Interview:
Monday, October 31, 2022
Laboratories of Autocracy – David Pepper – It’s the States, Stupid! (Al Franken podcast)
The Former Ohio Dem State Chair on How State Legislatures are Dismantling Democracy
Pelosi's status as GOP campaign-ad villain faces new scrutiny after violent home invasion (Politico)
“We have an entire right-wing machine dedicated to promoting conspiracy theories, to brainwashing people, and to directing their anger towards specific leaders including Nancy Pelosi,” Wiener said. “That machine led directly to this attack.”...
Paul Pelosi attack prompts Elon Musk and political right to spread misinformation - The Washington Post
The rush to sow doubt about the assault on Pelosi's husband illustrates how aggressively influential figures on the right are seeking to dissuade the public from believing facts about the violence, seizing on the event to promote conspiracy theories and provoke distrust. The House speaker has long been a bugbear for the right, which has intensified its rhetorical blitz on her in recent years — even as extreme threats against members of Congress have increased...
Stephen Miller group’s radio ads accuses Biden of ‘racism’ towards white Americans - POLITICO
The claim that Harris said non-white citizens should be prioritized for disaster relief has been mischaracterized, according to fact checks. Another fact check found the comment from Biden about Covid relief ignored the entirety of his statement, as he was referring to how minority-owned businesses have been disproportionately impacted by the economic crisis...
When I started growing breasts as a teen boy, I got gender-affirming care without stigma (Think from NBC)
The double standard is glaring. And a recent viral interview between Jon Stewart and Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge about her state’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth points to a large part of the problem. Without being able to name a credible source, Rutledge claimed that 98% of youth with gender dysphoria would grow out of it. To which Stewart replied, “Wow, that’s an incredibly made-up figure.”...
Experts fear rising global ‘incel’ culture could provoke terrorism
Academics from the University of Exeter also noted an increasing overlap between incel followers and the far right, with online algorithms blamed for pushing young boys towards extreme rightwing ideology.
…
The incel – or "involuntarily celibate" – movement is an online subculture in which a misogynistic worldview is promoted by individuals who blame women for their lack of sexual activity.
…
Another involves Gabrielle Friel, who in 2019 amassed weapons in preparation for a terrorist attack in Scotland and who "idolised" incel Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in California in 2014. One concerning dynamic, said Brace, was how boys as young as 12 were being drawn into misogynistic ideology.
Twitter could split into strands allowing users to stage rows, Elon Musk says
Musk also responded positively to a tweet suggesting that the platform has different modes as in video gaming. A user said the platform could have a PvP (player versus player) mode "where you can start beef and mob each other on verified personal accounts", then a "roleplaying" mode for anonymous accounts with minimal moderation and a heavily moderated "normal Twitter" for everyone else.
Police offer new details in Paul Pelosi assault - POLITICO
While authorities have not detailed a motive, DePape's online history indicates that he subscribed to the discredited narrative that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate and espoused a range of bigoted and radical beliefs. He expressed anti-Semitic views and appeared to embrace the QAnon movement, which posits a secret cabal of pedophiles has been protected by people in power...
Penn State: students’ anger persists despite cancellation of far-right event | Pennsylvania | The Guardian
"Stein was deliberately egging people on so he could posit himself as a martyr," Ribaudo said. "He riled up the crowd, and I guess this worked."
GOP Secretary of State Candidates Scheduled to Appear with a White Nationalist and Conspiracy Theorists – Mother Jones
An ally of white nationalists; a former CEO and conspiracy theorist who tried to convince Donald Trump to use the National Guard to seize voting machines after the 2020 election; an Ohio math teacher who claims he discovered an algorithm showing that virtually every county in the United States was hacked to prevent Trump's reelection two years ago—these are people with whom Republican secretary of state candidates have forged alliances…
By Trump standards, Biden scored a ‘shocking’ economic victory
The core problem with Trump's boasts was that he had no idea what he was talking about. No one had explained the basics to him, so he kept insisting that 2.6% quarterly growth was completely unexpected — which was the opposite of the truth — and proof of his genius, which didn't make any sense. (His general illiteracy on the subject also led him to confuse quarterly and annual growth rates.)
But five years later, the question for Republicans remains the same: If 2.6% quarterly growth was amazing under Trump, why isn't it similarly "shocking" under Biden?…
Fox News and the GOP think crime is up, but the numbers don't agree
Republicans have invested a lot of time and money into priming the country to believe that Democrats have heralded in a new era of lawlessness…
IRS Looks Other Way as Churches Endorse Political Candidates — ProPublica
The Johnson Amendment does not prohibit churches from inviting political speakers or discussing positions that may seem partisan nor does it restrict voters from making faith-based decisions on who should represent them. But because donations to churches are tax-deductible and because churches don't have to file financial disclosures with the IRS, without such a rule donors seeking to influence elections could go undetected, said Andrew Seidel, vice president of strategic communications for the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
"If you pair the ability to wade into partisan politics with a total absence of financial oversight and transparency, you're essentially creating super PACs that are black holes," Seidel said.
