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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Soban Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#277651: Apr 17th 2019 at 6:32:03 AM

Worldwide Roundup of journalists killed, detained, held hostage, or missing in 2018

he United States joined the ranks of the world’s deadliest countries for the media this year, with a total of six journalists killed. Four journalists were among the five employees of the Capital Gazette, a local newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, who were killed on 28 June when a man walked in and opened fire with a shotgun. He had been harassing the newspaper for six years on Twitter about a 2011 article that named him. It was the deadliest attack on a media outlet in the US in modern history. Two other journalists, a local TV anchor and cameraman, were killed by a falling tree while covering Subtropical Storm Alberto’s extreme weather in North Carolina in May.

archonspeaks Since: Jun, 2013
#277652: Apr 17th 2019 at 6:33:11 AM

[up][up][up][up] Full autonomy would make flying cars more plausible, if anything. As pointed out above the human element is the big issue with flying vehicles.

Edited by archonspeaks on Apr 17th 2019 at 6:33:22 AM

They should have sent a poet.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#277653: Apr 17th 2019 at 6:44:27 AM

That probably would not help with another problem: Undue per capita energy consumption.

Regarding Buttigieg, I do have some reservations. He's a bit too thin on policy for my liking. Yes, I am on the record as saying that legislative policy making is not the president's task (and the Clinton 1992-1994 counterexample someone gave a couple pages ago does not wash; a lot of the laws were dodgy and bipartisan and health care reform failed back then) but even so I want more than what I was presented.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
CenturyEye Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? from I don't know where the Yith sent me this time... Since: Jan, 2017 Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
#277654: Apr 17th 2019 at 10:11:23 AM

Some News:

  1. New Georgia ethics chief says he will subpoena Abrams campaign records
  2. A GOP attack on Lucy McBath fizzles over a signature

    New Georgia ethics chief says he will subpoena Abrams campaign records 
The new director of the state ethics commission plans to subpoena bank records from the campaign of 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and groups that raised money to help her in last year’s nationally watched race.

Former Douglas County prosecutor David Emadi, who started his new job Monday, also said his office will soon decide whether to prosecute the campaigns of Atlanta mayoral candidates. Emadi’s predecessor, Stefan Ritter, was accused of stalling investigations after the commission audited campaign reports from the organizations last year.

Ritter, who was also accused of watching porn at work, resigned earlier this year. Abrams is expected to announce soon whether she will run for the U.S. Senate or president next year, or run for governor in 2022.

Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams’ former campaign manager, said, “The Abrams campaign worked diligently to ensure compliance throughout the election and, had we been notified of any irregularities, would have immediately taken action to rectify them.

“The new ethics chief — a Kemp donor and former Republican Party leader — is using his power to threaten and lob baseless partisan accusations at the former Abrams campaign when they should be focused on real problems like the unethical ties between the governor’s office and voting machine lobbyists instead.” While not getting into specifics of the commission’s investigation, Emadi made general remarks about the cases after being introduced to reporters by ethics commission Chairman Jake Evans on Thursday.

“Those investigations are all moving forward,” Emadi said. “What I can say about the investigation into the Abrams campaign is, in the relatively near future, I expect we will be issuing subpoenas for bank and finance records of both Miss Abrams and various PA Cs and special-interest groups that were affiliated with her campaign.”

More than a dozen “independent groups,” mostly funded by out-of-state donors, were created in Georgia last year to help support Abrams’ effort. Emadi said he expects the documents the commission will review will be “voluminous,” likely meaning the investigation will take time.

He also said all the filings from the mayoral candidates “are under investigation.”

“In the relatively near future, I expect we will make the decision (whether) to go forward with prosecution on a case-by-case basis,” Emadi said.

The agency, formally known as the Georgia Government Transparency & Campaign Finance Commission, is charged with collecting campaign finance, vendor gift and lobbying expenditure reports; registering lobbyists; issuing advisory opinions; and dispensing penalties for violations.

Emadi was accused of partisanship in his plans to investigate Abrams and the mayoral candidates. The candidates he mentioned being under investigation are Democrats, and he is a former officer in the Douglas County Republican Party who once worked briefly for GOP House Speaker David Ralston. He also donated $600 last year to Republican Brian Kemp’s successful campaign for governor. Kemp narrowly beat Abrams in last year’s election.

