American Politics 3.0 - Back to Brunch

[Mull]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Not every criticism of the sitting government has to be seen as partisan It's okay to be critical of how they've handled this based on how they campaigned on it. Kamala's campaign speeches on this issue look pretty disingenuous now. AOC has also looked pretty bad in recent weeks when she's been asked about this topic. Media outlets and Biden supporters who were so passionate about all of this when Trump was in charge have all gone strangely silent about it, too. The optics look horrible. .

I never said otherwise.

If Bernie had somehow won and been ineffective at implementing his big campaign promises while looking hypocritical and disingenuous the entire time, you can bet I'd have been critical of him, too.

Awesome. I don't know why you wrote that to me. No one ask you to justify why your criticizing of Biden/Harris. It feels like you were hoping someone would jump on you for that so you answered a question that wasn't ask of you.

I am only asking if you, perhaps not you personally, but those you follow and support on the left, have offer any solutions beyond the criticize.

It was just an honest question. I look at this ####ty situation and wonder what should be done, and all I hear is complaints from all sides. I thought perhaps the progressive side of the Dems would have had some answers, and if they did, I assumed you were Intune with that.

If they don't, then sure, its a messy, complicated ####ty situation.

This doesn't mean one can't criticize the current administration, but it provides additional context for me to understand how much I value that criticism.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Mull

I never said otherwise.



Awesome. I don't know why you wrote that to me. No one ask you to justify why your criticizing of Biden/Harris. It feels like you were hoping someone would jump on you for that so you answered a question that wasn't ask of you.

I am only asking if you, perhaps not you personally, but those you follow and support on the left, have offer any solutions beyond the criticize.

It was just an honest question. I look at this ####ty situation and wonder what should be done, and all I hear is complaints from all sides. I thought perhaps the progressive side of the Dems would have had some answers, and if they did, I assumed you were Intune with that.

If they don't, then sure, its a messy, complicated ####ty situation.

This doesn't mean one can't criticize the current administration, but it provides additional context for me to understand how much I value that criticism.

How about the Biden admin just does the things that they promised to do within the first 100 days, most of which only required an executive order?

https://joebiden.com/immigration/

[Senator Clay Davis]

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1382002188654886921

...here's hoping it's finally true. But we'll see.

[nik-]

Full Taliban within 12 months. Not that it's ever going to be solved by staying.

[Mull]

Originally Posted by rubecube

How about the Biden admin just does the things that they promised to do within the first 100 days, most of which only required an executive order?

https://joebiden.com/immigration/

So the answer is no, given the massive increase in immigrants, you're not aware of anyone who has offered any short term/immediate solutions for the issue of people in cages.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Nyah

Meanwhile, don't say mean things or be critical of AOC on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1380284997785948162

Looked this up to see if there was any update today, found some pretty weird info. Source is Fox News, so read with some level of scrutiny, but I'm just going to post the quote and the info that can be independently verified.

Turns out, the person in question wasn't being completely honest:

A Capitol police official further clarified that the podcaster came on their radar not for the tweet on Ocasio-Cortez's Israel policy or anything else that he wrote. Rather, the Californian was tagged in a tweet authored by another user that was deemed threatening.

"They were tagged in a tweet that was perceived as threatening that prompted us to look into this," the United States Capitol Police official told Fox News.

That tweet has since been taken down from Twitter.

"Obviously as you can imagine, anytime there's anything that could be a perceived threat, we're going to talk to everybody involved, whether they're directly involved or indirectly involved," the official said.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/oca...-visit-twitter

Why would they spin the story this way? Hard to say, but there might be some cues based on their employer:

The Twitter user, @queeralamode, does not list a name on the profile but describes himself as a co-host of two podcasts. But the user posted a letter about the incident from his purported employer, Maffick LLC, that identified him as Ryan Wentz. (Twitter has labelled Maffick as Russia state-affiliated media).

And why has Twitter labelled Maffick as Russia state-affiliated media?

The DFRL described the content as mostly non-ideological, but that the 8% of ideological content had a strong pro-Russian slant; the report alleged various inaccuracies in this content, such as the statement that NATO was involved in the Bosnian conflict to “surround Russia” or that Google censored anti-Hillary Clinton websites. In particular, it noted a strong anti-Clinton bias in the 2016 United States presidential election, including running several stories previously debunked by fact-checking website Snopes.

..

Maffick Media GmbH was a Berlin-based subsidiary of Ruptly, which has been accused of being under editorial control by the Russian government.

..

Maffick Media's Facebook accounts were suspended in 2019 after investigations by CNN and T-online revealed ties to RT and Ruptly. Maffick was defended by RT, which said no official requests to explain the websites were filed with Maffick, and blamed CNN for the controversy, as well as by RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The pages were restored later that month after disclosing their ownership. For example, Soapbox's "About" section now read: "'Soapbox' is a political opinion brand of Maffick, which is owned and operated by Anissa Naouai and Ruptly GmbH, a subsidiary of RT".

..

NBC describes it as platforming: sophisticated English-language video and text content for years that experts say is edited and curated in a way designed to exacerbate American political tensions. A lot of it is aimed at younger viewers and the political left, designed to peel them off from the Democratic party, experts say. Some is tailored to gin up outrage on the right.[23]

Franklin Foer in The Atlantic says that In the Now "build[s] audiences with ephemera (“Man Licks Store Shelves in Online Post”), then hit[s] unsuspecting readers with arguments about Syria and the CIA."