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Discount Mueller Probe Ends In Complete Failure for Republicans (Opening Arguments podcast OA642)
But who will investigate the investigators? John Durham, as it turns out. And what will he find? F*ck all. Trump tried to have his own Mueller Probe to get to the bottom of all the deep state corruption that must have led to the Russia Investigation only to find that there wasn’t any of that. But the whole affair was a massive corruption of justice that has not been covered enough. Get the full OA breakdown!
Interview:
Courts did review Trump campaign ‘evidence’ of election fraud. Claims that say otherwise are wrong - PolitiFact
Although a number of lawsuits challenging the 2020 election's results were dismissed for procedural or jurisdictional reasons, it's inaccurate to say that judges refused to review the evidence of alleged fraud. Court records show that some judges dismissed cases after reviewing the evidence and determining it did not sufficiently prove election fraud…
How 'mule watchers' evolved from a Truth Social meme into a ballot drop box patrol
No such drop box fraud has ever been found in significant numbers. But that has not stopped conspiracy theories about "ballot mules" — who supposedly secretly drop off hundreds of fake ballots in the middle of the night at drop boxes or election sites nationwide — from taking hold on pro-Trump parts of the internet. The conspiracy theory got its biggest boost from the widely debunked propaganda film "2,000 Mules," which alleges such mules somehow changed the outcome of the 2020 election, even though repeated hand counts of ballots recertified the results...
Ted Cruz’s misleading claim that only Democratic cities take days to count votes - PolitiFact
It will inevitably take longer for high-population cities to count their ballots quickly than small-population rural areas do.
Finally, it's important to note that cities operate under ballot-handling parameters set by their states, which in some cases have been set by Republicans who occupy state-level offices…
Instagram post falsely says ‘2,000 Mules’ proves Democrats cheated - PolitiFact
Elections and law enforcement officials in battleground states have said that they have not received evidence to prove the allegations in the "2,000 Mules" movie that suggests widespread cheating via ballot drop boxes. Barr, attorney general under Trump, also publicly rejected the movie's premise…
‘A madness has taken hold’ ahead of US midterms: local election officials fear for safety
The anger coalesced into an anti-establishment movement, backed with unprecedented outside funding from a Connecticut millionaire and supported by the area's militia groups…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/27/us-midterms-rural-california-voters-election-officials-fear-for-safety
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/27/us-midterms-rural-california-voters-election-officials-fear-for-safety
Republican senator Tom Cotton brags about ignoring Trump impeachment evidence in new book
He writes: "My aides delivered a steady flow of papers and photocopied books, hidden underneath a fancy cover sheet labeled 'Supplementary Impeachment Materials', so nosy reporters sitting above us in the Senate gallery couldn't see what I was reading."…
Get-rich-quick schemes drained my town’s wealth. At a Christian conference, their legacy lives on
According to Pew, nearly half of evangelical Protestants never attended college, and more than half earn less than $50,000 annually (a third earn less than $30,000). Financial literacy is desperately needed in many of these communities, and while Life Surge offered some pragmatic advice on real estate, stocks and taxes, each speaker employed a litany of culture war rhetoric – prayer is needed in school, the snowflakes of cancel culture are coming for us, Hollywood hates Christians – implying an us v them worldview and fueling an ominous urgency for not only investment, but proselytization...
A Political Party Unhinged From Truth - The Atlantic
"To be clear: I am not referring to the sort of spinning, caricaturing, or routine dissembling one comes to expect from political campaigns of both parties. Rather, it is the wholesaling and mass consumption of dangerous, dehumanizing lies that concerns me. And in this regard, there is simply no question as to which party is guiltiest."
Saturday, October 29, 2022
The News Roundup – Domestic and International (The 1A) 2022-10-28
Domestic
As November approaches, the midterm elections are in full swing. Early and absentee voting is well underway. Pennsylvania Senate candidates Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman took the stage to debate in their hotly-contested race. And ballots in both Arizona and Nevada are being hand-counted.With that in mind, President Joe Biden is making last-minute trips around the country to bolster Democrats, talking to constituents about inflation and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s plans for Congress.
Elon Musk will finally, after months of speculation, complete his purchase of Twitter this week.
