12 votes

Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of August 8

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Tags: usa, politics, recurring.weekly

This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

9 comments

  1. [2]
    kfwyre
    Link
    House report details grisly threats to election workers (Axios)

    House report details grisly threats to election workers (Axios)

    The report offers graphic examples of the threats sent to election workers and officials "singled out by politicians with a national platform."

    • A Texas election official had his home address leaked and received threats telling him to leave the state and that he would be hunted down. Another message said: "hang him when convicted for fraud and let his lifeless body hang in public until maggots drip out of his mouth."

    • "Perhaps most disturbing, [he got] messages threatening his children, saying, 'I think we should end your bloodline,'" Texas official Remi Garza told the panel.

    • A Florida election worker targeted by Alex Jones and Roger Stone was "was inundated with phone calls from angry conspiracy theorists from across the country."

    6 votes
    1. FrankGrimes
      Link Parent
      Say what you want, but when Clinton called this group a basket of deplorables, she was spot on. Absolutely disgusting what a good chunk of this country has turned into. Unfortunately, short of...

      Say what you want, but when Clinton called this group a basket of deplorables, she was spot on. Absolutely disgusting what a good chunk of this country has turned into. Unfortunately, short of federal intervention, states like Florida and Texas aren't going to do anything real about it - after all, it helps the people in power. Jones, Stone, Boebert, MTG, and all the other violence pushing, conspiracy peddling traitors belong in jail (or worse). The entire GOP is completely rotten to the core.

      6 votes
  2. kfwyre
    Link
    As right-wing rhetoric escalates, so do threats and violence (New York Times)

    As right-wing rhetoric escalates, so do threats and violence (New York Times)

    According to the F.B.I., there are now about 2,700 open domestic terrorism investigations — a number that has doubled since the spring of 2020 — and that does not include lesser but still serious incidents that do not rise to the level of federal inquiry. Last year, threats against members of Congress reached a record high of 9,600, according to data provided by the Capitol Police.

    Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago who studies political violence, has conducted half a dozen nationwide polls since the Jan. 6 attack and has repeatedly found the same results: that between 15 million and 20 million American adults believe that violence would be justified to return Mr. Trump to office.

    5 votes
  3. [5]
    Omnicrola
    (edited )
    Link
    This amused me. https://abortionpoll.cardsagainsthumanity.com

    This amused me. https://abortionpoll.cardsagainsthumanity.com

    But while they were being printed, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and basically half the states wasted no time turning themselves into dystopian forced-birth hellscapes. It's fucking awful.

    If you live in one of those Republican dystopias, we don’t need your money. So we’re donating 100% of profits from orders to those states — AL, AR, AZ, FL, GA, ID, IN, KY, LA, MO, MS, ND, OH, OK, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, WI, WV, and WY — to the National Network of Abortion Funds. We’re also donating $100,000 on our own to start.

    Hopefully that list doesn’t get any longer, but if more states decide to descend into theocracy, we’ll add them to the list and continue losing money.

    4 votes
    1. [4]
      HotPants
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      That poll is amazingly depressing. https://abortionpoll.cardsagainsthumanity.com/ (You have an extra six on the hyperlink) Edit: They include the raw data. It shows 36% of respondents think the...

      That poll is amazingly depressing.

      https://abortionpoll.cardsagainsthumanity.com/

      (You have an extra six on the hyperlink)

      Edit: They include the raw data.

      It shows 36% of respondents think the election was stolen, 65% of republicans, 31% of independents and 5% of democrats. That is consistent with other polls.

      48% of respondents approve of the supreme court overturning Roe v Wade. In a fantastic example of the wisdom of crowds, when asked "What percentage of Americans do you think approve of the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade" the average of all the guesses was also 48%.

      2/3rds of respondents think abortion should be allowed if the baby is likely to die or in the case of rape or in the case where the mothers life is threatened. Less than 10% of respondents think abortion should be illegal regardless of those circumstances.

      Most respondents think a fertilized egg is a person?!?

      So much for the wisdom of crowds. No one has a clue about birth prevention effectiveness or the the likelihood of various birth risks. It doesn't matter if you are a woman or a man, educated or not educated, no one has a clue.

      5 votes
      1. [2]
        skybrian
        Link Parent
        Note that 48% approval is only for the states polled (which are conservative), not all Americans. Publishing the full dataset is good but what's missing is the methodology: how did they do the...

        Note that 48% approval is only for the states polled (which are conservative), not all Americans.

        Publishing the full dataset is good but what's missing is the methodology: how did they do the poll? (Phone, Internet, or some combination?) How did they select the recipients? What were the exact questions asked?

        5 votes
        1. HotPants
          Link Parent
          I did a Ninja edit and changed "Americans" to "respondents" because I was also thinking about that a lot. The poll definitely has more white conservative male respondents (2/3 male & 1/3 female) ,...

          I did a Ninja edit and changed "Americans" to "respondents" because I was also thinking about that a lot.

          The poll definitely has more white conservative male respondents (2/3 male & 1/3 female) , and the comments indicate people submitted feedback mostly via a web form, so it's not the most rigorous of polls, but the findings are consistent with other polls, so I think it's good enough, especially when you look at the difference in answers between white conservative males and other respondents.

          1 vote
      2. Omnicrola
        Link Parent
        Ah! Thanks, I corrected it

        (You have an extra six on the hyperlink)

        Ah! Thanks, I corrected it

        1 vote
  4. skybrian
    Link
    6,500 Afghans evacuated to UAE still stuck in limbo awaiting U.S. resettlement [...]

    6,500 Afghans evacuated to UAE still stuck in limbo awaiting U.S. resettlement

    Roughly 6,500 Afghan evacuees remain at the Emirates Humanitarian City, an apartment complex in the outskirts of Abu Dhabi that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed to convert into a makeshift refugee housing facility, according to previously undisclosed U.S. State Department data shared with CBS News.

    Some of the Afghans in the Humanitarian City arrived in the UAE last summer, soon after the U.S.-aligned government in Kabul collapsed. Others were evacuated from Afghanistan last fall on charter flights overseen by nongovernmental groups.

    [...]

    U.S. policy is responsible for the disparate processing. Afghans who were evacuated to the UAE before Aug. 31, 2021, were effectively guaranteed permission to enter the U.S. if they passed certain medical and security checks, the State Department told CBS News. But those who arrived after Aug. 31, 2021, have been required to prove they qualify for a U.S. immigration benefit, such as a visa or refugee status.

    2 votes