Sunday, February 28, 2021

Talk Heathen 05.08 with Eric Murphy and Denis Loubet

SHOW TIME-STAMPS

00:00​ Intro
05:32​ Alejandro-CA | Ontological Argument For God
31:24​ Charismatic Catholic-TX | Universe Is Finely Tuned
48:08​ Deborah-OR | How Can God Coexist With Evil?
1:01:56​ Jonathan-AZ | (TRIGGER WARNING) Objective Morality And Assault
1:18:38​ GA-TX | Vision Shows Orion Represents God
1:34:10​ Ed-AZ | Atheists Aren't So Bad After All
Interview: 

The Atheist Experience 25.08 with Matt Dillahunty and ObjectivelyDan

SHOW TIME-STAMPS

00:00​ Intro and Announcements
11:27​ Travis-PA | Flying Paranormal Experiences
23:14​ Alex-MO | The Hard Atheist Position
27:16​ Heath-SC | Good Evidence Of God
40:15​ Robin-D.C. | God's Direct Revelation
49:52​ Adam-IL | Illogical Arguments For God
1:13:14​ Harmon-MI | The Third Eye's Pineal Gland...And DMT
1:40:57​ Outro
Interview: 

The Catholic Church vs. a Mom's OnlyFans Page (Hemant Mehta and Jessica Bluemke, The Friendly Athiest podast #363)

— This church staffer is super-racist. (1:29)
— A Catholic School expelled three kids after learning about their mom’s OnlyFans account. (15:40)
— Should a judge have booted a juror who said God told him about the suspect’s guilt before jury deliberations began? (22:29)
— Tennessee Republicans want rapists to have veto power over their victims’ abortions. (35:48)
— Ken Ham says the Perseverance rover’s budget should’ve been spent on Creationism. (40:50)
— Rep. Al Green gave a stirring speech condemning Christians using God to justify their opposition to the Equality Act. (43:38)
— A Texas bishop blamed atheism for all of society’s problems. (46:18)
— A heavy metal musician from Poland is fighting back against blasphemy charges. (50:40)
— Progressive evangelicals are speaking out against Christian Nationalism, but it’s not enough. (54:50)
Interview: 

Louisiana police trooper kicked and dragged Black man who died in custody, records show | Louisiana | The Guardian

...The AP last year published a 27-second audio clip from Hollingsworth's body camera in which he can be heard telling a colleague: "I beat the ever-living fuck out of" Greene before he "all of a sudden he just went limp"...


Genetically Modified Skeptic, How to un-F#cK your portfolio (The Phil Ferguson Show podcast #372)

Interview with Drew. His YouTube channel is "Genetically Modified Skeptic". We talk about his show and his escape from religion.

Investing Skeptically: How to un-F#cK your portfolio! Did you panic and sell? Do you own too much of one stock? This segment provides some ideas on how to fix it!
Interview: 

MSNBC's Chris Hayes: CPAC Reveals A GOP Fixated On 'Cultural Grievance' Over Policy | HuffPost

... Hayes said that conservatives at the conference were concerned more about Hasbro's upcoming gender-neutral Potato Head doll instead of actual governing...


My Deconversion Story

Fitting my whole life's story into one video was harder than I thought! I'll probably go in-depth on more of my experiences in the future, so let me know if you're curious about anything else!
https://youtu.be/4p-PdYjpGj8

Making Violence Transparent: Ranking Police Departments in Major U.S. Cities to Make Black Lives Matter: Public Integrity: Vol 23, No 2

This study suggests that police professionalism can both reduce homicides and prevent unnecessary police-related civilian deaths (PRCD).


GOP congressman headlines conference where organizers push white nationalist rhetoric - ABC News

... On Friday night, Gosar's keynote was followed by a speech by Fuentes that was filled with white grievance and far-right anti-immigration rhetoric. "If [America] loses its white demographic core … then this is not America anymore," the AFPAC founder told the crowd...


Opinion | Bernie Sanders wants you to know the high cost of our low minimum wage - The Washington Post

...All too many Americans work full-time, but are paid so little that they still need to rely on such government benefits as food stamps and Medicaid to get by. In his view, that amounts to corporate welfare. "Why should the taxpayers of our country," Sanders said Thursday, "many of whom are struggling economically as a result of the pandemic, be subsidizing the starvation wages being paid at some of the largest and most profitable corporations in America?"...


