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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • The “report” is posted on the “Ethics and Public Policy Center” site, described thusly in Wikipedia:

    The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) is a conservative[2][3] Washington, D.C.–based think tank and advocacy group. Founded in 1976, the group describes itself as “working to apply the riches of the Jewish and Christian traditions to contemporary questions of law, culture, and politics, in pursuit of America’s continued civic and cultural renewal.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_and_Public_Policy_Center

    The organization’s mission statement sounds somewhat like an ostentatious version of MAGA. At any rate, on the page of this so-called “report”, the identities of the members of the study are conveniently missing:

    Our Research Project Team

    Our research project was conducted and validated by a team of data scientists, analysts, and engineers, with assistance from our clinical team of board-certified obstetricians and gynecologists. Members have a history of academic research and peer-reviewed publication.

    Imagine, for a moment if you will, dear reader, if all scientific research was documented this way by think tanks - particularly religious-based organizations like this one.










  • A two-hour “interview” is more an intimidation tactic than an “interview”:

    Piker, recounting the incident on his Twitch live stream on Monday, said he was led to a private room at Chicago O’Hare airport and interviewed for nearly two hours about his political views.

    “The goal here is to put fear into people’s hearts, to have a chilling effect on speech that, like, the government is unafraid of intimidating you,” Piker said. “Does this stop me from saying whatever the fuck I want to say? Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. But the reason why I wanted to talk about it was to give you more insight into what the government is doing, and to speak out against this sort of stuff.”

    His responses were brilliant - and I’m taking note:

    Piker repeatedly described the exchange as “cordial” but said he was transparent with the officer interviewing him that he planned to speak out about his experience, which the streamer said felt anything but random and “routine”.

    Assuming the officer was familiar with his online commentary, Piker said he was candid about his views, telling the agent he was “not fond” of the US president.

    He said the officer was particularly focused on his criticism of Israel’s prosecution of the Gaza war, asking him: “Do you like Hamas? Like, do you support Hamas? Do you think Hamas is a resistance group?”

    In response, Piker said he told the officer that he was a “pacifist” and wanted “the endless bloodshed to end”.

    “I just kept repeating that over and over again,” he said, describing the line of questioning as “insane” and a violation of his first amendment rights.


  • Is that an “R” next to the assaulting representative’s name?

    A regional Rotary conference in Asheville on Saturday night appears to have ended with a confrontation between Western North Carolina’s U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards ® and an unknown man, with witnesses attesting that the congressman struck the attendee.

    “He got into an argument at one of the tables with another Rotarian and Chuck got upset and hit the guy with a binder and said ‘love you man’ as he walked out,” said a Rotarian, who requested anonymity so as not to jeopardize his relationship with the organization.

    “The guy he hit called the police and claimed he was assaulted,” the emailer continued.

    The tendency of fascists to resort to violence is incredible. I’ll be looking for further developments resulting from this physical attack.




  • The opening paragraph:

    Chief Justice John Roberts described the rule of law as “endangered” and warned against “trashing the justices,” but speaking in Washington Monday he didn’t point fingers directly at President Donald Trump or his allies for publicly excoriating judges who’ve ruled against aspects of Trump’s agenda.

    Politico makes clear about the missing details in the silences of the Chief Justice’s concerns throughout the article, just as in this first paragraph.

    The Chief Justice is now left to scavenge for excuses in the wake of his poor decisions that have enabled the endangerment of the law. And these decisions harm us all.