Friday, August 30, 2024

News roundup, 30 Aug 2024

- Users of X/Twitter were warned by the platform that NPR's article about the Trump campaign's altercation with staff at the Arlington National Cemetery was "unsafe". Now it's true that sometimes the AIs that scan links for potential risks (such as malware) get it wrong, and an X representative said that this was indeed one of those false positives. It's hard not to wonder, though, if this was a direct move by Elon Musk to suppress a story that's potentially damaging to Trump. Without a doubt, there's potential for damage in the story; given the near-sacred status of the military in American mythology, having a Trump staffer shove a female employee of the cemetery who was just trying to ensure that rules set up to ensure respectful behaviour around the graves of fallen soldiers is not a good look. And some observers think Trump himself is in a state of panic as he loses it on his Truth Social platform. Perhaps the fact that new registrations by Democratic voters have dramatically increased in some swing states is contributing to his declining mental state.

- Republican Royce White, who is trying to unseat Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, went on a rant on his podcast about how Republicans trying to appeal to suburban women are "delusional" and "living in a cucked mentality". Given the electoral system and the demographics, though, you have to win over a fair chunk of that vote to get elected (even Trump knows that), yet White continues to push on. It's as if the far right true believers are the delusional ones.

- Cornel West seems to have been afflicted by RFK Jr.'s wild delusions about vaccines - or at least he's trying to pick up some votes that would have gone to Kennedy had the latter not dropped out of the race.

- A South Korean court has ruled that the country's climate legislation's lack of legally binding targets for greenhouse gas reduction is unconstitutional, because it violates the rights of future generations.

- Israel is buying Google ads to discredit the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), trying to present the agency as being in the pocket of Hamas.

- BC Conservative leader John Rustad is refusing to moderate his position on climate change. Notably Rustad was kicked out of the BC Liberals (who were already considerably to the right of their federal counterparts) over this very issue, yet now he's trying to get former supporters of that party to vote for his. One hopes it won't work, though you can't always count on voters to do the right or sensible thing.

- A youth pastor at Oak View Baptist Church in High Point, North Carolina has been charged with 30 counts of sexual battery against teenage victims. You can be sure, though, that the church will continue to say that drag queens are the real threat.

- The mayor of a municipality in New Zealand gave a nice concise response to a "sovereign citizen" who requested personal information about council staff.

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