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

Pretty interesting at least, all things considered. Good reminder to question what you read, and certainly question the truth in what some random "anti-war activist" who posts things like "death to America" has to say.

[Sluggo]

With respect to the Afghanistan withdrawal; some if not a majority of the withdrawn members will not have any living memory where they were when the towers fell nor a World where the US military was not in Afghanistan. Really learned your lessons after Vietnam, eh?

[rubecube]

Can someone explain to me why the army has been called in to deal with the Minneapolis protests?

[Mull]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Can someone explain to me why the army has been called in to deal with the Minneapolis protests?

Link? I can only find stuff regarding the army being called in from May 2020

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Mull

Link? I can only find stuff regarding the army being called in from May 2020

Might just be the police with army-esque crowd control equipment and attire. Hard to find a good source. Just lots of pics going around on social media.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Might just be the police with army-esque crowd control equipment and attire. Hard to find a good source. Just lots of pics going around on social media.

From what I understand, the National Guard was already there in preparation for possible violence surrounding the Chauvin trial, and have now increased their presence and are helping with curfew after some violence and looting alongside the Duane Wright protests.

I don’t know that I disagree with their presence in this case.

[FlameOn]

Matt Gaetz cell phone was reported seized as part of the investigation during winter. His associates are reported cooperating. Explains a lot about the leaks.

Gaetz, who has not been charged, has consistently denied the two anonymous claims against him: that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and paid for sex.

Gaetz’s predicament as the subject of a serious investigation became clearer this winter when federal agents executed a search warrant and seized his iPhone, according to interviews with three people who were told of the matter by Gaetz, who changed his phone number in late December. Around that time, the sources said, federal agents also seized his former girlfriend’s phone before she went into work in the morning. She declined comment.

At the time of the 2018 trip, Gaetz was a top adviser to Republican Ron DeSantis, who was running for governor, and went on to manage his transition team months later. DeSantis has long been a top Gaetz ally but declined to comment on his legal woes Monday when asked by reporters.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...igation-481273

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Can someone explain to me why the army has been called in to deal with the Minneapolis protests?

Still going with protests and not riots eh?

[Monahammer]

I'd be protesting if I was in minnesota. The police station that just shot and killed an unarmed black man during the trial of another officer killing an unarmed black man decided their best move was to fly a blue line flag. That's a pretty cold #### you to the feelings of that community. The police there need to be disbanded and something new needs to be built in their place.

It's a real shame this is happening in minneapolis, one of my favourite cities in the US. The people there are generally fantastic in my experience. Good beer. Excellent burger- In fact, the first place I had a juicy lucy is in Brooklyn Centre.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Can someone explain to me why the army has been called in to deal with the Minneapolis protests?

the line between the military and the militarized police is pretty thin

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

The "Thin Blue Line" flag really bothers me sometimes.
Is the message they really want to portray that the only thing keeping people safe from the total breakdown of society is the police?
Doesn't that imply that people are inherently bad and need authority to keep them in line?
I'm probably reading into it a bit too much, but if that's the mentality, it's no wonder the police are killing so many people and treating the general public, and POC disproportionately so, as the enemy.

It's not a thin blue line, it's a big fat social contract. Yes, part of which is law enforcement. But if your mandate is to prevent and reduce violence, your then violence should be your last resort.
A guy is running away? Let him run! Stop shooting people who aren't a immediate threat!

Yes we ask a lot of police, it is a difficult high stress job. But the easiest part of their job should be not shooting people. In too many places (particularly parts of the US) they are being taught that it's all life or death, and they are better to shoot first than to take a risk. To me this is backwards. If given a choice between letting someone flee, and shooting that person the right answer is almost always going to be let them go. Better that than continuing to kill so many people.

[Sliver]

A lot of cops need to be reminded it's just a fataing job. No need to make it your entire identity. We live in a heterogenous society. Without cops would there be trouble? Yes. Same goes for farmers, doctors, mechanics, truckers, etc. We're all important.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Sliver

A lot of cops need to be reminded it's just a fataing job. No need to make it your entire identity.

That's easier said than done.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

The "Thin Blue Line" flag really bothers me sometimes.
Is the message they really want to portray that the only thing keeping people safe from the total breakdown of society is the police?
Doesn't that imply that people are inherently bad and need authority to keep them in line?
I'm probably reading into it a bit too much, but if that's the mentality, it's no wonder the police are killing so many people and treating the general public, and POC disproportionately so, as the enemy.

It's not a thin blue line, it's a big fat social contract. Yes, part of which is law enforcement. But if your mandate is to prevent and reduce violence, your then violence should be your last resort.
A guy is running away? Let him run! Stop shooting people who aren't a immediate threat!

Yes we ask a lot of police, it is a difficult high stress job. But the easiest part of their job should be not shooting people. In too many places (particularly parts of the US) they are being taught that it's all life or death, and they are better to shoot first than to take a risk. To me this is backwards. If given a choice between letting someone flee, and shooting that person the right answer is almost always going to be let them go. Better that than continuing to kill so many people.

Put the heroism back into policing. They all want to be heroes anyways. Take away their guns, make them experts in crisis resolution. Have one or two elite squads per major city that can be specifically called to gun requiring situations, which hopefully there are few of.

[Macman]

And surprised should be nobody. Their ratings along with MSNBC have really dropped off since Trump left office.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1382010780154007555