[-] memfree@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago

Facts?! That just makes them devolve to No true Scotsman rhetoric. ;-)

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 11 points 1 day ago

Vance and the rest -- including Trump himself -- are suggesting that the attacks are because Democrats are demonizing Trump and Democrats need to tone down the vitriol, ignoring that Trump has said Democrats are destroying America and that we won't have a country left if they get in office and all the rest. At least Vance is -- after saying on TV with Dana Bash that they have confirmed reports from Springfield (in an interview about the pet eating thing) -- that he, too, ought to tone down his rhetoric, but let's see if he can stick with that for more than a day.

Here's a story from July about the left/right spread in toxic language: https://theconversation.com/trump-shooting-is-a-warning-about-how-toxic-language-leads-to-violence-234637

Note the disparity on their graphic:

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 3 points 1 day ago

That is so pretty!

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago

Ehn. The latest guy called Putin a terrorist on camera, which is something a Trumper would never say.

26

Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), on Monday said there's a "big difference" between Republicans and Democrats: "No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris."

Note that earlier in the day, Elon Musk wrote and deleted a similar post. From NY Times:

In response to a user who asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Mr. Musk, who has endorsed the former president and comments frequently on the U.S. presidential campaign, wrote: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” His post, which was captured by X users, included a thinking-face emoji.

Mr. Musk took down the post after it immediately drew outrage.


For Vance comments, see also NY Times, Vance says the left is to blame for the attempts on Trump’s life., and/or CNN, Vance blames liberal rhetoric for apparent assassination attempt against Trump :

“I know it’s popular on a lot of corners of the left to say that we have a both sides problem. And I’m not going to say we’re always perfect. I’m not going to say that conservatives always get things exactly right. But you know, the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that we have — no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months,” the Republican vice presidential candidate said at the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Atlanta.

“I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric, and needs to cut this crap out,” he continued.

Vance vowed to “do my part” to tone down the rhetoric and said he was speaking particularly to those who say that Trump needs to be “eliminated.”

“Somebody’s gonna get hurt by it, and it’s gonna destroy this country. Somebody is gonna get hurt. And you think about what an incredible wound it would open up in the United States of America, all of us, and I promise I will do my part to tone down the rhetoric,” Vance said. “But in particular, the people telling you that Donald Trump needs to be eliminated. You guys need to cut it out, or you’re gonna get somebody hurt.”


Thankfully, both Democrats and Republicans came together to disavow the New Hampshire Libertarian Party for this from Deadline:

Republican and Democratic Party leaders have condemned New Hampshire’s Libertarian Party for sharing a post saying that anyone who assassinated Vice President Kamala Harris would be “an American hero.”

The party later deleted the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, but appeared unrepentant about the message, saying it was removed because of the platform’s rules and complaining about restrictions on free speech.

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 1 points 2 days ago

@aihorde@lemmy.dbzer0.com draw for me misprogrammed bots making surrealistic space for violence in America -- now with kitties!

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 2 points 2 days ago

I pray whatever gods may be spare us from such a fate.

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 17 points 3 days ago

When Trump loses the coming election, a peaceful transfer of power should go from Biden to Harris, but Trump has worked to dismantle norms such that we must now expect that he will contest the results, tell his supporters he won, and worry about those angry supporters being goaded into attacks on poll workers, judges, Congress, and federal buildings.

Vance is already feigning ignorance of how he and Trump create violence.
Excerpt of Vance/Bash kerfuffle (page is not the full conversation):

... You accused me of causing a bomb threat. Doesn't that mean I should shut up about the residents of Springfield? Don’t you realize you're engaged in basic propaganda to silence the concerns of American citizens?

DANA BASH, CNN: I was quoting the actual mayor of Springfield, Ohio, who, after the bomb threats, was begging federal officials to stop putting negative attention on his city. I'm not talking about the policies....

