Silver Adept (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silveradept) wrote2018-03-19 08:22 am
silveradept) wrote2018-03-19 08:22 am
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Remember that the time you live in is not normal - Politics links.
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Cheers. Recall that we live in a society where a sitting administrator wants to link the opposition party to the death of people. Which, perhaps, may be seen as tame in other parliamentarian countries, but the States could do with a lot less of partisanship that factionalizes everyone else. It makes the country significantly more vulnerable to influence operations that want to sow distrust. And that sort of thing is what the media is interested in covering, even if it helps that influence operation.
During the short-lived government shutdown, the White House comment line played a voicemail showing who they blamed for the shutdown, despite there being Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and a Republican president.
An EPA center that tests the effects of chemicals on children is being shuttered in moves that are intended to close down as much of government as possible. Yet these are the people who will ask us why we're not thinking of children on some thing they do want to do.
Having declared themselves to a particular side, it seems unlikely this administration will be able to get anything done with regard to peace between Israel and Palestine.
Women were and are disgusted at the state of politics -- and are now running for office so they can change that. I like this idea and hope that plenty of women run at all levels, because there are more than enough men who could (and probably should) be replaced. Women were running abortion services before they were legalized,
An adult film actress by the name of Stormy Daniels is suing Donald Trump over a non-disclosure agreement over an affair the two reportedly had before he was elected to office. She claims the non-disclosure agreement is void because the administrator never actually signed it.
Legislators in various states would like to make it a requirement of receiving Medicaid that you be able to work at a job. Which will be lethal to any person that needs state-sponsored health care and whose calculations for other benefits are dependent on what someone's Medicaid award is.
The United States House passed a bill that would put the burden on disabled people to tell businesses that are not complying with the ADA that they are not complying with the ADA, a bill that required help from a small amount of Democrats to pass. Because disabled people clearly have to be both legal scholars and have the spoons to properly complain, instead of businesses being told they have to follow the law and that punishment will be swift and serious if they don't.
Special Counsel Mueller indicted 13 Russian Federation citizens for their roles in interfering with the United States 2016 election, with significant amounts of detail about the methods used and the actions taken to achieve these ends. Which puts the lie to the claim of this Administration that Russian interference in the election was something other than the truth. It's also possible that the thirteen indicted are the ones that have enough evidence against them to stick, and there were many more at work.
A flunky thought, for a moment, that it would be a good idea to ignore a subpoena. That is a terrible idea, even if you don't think there's any reason why you should show up to one.
Mike Pence had an e-mail security compromise on the sensitive materials he was handling on off-government-server accounts. Yet I can hear the crickets chirping from the side insisting that someone else should be jailed for the way she handled e-mail on an off-government server.
Mathematical models attempting to predict where neglect and abuse will happen in children are often overgeneralizing from small data sets or measuring something else and claiming it's a measure of neglect.
Mr. Putin wants to make himself even more into a mystical and religious figure, which might slow down the problems he's having with being a mystical and religious figure, but might also accelerate them.
Since the Administration seems to be very unwilling to stop further interference in elections and prosecute the ones that are already known, we may not actually know whether anything can be done.
A long form piece on Paul Manafort and his entire career of using influence to corrupt people and gather cash from corrupted people. If someone had done their research on his offer, he probably would have been sent packing. Or so we think. It depends on the Special Counsel's investigation, I suppose, as to what we know about how deliberate Manafort's offer and its acceptance were.
The United Kingdom is facing a very peilous peril of its own making, as there are very few incentives to give it any more time than already required by law to make an orderly and smooth Brexit. Not to mention what is likely to happen to the already hostile, terrible, and punitive attempts to drive every immigrant out of the country that they can.
The United States Customs and Border Patrol hasn't been able to authenticate the data that is stored on chips on passports, and has known they can't do it since 2010. But hasn't done anything about it because that sort of material would mean less money and people going toward the idea of deporting brown-looking people to make White people feel like "their" country isn't composed of mostly brown people. Don't expect the white supremacists and racists to actually use racist or supremacist language, though. They've long since figured out how to couch their language in seeming academic thought or to make it seem to be about other subjects.
(Which is not to say they aren't training in physical arts as well.)
