Nobody Cares: PRS

[Katheryne Helendale]

Wow. In what world is THAT true?

 

[Free]

Wow. In what world is THAT true?

The one where people before they are 30 actually know what a retirement account is.

 

[Free]

The man knows how to cause a turkey bone to get stuck in someone's throat.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Ouch. The background to this is that an independent report has severely criticised the conditions in which the Home Office houses asylum-seekers while their applications are considered and adjudicated (I've done some voluntary work helping asylum seekers in the past, and can confirm the system is shambolic).

Anyway, Caroline Nokes, the Home Office minister responsible for this, was questioned on the matter by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee. It did not go well for her.


(main story here: WATCH: Immigration minister Caroline Nokes humiliated in fiery committee clash).

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Hillary Clinton wrote an article gave an interview in The Guardian yesterday which has been much -- and deservedly -- criticised:

 

[Dillon Levenque]

I think the Guardian is possibly making unfounded assumptions. I don't see that 'tendency' expressed much around here, for instance. What I do think is that but for that handful of votes in Wisconsin and other place, we would not have a president who is clearly incapable of holding that office or any other, and who shames us before the world with almost every word.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The Guardian simply published HRC's interview, the content of which I found pretty objectionable, too.

There's no question that HRC would have been a much better president than Trump, but the same can be said for most of the population of the USA, I would have thought. But I think Julia Carrie Wong's point is that the fact she's supporting a key misunderstanding about immigration and asylum in Europe that's a commonplace of the European far right should give us serious cause for concern about her.

Put it like this. If the British political system were so messed up that I had the choice of voting to have Theresa May as Head of Government as opposed to Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson, I'd vote for Theresa May, but I wouldn't be happy about it. What HRC was saying in the article puts her to the right of Theresa May.

We've learned the hard way in the UK that trying to appease the far right over immigration doesn't work, since it accepts their contention that the free movement of people is something undesirable that needs to be controlled, and racists and the far right can always demand harsher controls.

Instead, to my mind, we should be making the positive case that immigration and freedom of movement are desirable for any number of reasons, that complaints about them are generally smokescreens to hide the effects of failed economic policies, and that the way to stem the flow of asylum seekers into Europe is to do something to stop the wars, poverty and ecological disasters from which they're trying to escape.

Teachers in Syria or engineers in sub-Saharan Africa don't just decide they want to pursue new careers as cleaners or uber drivers in Europe -- they're trying to remove themselves and their families from intolerable conditions back home.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I shudder to think of how many godly, conservative, straight little children were turned into gay liberals by witnessing this degenerate pornography. Shame on you, NBC.

 

[Dillon Levenque]

The Guardian simply published HRC's interview, the content of which I found pretty objectionable, too.

There's no question that HRC would have been a much better president than Trump, but the same can be said for most of the population of the USA, I would have thought. But I think Julia Carrie Wong's point is that the fact she's supporting a key misunderstanding about immigration and asylum in Europe that's a commonplace of the European far right should give us serious cause for concern about her.

Put it like this. If the British political system were so messed up that I had the choice of voting to have Theresa May as Head of Government as opposed to Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson, I'd vote for Theresa May, but I wouldn't be happy about it. What HRC was saying in the article puts her to the right of Theresa May.

We've learned the hard way in the UK that trying to appease the far right over immigration doesn't work, since it accepts their contention that the free movement of people is something undesirable that needs to be controlled, and racists and the far right can always demand harsher controls.

Instead, to my mind, we should be making the positive case that immigration and freedom of movement are desirable for any number of reasons, that complaints about them are generally smokescreens to hide the effects of failed economic policies, and that the way to stem the flow of asylum seekers into Europe is to do something to stop the wars, poverty and ecological disasters from which they're trying to escape.

Teachers in Syria or engineers in sub-Saharan Africa don't just decide they want to pursue new careers as cleaners or uber drivers in Europe -- they're trying to remove themselves and their families from intolerable conditions back home.

I should have been more precise. I wasn't arguing with the Guardian's points about the (surprising, to me anyway) contents of Hillary's speech. I just took exception to the idea we all think things would be 'fine' with her as president. There are plenty of potential objections (not shared with all here, I realize) with Hillary Clinton, but at least she knows what the hell she's doing. I was then and am now in almost 'anyone but Trump' mode. He's a joke, and a dirty one.

 

[Soen Eber]

Democrats Plan to Pursue Most Aggressive Gun-Control Legislation in Decades

So the Democrats have chosen to energize moderate Republicans instead of using wedge issues to build a larger base focusing on health care and wage equity.