They are making a peaceful transfer more difficult by telling lies, spurring on their most violent supporters, and then denying all culpability. Sadly, doing so may spread from their fanatics to a larger population as evinced by yet-another-gunman-incident.

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 11 points 3 days ago

The agent fired four to six rounds, a Secret Service official said. The suspect then fled. A witness who took a picture of the suspect’s vehicle and license plate number provided it to law enforcement officers.

Per CNN, Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder says they arrested the guy in that vehicle:

Snyder said his agency “flooded” Interstate 95 and closed a large swatch of the highway before eventually safely stopping the suspect vehicle.

“I have a clear understanding from investigators that we actually do have the suspect that they’re looking for in Palm Beach County,” Snyder said.

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 11 points 3 days ago

I'm fine with removing the Audubon name from any group -- not because of John Audubon himself, but because the current Audubon Society seems to be an unscrupulous, anti-union, money-grubbing, greenwashing mess.

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 10 points 3 days ago

Yes. The story here is straight from Associated Press, but I looked around and found a few more details in a Telegraph article:

But he woman’s doctor told police that the defendant had tested positive with a rapid test before telling him that she “certainly won’t let herself be locked up” after the result.

Instead she left her apartment and talked to people without a mask, ignoring her mandatory quarantine and positive test.

Note they say MANDATORY quarantine. At the end of the article they explain that Austria's far right party, Freedom Party, is hyper-anti-vax, expected to win upcoming elections:

Its manifesto has promised a pardon for anyone convicted of breaching coronavirus rules and to repay any fines imposed during the pandemic.

The manifesto says coronavirus regulations were encroachments on fundamental rights “accompanied by unprecedented indoctrination and brainwashing.”

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 8 points 3 days ago

Not all Americans eat beef equally, data shows. Last year, Rose and his colleagues published a study looking at U.S. government data of the diets of more than 10,000 Americans. They found that on a given day, 12% of Americans account for half of all beef consumption. That 12% was disproportionately men.

I'm confused by this because I want it to mean the same 12% all the time, but I suspect they mean that it is a different 12% from one day to the next.

“Many men do reduce their meat consumption or are willing to,” says Joel Ginn, food and psychology researcher at Boston College, “but there are hurdles that they've had to overcome.”

Manly men advertising meat -- and Joe Rogan??? I guess all kinds of guys what to be oh so manly, but when I think of macho men, he's just not on that list.

Seeing someone in your close personal circle, or celebrities like athletes, make a behavior change can be an important piece of the puzzle, says Daniel Rosenfeld, psychology and food researcher at UCLA. “The way to get some people to eat less meat is to get other people to eat less meat,” he says.

Personally, both myself and my better half enjoy the newer fake meat burgers. They really are a satisfying way to get a 'manly' burger.

8
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by memfree@beehaw.org to c/entertainment@beehaw.org

This series started last week, but it continues tonight Friday the 13th through November 1st.

The films are drawn from a list compiled by The New Republic last year of the 100 most impactful political movies.

The films encompass both documentaries and dramatized works; most are American, while a few are from other countries. Their release dates range from 1915 (The Birth of a Nation) to 2016 (I Am Not Your Negro). Many will have celebrity presenters introducing them, along with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.

From Hollywood Reporter:

The series runs Sept. 6 to Nov. 1 — four days before America votes for its next president — and features TCM host Ben Mankiewicz in conversation with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Lee Grant, Sally Field, Andy Garcia, Melissa Etheridge, John Turturro, Bill Maher, Alexander Payne, Diane Lane, Josh Mankiewicz, Barry Levinson, Maureen Dowd, Stacey Abrams and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

More from the Advocate:

LGBTQ+ issues won’t be neglected. I Am Not Your Negro, for instance, is a documentary based onan unfinished manuscript by Black gay writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, reflecting on the lives of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Baldwin himself. The Times of Harvey Milk(1984) will be featured, presented by Sally Field, the proud mother of a gay son. Also scheduled are 1964’s The Best Man, scripted by gay writer Gore Vidal, in which a same-sex liaison threatens to derail a politician’s career, and Born in Flames, director Lizzie Borden’s 1983 vision of a dystopian future in which women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color are oppressed.