And yet, study after study manages to find the correct cause, but there are still a lot of people who aren't willing to talk about it. There's no reason to invoke the devil - it's cruel. And there's a lot of echoing things that have no basis in fact. And ignorance is not an acceptable excuse. (Have some words and phrases you can use when you want to engage someone and not offend them terribly.)
The center is giving way to the left and the right in elections worldwide, and for persons who believe a centrist model is essential to being able to govern, this is highly distressing news. (For those trying to form a coalition between various factions and create a government, our sympathies at the more difficult task ahead of you.)
The NDP has a lot to do in trying to make Vancouver more like the image that it presents to the rest of the world.
The obsession with the repeat of the Great War and the lack of truth and knowledge about the Vietnam War both contribute to the attitudes that came to the fore after the 11 September attacks, and the willingness to dive back into war, to believe that the war was just, that came along with that. It's much easier to portray Nazis as evil and the war against them as just, rather than realize and embrace the complexity of Vietnam.
After another mass shooting in a school,one that was broadcast as it was happening by those in the middle of it, this thought: when Richard Dawkins has a sick burn for the people who don't want to contemplate regulation of their precious guns, it should be pretty clear where the wrong side of the debate is. Florida did shuffle a little bit on the path to controlling weapons, but did not do anything that might have fixed the problem. The Administration made vague gestures about one possible component of the problem, but didn't give it any real backing and tried to get an agency that has already said they don't have the authority to do anything about it the task.
The teachers of the state clamored for the things that are really needed to stop gun violence in schools, but there are more than a few people who think the answer is arming teachers with guns. Including the current administrator, who has disdain for the idea that children at school might have to train for a situation where someone wants to kill them. The students do not believe that more guns are the solution to this issue, and they're tired of being told they're children, their opinions don't matter, they're patsies of (nonexistent) conspiracies against gun owners, and that they shouldn't have a voice in this debate. Even though they're the ones who have been most affected by it, and were actually in the rooms where it happened. The students are having none of it, and are defusing conspiracies by making fun of them.
The general population wants more effective measures to keep guns out of society. The survivors of mass shootings want them to never happen again to anyone. Even corporations such as Wal-Mart recognize there needs to be something done about easy accessibility to weapons.
For some, restrictions on firearms are an affront to the Second Amendment, but the question of whether that Amendment is worth lives is one that must be considered -- which is a more honest look than many of the other pieces I have seen on the matter. Is the right to bear arms, in the context of a well-regulated militia, worth the reality that it will mean the deaths of innocents, children included? Is that a position anyone is willing to take and argue cogently from? While partisanship reigns in the minds of the country, it is difficult to make any progress on issues, and lots of people are pointing at the campaign contributions received by politicians as a source of the logjam. They might do better pointing at the way that the NRA systematically changed the interpretation of the Constitution in legal circles, so that when a properly-aligned ideologue had the opportunity to appoint justices, he could do so and put their view in place. And investigating the outsize influence an NRA lobbyist has on Florida legislators. They may also need to take a look at an NRA chief who would make Joseph McCarthy proud as he accuses people with different politics of being exploitative of tragedy and spokespeople who are trying to deflect attention through selective outrage and attempted distractions. While gun manufacturers rush to feed a demand brought on by any debate about limiting access to weapons, because the toxic narrative of a government coming to confiscate guns has taken such good root. Among other things.
Violence with guns is a systemic portion of United States culture, media, and government spending. The destruction wrought by rifles such as the AR-15 is much different than even the destruction wrought by handguns. Yet one of the common solutions proposed to mass shootings in schools is putting more guns in the school, usually in the form of putting firearms in the hands of teachers and other school officials. This is a terrible idea, and opposed by both teachers and students. Especially if they continue to double down on the idea that the mentally ill commit more and more violent crimes, a position that has no support and no evidence to back it in any way. That said, a combination of tightening access to weapons and increasing the amount of available health and mental health care for everyone to be able to access might help things. Which takes serious committment and funding to do. (MetaFilter has much to say on the matters of how things can be made better.) And there are possible court rulings that could be looked at to provide a precedent for restricting weapons.