Qdroxychloroquine®

Ask your doctor if Qdroxychloroquine® is right for you and take back your life.
https://youtu.be/RG3XMSKTIV0

U.S. diplomat openly calls for Christian nation-states, rails against Jews - POLITICO

"Jesus Christ came to save the whole world from the Jews — the founders of the original Anti-Christ religion, they who are the seed of the Serpent, that brood of vipers," states an Oct. 4 blog post signed "Fritz Berggren, PhD" and titled "Jews are Not God's Chosen People. Judeo-Christian is Anti-Christ."


Kimberly Guilfoyle's Wild CPAC Prediction About Trump Puzzles Pretty Much Everyone | HuffPost

They're telling a story And in their story, Trump is still POTUS, he was simply robbed of his rightful position by the evil Socialists He's toiling away diligently at his desk in Mar-a-Lago, his own White House of the Confederacy Doesn't matter that the story is batshit crazy...


The Ticket Trap (Reveal podcast)

Sports, theater and concert fans are itching for events to start happening again. So are clever ticket sellers who’ve figured out ways to cash in on unsuspecting customers shopping online.
Interview: 

Women Leaving Islam: Stories of Courage and Change (with Maryam Namazie)

Maryam Namazie is a British-Iranian human rights activist and producer of the new documentary, "Women Leaving Islam." In this show, she speaks about the film, the stories, and the lives impacted by this high-control religion.
Interview: 

SCOTUS News! Trump's Taxes, Affirmative Action, and Title X (Opening Arguments podcast OA468)

Normally we're bracing ourselves every time there's SCOTUS news, but this time there's actually some good! Cy Vance HAS TRUMP'S TAX RETURNS. Ok that's pretty much the end of the unambiguously good news. But listen in as Andrew gives us the expert analysis on the anti-affirmative action case and the Title X case!

Before that, we talk about what elections actually would have looked like under Lessig's proportional system from last episode. The results are very fascinating! Yay spreadsheets! We finish off with a quick answer to the question, "could the Senate have voted anonymously on impeachment?"
Interview: 


Saturday, February 27, 2021

The News Roundup — Domestic (The 1A) 2021-02-26

Over 500,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States. The milestone comes as we approach a year of the pandemic directly impacting the way many of us work and live. Drug companies Pfizer and Moderna say they are both planning to boost shipments of the vaccine to the U.S. soon.

And this was another week where Washington failed to pass any economic relief related to the pandemic. Reports suggest that the current package will move through Congress with little to no Republican support. Some of the most high-profile sticking points include an increase of the federal minimum wage to $15 and $1,400 stimulus checks for qualified Americans.

Meanwhile, former Capitol security officers testified before Congress about the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6. FBI officials sent the leaders of Capitol security an email about potentially violent threats on Jan. 5, but former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said the information didn’t reach him in time. Sund resigned from his office on Jan. 8.
Interview: 


The News Roundup — International (The 1A) 2021-02-26

The Biden administration conducted its first known military offensive operation this week. The U.S. launched airstrikes in Syria aimed at militia groups backed by Iran. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 22 militiamen were killed.

The Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Luca Attanasio, was killed in an attack on a United Nations convoy earlier this week. His driver, Mustapha Milambo, and another Italian official, Vittorio Iacovacci, also died. They were attacked near the city of Goma while they were traveling to a World Food Program site.

The government in Hong Kong says that candidates for local office will now be required to swear loyalty to Beijing and the Communist Party.

From The Guardian’s reporting:
Government critics and western leaders have accused Beijing of going back on its word and effectively ending the “one country, two systems” framework for governing the financial hub. The bill allows for the rules to be applied retrospectively and extends oath-taking requirements to district councillors – local politicians who, since elections in late 2019, are overwhelmingly pro-democratic. Under the amendments they must pledge allegiance to Hong Kong as a special administrative region of China, and the city’s mini-constitution, the basic law.
In a historic case, a Syrian agent was convicted in Germany for complicity in crimes against humanity. The BBC reports Eyad al-Gharib, 44, was charged with bringing at least 30 protesters to a prison in Damascus to be tortured in 2011. The case is the first of its kind.

And the push to distribute vaccines for COVID-19 continues around the world. We get to those stories, get the latest on the airstrikes and more on this global edition of the News Roundup.
Interview: 

Opinion | The GOP’s strategy for retaking power is uglier than you think - The Washington Post

Republicans are openly boasting that their ability to take back the House next year will gain a big lift from extreme gerrymanders. Some experts believe they can do that even if Democrats win the national House popular vote by a margin similar to that of 2020.