Borden will be among the celebrity presenters, introducing Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman’s 1975 feminist feature about a widow engaged in sex work. Melissa Etheridge will be a presenter as well, discussing the 1928 silent classic The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Times listed are for Eastern Time. I've skipped last week and bolded titles ranked in the top 20.

Friday, September 13 - Night Two

  • 8:00 PM Reds (1981) (Bill Maher - #41)
  • 11:30 PM The Parallax View (1974) (Kyle Smith - #47)
  • 1:30 AM Germany, Year Zero (1948) (Alexander Payne - #97)
  • 3:00 AM Gabriel Over the White House (1933) (#30)
  • 4:30 AM The Battleship Potemkin (1925) (#7)
  • 6:00 AM The Fog of War (2003) (#56)

Friday, September 20 - Night Three

  • 8:00 PM Dr. Strangelove (1964) (Spike Lee - #3)
  • 9:45 PM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) (Stacey Abrams - #11)
  • 12:15 AM Hearts and Minds (1974) (Phil Mattingly - #39)
  • 2:15 AM The Lives of Others (2006) (#19)
  • 4:45 AM Born in Flames (1983) (#43)
  • 6:15 AM Bicycle Thieves (1948) (#52)

Friday, September 27 - Night Four

  • 8:00 PM Three Days of the Condor (1975) (Maureen Dowd - #72)
  • 10:15 PM I Am Not Your Negro (2016) (Sara Sidner - #58)
  • 12:00 AM The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) (Melissa Etheridge - #88)
  • 1:30 AM The Last Hurrah (1958) (#57)
  • 3:45 AM Night of the Living Dead (1968) (#35)
  • 5:15 AM The Tin Drum (1979) (#92)

Friday, October 4 - Night Five

  • 8:00 PM The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) (Sally Field - #81)
  • 10:00 PM The Best Man (1964) (Josh Mankiewicz - #69)
  • 12:00 AM I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) (Sec. Lonnie Bunch III - #95)
  • 1:45 AM City Hall (1996) (#80)
  • 3:45 AM Strike (1924) (#25)
  • 5:15 AM High and Low (1963) (#84)

Friday, October 11 - Night Six

  • 8:00 PM A Face in the Crowd (1957) (Barry Levinson - #10)
  • 10:15 PM Wag the Dog (1997) (Diane Lane - #54)
  • 12:00 AM The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971) (Abby Phillip - #37)
  • 1:45 AM JFK (1991) (#34)
  • 5:00 AM Z (1969) (#15)
  • 7:15 AM Night and Fog (1956) (#21)

Friday, October 18 - Night Seven

  • 8:00 PM The Birth of a Nation (1915) (Jamelle Bouie - #5)
  • 11:30 PM Lincoln (2012) (Hon. Robert M. Gates - #24)
  • 2:15 AM Malcolm X (1992) (#22)
  • 6:00 AM Primary (1960) (#38)

Friday, October 25 - Night Eight

  • 8:00 PM All the President’s Men (1976) (Steven Spielberg - #4)
  • 10:30 PM Citizen Kane (1941) (Frank Luntz - #33)
  • 12:45 AM Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) (Lizzie Borden - #36)
  • 4:15 AM Olympia Part One: Festival of Nations (1938) (#86)
  • 6:15 AM Olympia Part Two: Beauty of the Festival (1938) (#86)

Friday, November 1 - Night Nine

  • 8:00 PM Being There (1979) (Andy Garcia - #71)
  • 10:30 PM The Candidate (1972) (Kaitlan Collins - #20)
  • 12:30 AM Harlan County USA (1976) (Lee Grant - #12)
  • 2:15 AM The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (#2)
  • 4:00 AM Weekend (1967) (#94)
36
submitted 1 week ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org

"In the end, we all knew what we knew before, that ABC's goal tonight was to help Kamala Harris, and ABC did help Kamala Harris," Laura Ingraham said on Fox News. That's one way of putting it. Van Jones on CNN found another.