Companies are finding themselves innundated with demands they cut ties with the NRA, and many are ending discount programs or other incentives that would have been offered in conjunction with NRA membership already. Several other companies are sticking with the NRA, at least for now.
One of the least effective responses to the crisis is a bill that cleared the Florida House demanding that schools prominently display a religious message, which sounds very much like a thing the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses have something to say about.
The people in charge have acted in ways that deserve rudeness. Politeness and civility help them to seem respectable and possibly composed of qualities that are virtuous. Several of the media outlets that cover these people do not give them the requisite dose of rudeness and derision they deserve. Satirical articles are a good entry point, but even then, the satire people are getting tired of being able to repost the same thing over and over again. One possible way of looking at a way forward mifhr be acknowledging the country was formed by people who were used to being the lowest, and that people, given the opportunity to rise above, have a habit of trying to establish themselves as higher when the next wave comes.
The Administration may have privately been grateful for something to have everyone focused on instead of their mounting scandal count. Which is, in itself, a giant scandal of unqualified people being allowed to administrate things they have no business being in charge of.
The plot to transform Congressional districts into places that structurally favored Republicans began much earlier than previously thought. And was in reaction to Democrats doing structural things to favor themselves. This is why districting needs to be taken out of partisan hands - because the temptation to tip the scales is just too great. And even more so when the partisans wanting their map show contempt and act to undermine the institution of the independent court.
Several states have decided you can be disenfranchised if you owe tickets, court fees, or other costs to the state. If that sounds suspiciously like a poll tax, you're on the same track as Robert Reich.
The divide between liberal and conservative cuts both ways - which makes Republicans out of touch with a segment of the country and economy that they really shouldn't be, especially if they're claiming to represent the people who produce wealth, innovate, and otherwise make the engine go.
Last out, A reason to vote always against anyone claiming to be a Republican - to punish the party's willingness to flout the rule of law and support those who do. A party that challenges bedrock requirements of functioning democracy disqualifies itself for consideration of any office.
And a reminder that opposition to the Administration is what is galvanizing the Democratic surge. And with a shot at retaking the houses of the legislature, it would appear politically wise to feed the incumbents all the intransigence that the Democrats suffered through in the Obama era.
Cheers. Recall that we live in a society where a sitting administrator wants to link the opposition party to the death of people. Which, perhaps, may be seen as tame in other parliamentarian countries, but the States could do with a lot less of partisanship that factionalizes everyone else. It makes the country significantly more vulnerable to influence operations that want to sow distrust. And that sort of thing is what the media is interested in covering, even if it helps that influence operation.
During the short-lived government shutdown, the White House comment line played a voicemail showing who they blamed for the shutdown, despite there being Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and a Republican president.
An EPA center that tests the effects of chemicals on children is being shuttered in moves that are intended to close down as much of government as possible. Yet these are the people who will ask us why we're not thinking of children on some thing they do want to do.
Having declared themselves to a particular side, it seems unlikely this administration will be able to get anything done with regard to peace between Israel and Palestine.
Women were and are disgusted at the state of politics -- and are now running for office so they can change that. I like this idea and hope that plenty of women run at all levels, because there are more than enough men who could (and probably should) be replaced. Women were running abortion services before they were legalized,
An adult film actress by the name of Stormy Daniels is suing Donald Trump over a non-disclosure agreement over an affair the two reportedly had before he was elected to office. She claims the non-disclosure agreement is void because the administrator never actually signed it.
Legislators in various states would like to make it a requirement of receiving Medicaid that you be able to work at a job. Which will be lethal to any person that needs state-sponsored health care and whose calculations for other benefits are dependent on what someone's Medicaid award is.
The United States House passed a bill that would put the burden on disabled people to tell businesses that are not complying with the ADA that they are not complying with the ADA, a bill that required help from a small amount of Democrats to pass. Because disabled people clearly have to be both legal scholars and have the spoons to properly complain, instead of businesses being told they have to follow the law and that punishment will be swift and serious if they don't.
Special Counsel Mueller indicted 13 Russian Federation citizens for their roles in interfering with the United States 2016 election, with significant amounts of detail about the methods used and the actions taken to achieve these ends. Which puts the lie to the claim of this Administration that Russian interference in the election was something other than the truth. It's also possible that the thirteen indicted are the ones that have enough evidence against them to stick, and there were many more at work.
