Politics Thread

[Berzerker]

he's one of the few people in Congress trying to hold back the swamp

[Berzerker]

Catherine Herridge claims CBS locked her out and took her files and now she's worried what might happen to her sources if CBS discloses their identities.

[EPW]

Now would be a good time for Mr Gaetz to jump off a cliff.

[Berzerker]

The Speaker Mike Johnson opposed warrantless spying by the FBI & NSA but has changed his mind after they briefed him on the necessity of ignoring the 4th Amendment.

Now would be a good time, Mr Gaetz, to start the process of removing the Speaker from office... and keep doing it until we find one member of Congress willing to take their oath seriously.

Or is this the new democracy where the state censors and spies at will

[BeBMan]

After Trump changed his stance on abortion (not he first time, IIRC), Arizona court goes back to some 19th century law, only to have Arizona Republicans like Kari Lake coming out against it?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68774959

[Berzerker]

[Berzerker]

Brazilian judge demands X censor accounts or get fines or worse

X says the judge gave them 2 hours to respond or be fined and targets of the censorship include journalists and members of Parliament and X is not allowed to inform the silenced why

I don't know the judge's reasons, I saw something vague about a recent attempted coup

Brazil has become a battleground for the USA v China as the competition over resources and trade escalates

Neocons playing the role of the ugly American have driven countries to China

[BeBMan]

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/08/trump-says-abortion-is-up-to-the-states-declines-to-endorse-national-limit-00151022

[Berzerker]

I wouldn't think so and we use oil to power civilization so Exxon gets the rap but we are the consumers

[Geronimo]

Is this analysis assigning 100% of "carbon emission" responsibility at the point of extraction Berz?

[Berzerker]

80% of human carbon emissions come from 50+ corporations with Exxon-Mobil the largest polluter

[Dauphin]

It's largely confected. The main aspects of the law had been around in the UK since at least the 80s, but only applicable in England and Wales. It's only just been adopted into Scottish law.

Big ****ing whoop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_5_of_the_Public_Order_Act_1986

[Berzerker]

'Scottish Police receive 4,000 complaints days after new Hate Speech law goes into effect. The majority of the complaints are related to a 2020 viral video where Scotland’s leader went on an anti-white rant. Humza Yousaf’s speech received more complaints than JK Rowling’s tweets about transgenderism.'

lol, hate crime/speech laws will need to be selectively enforced

[Berzerker]

[-Jrabbit]

You really need to cut back on the Kool-Aid, Berz. You seem to believe that Joe Biden personally fired Ukraine's prosecutor from his VP seat, and you act like this is a proven fact. I call BS.

You're also putting WAY too much faith into a censorship ruling by the 5th Circuit (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi) decided by a panel of 3 GOP-nominated judges.

It's part of the GOP's technique of targeting laws by judge-shopping -- filing often-dubious lawsuits in courtroom venues with only one judge, whom you know is sympathetic to your case, even if the case happened in Iowa, and the complainant is using a "recommended" lawyer from out of state who knows that the sympathetic, Trump-appointed judge is in Amarillo. So that's where he files the case. This end-run around will of the people is a favored technique being used routinely by conservatives since Biden's election.

I know it's pretty damned easy to act all high and mighty, saying "the Biden admin has lost another 1st Amendment case, they must be censoring everything now!" But the fact is, any hack lawyer bringing, say, an anti-abortion case to a federal court district with only one judge -- a very accommodating, very helpful judge out in Bum****, Idaho.

The fact that it takes endless appeals over (usually) multiple years to put things right - or get it to the Supremes - is a problem. But it doesn't mean the 5th Circuit free speech case you're so enamored of is anything more than just another political play. Hell, when he ruled on mifepristone, the judge (same guy, Kasmaryk) struck down parts of the law that were never mentioned in the actual case.