"She whupped him," Jone said. "She just whupped him. ... Kamala Harris did something great for every parent in America. She put the bully in his place."

A certain super gigantic galactic pop star seemed to agree. Moments after the debate, Taylor Swift endorsed Harris, signing her Instagram post "Childless Cat Lady," a reference to a comment made by Trump's running mate, JD Vance.

For more details on the 4chan nature, head over to the Daily Beast for pieces like these:

Debate Transcript: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris-trump-presidential-debate-transcript/story?id=113560542

PBS (no longer live) updates: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/live-updates-trump-and-harris-debate-in-philadelphia

8
submitted 1 week ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

The incident occurred approximately one block from the stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., as traffic started to build ahead of a 1 p.m. start to the game.

"How things escalated into the situation that they were in handcuffs and being held on the ground with police is mind boggling to me," Rosenhaus told ESPN.

See also:

51
submitted 1 week ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org

“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she said of her father, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. “If you think about the moment we’re in, and you think about how serious this moment is, my dad believes — and he said publicly — there has never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is.”


“One of the most important things we need to do as a country as we begin to rebuild our politics is we need to elect serious people,” Liz Cheney said. “Here in Texas, you guys do have a tremendous, serious candidate running for U.S. Senate.”

The audience erupted in applause cutting Liz Cheney off.

“It’s not Ted Cruz," she said.

She blamed Cruz for leading the effort in the Senate for trying to overturn the election.

"That is not somebody to put in a position to be able to do that again," Cheney said.

11
submitted 2 weeks ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org

TL;DR: Democrats are united against Trump and will continue to be that way, but if Trump loses so overwhelmingly that he stops running, then a Harris administration will be stuck with a largely Republican government that will keep it from getting much done, thus making it easier for a new brand of Republicans to emerge in two years for for the mid-terms and beyond.

Harris is effectively an emergency nominee, has few policy proposals, scant governing history in Washington and a history of churning through staff. Oh, and she would be the first Democrat to enter the presidency since 1884 without majorities in both chambers, should Republicans flip the Senate.

That adds up to a recipe for gridlock — and perhaps some deal-making to fund the government and avoid across-the-board tax hikes — but not a Scandinavian social welfare state.


The day after Trump leaves the scene, Democrats will lose their best force for unity, fundraising and enthusiasm. But they’ll have the same challenges they do today with the Electoral College, the Senate and the House and the distribution of voters therein.

21
submitted 2 weeks ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

The shooter who opened fire inside Apalachee High school is believed to be a 14-year-old boy, a law enforcement source tells CNN.

The source said it is not yet known whether the teen attended that school.

We cannot continue to accept this as normal,” the president said in a statement.

At least four people are believed to have been killed and approximately 30 more were injured in the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, although it’s unclear how many of the injuries are from gunshot wounds, according to law enforcement sources.

Apalachee High School is located in the city of Winder, Georgia, which is a community about an hour outside of Atlanta.

17
submitted 1 month ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/citylife@beehaw.org

Banksy’s hope, it is understood, is that the uplifting works cheer ­people with a moment of unexpected ­amusement, as well as to ­gently underline the human capacity for ­creative play, rather than for destruction and negativity.

Some recent theorising about the deeper significance of each new image has been way too involved, Banksy’s support organisation, Pest Control Office, has indicated.


A contractor, who only wanted to give his name as Marc, told PA they were planning to pull the billboard down on Monday and had removed it early in case someone “rips it down and leaves it unsafe”.

He said: “We’ll store that bit [the artwork] in our yard to see if anyone collects it but if not it’ll go in a skip. I’ve been told to keep it careful in case he wants it.”

See source article for more details and great pics of the current art campaign.