A flunky thought, for a moment, that it would be a good idea to ignore a subpoena. That is a terrible idea, even if you don't think there's any reason why you should show up to one.
Mike Pence had an e-mail security compromise on the sensitive materials he was handling on off-government-server accounts. Yet I can hear the crickets chirping from the side insisting that someone else should be jailed for the way she handled e-mail on an off-government server.
Mathematical models attempting to predict where neglect and abuse will happen in children are often overgeneralizing from small data sets or measuring something else and claiming it's a measure of neglect.
Mr. Putin wants to make himself even more into a mystical and religious figure, which might slow down the problems he's having with being a mystical and religious figure, but might also accelerate them.
Since the Administration seems to be very unwilling to stop further interference in elections and prosecute the ones that are already known, we may not actually know whether anything can be done.
A long form piece on Paul Manafort and his entire career of using influence to corrupt people and gather cash from corrupted people. If someone had done their research on his offer, he probably would have been sent packing. Or so we think. It depends on the Special Counsel's investigation, I suppose, as to what we know about how deliberate Manafort's offer and its acceptance were.
The United Kingdom is facing a very peilous peril of its own making, as there are very few incentives to give it any more time than already required by law to make an orderly and smooth Brexit. Not to mention what is likely to happen to the already hostile, terrible, and punitive attempts to drive every immigrant out of the country that they can.
The United States Customs and Border Patrol hasn't been able to authenticate the data that is stored on chips on passports, and has known they can't do it since 2010. But hasn't done anything about it because that sort of material would mean less money and people going toward the idea of deporting brown-looking people to make White people feel like "their" country isn't composed of mostly brown people. Don't expect the white supremacists and racists to actually use racist or supremacist language, though. They've long since figured out how to couch their language in seeming academic thought or to make it seem to be about other subjects.
(Which is not to say they aren't training in physical arts as well.)
And yet, study after study manages to find the correct cause, but there are still a lot of people who aren't willing to talk about it. There's no reason to invoke the devil - it's cruel. And there's a lot of echoing things that have no basis in fact. And ignorance is not an acceptable excuse. (Have some words and phrases you can use when you want to engage someone and not offend them terribly.)
The center is giving way to the left and the right in elections worldwide, and for persons who believe a centrist model is essential to being able to govern, this is highly distressing news. (For those trying to form a coalition between various factions and create a government, our sympathies at the more difficult task ahead of you.)
The NDP has a lot to do in trying to make Vancouver more like the image that it presents to the rest of the world.
The obsession with the repeat of the Great War and the lack of truth and knowledge about the Vietnam War both contribute to the attitudes that came to the fore after the 11 September attacks, and the willingness to dive back into war, to believe that the war was just, that came along with that. It's much easier to portray Nazis as evil and the war against them as just, rather than realize and embrace the complexity of Vietnam.
After another mass shooting in a school,one that was broadcast as it was happening by those in the middle of it, this thought: when Richard Dawkins has a sick burn for the people who don't want to contemplate regulation of their precious guns, it should be pretty clear where the wrong side of the debate is. Florida did shuffle a little bit on the path to controlling weapons, but did not do anything that might have fixed the problem. The Administration made vague gestures about one possible component of the problem, but didn't give it any real backing and tried to get an agency that has already said they don't have the authority to do anything about it the task.
The teachers of the state clamored for the things that are really needed to stop gun violence in schools, but there are more than a few people who think the answer is arming teachers with guns. Including the current administrator, who has disdain for the idea that children at school might have to train for a situation where someone wants to kill them. The students do not believe that more guns are the solution to this issue, and they're tired of being told they're children, their opinions don't matter, they're patsies of (nonexistent) conspiracies against gun owners, and that they shouldn't have a voice in this debate. Even though they're the ones who have been most affected by it, and were actually in the rooms where it happened. The students are having none of it, and are defusing conspiracies by making fun of them.
The general population wants more effective measures to keep guns out of society. The survivors of mass shootings want them to never happen again to anyone. Even corporations such as Wal-Mart recognize there needs to be something done about easy accessibility to weapons.