The commission also audited the campaign filings of Republican gubernatorial candidates, but staffers say they found no violations. The commission is still investigating separate ethics complaints that partisans filed last year against the Kemp and Abrams campaigns.

Emadi vowed to prosecute wrongdoers, no matter the party affiliation, and he said he won’t even vote while serving in the job.

“I fundamentally believe that to be a neutral arbiter, to be an impartial umpire calling balls and strikes, you can’t affiliate with any of that,” Emadi said. “This is an inherently political position, but as a former prosecutor, I am comfortable and I have been comfortable making decisions that people may not like. I may not be everyone’s best friend, but I am OK with that.”

The investigations into the Abrams and mayoral campaigns came out of audits of contribution and expenditure reports candidates and political groups have to file when they raise and spend money on campaigns. The audits were part of an effort by Ritter to be more proactive in reviewing reports after years during which most complaints were filed following investigations by the media or opposing campaigns.

Top commission staffers filed complaints against Ritter in December, saying that potential violations that those audits found were sat on by the agency. Ritter denied wrongdoing when asked about the complaints filed against him.

The officials did not detail what the potential campaign finance violations were, and neither did Emadi.

However, in her complaint, one of the commission’s top deputies, Bethany Whetzel, said she and another staffer “met with Mr. Ritter and informed him that we had found evidence of several violations by the Abrams campaign.”

“Mr. Ritter was visibly disappointed with the violations uncovered related to the Abrams campaign and directed us not to proceed with any subpoenas until we could meet with the candidate to discuss her filings,” Whetzel said. “Mr. Ritter never met with the candidate.”

The Abrams campaign raised a record $27.6 million for her run for governor. Her fundraising prowess was particularly impressive considering tens of thousands of donations came from across the country, many in small amounts, such as $5 or $10.“

Independent groups,” which are not legally allowed to coordinate with candidates, spent millions more, with most of the money coming from out-of-state donors, such as San Francisco Democratic megadonor Susan Sandler, who put $5.6 million into an organization called Power PAC that supported the Abrams campaign.

    A GOP attack on Lucy Mc Bath fizzles over a signature 
Trolling is harder than it looks. It takes imagination, yes. But it also requires one to be able to discern the difference between an “M” and an “L.”

We’ve told you that the Cobb County tax commissioner’s office has revoked three years of homestead exemption claims – for 2016, 2017 and 2018 — by U.S. Rep. Lucy Mc Bath, D-Marietta, and her husband Curtis. Mc Bath’s husband lives in Tennessee.

During the 2018 Sixth District congressional campaign, which resulted in the defeat of Republican incumbent Karen Handel, Mc Bath said she had briefly moved there to help him work through family issues — and that she had switched her residency back to Georgia the following year.

A homestead exemption can be a factor in determining state residency, but it isn’t the sole factor. Nonetheless, the National Republican Congressional Committee is pressing the point. Last Friday, the NRCC sent a package to the Tennessee home of Mc Bath’s husband. Lukas Mikelionis of Fox News bit:

The lawmaker accepted the gift on Friday at 10:45 a.m. and signed for it as "LMCBATH". Fox News obtained a copy of the signature.

But actually, the signature tells a different story:

[[Image on Site]]

Clearly, the recipient wrote “M Mc Bath.” Lucy Mc Bath was in New York, we’re told. The package was signed for by Margaret Mc Bath, the congresswoman’s mother-in-law, according to a statement by the Mc Bath campaign: “Pulling someone’s family into false partisan political attacks are exactly what people hate about Washington.”

This, people, is also why we still need to teach cursive writing in elementary schools. And how to read it, too.

One more thing: The Fox News piece uses an interesting phrase to describe Mc Bath, who before her election to Congress served as a spokeswoman for an anti-gun violence group. Her unarmed son was murdered by a man with a gun in Florida. A pro-gun control group backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg spent millions on Mc Bath’s behalf in the contest.

The word “gun” does not appear in the Fox News piece. Mc Bath is referred to as “a racial justice activist.”

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives
smokeycut Since: Mar, 2013
#277655: Apr 17th 2019 at 10:45:07 AM

I'm iffy on Buttigieg. Some of the stuff he's said about Chelsea Manning's clemency bothers me, and it makes me question how he feels about prisoners. Harris' views on that are wide open (although possibly changing), but I don't feel comfortable supporting Buttigieg until I know more about him.