37
submitted 1 month ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

The acknowledgment came after POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s operation.


On July 22, POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account. Over the course of the past few weeks, the person — who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as “Robert” — relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official.


The person said they had a “variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions.”

Asked how they obtained the documents, the person responded: “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”

58
submitted 1 month ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org

Instead, it was Nate Holden. archive

“It was Willie Brown,” Mr. Trump, who spent much of the last year hoping to make gains with Black voters, posted. “But now Willie doesn’t remember?”

Mr. Brown, 90, who was mayor of San Francisco and speaker of the California Assembly, gave several interviews on Thursday and Friday saying such a trip never occurred.

Turns out, however, that there was a Black politician from California who once made an emergency landing in a helicopter with Mr. Trump. It just wasn’t Mr. Brown.


Mr. Holden said that he called Mr. Brown to compare notes. Mr. Brown told him he had never been in a helicopter crash with Mr. Trump.

“I said, ‘Willie, you know what? That’s me!’” Mr. Holden said. “And I told him, “You’re a short Black guy and I’m a tall Black guy — but we all look alike, right?”

Mr. Holden gave his own height as 6-foot-1. “Willie has to be about 5-foot-6. Maybe 5-foot-5. He comes up to about my shoulders. And he’s bald. And I’m not bald.”

Mr. Brown, he said, “just laughed and laughed.”

Mr. Holden, summing up his assessment of Mr. Trump’s recollection, said: “I just think he makes things up. That’s what I think. He never thought anybody’s going to check.”

16

The news he has Emphysema and is house-bound came out about two days earlier. It was accompanied by rumors that he's retired. He's since said that last part is incorrect ... though perhaps his retirement denial is more for his own sense of self than about the probability of any future work as a director.

Emphysema is a form of COPD or Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“I have to say I enjoyed smoking very much” he wrote “but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment”.

Emphysema is a condition which causes shortness of breath and a persistent cough.

But despite living with it he says he is “filled with happiness” and has thanked fans for their concern.

48
submitted 1 month ago by memfree@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org

Common Dreams article details the response to a CNBC piece about a PAC partially funded by Musk is collecting specific user data. CNBC states (archive):

[...] users who enter a ZIP code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different.

Rather than be directed to their state’s voter registration page, they instead are directed to a highly detailed personal information form, prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age.


So that person who wanted help registering to vote? In the end, they got no help at all registering. But they did hand over priceless personal data to a political operation.


“What makes America PAC more unique: it is a billionaire-backed super PAC focused on door-to-door canvassing, which it can conduct in coordination with a presidential campaign,” Fischer said. “Thanks to a recent FEC advisory opinion, America PAC may legally coordinate its canvassing activities with the Trump campaign — meaning, among other things, that the Trump campaign may provide America PAC with the literature and scripts to make sure their efforts are consistent.”

The America PAC raised more than $8 million between April 1 and June 30, according to FEC records. It has received donations from veteran investor Doug Leone, cryptocurrency investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and a company run by longtime venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, according to FEC records.

They also quote the NYT in saying Lonsdale is one of Musk's political confidants -- which is interesting because he's at Palantir which was you'd think of as his old buddy Peter Theil's gig. Palantir sells info. More precisely, they know how to intake truthful data and turn it into actionable details. I've no idea how they check for validity, though. Some days it feels like everything on Twitter is a lie and hearing that this 'help you vote' program is also a lie just makes me wonder if anyone is honest over there.

Common Dreams quotes several angry reactions to the CNBC article, such as:

Former Congresswoman Marie Newman (D-Ill.) took aim at Musk, saying, "If you did not believe he was maniacal or evil, before this, well now you know."

They also note that:

Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) publicly thanked Musk for doing "an exceptional job of demonstrating a point that we have made for years—and that is the fact we live in an oligarchic society in which billionaires dominate not only our economic life and the information we consume, but our politics as well."

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memfree

joined 1 year ago