More than 1,400 evangelicals, other faith leaders condemn religion at insurrection as ‘heretical’ - The Washington Post

..."the god of QAnon and the Proud Boys and their fellow travelers is not the God of Jesus Christ but the ancient serpent of Eden, which Jesus called 'a murderer from the beginning.' "
He added: "The way of Jesus Christ is a very different way from that one."...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/evangelicals-condemn-attack-on-capitol-jan-6/2021/02/26/c0d8a26e-779b-11eb-948d-19472e683521_story.html


Thousands of Migrant Children Detained in Resumption of Trump-Era Policies - The New York Times

"If Trump hadn't expelled all these children, the arrivals would have been staggered and we wouldn't be where we are now," Ms. Frye said.


Biden is hiking the cost of carbon. It will change how the U.S. tackles global warming. - The Washington Post

...While this is not a new tax that consumers would have to pay, it would make it harder for fossil fuel projects to win government approval by factoring in their long-term costs to society...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/02/26/biden-cost-climate-change/


Sanders, Wyden explore tax penalties on corporations paying below $15 an hour - The Washington Post

The tax provisions represent a backdoor attempt to raise worker pay after the Senate's parliamentarian ruled out the wage hike...


Fact-checking whether Democrats’ ‘wish list’ is in $1.9 trillion relief bill - PolitiFact



Jerry Nadler didn’t say ‘God has no authority in the House of Representatives’ - PolitiFact

...Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., didn't say that. He said: "What any religious tradition describes as God's will is no concern of this Congress," a reference to the constitutional separation between church and state...



Tom Cotton falsely claims Joe Biden halted the deportation of criminals - PolitiFact

...Biden's administration ordered a 100-day deportation pause, but it did not apply to criminals such as murderers, rapists, terrorists or gang members...


'A Red Alert for Our Planet': New UN Report Shows Radically Bolder Action Needed to Hit 1.5°C Target | Common Dreams News

"It's staggering how far off track countries are to dealing with the climate crisis."


Misinformation-spewing cable companies come under scrutiny

... Washington Post columnist Max Boot suggested Comcast might soon "need to step in and kick Fox News off," as a consequence of its assistance to Trump's incitement of insurrection. A similar suggestion by Democratic members of Congress ignited considerable controversy and became a subject of contention at a subsequent hearing on "disinformation and extremism in the media."...


Ziya Tong on Realities We Don't See (Sean Carroll, Mindscape podcast)

It’s a truism that what we see about the world is a small fraction of all that exists. At the simplest level of physics and biology, our senses are drastically limited; we only see a narrow spectrum of electromagnetic waves, and we only hear a narrow band of sound. We don’t feel neutrinos or dark matter at all, even as they pass through our bodies, and we can’t perceive microscopic objects. While science can help us overcome some of these limitations, they do shape how we think about the world. Ziya Tong takes this idea and expands it to include the parts of our social and moral worlds that are effectively invisible to us — from where our food comes from to how we decide how wealth is allocated in society.

Ziya Tong received a B.A. in psychology and sociology from the University of British Columbia, and an M.A. in communications from McGill University. She has served as host, writer, director, producer, and reporter from a number of science programs, most notably Daily Planet on Discovery Canada. She is a Trustee of the World Wildlife Fund, and served on the Board of WWF Canada. Her book The Reality Bubble: How Science Reveals the Hidden Truths that Shape Our World was published in 2019.
Interview: 

Al Gives His Closing Argument for the Impeachment Trial (February 9, 2021)

Any intellectually honest Republican Senator would vote to convict after hearing this. Unfortunately, that’s not near enough.
Interview: 

Demolishing the Electoral College, with Lawrence Lessig (Opening Arguments podcast OA467)

Harvard Law Professor and activist Lawrence Lessig joins us to talk about his ongoing efforts to get rid of the Electoral College. It's a war being fought on multiple fronts, but Professor Lessig's current effort is to force states to assign delegates proportionally. The all or nothing system we have now is not actually written into the Constitution. Listen in for the full breakdown!
Interview: 

Falling sperm counts 'threaten human survival', expert warns

"Chemicals in our environment and unhealthy lifestyle practices in our modern world are disrupting our hormonal balance, causing various degrees of reproductive havoc," she writes.


