The Random Politics Thread

[Larry]

10 hours ago, China said:

After Michigan senator takes $30k from landfills, recycling legislation rots

One of the things that often strikes me, in these stories, is just how cheap our legislatures are for sale. 

[ixcuincle]

 

[China]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

Seems dumb. Not going to reduce drunk drivers and anyone who kills someone while drunk probably will still be in prison when the children turn 18.

[Larry]

You mean, it's a feel good law that likely produces no good results?  

[China]

Tulsi Gabbard demands retraction of Romney ‘treason’ accusation

 

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) sent a cease and desist letter to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) over a March tweet in which he alleged her statements were “treasonous lies” and said she was “parroting false Russian propaganda.”

 

In a tweet on Wednesday, Gabbard shared that she had sent cease and desist letters to Romney and former television personality Keith Olbermann over their statements “asserting that Gabbard was parroting false Russian propaganda.”

 

“When powerful, influential people make baseless accusations of treason, a crime punishable by death, in order to intimidate, silence and censor those who speak the truth, it has a chilling effect on our democracy,” she said.

 

“This cannot go unchecked,” Gabbard added.

 

While the Utah Republican did not specify what comments from Gabbard he was responding to, it appears it is likely he was referencing her unsubstantiated claims regarding U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine.

 

Gabbard claimed in a March 13 tweet that there are “25 to 30 U.S. funded bio labs in Ukraine.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

5 hours ago, China said:

“When powerful, influential people make baseless accusations of treason, a crime punishable by death, in order to intimidate, silence and censor those who speak the truth

 

What's that got to do with you, Tulsi?  

[China]

 

[China]

 

[LadySkinsFan]

14 minutes ago, China said:

 

 

Old white men are the morphees. No women, no people of color. That's the problem.

[China]

7 minutes ago, LadySkinsFan said:

 

Old white men are the morphees. No women, no people of color. That's the problem.

 

So you're saying they're lying when they say they used all 50 of each party?

[LadySkinsFan]

47 minutes ago, China said:

 

So you're saying they're lying when they say they used all 50 of each party?

 

Nope, I'm saying that old white men outnumber white women and people of color so much that they are erased in the morph.  Even their hair color and texture resemble old white men. 

 

It's beyond time that Congress is more representative of We the People than old white men.

 

Thanks for asking, I should have been clearer.

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by LadySkinsFan

[CousinsCowgirl84]

https://www.thewrap.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-catholic-church-satan/amp/
 

Hey, we have very different reasons for believing it, but finally she gets one right!

 

[China]

Washington justices unanimously reject Inslee recall effort

 

The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously rejected an effort to recall Gov. Jay Inslee over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

The justices upheld a Thurston County Superior Court decision that the charges made against Inslee did not provide factually or legally sufficient grounds to support a recall campaign.

 

The recall petition was brought by a citizen group called Washingtonians to Recall Inslee. It alleged that the governor’s orders limiting activities and gatherings during the pandemic interfered with their rights.

 

For example, the petition argued, Inslee violated the separation of powers by banning landlords from suing tenants for overdue rent; violated constitutional rights of assembly and to petition the government for redress of grievances by prohibiting public agencies from holding in-person meetings; and violated the right to assemble by limiting the size of in-person gatherings.

 

The court, however, found that Inslee’s proclamations were well within his emergency powers.

 

“Governor Inslee has used his discretion to navigate this pandemic, making difficult decisions in an effort to balance the health and safety of Washingtonians with their individual liberties," Justice Debra Stephens wrote for the court. "While reasonable minds may disagree with the governor’s discretionary decisions, such disagreement is insufficient to support a recall.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

White House Reporters Complain That Jen Psaki Is Too Good At Her Job As They Yearn For Trump

 

White House reporters complain that Biden has made covering the White House boring, and Jen Psaki is too good at her job.

 

Politico has the inside story on the White House press corps:

 

“Jen [Psaki] is very good at her job, which is unfortunate,” one reporter who has covered the past two administrations from the room said. “And the work is a lot less rewarding because you’re no longer saving democracy from Sean Spicer and his Men’s Wearhouse suit. Jawing with Jen just makes you look like an asshole.”

 

House correspondent if you want to break news, they’re so airtight,” another reporter who covered both the Trump and Biden White Houses from the briefing room. “There’s no Maggie [Haberman]. Who’s the Maggie of the Biden administration? It doesn’t exist.”

 

White House reporters were openly missing the drama, the chaos, and the insanity of Trump because it gave them a platform to be stars. Under Biden, they’re stuck being journalists and informing the American people about what their government is apparently boring and beneath them.

 

It has been obvious since Biden came into office. The corporate media wants Donald Trump back. The reason why the coverage of Biden is so negative is that he doesn’t provide them with enough drama.

 

White House reporters want to be stars. They want cable news shows and book deals.