Everyone has skeletons in their closets, and I want to be aware of his.

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#277656: Apr 17th 2019 at 10:56:38 AM

Speaking of Wall Street, (and to reiterate a point I made yesterday that got completely overridden by the "Which Dem do we like best/least?" discussion):

Some news that flew under the radar last weekend - 60 Fortune 500 companies paid no income tax for FY 2018, and a shitload of them actually got money BACK on their returns due to offshore shenanigans. This is double the amount of top companies that pulled this prior to the GOP tax cuts.

Anyone able to find a clip of the GOP claiming their tax cuts in 2017 were aimed at curbing this type of BS? Because I know that was the stated rationale for lowering the Corporate Income Tax rate from 35% to 21%.

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#277657: Apr 17th 2019 at 11:01:06 AM

Because of course the GOP tax "reform" made it easier for corporations to dodge taxes even when it lowered the tax rate for them already.

That's what the GOP does.

Disgusted, but not surprised
FluffyMcChicken My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare from where the floating lights gleam Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: In another castle
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
#277658: Apr 17th 2019 at 11:03:37 AM

Hence why Trunp held a dinner party at the Mar-a-lago the night the cuts were passed and toasted to “You all just got a lot richer tonight!”

tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#277659: Apr 17th 2019 at 11:22:11 AM

Newsweek: A few of AG Barr's previous employers have ties to Russia.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
SciFiSlasher from Absolutely none of your business. Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#277660: Apr 17th 2019 at 1:10:56 PM

I am not sure if these have been posted before, but since we were just recently on the topic of Pete Buttigieg:

What Happened When Pete Buttigieg Tore Down Houses In Black And Latino South Bend.

Pete Buttigieg Thinks Chick-Fil-A Boycotters Are "Virtue Signaling"

Well, I sure as hell know who I'm NOT voting for.

Also, on that second article...DUDE. You are GAY. How the fuck can you say that kind of shit?

Edited by SciFiSlasher on Apr 17th 2019 at 3:11:24 AM

"Somehow the hated have to walk a tightrope, while those who hate do not."
ShinyCottonCandy Everyone's friend Malamar from Lumiose City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Everyone's friend Malamar
#277661: Apr 17th 2019 at 1:16:25 PM

I just can't help being unsurprised by this sort of thing. He is from my state, after all. Also, a boycott is really the only thing a customer can do against a corporation that holds a more harmful ideology than the average.

My musician page
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#277662: Apr 17th 2019 at 1:23:36 PM

He just floated a child care plan based on tax credits. It straight up sucks; poor/middle class people can’t afford to spend the money throughout the year while waiting on reimbursement.

Meanwhile, Warren’s plan for universal subsidized childcare actually considers logistics and reality.

Edited by wisewillow on Apr 17th 2019 at 1:24:00 AM

Soban Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#277663: Apr 17th 2019 at 1:23:43 PM

>Also, on that second article...DUDE. You are GAY. How the fuck can you say that kind of shit?

Pretty easily, given that he's a christian and the big 'anti-gay cause' that they give money to is the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Chick-Fil-A is very much more 'christian' then they are 'anti-gay'. Buttigieg is a christian and gay, showing that the two are not the same thing.

[down] I hoped that fixed it.

Edited by Soban on Apr 17th 2019 at 4:57:20 AM

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#277664: Apr 17th 2019 at 1:52:20 PM

[up]Uh, I feel like you're missing part of the sentence there, Soban, because it just sort of ends without connecting that group to Buttigieg in any way. At all.

Anyway I'm still in the camp of "it is way too fucking early for this shit" in regards to the candidates.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#277665: Apr 17th 2019 at 2:25:02 PM

I have to say, I am not a fan of Buttigieg. His questionable record, lack of experience, and use of inane status-quo defender phrases such as "SJW" and "virtue signal" point towards a deeply inadequate candidacy that offers very little good and a whole lot of bad.

The man might be able to say the right things occasionally but that isn't enough to paper over the intrinsically flawed structure that is his candidacy.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Apr 17th 2019 at 2:25:40 AM

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
AzurePaladin She/Her Pronouns from Forest of Magic Since: Apr, 2018 Relationship Status: Mu
She/Her Pronouns
#277666: Apr 17th 2019 at 2:37:29 PM

Also, on that second article...DUDE. You are GAY. How the fuck can you say that kind of shit?