Interview:
International
Russian courts upheld WNBA star Brittney Griner’s sentence for traveling with vape cartridges containing hashish. Griner is facing nine years in a Russian penal colony.Clashes in Iran between protesters and authorities continued as demonstrators gathered at Mahsa Amini’s grave some 40 days after she was killed in police custody. Amini had been detained for not wearing a hijab.
Brazil’s presidential election is nearing its close. Sunday’s face-off between incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, is the result of neither candidate receiving more than 50 percent of the vote in the country’s general election.
Interview:
The Fox News response to the Pelosi attack, in 40 short seconds - The Washington Post
To suggest that the attack was a function of division is to equate an apparent attempted murder with mere political opposition. This isn't a guy standing outside Pelosi's house with a bullhorn, calling her names. This is — according to early reports — a guy inside her house striking her husband with a hammer. To credit this to "division," even based on the more-limited information available to DeAngelis at the moment, is to suggest that this is a natural endpoint of political disagreement...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/28/fox-news-response-pelosi-attack-40-short-seconds/
Posts Distort Misleading Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Data - FactCheck.org
"What we're actually seeing in the data is the exact opposite of what is being suggested by groups like ICAN — these vaccines are very safe. With, you know, a few very rare known exceptions," Belongia said. "But overall, it's very clear that the benefits of the vaccines greatly outweigh the risks."…
https://www.factcheck.org/2022/10/scicheck-posts-distort-misleading-analysis-of-covid-19-vaccine-safety-data/
https://www.factcheck.org/2022/10/scicheck-posts-distort-misleading-analysis-of-covid-19-vaccine-safety-data/
Massive Smocking Gun in Newly Revealed Eastman Docs! (Opening Arguments podcast OA641)
Big news! The smockingest of smocking guns was revealed by a judge who was so alarmed he had to share it with us! Get the full breakdown as to why this is final nail in the case against Trump. In the first segment, we talk about Republicans efforts to undermine student loan forgiveness. Since, you know, they can just be evil and someone that’s ok and they’re still going to win the midterms. Then a quick wildcard on Trump being subpoenaed by the Jan 6 committee.
Interview:
Youngkin shows how not to respond to the attack on Paul Pelosi
As a general rule, when politicians start a sentence, "There's no room for violence anywhere, but..." they should realize that sentence can't end well...
Paul Pelosi, husband of Nancy Pelosi, attacked in San Francisco home - The Washington Post
Paul Pelosi, 82, was taken to a hospital and underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and "serious injuries to his right arm and hands," according to the speaker's office. He is expected to make a full recovery.
The attack at the Pelosi home comes after a dramatic increase in threats since the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2001. This week alone, three men were convicted of aiding in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. In a separate case, a man was convicted Friday of threatening to kill Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)…
What happened in Coffee County, Georgia, with voting equipment? - The Washington Post
The Dominion Voting Systems software copied from Coffee County is used statewide in Georgia. State and federal officials say that security protocols make it very difficult for anyone to manipulate votes. But some security analysts say the data — circulated beyond a limited number of authorized officials — could give hackers a powerful tool to simulate voting machines and probe for weaknesses. They also fear that, short of manipulating future vote counts, bad actors could use the copied software to claim evidence of fraud, undermining trust in election outcomes...
Why does the US allow a controversial weedkiller banned across the world?
In 2011, AHS researchers reported that study participants who used paraquat or another pesticide called rotenone were more than twice as likely to develop Parkinson's disease as people who didn't use the chemicals...
Opinion | The Republican Double Standard That’s Endangering American Democracy - The New York Times
"A Republican victory in a tightly contested race means that Democrats' desires or schemes to corrupt it didn't pan out. Let freedom ring!
A Democratic victory means that George Soros cast a magic spell over voters while a global cabal of socialists and pedophiles used space beams to scramble the results that voting machines spit out."
Russia warns West: We can target your commercial satellites - The Jerusalem Post
A senior Russian foreign ministry official said that commercial satellites from the United States and its allies could become legitimate targets for Russia if they were involved in the war in Ukraine…
PolitiFact | No, COVID-19 PCR tests don’t put luciferase in your brain
And while some claims about luciferase and COVID-19 vaccines and tests appear couched in a biblical context, the enzyme doesn't refer to the devil. Luciferase is derived from the latin roots "lux," meaning "light," and "ferre," meaning "to carry," Soni said. "Lucifer translates to lightbearer, which is an apt description of luciferase assays."…
One of Dinesh D’Souza’s 2,000 alleged ‘mules’ sues, alleging defamation - The Washington Post
"Defendants never had any means to connect this video footage of voters such as Andrews with their individualized cell phone geolocation data," it adds later. "... Moreover, Defendants appear to lack any surveillance footage that actually shows any individual depositing ballots at multiple locations."…
Rural areas to receive $759 million in grants for high-speed internet | PBS NewsHour
The Agriculture Department announced Thursday it is making available $759 million in grants and loans to enable rural communities to access high-speed internet, part of the broader $65 billion push for high-speed connectivity from last year's infrastructure law…
Friday, October 28, 2022
Opinion | Republicans Have No Inflation Plan - The New York Times
"The bottom line is that while the G.O.P.'s election strategy is all about blaming the Biden administration for inflation, the Republican Party doesn't actually have any plan to reduce inflation. To the extent it has an economic plan at all, it would make inflation worse."
