US Politics Mega-thread - Page 5092

On September 22 2016 20:24 Incognoto wrote:
I heard about the prison strikes. They really do treat prisoners like crap in the USA, you can watch John Oliver's take on that on youtube.

The issue with prisons in the USA is that they're essentially for profit. So they don't want people to get fixed they just want them to come back and serve more time.

Archeologists and museum directors have denounced the “destruction” of Native American artifacts during the construction of a contentious oil pipeline in North Dakota, as the affected tribe condemned the project in an address to the United Nations.

The $3.8bn Dakota Access pipeline, which will funnel oil from the Bakken oil fields to Illinois, will run next to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The tribe has mounted a legal challenge to stop the project and claimed that several sacred sites were bulldozed by Energy Transfer, the company behind the pipeline, on 3 September.

A coalition of more than 1,200 archeologists, museum directors and historians from institutions including the Smithsonian and the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries has written to the Obama administration to criticize the bulldozing, which Energy Transfer claims did not disturb any artifacts.

The letter states that the construction work destroyed “ancient burial sites, places of prayer and other significant cultural artifacts sacred to the Lakota and Dakota people”.

It adds: “The destruction of these sacred sites adds yet another injury to the Lakota, Dakota, and other Indigenous Peoples who bear the impacts of fossil fuel extraction and transportation. If constructed, this pipeline will continue to encourage oil consumption that causes climate change, all the while harming those populations who contributed little to this crisis.”

The Obama administration has halted construction of the 1,170-mile pipeline that occurs on federal land while it reassesses the initial decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to allow the project to proceed. The approval sparked furious protests at a camp near the North Dakota construction site but Energy Transfer has vowed to push ahead after a federal judge sided with the company.

“What the Standing Rock Sioux are going through is just one example of a systemic and historical truth around how extractive and polluting infrastructure is forced upon Native communities,” said James Powell, former president and director of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum.

MIAMI — Mike Fernandez, the billionaire heavyweight Republican donor who says he’s voting for Democrat Hillary Clinton because he loathes Donald Trump, says he’s ready to spend as much as $2 million to an unspecified nonprofit to help register new Hispanic voters in Florida and turn them out in the election.

In giving the money, Fernandez doesn’t have to support the Democrat directly. But he knows that, for every 10 new Latinos registered to vote, at least six will probably vote against Trump. If polling trends hold and black and Latino voters turnout relative to their current registration numbers, strategists say, Clinton is likely to win Florida and therefore the White House.

“As a lifelong Republican, I cannot support a Party I no longer recognize,” Fernandez wrote in an email, saying he could not understand how the GOP “could not distance itself from a man who has taken such liberties with the facts that calling him a liar would not suffice.”

Fernandez — who backed Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential bid this cycle with his own millions and has supported comprehensive immigration reform plans that Trump has trashed — said that he has never met Hillary Clinton.

“She is far from perfect but benign in comparison to Trump,” said Fernandez. “I specially call on all Latinos to reject a man who encourages violence against you [as] he has done in Iowa and other places.”

While Fernandez has not specified whom he’ll give the money to, a coalition of Latino-outreach groups operating primarily in Central Florida say they’ll take all the help they can get. The groups — National Council of La Raza, Mi Familia Vota and the Hispanic Federation — say they together have helped register about 70,000 new Latino voters in Florida and want to sign up at least 30,000 more.

On September 22 2016 21:44 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:


Source

On September 22 2016 22:20 farvacola wrote:
I don't care for the imposition of categorical rules like those suggested by the above ad campaign, but "you don't get to be offended" is a stupid thing to say. You don't get to tell others what they can or cannot be offended by, and referencing Hova doesn't change that lol

The costume is that of Maui, a demigod in Polynesian mythology who has been animated and voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a character in Disney’s upcoming “Moana.” Although Disney has featured brown-skinned people in its films before — “Pocahontas” comes to mind — it has not released a costume in which said brown skin itself is depicted as part of the outfit.

The costume’s description reads, “Your little one will set off on adventures in this Maui Costume featuring the demigod’s signature tattoos, rope necklace and island-style skirt. Plus, padded arms and legs for mighty stature!”

Accompanying the description is a photograph of a young boy, who has brown skin, wearing the costume.

Take a look:



Predictably, almost immediately outrage spread across social media from people decrying the idea of skin color being used as a costume.

“As a Poly I support our folk involved in #MOANA. But this? NO. Our Brown Skin/Ink’s NOT a costume,” one user tweeted. “Many people are Rightfully upset about this new piece of #Moana merch. Cultures are NOT costumes,” tweeted another. “Hey heads up, I’ve seen that Moana costume, and I seriously don’t want to see it again. It sickens me, please don’t ask me to talk about it,” tweeted a third. “This might be the creepiest thing Disney has ever done. ‘Wear another culture’s skin!’ ” yet another person tweeted.

One user compared the costume to the suit made from literal human skin in “Silence of the Lambs.”

“We are not a costume,” tweeted one user.

On September 22 2016 22:26 farvacola wrote:
That's a very different proposition, and I think a member of a group being implicated by a costume would fight your invocation of "just about anything."

On September 22 2016 22:39 farvacola wrote:

Look, it isn't hard to toss the concerns of others when you color them in the least appealing shade possible, but then again, being offended by someone else being offended speaks for itself.

At least xDaunt is honest about his disregard and doesn't resort to cherry picking.