Because gay people are not a monolith and still susceptible to supporting things against your own self interest. It happens from time to time in the LGBTQ community, see Caitlyn Jenner for the ever infamous Trans example of the "woman voting for leopards eating people's faces" meme.

And yeah, I already knew broadly about both but the details just put the final nail in the coffin for me. He's can go sit at the bottom of my list with the other few who really caught my ire.

Edited by AzurePaladin on Apr 17th 2019 at 5:37:55 AM

The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -Fighteer
PhysicalStamina i'm tired, my friend (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
i'm tired, my friend
#277667: Apr 17th 2019 at 3:41:02 PM

Also, on that second article...DUDE. You are GAY. How the fuck can you say that kind of shit?

The same reasons Ben Carson and Candice Owens support Trump?

i'm tired, my friend
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#277668: Apr 17th 2019 at 3:46:37 PM

Pete’s going for broke to piss me off today; turns out he’s also super pro-Israel.

The 37-year-old openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has in the past described Israel as a model for the US in how to deal with security threats. He’s blamed most of the suffering in Gaza on Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist political organization and militant group that has run the territory since 2007. And he’s strongly rejected condemnations of Israel — and US support for it — made by progressive lawmakers.

That’s not to say he’s completely ignored the plight of Palestinians — he hasn’t. During a March campaign stop in Iowa, Buttigieg said he wants America to help make “a world where Israelis and Palestinians are able to live in peace side by side.” Overall, though, Buttigieg has shown a willingness to back Israel.

...

Last May, Buttigieg took a trip to Israel with other mayors that was organized by the American Jewish Committee, a global Jewish advocacy organization. Shortly after his return, Buttigieg was interviewed for the organization’s podcast. That was tough timing, as just four days earlier Israeli forces had killed dozens of Palestinians protesting the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.

Still, Buttigieg had nothing but high praise for Israel, suggesting its way of handling security threats could be a good model for the US.

...

And the more recent statements he’s made on the topic of Israel suggest his views remain largely the same as they were in that May interview.

During a January 31 appearance on The View, for instance, he was asked to respond to comments made by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) where she criticized Israel for violating human rights and even compared its conduct to Iran’s.

Buttigieg, a married gay man, countered strongly. “People like me get strung up in Iran,” he said, “so the idea that what’s going on is equivalent is just wrong.”

He continued: “They’ve [Israel] also got to figure out — and we’ve got to figure out with them as an ally — what the regional security picture is going to look like there,” he said. He added that an Israeli general during his May 2018 trip told his delegation the most complicated problem facing Israel is Iran.

“It’s always been one of the most fiendishly complicated issues and simple answers will not serve us well at a time like this,” he said.

Multiple opportunities, multiple defenses of Israel. It’s pretty clear, then, where Buttigieg stands. The problem for him is that he increasingly stands alone.

Edited by wisewillow on Apr 17th 2019 at 4:05:11 AM

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Ahr river
#277670: Apr 17th 2019 at 4:21:18 PM

I mean supporting israel isn't inherently—

The 37-year-old openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has in the past described Israel as a model for the US in how to deal with security threats.

hooboy.

Read my stories!
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#277671: Apr 17th 2019 at 4:24:59 PM

Yeah, that was the precise sentence that made me go NOPE.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#277672: Apr 17th 2019 at 4:27:19 PM

..by building a huge wall right the way across

Dear God

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
smokeycut Since: Mar, 2013
#277673: Apr 17th 2019 at 4:33:14 PM

Yeah. I don’t hate Israel with the same passion a lot of people do, but him refusing to admit that Natanyahu is terrible, and even praising Israel’s actions under him... No. Definitely not.

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#277674: Apr 17th 2019 at 4:36:54 PM

I don’t hate Israel either, but I think Netanyahu and his administration are reprehensible, and the current “security” laws basically make Israel an authoritarian apartheid state.

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#277675: Apr 17th 2019 at 4:39:10 PM

Yikes, that bit about how we should mimic their security practices is at best really bad wording.

The rest is mostly fine, but that bit is kind of a major red flag.

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang

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