Political Discussion

It gets better...Omar was born in 82. So unless she could carry a rifle at age 5 or 6.

Alternative Facts

Uh-oh, you're falling for it: that's how you know the picture can't be 40 years old, see?!

Alternative Fax

Is Somalia even involved in Al Qaeda? I though they had a different terrorist group.

Alternative Fats

Alternative Cats:

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I saw a friend’s dad share that pic of a Somali woman holding a rifle and claiming it was Ilhan Omar on Facebook.

I dropped a quick comment relating that the picture is over 40 years old and obviously isn’t her. I shared a link directly to the AP’s archive that describes its origins.

Now I’m embroiled in some nutball dialogue about how it can’t be over 40 years old, since she’s in it, and also the AP site is clearly propaganda for the radical Islamist forces at work in our country, and a former military intelligence officer secretly told him so, and also something about Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Qur’an (?).

I should have known better, I know.

But this worldview is so dense and layered with years of various strands of conspiracy theory and fear-mongering and disinformation campaigns and National Treasure movies, it’s like a window into a completely different world. We just cannot even agree on whether this photograph is real, much less whether it’s 40 years old, never mind if it actually depicts Rep. Omar. The publicly verifiable AP provenance is nothing to him compared to the imagined whispers of a friend who told him something different.

It’s not often I end up engaging with a real believer like this, at least one who isn’t an anonymous name on a screen. I know this guy. He was like a second dad to me when I was young. I’m sure we both think the other has changed a lot since those days. We can’t even communicate from the same reality anymore.

I know we’ve all had this happen to us before. It’s just really disheartening when you come face to face with a reminder that we won’t unify, we won’t compromise, we won’t make progress...not when we can’t even agree on what is or is not real.
I'm going to be 55 next month, and have the majority of friends I had from my teens still around one way or another and this current Government has been the first to cause a divide between us. These are people I always regarded as pretty smart, saw things for what they are, but nope, this White House has taken the best of friends and turned them into "Us" and "Them"
 
I saw a friend’s dad share that pic of a Somali woman holding a rifle and claiming it was Ilhan Omar on Facebook.

I dropped a quick comment relating that the picture is over 40 years old and obviously isn’t her. I shared a link directly to the AP’s archive that describes its origins.

Now I’m embroiled in some nutball dialogue about how it can’t be over 40 years old, since she’s in it, and also the AP site is clearly propaganda for the radical Islamist forces at work in our country, and a former military intelligence officer secretly told him so, and also something about Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Qur’an (?).

I should have known better, I know.

But this worldview is so dense and layered with years of various strands of conspiracy theory and fear-mongering and disinformation campaigns and National Treasure movies, it’s like a window into a completely different world. We just cannot even agree on whether this photograph is real, much less whether it’s 40 years old, never mind if it actually depicts Rep. Omar. The publicly verifiable AP provenance is nothing to him compared to the imagined whispers of a friend who told him something different.

It’s not often I end up engaging with a real believer like this, at least one who isn’t an anonymous name on a screen. I know this guy. He was like a second dad to me when I was young. I’m sure we both think the other has changed a lot since those days. We can’t even communicate from the same reality anymore.

I know we’ve all had this happen to us before. It’s just really disheartening when you come face to face with a reminder that we won’t unify, we won’t compromise, we won’t make progress...not when we can’t even agree on what is or is not real.

This is really powerful stuff and I can definitely relate. My best friend growing up has a step father that is the mountain man, hardcore hunter type. He was always great to me as a kid, and a fucking excellent step dad to her (and she was not an easy teenager). He was also fairly independent in his thinking and a moderate so long as you weren't talking gun control in front of him.

Now he is posting propaganda and Breitbart-esque memes in mass. A couple of days ago, my brother got into a back and forth with him on Facebook because he had posted an image of Pelosi with the caption "Pelosi removes X amount from social security to pay for impeachment proceedings". A bunch of his nut job friends had reacted before my brother posted a link debunked it. But instead of deleting it, he posted a comment saying "THIS IS FAKE" and then posted the link my brother had provided. 4 hours later my dad chimed in: "if this is fake than why is this still up?" And that's just one example of many....

Also, I happen to be in a couple of pro-Trump groups that I was added to randomly over the years. Some of the shit I see inside those groups makes my head spin. I keep trying to bring myself to de-add myself but I'm sort of addicted to the horror show.
 
I didn't say right wingers. I was not speaking specifically of right wingers--I was thinking of some particular conversations I've had with West Coast Democrats over the last couple years, in addition to the right-wing anti-socialist rhetoric we're all so familiar with.

