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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
So the Republicans apparently have the ability to see the future
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That was a joke.
Open support for Trump is likely to get you in hot water around here, particularly if you express support for the sort of the racist/sexist/other -ist crap his supporters espouse (as all that stuff is against the rules of the site anyway) but we generally try not to crucify people just for disagreeing if your opinion has at least some basis in reality.
edited 4th Oct '16 4:58:58 PM by Elle
Getting in ahead on the VP debate: NPR Live Fact Checking will be here
. I'm probably going to stick to the radio stream tonight as I attempt to get other work done. Video streams should be in the same places as before (PBS via Youtube, CNN and all the other networks on their own sites).
RNC declares Pence winner an hour before debate.
I guess if you're completely ignoring reality anyway, you may as well save some time.
Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.RNC accidentally posts "Mike Pence won the debate" before the debate started
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A pre-debate reminded of who exactly Mike Pence is
(And remember, if Trump were to win he will be trying to get Pence to do all the work for him.)
Yet Pence is anything but generic or inoffensive when it comes to right-wing “culture war” issues, like women’s health, LGBTQ rights, immigration, and basic trust in science. In some cases, Pence has actually led the way on making regressive social policy part of the GOP “establishment.”
And picking Pence as his running mate was a key signal that Trump would be willing to go along with those regressive policies.
A federal appeals court recently blocked Pence’s attempts to keep Syrian refugees out of Indiana. The court said it was illegal for Pence to accept federal money for refugee resettlement and refuse to use it to help Syrian refugees.
The judges said Pence used “nightmare speculation,” based on no evidence, that Syrian refugees might commit terrorism.
...
In recent years, it’s become almost a ritual for Republicans in Congress to threaten to shut down the government, or hold up essential bills like Zika prevention, over defunding Planned Parenthood.
But Pence actually started that trend while he was in Congress. Before 2007, when Pence was the first member of Congress to introduce legislation to defund Planned Parenthood, it wasn’t something most Republicans talked about. But he kept pushing the issue until it led to a government shutdown fight in 2011 — and pretty soon, bashing Planned Parenthood became routine for most Republicans.
Pence’s war on Planned Parenthood also had some dire consequences for his state. After he cut funding for the women’s health provider, a rural Planned Parenthood — which was the only HIV testing center in Scott County, Indiana — was forced to close its doors in 2013. Two years later, Scott County became the epicenter of a devastating HIV outbreak.
Planned Parenthood has also been spuriously attacked for its role in fetal tissue research, which may have inspired Pence to sign an anti-abortion bill this year that was so extreme even many pro-life Republicans opposed it.
The law, which was later overturned by a federal judge, required all fetal tissue — at any stage of development, and no matter whether it came from an abortion or a miscarriage — to be cremated or buried. This would not only have prevented fetal tissue from being used in research; it would also have forced women to seek funerary services for their fetuses. The bill also banned abortion in cases of “disability,” which meant outlawing abortion in case of fetal anomaly.
As a member of Congress, Pence sponsored several other extreme anti-abortion bills. One would have denied some rape victims coverage for abortion, by redefining rape as “forcible” for the purpose of federal abortion funding. Another bill would have allowed Catholic hospitals to deny abortion even to pregnant women who would die without it. And more than once, Pence sponsored legislation to ban all abortion entirely.
Quick break to remind everyone exactly what happens when someone is not allowed to get treatment for a fetus that is already dead or non-viable
Now, back to the article:
Perhaps most alarmingly, Pence’s 2000 campaign platform also proposed diverting HIV/AIDS funds to “those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior” — in other words, to ineffective and abusive “conversion therapy” programs designed to try to turn gay people straight.
...
Again, Pence’s record on HIV issues is particularly troubling. Not only did his decision to defund Planned Parenthood and its HIV screening programs help contribute to Indiana’s HIV crisis but he also arguably prolonged the crisis by waiting two months to authorize a clean needle distribution plan.
Pence’s most bizarre anti-science view might be on cigarettes. He was still arguing in 2000 that smoking doesn’t actually kill. He has opposed numerous cigarette taxes in recent years, and he also made it easier to start a cigar bar in Indiana, which has the seventh-highest smoking rate in the nation.
Some of Pence’s anti-science positions are about what you’d expect from a conservative Republican these days. He denies climate change, rejects evolution, and support teaching creationism in public schools. And the anti-abortion bills he supports tend to ignore the medical reality of what happens when women get pregnant — as many such bills do.
Those views, and the others listed in this piece, could have significant effects on public policy. But while some of Pence’s views may seem extreme, they’re also consistent with the mainstream Republican “establishment.”
While Pence has often led the way on issues like opposing abortion and LGBTQ equality, he’s also not too unusual in his party. The GOP platform still condemns same-sex marriage, and it still calls for banning all abortion (and perhaps some forms of contraception) by counting fertilized eggs as “persons.”
TLDR, Pence was a pioneer in bringing the current GOP culture war insanity to the forefront as it is today.
In another fun day fro Christie, today Jersey settled a lawsuit regarding a whistleblower who was fired for revealing corruption in a state Sheriff's office connected with Christie allies
The settlement in the whistleblower lawsuit by former Hunterdon County assistant prosecutor Bennett Barlyn was reached in June and finalized last week. In a statement, Barlyn said it was a “private vindication” but added he is prohibited by terms of the settlement from providing a full public accounting of the case.
The state attorney general’s office, which defended the lawsuit, said Monday that it stands by its decision to dismiss the indictment and that “the decision to settle this employment matter was an economic one, driven by the anticipated costs associated with litigating the case to verdict. We believe we would have prevailed in court.”
Barlyn was suspended, then fired in the fall of 2010, not long after the attorney general’s office took over Hunterdon County’s case against then-Sheriff Deborah Trout and two subordinates, who had been indicted on 43 criminal counts including official misconduct and falsification of employment records.
The state asked the judge to dismiss the indictment because it deemed it legally deficient — a step almost never taken by prosecutors once a grand jury has spoken, Barlyn contended. No attempt was made by the state to correct any deficiencies and resubmit the case to a grand jury, he said.
Robert Hariri, an executive for biotech company Celgene and a member of Christie’s transition team in 2010, was interviewed in connection with the case but wasn’t charged. Hariri and his wife had donated thousands of dollars to Christie’s campaign, according to campaign finance records. Barlyn’s suit contended Hariri had been given a fake law enforcement ID by defendant Michael Russo, then Hunterdon County’s undersheriff.
TLDR: From what I heard on NPR, which I may try to link later, after the whistleblower informed about the misconduct, the case went before a Grand Jury which said that there was overwhelming evidence of guilt and voted to proceed. Christie then replaced the attorney prosecuting with his Attorney General, (who is appoint by the governor in NJ) who promptly asked the judge to throw out the case despite the Grand Jury having ruled to go to trial.
edited 4th Oct '16 5:54:02 PM by TheWanderer
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |Beary Scary: Being anti-GMO because you have a problem with the agricorps' handling of their intellectual property, or out of a concern for biodiversity is one thing, albeit kind of silly. Being against GMO foods because they are "unhealthy" is completely unsupported by science.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"GMO crops (dickish companies aside, but that's not unique to agriculture) could do a lot for world hunger and those in poverty (those underprivileged people the Green claims to stand for). And there is no solid evidence that GMO food is dangerous to one's health.
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