Pentagon report warns of threat from white supremacists inside the military

A small number of extremists within the ranks carry the potential to carry out "high-impact" actions, the report says...


PolitiFact | Joe Biden stumbled over his words in a recent speech

During a recent speech, Joe Biden stumbled over the words "I'm eager." He did not say a racial slur.


PolitiFact | No, Biden is not separating families entering the country

The children in federal care were not separated from their parents; they arrived unaccompanied.....


OLBERMANN VS...McCONNELL CAVES; NOW ONLY THE DEMS CAN STOP TRUMP'S NEXT ...

As Mitch McConnell tells he will "absolutely" support Trump if he gains the Republican nomination in 2024 there is now no longer any internal GOP guardrail to prevent a second attack on democracy like the one Republican leadership attempted on January 6. 
The time of appeasing the fascists is now over. The "9/11 Commission" style investigation will only waste the Democrats' control of the presidency and both houses of Congress. They must go directly to a Special Prosecutor to put Trump, McCarthy, Hawley, Cruz, and the other seditionists in jail. They must use the Insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump from further office. They must eliminate the filibuster and enact every conceivable piece of legislation to fight voting suppression. There can be no discussions about the future of democracy with the Republican-Fascists. There is no one left in that party of traitors with whom one can discuss.

Friday, February 26, 2021

Obama says reparations 'justified' | TheHill

... Under the bill, the commission tasked with exploring reparations would examine slavery and discrimination in the country since 1619. It would also be required to make recommendations for remedies for Black Americans...


RWW News: 'Prophet' Robin Bullock Insists That Biden 'Is Not the President'

Self-proclaimed "prophet" Robin Bullock says that Biden "is not the president" and that his "sole purpose" is to delegitimize the prophets by preventing the prophecies that Trump would serve a second term from coming true.
https://youtu.be/eHM6E-Voy-4

What the arrests of Beverly Hills residents say about the US Capitol attack

What the arrests of Beverly Hills residents say about the US Capitol attack
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/25/beverly-hills-arrests-us-capitol-attack


Bernie Sanders: US sick of subsidizing 'starvation wages' at Walmart and McDonald's

...Walmart spent $8.3bn on stock buybacks in 2017, the Walton family, the chain's founders, are worth over $200bn and have increased their wealth by $50bn since the start of the pandemic, said Sanders. And yet the company "cannot afford to pay its workers at least $15 an hour"...


Mitch McConnell Says He’ll Support Trump in 2024 After Blaming Him for Capitol Riot

Asked directly by Fox News anchor Bret Baier if he would support Trump should he become the GOP nominee in 2024, McConnell did not hesitate to say "absolutely."

Opinion | Stephen Miller’s shadow war against Biden’s border policies, explained - The Washington Post

... All this is nonsense. On migrant children, Biden has not restarted Trump's policies. What Biden is doing has nothing in common with "kids in cages." And none of this proves Trump was right in any way. Here's a quick corrective...


PolitiFact | Misleading video takes Pelosi out of context on smear tactics

A video purportedly showing Pelosi describing how to smear political opponents takes her out of context and misleadingly captions her remarks. She was actually criticizing Republicans for engaging in smear tactics, not advocating that Democrats do so...


PolitiFact | Group makes bogus attack on HR 1 over congressional salaries

...But there's no such provision in the bill, and Act for America did not reply to our requests for evidence. After we inquired about the claims, we noticed that the webpage no longer included the $600,000 figure...


Los Angeles Sheriff's deputies say gangs targeting "young Latinos" operate within department - CBS News

"There's been multiple occasions where … they say, 'Hey, we got a guy that has a gun and he's running from us.' In reality that person never had a gun," one deputy said. "And they would say, oh, it was a phantom gun. It was something that really wasn't there."


Thursday, February 25, 2021

Biden squeezed on immigration policy, bracing for border crisis - The Washington Post

... Miller told them that the Democrats' 2010 midterm defeats were the result of President Barack Obama focusing on health-care reform instead of economic anxiety.
"I said: If you think Obama focusing on health care during the recession was a misalignment of priorities, that is nothing compared to opening America's borders and shutting down enforcement during economically ravaging pandemic," Miller said in an interview. "From a purely political standpoint, this is a recipe for Democrats to have an historic drubbing in the midterms if we can make it even as big an issue or bigger than Obamacare."...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/biden-squeezed-on-immigration-policy-bracing-for-border-crisis/2021/02/24/4c7dbc5c-76b9-11eb-948d-19472e683521_story.html


1 in 6 Gen Z adults are LGBT, Gallup survey shows. And this number could continue to grow. - The Washington Post

...Today's teenagers have all this information at their fingertips...