Biden says Shell is misusing its profits by not cutting gas prices | Reuters
Shell earlier on Thursday said its third-quarter profit was a near-record $9.45 billion, as it sharply boosted its dividend by 15% and announced plans to buy $4 billion more of stock over the next three months.../cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/T6IKF3KD5RPEJJJ2ZFZ3HDP4DA.jpg)
MTG: GOP-Led House Will Probe Firms That Stopped Donations After Jan 6
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Wednesday that if the GOP wins a majority in Congress, it will investigate companies that stopped donating to them after the Capitol riot…
No, Eagles fans didn’t loudly boo Jill Biden, and other news literacy lessons - The Washington Post
The material in this post comes from the Sift, the organization's newsletter for educators, which has nearly 22,000 subscribers. Published weekly during the school year, it explores timely examples of misinformation, addresses media and press freedom topics, explores social media trends and issues, and includes discussion prompts and activities for the classroom. Get Smart About News, modeled on the Sift, is a free weekly newsletter for the public...
Mehmet Oz-John Fetterman debate's alarming abortion quote
As Dartmouth professor Randall Balmer, author of "Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right," outlined in Politico after Roe v. Wade was overturned, anti-abortion sentiment did not become a central issue for conservative evangelical leaders until after the 1978 midterms, five years after Roe and amidst efforts by the IRS to rescind the tax-exempt status of church-sponsored whites-only segregation academies. Before the late '70s, abortion had largely been considered a Catholic issue, and many evangelical leaders even actively supported the legalization of abortion. That changed when a group of men, considered the architects of the religious right, discovered how anti-abortion sentiment could be used to turn out white voters...
John Durham Was Trump’s Answer to Robert Mueller. His Investigation Went Nowhere.
John Durham has used the criminal justice system to try to score political points. What he has not done is search for the truth.
Durham has developed and launched just two prosecutions in connection with his probe of the Justice Department and FBI's handling of the Trump-Russia case.
Remarkably, neither targeted officials from the Justice Department or the FBI. He still lost both cases...
Turning Point USA Event Canceled After 100-Person Brawl at UC Davis
Some of those involved in the fighting reportedly wore "apparel labeled Proud Boys," the college noted…
Over 2,000 Guardian readers told us about their long Covid fight. Here are their stories
'A year on, I'm still bed bound in a dark quiet room'
The doctors leaving anti-abortion states: ‘I couldn’t do my job at all’
The mother was 21 weeks pregnant with identical twins, which shared one placenta. One of the twins was almost certainly going to die, which would most likely have killed the other twin without intervention.
Shamshirsaz wanted to use a selective, lifesaving procedure: by stopping the blood flow to the unhealthy twin, he could save the other's life.
In Texas, he didn't have that option...
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Mike Pence: Americans have no right to 'freedom from religion'
Former Vice President Mike Pence claimed during a Wednesday appearance on Fox Business that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution does not protect Americans from having other people's faiths forced upon them…
What was changed in Dinesh D'Souza's "2,000 Mules" book after it was recalled? : NPR
D'Souza had previously described left-wing nonprofits as "doing vote trafficking."
The newly-released book tones down that phrase to "potentially storing ballots."…
Opinion | Putin Is Onto Us - The New York Times
In short: Putin is now fighting a ground war to break through Ukraine's lines and a two-front energy war to break Ukraine's will and that of its allies. He's trying to smash Ukraine's electricity system to ensure a long, cold winter there while putting himself in position (in ways that I'll explain) to drive up energy costs for all of Ukraine's allies. And because we — America and the West — do not have an energy strategy in place to dampen the impact of Putin's energy bomb, this is a frightening prospect...
Opinion | Trump lets the truth slip about the MAGA base — and today’s GOP - The Washington Post
In Trump's own telling, GOP base voters must be told that when they lose, they've been robbed — the outcome is illegitimate by definition. Scores of other GOP candidates are running for positions of control over elections — while essentially vowing to treat future elections as subject to nullification — which makes Trump's point harder to deny...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/26/trump-lets-truth-slip-about-maga-base-todays-gop/
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