March 14, 20241 yr comment_2944531 Always a risk to meet your childhood heroes. More often than not they fall short of your expectations.
March 14, 20241 yr comment_2944532 https://www.meidastouch.com/news/kamala-harris-becomes-first-ever-president-or-vice-president-to-visit-abortion-provider
March 15, 20241 yr comment_2944622 https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/tech/vpn-searches-spike-texas-pornhub/index.html So THAT just happened. Hah! The GOP cannot seem to get out of their own way. At least they’re addressing the “critical issues” of online porn access. Pretty sure that ship had sailed?
March 16, 20241 yr comment_2944640 The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is a proposed bill in the United States Congress. Introduced by representative Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the bill would make it illegal to facilitate the distribution or servicing of social media applications designated as being controlled by United States foreign adversaries, unless their operations are divested as to not be controlled by a foreign adversary. The bill explicitly targets Chinese internet technology company ByteDance and its video platform TikTok, and also provides for other large social media applications to be targeted under the bill if they are deemed to pose a threat to national security. It was passed by the House of Representatives on March 13, 2024. Am I the only one worried about how problematic this bill can potentially be?
March 16, 20241 yr comment_2944649 2 hours ago, Dr. MID-Nite said: Am I the only one worried about how problematic this bill can potentially be? Nope.
March 16, 20241 yr comment_2944652 https://www.meidastouch.com/news/pence-i-will-not-endorse-trump https://www.meidastouch.com/news/fani-willis-accepts-nathan-wades-resignation
March 16, 20241 yr comment_2944654 And NYT had a story that only about 30% of Americans want TikTok restricted. They also mentioned, it's become an alternative to reach people...including by several in Congress. The TL;DR was, yes indeed, Republicans trying to do things Americans DON'T want, rather than what they do. Every day, in every way, I'm getting more and more confirmed...I will not vote Republican. Period. Not all Republican candidates are bad, but it doesn't matter to me now. And...yeah, VPNs are trivial. I've used BitDefender for anti-virus for...good lord, 10 years now? How time flies. Got it because it was a top-tier AV at that time, by the 3 big AV review sites. A VPN's built in. And it's not exactly expensive; just looking at NordVPN? Less than $5/month would throw in a password manager. So, not exactly expensive. And *Forbes*...that radical liberal institution!!!!...has a review of VPN packages! But hey, we know the farther-right Reps don't care about achieving anything substantive, they just want a crowing point.
March 16, 20241 yr comment_2944687 While this is a bit of crankiness, given the subject matter, I'm putting it here. I had to drop off a package at the local post office, and I noticed a little stand on the sidewalk, with a big sign saying, "Defend Trump". I was going to ignore them, but as I was getting back into my car, one of them waved me over. Probably not his best idea. After I asked why are we defending a billionaire, his response was, "well, they're trying to take it away." To which I responded, "Good. He deserves it." I then gave him a short rundown of how he stiffed a company I worked for ("I don't know the details of that"). So, then I explained to him about how Trump Tower was built using undocumented workers. I finished by saying that he is dangerous, should never be near the presidency again, and that he should be locked up. I then wished them a good day, and left. As I was getting back in my car, the gentleman I had been talking to looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
March 16, 20241 yr comment_2944700 Found an amusing poll over on Awful Announcing. "Would you vote for a presidential candidate whose VP candidate is Aaron Rodgers?" 90% NO...and over 1500 votes.
March 17, 20241 yr comment_2944707 Abortion Story From Wife Of Nevada Senate Hopeful Reveals Complexity Of Issue For GOP Candidates
March 17, 20241 yr comment_2944720 https://apnews.com/article/maine-shooting-report-takeaways-8a0ced34568bcca551b5a61fe1baa676
March 17, 20241 yr comment_2944721 7 hours ago, Ternaugh said: While this is a bit of crankiness, given the subject matter, I'm putting it here. I had to drop off a package at the local post office, and I noticed a little stand on the sidewalk, with a big sign saying, "Defend Trump". I was going to ignore them, but as I was getting back into my car, one of them waved me over. Probably not his best idea. After I asked why are we defending a billionaire, his response was, "well, they're trying to take it away." To which I responded, "Good. He deserves it." I then gave him a short rundown of how he stiffed a company I worked for ("I don't know the details of that"). So, then I explained to him about how Trump Tower was built using undocumented workers. I finished by saying that he is dangerous, should never be near the presidency again, and that he should be locked up. I then wished them a good day, and left. As I was getting back in my car, the gentleman I had been talking to looked like a deer caught in the headlights. I also would have asked them why they were defending a rapist and insurrectionist.