For some, restrictions on firearms are an affront to the Second Amendment, but the question of whether that Amendment is worth lives is one that must be considered -- which is a more honest look than many of the other pieces I have seen on the matter. Is the right to bear arms, in the context of a well-regulated militia, worth the reality that it will mean the deaths of innocents, children included? Is that a position anyone is willing to take and argue cogently from? While partisanship reigns in the minds of the country, it is difficult to make any progress on issues, and lots of people are pointing at the campaign contributions received by politicians as a source of the logjam. They might do better pointing at the way that the NRA systematically changed the interpretation of the Constitution in legal circles, so that when a properly-aligned ideologue had the opportunity to appoint justices, he could do so and put their view in place. And investigating the outsize influence an NRA lobbyist has on Florida legislators. They may also need to take a look at an NRA chief who would make Joseph McCarthy proud as he accuses people with different politics of being exploitative of tragedy and spokespeople who are trying to deflect attention through selective outrage and attempted distractions. While gun manufacturers rush to feed a demand brought on by any debate about limiting access to weapons, because the toxic narrative of a government coming to confiscate guns has taken such good root. Among other things.
Violence with guns is a systemic portion of United States culture, media, and government spending. The destruction wrought by rifles such as the AR-15 is much different than even the destruction wrought by handguns. Yet one of the common solutions proposed to mass shootings in schools is putting more guns in the school, usually in the form of putting firearms in the hands of teachers and other school officials. This is a terrible idea, and opposed by both teachers and students. Especially if they continue to double down on the idea that the mentally ill commit more and more violent crimes, a position that has no support and no evidence to back it in any way. That said, a combination of tightening access to weapons and increasing the amount of available health and mental health care for everyone to be able to access might help things. Which takes serious committment and funding to do. (MetaFilter has much to say on the matters of how things can be made better.) And there are possible court rulings that could be looked at to provide a precedent for restricting weapons.
Companies are finding themselves innundated with demands they cut ties with the NRA, and many are ending discount programs or other incentives that would have been offered in conjunction with NRA membership already. Several other companies are sticking with the NRA, at least for now.
One of the least effective responses to the crisis is a bill that cleared the Florida House demanding that schools prominently display a religious message, which sounds very much like a thing the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses have something to say about.
The people in charge have acted in ways that deserve rudeness. Politeness and civility help them to seem respectable and possibly composed of qualities that are virtuous. Several of the media outlets that cover these people do not give them the requisite dose of rudeness and derision they deserve. Satirical articles are a good entry point, but even then, the satire people are getting tired of being able to repost the same thing over and over again. One possible way of looking at a way forward mifhr be acknowledging the country was formed by people who were used to being the lowest, and that people, given the opportunity to rise above, have a habit of trying to establish themselves as higher when the next wave comes.
The Administration may have privately been grateful for something to have everyone focused on instead of their mounting scandal count. Which is, in itself, a giant scandal of unqualified people being allowed to administrate things they have no business being in charge of.
The plot to transform Congressional districts into places that structurally favored Republicans began much earlier than previously thought. And was in reaction to Democrats doing structural things to favor themselves. This is why districting needs to be taken out of partisan hands - because the temptation to tip the scales is just too great. And even more so when the partisans wanting their map show contempt and act to undermine the institution of the independent court.
Several states have decided you can be disenfranchised if you owe tickets, court fees, or other costs to the state. If that sounds suspiciously like a poll tax, you're on the same track as Robert Reich.
The divide between liberal and conservative cuts both ways - which makes Republicans out of touch with a segment of the country and economy that they really shouldn't be, especially if they're claiming to represent the people who produce wealth, innovate, and otherwise make the engine go.
Last out, A reason to vote always against anyone claiming to be a Republican - to punish the party's willingness to flout the rule of law and support those who do. A party that challenges bedrock requirements of functioning democracy disqualifies itself for consideration of any office.
And a reminder that opposition to the Administration is what is galvanizing the Democratic surge. And with a shot at retaking the houses of the legislature, it would appear politically wise to feed the incumbents all the intransigence that the Democrats suffered through in the Obama era.