate review of this decision."

 

Baquet's statement referred to the U.S. Supreme Court's 1971 rejection of the Nixon administration's bid to stop the Times and the Washington Post from publishing the Pentagon Papers, which detailed U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.

 

Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called prior restraint "among the most serious threats to press freedom," and said an appeals court should vacate Wood's order if the judge does not.

 

"This is the first prior restraint entered against the New York Times since the Pentagon Papers, and it is an outrageous affront to the First Amendment," Brown said in a statement.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

How to Talk to QAnon Loved Ones This Thanksgiving

 

After last year’s lockdown, Thanksgiving is back. For too many, this brings the promise of strained familial conversations about politics, especially with those who have flirted with the QAnon phenomenon. Engaging with die hard QAnon believers is easier for some than others—but behavioral science can offer some advice on how to talk to family members about these beliefs without anyone ending up covered in cranberry sauce.

 

Four years ago, an internet meme around Hillary Clinton went viral, and QAnon was born. Now, the group has ballooned into a vast social movement with millions of members across the world. That’s despite the fact that a range of its espoused theories—from the prediction that Donald Trump would remain in office on Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day this past January, to conspiracies stoking fear about vaccines, to the predicted “great storm”—proved unfounded.

 

The focus on Q to date has been on how ordinary people—perhaps even the relatives around your Thanksgiving table—fall into the Q rabbit hole. But there’s less attention paid to how people can come out on the other side, what facts might plant seeds of doubt with Q believers, and how to help them avoid ending up in adjacent rabbit holes.

 

QAnon believers come in many forms—and recognizing them can help facilitate their exit from the movement. Rejoining fact-based reality is a challenge that requires support along the way, and behavioral science can provide a framework for those conversations. Two of us work for strategy consultancy ReD Associates and and one of us for Jigsaw, a unit within Google that explores threats to open societies. Recently, we teamed up to conduct an ethnographic study of former QAnon supporters to more deeply understand the demand side of Q—or the need it is filling for those consuming Q content—and to explore how people ultimately leave.

 

We spoke with dozens of Q “formers”—that is, former believers in or members of the Q movement. What we found counters much of the narrative of the cultlike, brainwashed victims of psychological manipulation, as portrayed in the popular media. The behavioral science insights we gleaned can help you navigate conversations with family members this holiday season—not by debunking their theories over turkey, but by better understanding what drew them to Q, what could potentially get them out, and how to plant seeds for future conversations.

 

First, identify what kind of Q member they are.

Speaking with former Q members, we observed that they fell roughly into two types: more casual followers and truly committed supporters. The truly committed supporters are the “researchers” who analyze Q “drops” and make connections between Q and every conspiracy theory under the sun. They include the superspreaders who actively amplified QAnon, sharing that “research” not just to friends and family but widely through online communities. For the committed supporters, the explanations provided by Q conspiracies can feel electrifying and prophetic, empowering them with the “answers” to complex phenomena.

 

But the majority of former Anons, we found, are more casual “followers” who stumble down the QAnon rabbit hole in search of a community.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

 

[LD0506]

[China]

'Toxic is spot-on': House members describe roiling animosity among lawmakers

 

Many members within the House of Representatives have told CNN in recent days that they find themselves in a toxic work environment, wrought with bitter exchanges, threats and fears about what the erosion of decorum in the chamber will mean for a body that has still not recovered 10 months after the Capitol Hill riot.

 

In interviews with more than a dozen members, CNN heard from Democrats and some Republicans who say things are as bad as they can remember, with no sign things will get better soon, and the fears and concerns aren't just coming from members, but their families as well.

Last week alone, Democrats and two Republicans voted to censure Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, for posting an animé video depicting the killing of fellow member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York. Initially, Gosar took the video down, but he retweeted another tweet containing the video just an hour after he endured the highest form of rebuke a member can get in the House.

As he took his punishment in the well of the House, he was surrounded by a group of colleagues rushing to his defense. His leadership never came to the floor to admonish him, only attacking the process Democrats were using.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, defended Gosar on the floor by calling some of her progressive Democratic colleagues the "Jihad squad," a term she defended to CNN on Friday.

 

"It is shocking to me that Leader McCarthy would stand for eight and a half hours spewing disinformation about a bill that is for the American people and yet not speak a word about the atrocity of his own member putting out a video that glorifies the murder of a colleague and threatens violence against the President of the United States," said Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. "I don't know where the next basement is."

It's all part of the challenge members are facing now in the House, and some have opted to retire rather than endure more caustic behavior.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Apparently actions do sometimes have consequences:

 

Vt. school cook who wrote ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ on menu fired

 

The head cook at a Vermont school has been fired for writing a euphemism for a vulgarity targeting President Joe Biden on a menu calendar and leaving work early.

 

The Caledonian Record reports the termination letter from the Walden School said the cook wrote “Let’s Go Brandon” “on school property in a location where it would easily be seen by students and staff.