 

An administration that is competent and good at its job is bad for them.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Captain Wiggles]

Shows you exactly what the media's priorities really are. 🤑

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Cooked Crack]

No investigation needed

Quote

Neil Parish, 65, stepped down after what he described as a moment of “madness.” Parish, chairman of the house’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said he was trying to look at a tractor website, but stumbled into a porn site with a similar name and watched it for “a bit.’’

Edited April 30, 2022 by Cooked Crack

[Captain Wiggles]

Quote

he was trying to look at a tractor website, but stumbled into a porn site with a similar name and watched it for “a bit."

 

🤭

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

2 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

No investigation needed

dearjohn.net?

[Cooked Crack]

CornHub

[China]

Gov. DeSantis reportedly banned from NY Museum of Jewish Heritage

 

Ahead of June’s Jewish Leadership Conference, where Gov. Ron DeSantis will reportedly be a speaker, the New York Museum of Jewish Heritage has banned the governor from its grounds. The ban was first announced in an editorial written for the Wall Street Journal by two of the organizers of the event.

 

Elliott Abrams and Eric Cohen are leading members of Jewish non-profit Tikvah Fund. Abrams is the chairman, while Cohen has been executive director of the organization since 2007, according to biographies of them on the Jewish Leadership Conference website.

 

The Tikvah Fund is a philanthropy organization, founded to support the “intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish State.” According to the Tikvah Fund, the organization “invests in a wide range of initiatives” around the world, including in the United States and Israel.

 

In the Journal column by Abrams and Cohen, the two Tikvah Fund leaders say the conference is “hosted by Tikvah, a 20-year old Jewish educational and cultural institution whose main activity in America is teaching young Jews about Jewish history and civilization.”

 

Tikvah invited DeSantis to speak at their conference on June 12 to “discuss how the ‘Florida model’ has contributed to the growth and vitality of Jewish life” in Florida, according to their editorial.

 

The two writers said staff from the museum had told them that DeSantis was banned while the Tikvah Fund was still planning out the event details. Museum staff reportedly told Abrams and Cohen that “DeSantis didn’t ‘align with the museum’s values and its message of inclusivity.'” Conference leaders were told that either the governor could be disinvited, or the event would not be welcome at the museum, according to the editorial.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Minnesota Wants to Ban Under-18s From User-Generated Content Services

 

As part of an omnibus bill, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed a troubling bill restricting how under-18 users engage with user-generated content (UGC) services. [At the bottom of this post, I’ve included the text as passed by the Minnesota House] The bill fits the “protect-the-kids” narrative that politicians champion during election years, but it’s counterproductive towards that purported goal. If regulated services can determine who is under-18 (spoiler: they cannot), the bill would likely result in Minnesota minors being excluded entirely from UGC websites–depriving them of the opportunity to build communities and access content they need to grow, learn, and flourish. By freezing under-18 out of large swathes of the Internet, the bill would create a generation of digitally naïve adults–the exact opposite of the skills they, and our society, need to thrive in the 21st century. Furthermore, the age authentication process would expose both under-18s and adults to extra privacy and security risks. So instead of “protecting the kids,” the bill would harm Minnesotans of all ages in countless ways.

 

I imagine this bill is moving forward only because Minnesota parents don’t realize what the legislature intends to do to their children–and their Internet. (Unlike some other protect-the-kids laws, parents cannot override the law for their children). As they realize the bill’s implications, I’m hoping Minnesota parents will tell their Senators to scrap this effort. Otherwise, given the bill’s obvious unconstitutionality, a court challenge seems inevitable.

 

What The Bill Says

The bill regulates “social media platforms,” defined as an “electronic medium” that allows “users to create, share, and view user‑generated content.” This includes every service with UGC functionality, whether or not UGC is part of the service’s core offering. The bill excludes “Internet search providers, Internet service providers, or e­mail.” Also, it only applies to social media platforms with more that 1M “account holders” (defined as people who access a “social media account,” an undefined term) “operating in Minnesota.”

 

The bill prohibits social media platforms from using “social media algorithms” (defined as “software used by social media platforms to (1) prioritize content, and (2) direct the prioritized content to the account holder”) to “target user-generated content at an account holder under the age of 18 and who is located in Minnesota.” In addition to that prohibition–which has whatever default remedies are permitted under Minnesota law–the bill supplements those remedies with a new private right of action for “account holders” (presumably, minors or their parents acting on their behalf) “if the social media platform knew or had reason to know that the individual account holder was under the age of 18 and located in Minnesota.” In addition to other damages, the PRA authorizes statutory damages of $1k per violation, capped at $100k per account holder per calendar year.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CousinsCowgirl84]

On 4/22/2022 at 11:51 AM, Larry said:

You mean, it's a feel good law that likely produces no good results?  

I think you could go after pensions ect automatically without having to file a civil lawsuit..

[China]