March 17, 20241 yr comment_2944771 16 hours ago, unclevlad said: Found an amusing poll over on Awful Announcing. "Would you vote for a presidential candidate whose VP candidate is Aaron Rodgers?" 90% NO...and over 1500 votes. Who is Aaron Rodgers? <goes to Wikipedia> Egad. Actually rather frightening that 10% *would* support a ticket with Aaron Rodgers. Though the article did point me to the "Tartarian Architecture" conspiracy theory, which I'd never heard of before. And wow, it's a doozy. Positively baroque. Or maybe Gothic Revival <snerk>. To be fair, I wouldn't automatically discount a retired pro athlete for federal office. IIRC Sen. Bill Bradley also had a distinguished career with the NY Knicks. A friend told me that a local fellow called Marshawn Lynch has mad skills at money management, which the federal government could probably use, and I gather he also played football pretty wall. Dean Shomshak
March 18, 20241 yr comment_2944840 24 minutes ago, wcw43921 said: You voted for Trump--this is what you voted for. Quote Benedict died in the wake of a growing crescendo of right-wing hysterics demonizing LGBTQ students and teachers as "groomers" and accusing them of being a threat to other students. In Oklahoma, the far-right Republican state superintendent, Ryan Walters, has been especially aggressive on culture war issues, attacking LGBTQ people and calling for book bans. In an especially trollish move, Walters recently hired Chaya Raichik, who runs the infamous "Libs of TikTok" Twitter account, to be on the state's library committee. Raichick's only "experience" in education is targeting LGBTQ teachers and allies with her account, knowing bomb threats and harassment usually follow. Benedict was beaten up in a girls' bathroom, after being required by Oklahoma state law to use a restroom based on gender assigned at birth, not the one they live as. Raichik, Walters, and other MAGA Republicans are scrambling to deny any link between Benedict getting beaten up in a bathroom and a suicide that literally happened the next day. Benedict's family disagrees, however, noting the "severity of the assault" as shown by the autopsy. President Joe Biden released a statement declaring, "no one should face the bullying that Nex did" and they "should still be here with us today." Walters, in response to the criticism, leveled baseless accusations implying LGBTQ people are pedophiles. This doubling down on the MAGA vitriol that is linked to school violence is not unique to Walters, but swiftly becoming endemic to the Republican Party. That's evident in the growing popularity of Raichik as a conservative leader, even though she regularly proves she is incapable of coherent sentences when asked to explain what she believes. Even more determinative, from a pure numbers perspective, was the North Carolina primary this month. Republicans nominated far-right activist Michele Morrow for state superintendent, despite — or because of — her history of shockingly violent rhetoric. Unlike the current Republican incumbent, Catherine Truitt, Morrow has no experience in education. On the contrary, Morrow hates public schools, calling them "socialism centers" and "indoctrination centers" and homeschooling her kids instead. But, in a sign of how radical the GOP has become, this is the least incendiary aspect of Morrow's campaign. As CNN reported, Morrow has a long-standing habit of calling for the violent deaths of Democrats or anyone she perceives as "liberal."
March 18, 20241 yr comment_2944848 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/us/breyer-supreme-court-interview.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dk0.McCr.tNnyPQOco2RF&smid=url-share
March 18, 20241 yr comment_2944851 This weekend's episode of On the Media discussed the bill to ban TikTok: why it's ridiculous, and how it could backfire. More relevant to my interests, though, was the second segment on the surge in book ban attempts and how Moms for Liberty fits into a long history of attacks on public education. In brief, some conservatives hate public education on first principles, because it's public and therefore socialistic. Other conservatives simply want to control it as a tool of social engineering, to instill the particular forms of patriotism and piety they believe in. (As usual, conservatives accuse liberals of doing what they want to do -- just not in the direction they approve of.) Either way, the goal is to foster suspicion of public education so that it may eventually be abolished. And polls show it's working, at least for the suspicion part. https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media Dean Shomshak
March 18, 20241 yr comment_2944875 2 hours ago, Cygnia said: It was just six out of 41, and the judge said that Willis can narrow the field on those six charges and refile if she wants CES
March 18, 20241 yr comment_2944887 2 hours ago, csyphrett said: It was just six out of 41, and the judge said that Willis can narrow the field on those six charges and refile if she wants CES BUT doing so would extend the timeline. Trump's lawyers would get time to prepare a defense against the new charges. In that sense, it's at least a partial win for Trump; delay's his first line of counterattack. And poor Donny. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/18/politics/trump-464-million-dollar-bond/index.html For *some* bizarre reason, bond underwriters are nervous about backing this one...can't imagine why.
March 19, 20241 yr comment_2944898 Trump will never acknowledge, or even recognize, that he brought all of this on himself. DT is top of the list of people I would make hold the Sword of Shannara, just for a minute.
March 19, 20241 yr comment_2944947 ARGH. Supreme Court does NOT suspend Texas' law to allow purported immigrants to be arrested. Despite the fact that this has been held to be a federal power for YEARS. And they did it by just kicking it back to let the appellate courts rule. The gutless approach.
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