 

The letter states that he also did not work his entire shift on Nov. 9, 11 and 17 without a valid reason.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Simmsy]

On 11/25/2021 at 2:58 PM, China said:

Apparently actions do sometimes have consequences:

 

Vt. school cook who wrote ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ on menu fired

 

The head cook at a Vermont school has been fired for writing a euphemism for a vulgarity targeting President Joe Biden on a menu calendar and leaving work early.

 

The Caledonian Record reports the termination letter from the Walden School said the cook wrote “Let’s Go Brandon” “on school property in a location where it would easily be seen by students and staff.

 

The letter states that he also did not work his entire shift on Nov. 9, 11 and 17 without a valid reason.

 

Click on the link for the full article

I really don't get the "Lets Go Brandon!" thing. Yes, I know what it means, I just don't get the appeal. On top of that, these people think they're so clever whenever they think up the most asshat ideas and spread them around.

[LD0506]

[China]

Boise State Professor: Keep Women Out of Medicine, Engineering, and Law

 

A political-science professor at one of Idaho’s top universities has sparked outrage after openly calling for women to be kept out of engineering, medical school, and law so that they can instead focus on “feminine goals” such as “homemaking and having children.”

 

Boise State University professor Scott Yenor, who previously served on far-right Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin’s task force investigating right-wing claims of “indoctrination” in schools, made the bizarre declaration during the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando in late October, the Idaho Statesman reports.

 

After his comments went viral on social media this week, female students and female lawmakers alike in Idaho said they are utterly freaked out.

“He has power. He has power to issue a grade. It’s disgusting. He needs to come into the current century, but it doesn’t sound like he will,” Boise State MBA student Emily Walton told the Statesman.

 

Yenor’s comments at the Oct. 31 event went well beyond sexist stereotypes, with the professor suggesting a nation could only be “great” if men and women were kept apart in their respective spheres.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TheGreatBuzz]

But….but…..Critical Race Theory!!

[China]

 

[Captain Wiggles]

Ouch..... the ever dreaded Grandpa burn. 

 

[Renegade7]

[China]

Democrats fall flat with ‘Latinx’ language

 

As Democrats seek to reach out to Latino voters in a more gender-neutral way, they’ve increasingly begun using the word Latinx, a term that first began to get traction among academics and activists on the left.

 

But that very effort could be counterproductive in courting those of Latin American descent, according to a new nationwide poll of Hispanic voters.

 

Only 2 percent of those polled refer to themselves as Latinx, while 68 percent call themselves “Hispanic” and 21 percent favored “Latino” or “Latina” to describe their ethnic background, according to the survey from Bendixen & Amandi International, a top Democratic firm specializing in Latino outreach.

 

More problematic for Democrats: 40 percent said Latinx bothers or offends them to some degree and 30 percent said they would be less likely to support a politician or organization that uses the term.

 

At a time when Republicans appear to be making inroads among Latino voters, the survey results raise questions about how effectively the party is communicating with them, according to pollster Fernand Amandi and other Democrats and Latino vote experts.

 

“The numbers suggest that using Latinx is a violation of the political Hippocratic Oath, which is to first do no electoral harm,” said Amandi, whose firm advised Barack Obama’s successful Hispanic outreach nationwide in his two presidential campaigns. “Why are we using a word that is preferred by only 2 percent, but offends as many as 40 percent of those voters we want to win?”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[LadySkinsFan]

10 hours ago, China said:

Democrats fall flat with ‘Latinx’ language

 

As Democrats seek to reach out to Latino voters in a more gender-neutral way, they’ve increasingly begun using the word Latinx, a term that first began to get traction among academics and activists on the left.

 

But that very effort could be counterproductive in courting those of Latin American descent, according to a new nationwide poll of Hispanic voters.

 

Only 2 percent of those polled refer to themselves as Latinx, while 68 percent call themselves “Hispanic” and 21 percent favored “Latino” or “Latina” to describe their ethnic background, according to the survey from Bendixen & Amandi International, a top Democratic firm specializing in Latino outreach.

 

More problematic for Democrats: 40 percent said Latinx bothers or offends them to some degree and 30 percent said they would be less likely to support a politician or organization that uses the term.

 

At a time when Republicans appear to be making inroads among Latino voters, the survey results raise questions about how effectively the party is communicating with them, according to pollster Fernand Amandi and other Democrats and Latino vote experts.

 

“The numbers suggest that using Latinx is a violation of the political Hippocratic Oath, which is to first do no electoral harm,” said Amandi, whose firm advised Barack Obama’s successful Hispanic outreach nationwide in his two presidential campaigns. “Why are we using a word that is preferred by only 2 percent, but offends as many as 40 percent of those voters we want to win?”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

 

The romance languages use masculine and feminine forms of words. Latin is another created word by the trans community. I'm not surprised that romance language users are offended by Latinx, because it's a word and description that doesn't follow centuries of language construction.

[China]

 

I see voting rights is just barely above removing left wing ideology ("Stopping Democrats").  As a country we apparently have our priorities all screwed up.