I didn't say behind the scenes. I said in the spotlight. I don't think he's a mean ol' man or anything like that. I do, unfortunately, have disability activists in my life who tried to work with his campaign in the past and had a deeply unpleasant and dismissive experience, but I also know folks who enjoyed working on his campaign. I'm glad you and your friends had positive experiences. But I'm talking about the way he comes across when he's challenged in public. I have also seen him be charming and speak powerfully, but let's not pretend he's always graceful under pressure.

No, he is most certainly not always the most graceful in particular when interacting with a press that I think he feels is often sensationalist and failing to serve the public's interest. But to give you an example of his heart:

As I have alluded to elsewhere, I am in an LA based group called Ground Game LA. We focus on local elections, homelessness advocacy, housing affordability and the such. One of our members lives in a housing complex that mostly serves vets and builds its image around that reality. Recently they attempted to raise rent by 25% in a single month. Considering most of these people are lower income, often disabled vets, they all would have been out on the streets. So our member brings the situation to Ground Game and the decision to contact the press is made. We start stirring the pot and this national conglomerate starts to worry but is playing tough with negotiations.

So that weekend there is a Bernie rally in LA, and he's made aware of the situation by somebody with contacts from our organization. He winds up bringing the situation up at the rally and then tweeting about it. A couple days later the company dropped their demands to 4%. Meanwhile, Bernie keeps on chugging without bring attention to what he has done. And from what I can tell, others have had similar experiences. When he extends a hand, he doesn't bring a camera along, basically. It's why the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico just endorsed him. Because he showed up to the city without cameras right after the storm and asked what he could do to help. I feel like that is far more reflective of a politician's character than whether their New York mannerisms show their head during brief moments of frustration.

Also, should there be anybody in this room who supported him in 2016 and is on the fence at the moment, I'd encourage you to check out his rally from this weekend... He seemed spry and there was some pretty powerful stuff between his and AOC's speeches....

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"I want you all to take a look around and find someone you don't know. Maybe somebody who doesn't look kind of like you. Maybe somebody who might be of a different religion than you. Maybe they come from a different country.

My question now to you is: Are you willing to fight for that person, who you don't even know, as much as you're willing to fight for yourself?

Are you willing to stand together and fight for those people who are struggling economically in this country?
Are you willing to fight for young people drowning in student debt even if you are not?
Are you willing to fight to ensure that every American has health care as a human right even if you have good health care?
Are you willing to fight for frightened immigrant neighbors even if you are native-born?
Are you willing to fight for a future for generations of people who have not yet even been born but are entitled to live on a planet that is healthy and habitable?

Because if you are willing to do that... if you are willing to love, if you are willing to fight for a government of compassion and justice and decency, if you are willing to stand up to Trump's desire to divide us up, if you are prepared to stand up to the greed and corruption of the corporate elite... if you and millions of others are prepared to do that, there is no doubt in my mind that not only will we win this election but together we will transform this country."

- Bernie Sanders
 
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Oh and some more good policy from Warren:


And from Bernie:


And this (which I'd be curious for people's thoughts on considering all the heat Facebook takes over it's role in disinformation):


Plus an interesting poll:

 
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The Impeachment Inquiry is getting ugly

House Republicans stormed the hearing room where Pentagon official was testifying
As Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper was sitting down to testify, the roughly couple dozen Republicans stormed through the three different doors, a source in the room said.
Rep. Bradley Byrne yelled in committee Chair Adam Schiff's face, but Schiff didn't engage. Other Democrats, including Val Demings, screamed back at both Byrne and Rep. Louie Gohmert, who were yelling about the process.
"It was closest thing I've seen around here to mass civil unrest as a member of Congress," according to a source in the room.
Cooper left the room while the Republicans refused to leave.
The source says the Capitol Police and sergeant at arms have been consulted as members refuse to leave the room.
 
The Impeachment Inquiry is getting ugly

Just more political theater to try and further radicalize boomers and others that get their news 100% from Facebook and Fox News. I heard a guy in my barber shop talking about how Joseph Stalin also had secret courts. Oh and "lynching" isn't racist and has no racial connotations, obviously, according to this clearly very sane man.
 
I guess they forgot how the health care repeal was done?

Yeah right? And it's that hypocrisy that really gets me... and terrifies me. Because there's nothing rational about any of this anymore. It doesn't matter if the Democrats are just playing by the same rules the Republicans play by.

You'll hear Repubs bitch and moan about how Obamacare shoved through with just enough votes in the middle of the night... completely forgetting the fact that Democrats brought Republicans into the debate at every single step of the way. And even gave them concessions. Can you imagine a Republican-controlled congress doing the same thing for the Democrats? It's ludicrous.

If Democrats did what the Republicans tried today, there'd be a bunch of Fox News commentators saying they should be shot for treason.
 
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