Politics Random, Random

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[ponchi101]

Basically, a guy the GOP can't attack.
Vanilla. Nobody will go crazy over him, one way or another.

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[Owendonovan]

Walz championed girls having access to feminine products in high schools so the right is calling him "Tampon Tim".

I guess that's the best they got.

The name calling is so tired and immature. I think the country, for the most part, is sick of it.

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The couch thing is not going away...

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[Owendonovan]

Republicans wasted no time in criticizing Gov. Tim Walz after Vice President Kamala Harris picked him as her running mate. But one of the Trump campaign’s attack lines landed awkwardly.

Mr. Walz’s “policies to allow convicted felons to vote” in Minnesota are evidence that he “is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign.

But critics of the former president were quick to point out that, if not for such policies, Mr. Trump himself would be barred from voting.

A jury in New York convicted Mr. Trump of 34 felonies this year for falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star. While he is trying to overturn the verdict, it remains in place, and he is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump White House aide who is now a co-host of “The View,” wondered on social media, “Does he not believe he should be able to vote for himself?”

Former Representative Barbara Comstock, a Virginia Republican who has been sharply critical of Mr. Trump, wrote: “Big reminder that Trump is a convicted felon with indicted felonies still to go to trial … and wants to pardon hundreds of violent Jan 6 felons but yeah, talk about felons, Mr. First ever nominated felon.”

Mr. Trump is registered to vote in Florida, which, when it comes to whether felons can vote, defers to the laws of the state where a conviction took place. New York allows people with felony convictions to vote unless they are in prison, so Mr. Trump can cast a ballot unless he is incarcerated on Election Day.

Stricter laws in many Republican-led states would stop him from voting until he had completed all terms of his sentence, including parole or probation — or, in some cases, require further action to have his voting rights restored even after he completed his sentence.

Ms. Leavitt said: “President Trump is eligible to vote. This does not apply to him at all.”

A bill Mr. Walz signed last year made Minnesota’s policy similar to the New York one, under which Mr. Trump is eligible: It restored voting rights to felons who had completed their prison sentences, rather than disenfranchising them until they completed parole or probation. Felons still lose their voting rights in Minnesota while they are incarcerated.

More than 20 states have policies similar to the ones in Minnesota and New York.

Florida’s laws are stricter: If it applied its own standards instead of New York’s standards to Mr. Trump, a sentence of parole or probation would disenfranchise him this November.

Womp Womp wahhhh. Idiots.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/06 ... p-election

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[Owendonovan]

This world needs to seriously, and I mean seriously, consider blocking twitter. I've never used it, I've always hated clicking on the twitter links and have for the most part stopped. My life is certainly not worse because of I don't participate. I do have to get over judging those that do, beginning with my husband.......


Elon Musk Clashes With Keir Starmer Over Riots in Britain
Over the past few days, the billionaire has posted incendiary comments about violent protests on the social media platform he controls, drawing the ire of the prime minister.
Eshe Nelson
By Eshe Nelson
Reporting from London

Aug. 7, 2024
Updated 9:47 a.m. ET

As he tries to quell violent outbreaks across Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also embroiled in a war of words with Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and owner of the social media platform X.

Over the past few days, Mr. Musk has posted incendiary comments and shared memes and videos about the riots in Britain to his more than 193 million followers on X. Violence has flared in towns across the country over the past week amid widespread misinformation after a deadly stabbing attack in Southport, England, last week, in which three girls died at a dance class.

“Civil war is inevitable,” Mr. Musk posted on X on Sunday in response to a video that showed small fires in the streets, fireworks being set off and rioters confronting the police.

A spokesperson for Mr. Starmer said there was “no justification” for Mr. Musk’s comments. Since then, Mr. Musk has continued to post comments directed at the prime minister.

“Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain? @Keir_Starmer,” Mr. Musk posted on Tuesday. He added “#TwoTierKeir,” a reference to the far-right claim that there is a policy of two-tier policing in which far-right groups are policed more heavily than others. (A government minister on Wednesday rejected those accusations.)

On Tuesday, Mr. Musk replied to a post on X that said “Britain is turning into the Soviet Union,” adding, “Seriously.”

The comments fit a wider effort by Mr. Musk to influence politics in several countries, including the United States, Italy and Venezuela, and at times sow discontent. Mr. Musk has become a loud critic of immigration policies in particular. He has become popular among far-right figures and has helped expand some of their platforms by reinstating the accounts of people previously banned on Twitter, as X was known before Mr. Musk bought it, including Tommy Robinson, an anti-Islam agitator who founded the English Defense League.

On Monday, Mr. Starmer posted on X, “We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities,” after holding an emergency response meeting to the violent disorder over the weekend. Mr. Musk, replied to the video, “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”

Some British lawmakers have said they would consider calling Mr. Musk in front of a parliamentary committee to answer questions about X’s role in the violence. After the stabbing, misinformation quickly spread online claiming the attacker was an asylum seeker from Syria and arrived in Britain illegally by boat. Despite police and government officials pushing back against false claims and the decision to release the name of the 17-year-old suspect in the attack, who was born in Wales, violence has still taken place, fueled by online comments.

Britain passed a sweeping online safety law last year, but like other countries, it has struggled to effectively hold social media companies to account for misinformation and other inflammatory content on their platforms. European Union laws require platforms to have robust content moderation, but tech companies’ internal policies and enforcement are patchy.

In the past week, rioters started fires at hotels that were housing asylum seekers, looted stores and targeted immigrant-owned businesses. More than 400 arrests have been made. On Wednesday, the police were preparing for possible riots amid reports that more than 30 gatherings had been planned.

Mr. Starmer has previously called out social media platforms for their role in fomenting violence and warned the executives of the companies, without naming any, that crimes committed online will also be subject to legal action.

“Let me also say to large social media companies and those who run them: Violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a crime, it’s happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere,” Mr. Starmer said in a televised speech last week.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/07/busi ... ts-uk.html

[ponchi101]

He needs to be taken seriously, as in: he is a serious threat.
The vast majority of people do not have the proper levels of skepticism to handle TWT.

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