How very smart.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I would say the Never Again folks definitely voted for Democrats they expected to start the ball rolling on some effective gun control.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The results of a major transnational study on public belief in conspiracy theories have been released today. Conspiracy theories are apparently now very much part of mainstream political discourse in both the USA and Europe, and are (perhaps not unsurprisingly) far more popular with supporters of Donald Trump, European populist parties, and Brexit than they are with the rest of us:

Brexit and Trump voters more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, survey study shows

Study shows 60% of Britons believe in conspiracy theories

 

[Free]

So the Democrats have chosen to energize moderate Republicans instead of using wedge issues to build a larger base focusing on health care and wage equity.

How very smart.

They campaigned on the issue and won. What are they supposed to do, ignore the voters who put them there?

 

[Ashiri]

The results of a major transnational study on public belief in conspiracy theories have been released today. Conspiracy theories are apparently now very much part of mainstream political discourse in both the USA and Europe, and are (perhaps not unsurprisingly) far more popular with supporters of Donald Trump, European populist parties, and Brexit than they are with the rest of us:

Brexit and Trump voters more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, survey study shows

Study shows 60% of Britons believe in conspiracy theories

That second story ties in with one they did on populism with regard some of the beliefs and questions: How populist are you?

In all surveyed countries apart from Germany, about half the respondents got their news from social media, with Facebook the preferred platform followed by YouTube. Getting news from social media was less likely to be associated with complete scepticism of conspiracy theories – much less likely in countries such as the US and Italy.

Why am I not surprised?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Contemporary witchcraft -- traditional beliefs co-opted and sanitised as a mass-market self-help commodity: The Commodification of Witchcraft Spells Trouble

I found it interesting, anyway.

 

[Soen Eber]

Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale

 

[Soen Eber]

They campaigned on the issue and won. What are they supposed to do, ignore the voters who put them there?

Do the same thing, but with better optics that don't give softballs to hate media. "We will be looking at gun policies that the vast majority of Americans agree with such as background checks..." "We are looking to work with hunters and concerned gun owners to facilitate safe gun storage and suicide prevention..."

Anything that can be turned into "gun grabbing" will fail. BE THE REASONABLE VOICE IN THE DISCUSSION in the eyes of the majority of gun owners, recognizing the other side's cultish and innate suspicions and biases which the NRA has had years to inculcate. We need to deprogram the membership which is "reachable". Support the 2nd amendment to the same extent we support the 1st, 4th, and 6th, but speak out against the current insanity. Show how gun rights can be maintained while still making people safer. It's a half or even a quarter step, but we must work with the means which are available.

The goal right now has to be deprogramming and working towards a better discussion, which means FIRST destroying the power of the NRA to put their thumb on the scales. I have been friends with a number of gun owners. Before we can save lives, we have to save minds. The other side is still too powerful to do anything else.

Also extensive opposition research on the NRA. It only took one arrogant S.O.B. (Harvey Weinstein) to launch the "me too" movement. I'm willing to bet there are more than a few arrogant bastards who hold the purse strings in the NRA. Tell an NRA member his membership dues went to sending the organizations families on a 2 week vacation to Jamaica and he *might* say "well, he deserves it", but find a flood of misconduct and wrong doings over a several year period, strategically released over several months so it won't get buried under the news cycle and hopefully grow legs of it's own, and you're looking at some serious hurt against the NRA among it's own membership.

 

[Free]

Right into All About Framing and the construction of fainting couches over things like optics. Things we have no control over anyway as long as the press prefers their standard narratives. Worrying over such things leads to weak tea.

Maybe Obama can release his long form birth certificate again.

 

[Dillon Levenque]

The issues that matter the most right here right now ARE involved with placing more restrictions on gun ownership and gun capabilities, like magazine capacity and such. If all the existing rules had been followed a number of the worst attacks might not have happened at all. We demonstrably need more restrictions and more enforcement, and the NRA has backed itself into a "NOT ONE WORD!" corner about even the most light-handed restrictions.

I say paint 'em the way they are and let the voters decide. From the look of 2018 a whole lot have already decided.

 

[Soen Eber]

The issues that matter the most right here right now ARE involved with placing more restrictions on gun ownership and gun capabilities, like magazine capacity and such. If all the existing rules had been followed a number of the worst attacks might not have happened at all. We demonstrably need more restrictions and more enforcement.

And how's that worked out for you this past 40-some years? We've had Democratic trifectas at least a couple 2-3 times and nothing's changed, and it won't until the NRA [Near Retirement Age] membership is old and senile and dying off.

We need to use the same long game the right has used to undermine American democracy and participation, as documented in Nancy MacLean's book "Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America". It will only be when we can destroy or sufficiently diminish the hold the NRA has over gun owners than we can make American safer, and not until then.

Trust me, most politicians, even on the right, secretly despise the NRA. There collapse will be epic, when it happens.