Bulletins and News Discussion from September 2nd to September 8th, 2024 - We Love Our Trans Comrades - Chemicals of the Week: Estrogen and Testosterone
We need to kill the Mega Posting Wars meme. It wasn't very funny to start with and now I get the feeling some people are taking it way too seriously. Clogging up the news thread with bullshit just to try to out post the trans mega is just dumb and annoying.
The News Megathread is now under trans martial law:
Loving trans people on this site and elsewhere is strictly mandatory.
Posting about the "comment wars" between the trans and news megathreads is now strongly discouraged inside the news megathread. No shame in it - I also recently made jokes about it - but though they were almost always just jokes, it was unrelated to current events and was beginning to feel more like padding the comment count instead of trying to improve the quality of the thread. If you want to boost comments and engagement here, then post articles and analysis!
The COTW (Chemical of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific chemical every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied chemicals. If you've wanted to talk about the chemical or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Chemicals of the Week are Estrogen and Testosterone! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
(The Hill) – A Michigan court ordered Friday that former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name be removed from the state’s general election ballot, overturning previous efforts to keep his name on the ballot.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that Kennedy, who suspended his White House bid in August and endorsed former President Trump, can have his name withdrawn from Michigan’s ballot. The decision, written by a three-judge panel, is a win for the environmental lawyer.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) previously denied Kennedy’s request, and a lower court ruled Kennedy’s name must remain on the ballot. Friday’s decision overturns those rulings.
“While the request was made close to the deadline for defendant to give notice of candidates to local election officials, it was not made so late that laches should apply,” the three-judge panel wrote, referring to the doctrine that would let a court deny a push for relief because an opposing party was slow to act.
“Additionally, we conclude that the absence of any statutory authority prohibiting his withdrawal gave plaintiff a clear legal right to have his name removed from the ballot. Defendant had no ability to disregard that request,” added the judges, Michael Gadola, Mark Boonstra and Mark Cavanagh.
Angela Benander, spokesperson for the Michigan secretary of state’s office, said in a statement to The Hill that the office will be “appealing to the Michigan Supreme Court.”
Kennedy has pushed to have his name removed from the ballot in battleground states such as Michigan, saying he wants to ensure he won’t be a spoiler in places where Trump and Vice President Harris are locked in a tight race.
Kennedy is suing to get his name off the ballot in Wisconsin, after the state’s election commission opted to keep him on.
On Friday, a North Carolina judge halted the Tar Heel State from distributing mail-in ballots that have Kennedy’s name on it.
Harris currently leads Trump by less than 2 points in Michigan, according to a polling index from The Hill and Decision Desk HQ.
Not that I was going to vote, but this is all just so sleazy. Taking names of the ballot isn't going to get more people to vote for you, it's just going to give more people an incentive to stay home.