News Round-up — June 20, 2019
It’s Thursday, June 20, 2019. I am back again with another list of stories from LMLOS. These stories have also been posted on Daily Kos.
I did spend hours outside yesterday while we had sun. Today, the rain moved back in. I know it will probably stop around mid-summer, but we are waterlogged. The ground is wet, the plants are wet, the road is wet, the trees are wet, EVERYTHING is wet.
I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures, too, about the difference this weather has made on growing crops. I’m not afraid to say that I am worried about harvest time. Even my home garden is way behind. Last year, I didn’t start anything indoors, but I was already harvesting beans and peas. This year, I didn’t bother with peas since it was snowing up until May, and my beans (which I started indoors) are blossoming, but nowhere near ready.
My poor mother tried to get some peas this year, but first it was too cold for them to produce, and now it’s going to be too hot. I don’t think she’s going to get anything.
In short, check with your local farmers. They are really not OK. A friend of mine has cousins who run a family farm. There was a town hall style meeting for all the farmers in the area to discuss options for the year. It was too cold to plant for so long, now it’s too wet to plant. People are going to lose their livelihoods.
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NEWS STORIES
Fact-checking AOC on Amazon’s ‘starvation wages’ — CNN’s take on this is rather interesting. Essentially, they say that yes, Amazon pays less than a livable wage for the average American, and yes, it only provides health insurance for full-time employees and not any of the cadres of contractors they have, but AOC is wrong that Bezos’ fortune came on the back of his employees. Really, CNN? That’s what you’re going with?
This Makeup Artist Says a Bride Refused to Hire Her Unless She “Changes Her Mind About Being Gay” — — When people wonder why Pride is so important, this story is exactly why. A woman tells a make-up artist that “she doesn’t want gays in her wedding” and, even though she knows the artist is going to hell, to let her know if the artist “gives up” being gay. This Bridezilla then told the artist that her beliefs should have hurt the woman’s feelings.
Why mass deportations haven’t happened under Trump — — While Trump is limited by the budget of ICE, his declarations are radicalizing a racist base and promoting fear in immigrant communities. Realistically, all immigrants, even documented ones, are at risk. The chances of something bad happening are greater if you are Hispanic, even if you are a citizen. ICE agents can demand documentation, but what documentation do you really carry that proves you are a citizen? Immigrants can have driver’s licenses and social security cards too.
Feds Tell 9th Circuit: Detained Kids ‘Safe and Sanitary’ Without Soap — — The Trump administration has detained over 40,000 children between December and now, and that number grows daily. They have cancelled classes and structured recreation for the kids. And now, they make the argument that forcing them to sleep on cement floors in overcrowded conditions in ice cold buildings with nothing but a foil blanket while simultaneously denying them soap and toothbrushes is “safe and sanitary.”
I was the target of alt-right death threats across the internet — here’s what happened next — — And Quillete writer Andy Ngo as well as the founding editor Claire Lehmann are reacting to their publishing of a debunked study by an Alt-Right troll by… Doubling down on doing so despite other journalists receiving death threats because of their inclusion in the study. Andy Ngo even started defending it by claiming the journalists had ties to Antifa by posting about books and articles that spoke out against fascism. Needless to say, now the fascist supporters are ramping up the death threats. I guess that’s one way to take out the competition.
Trump Rally Brings Out White Supremacist ‘Proud Boys’ Wearing Matching Polos — — The Proud Boys now, apparently, have polo shirt uniforms that they wear to Trump rallies. Remember that Proud Boys are an SPLC identified hate group, their founder, Gavin McInnes, once stuck a dildo up his own butt on video to “own the libs”, and they proudly make the “OK” sign to signal their white supremacy while disingenuously claiming that’s not what it means. Racists gonna racist.
Marianne Williamson: Yes, Trump’s ICE Raids Are Exactly Like Nazi Germany — — Self-Help guru and 2020 Dem Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson has weighed in on the Concentration Camp debate to reinforce that, yes, what is going on has strong parallels to Nazi Germany. I feel like the invocation of “Godwin’s Law” at this point in America is used to help forget the history that we’re repeating.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Defends Concentration Camp Comments: ‘History Will Be Kind to Those Who Stood up to This Injustice’ — — Historians, Jewish people, and even the dictionary agrees that these are CONCENTRATION CAMPS. The GOP is trying to drive he conversation away from the atrocities they are committing TODAY so they can quibble over whether or not it is as bad as what Hitler did in WWII. I think, when you have to argue that what you’re doing isn’t AS BAD AS HITLER, you’ve probably already lost the argument. “We’re only detaining people fleeing for their lives and torturing them through a mix of maltreatment and outright neglect. We’re not GASSING them, geeze.”
Joe Arpaio ran a self-proclaimed ‘concentration camp’ for years. Where was GOP outrage? — — When Joe Arpaio described the tortuous conditions that he kept prisoners in as his own “concentration camp,” the GOP loved it. “Law and Order” Joe was seen as a popular person to approach for endorsements by the GOP politicians. Where was their outrage then? Probably the same place as their compassion.
Cracker Barrel bans an anti-gay pastor from holding an event in one of its stores — — GOOD! I actually like Cracker Barrel, so I am glad I can eat there and support them. And before you yell at me about poor taste, those apples are amazing and you cannot convince me otherwise.