Sen. Ron Johnson faces bipartisan backlash for blaming 'fake Trump protesters' for insurrection - The Washington Post

"It's a disservice to the people he serves to continue lying to them like this. It's dangerous and it must stop."


Biden is reopening temporary shelters for migrant children - Vox

Increasing numbers of migrant children are arriving on the border, and the shelter system for them is under strain...


Iowa Republicans fast-tracking dramatic election changes - ABC News

"Instead of dealing with real issues these legislatures are revoking access to the ballot," she said. "The motivation is not to secure an election, the motivation is to undermine access to the ballot."


Mike Pence rallies Republicans to vote against COVID relief bill backed by a majority of Americans | Salon.com

"All of us will have differences of opinions," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Maine, who has been a staunch supporter of the $15 wage hike, "This is a 1.9 trillion dollar bill, I have differences and concerns about this bill," he said, "but at the end of the day we are going to support the President of the United States."


60 percent of Americans support eight-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants: poll | TheHill

...Despite the support, the White House is expected to have a hard time winning GOP votes for the package, which several Republican lawmakers have already panned as an effort to reverse the polices of the Trump administration...


Americans are warming up to higher government spending — Quartz

...59% of Americans approved of president Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package. This included 43% of Republicans or Republican-leaning voters. Around 48% of respondents thought, in fact, that the package was too small, and that the administration needs to spend more to kickstart economic growth and save jobs and businesses...


The GOP’s increasingly novel relationship with the Constitution - The Washington Post

... The most significant examples were the many far-flung attempts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss, which were nearly universally rejected by the courts — and which often notably ran afoul of the party's traditional federalist, states'-rights bent. But even surrounding that effort and the 2020 election, several Republicans have advanced some interesting ideas about the Constitution...


'Like a bad joke': Al Jazeera staff bemused at rightwing US venture | Al Jazeera | The Guardian

...There was logic in reaching out to the centre-right, he added. "They've found that they cannot go into the Trump heartland because it's too hard to play there … They found that this centre-right is very unappreciated and has problems with their narrative and are finding it hard to push against the hardcore Trumpists."...


What Is The Equality Act? Anti-Discrimination Law Explained : NPR

...Importantly, the bill also explicitly says that it trumps the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (commonly known by its acronym RFRA). The law, passed in 1993, set a higher bar for the government to defend laws if people argued those laws infringed upon religious freedom...


Trump’s Next Line of Defense - The Atlantic

In his response to an adverse decision by the Supreme Court, the former president previewed an argument he's likely to keep using...


Family: Navy vet died after police knelt on his neck - ABC News

"I trusted the police because I thought they knew what they were doing but he was actually passive and visibly not dangerous or a threat so, it was absolutely unnecessary what they did to him," she said.


Matt Gaetz is training for conspiracy-driven fight against voting machines - Axios

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) joined a group of conservatives last week at a training session for activists readying to combat the continued use of the voting technology that propelled Trumpworld's 2020 election-theft conspiracy theories...


The future of QAnon - Vox

... QAnon could perhaps be best understood as a religious movement of sorts that places faith above accuracy, and believes in, above everything else, a final judgment for sinners where, to loosely quote Philippians 2:10-11, every knee shall bend and every tongue shall confess. It's just that to QAnon, "sinners" are "all Democrats, and most celebrities" and the tongues of all would be confessing that Donald Trump has defeated ultimate evil... 
 ... Basically, our political leaders really underestimate just how much a huge portion of the country values the ability to piss off liberals. And how much those who love to see elites angry/uncomfortable/upset are willing to excuse the people who can deliver on "triggering the libs." Marjorie Taylor Greene is a perfect example of this type of person. She is a particular brand of politician who feeds off outrage and uses it to acquire political power. For that reason, I think trying to make her the face of the GOP could absolutely backfire...

Report: On Top of Everything Else, Ted Cruz Might Have Broken the Law | Vanity Fair

It sure sounds like the senator funneled political donations into his own pocket...









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