The Curious Debate Over “Fake News”

This is an FYI piece……I do not expect those who “know” the facts to employ any of these suggestions…..but I had to try.

So….One More Time……

There has been lots written about the use of “Fake News”…..some of it not so pretty….and then there are the ever popular diatribes about what is fake and what is real…..

Basically in our society we are at the point where the only “real” news is the news that supports one’s small thoughts…..it is kinda like propaganda….

There are so few that know what a propaganda piece is or is not……I have tried to help my readers discern what is what……several years ago I wrote a couple of posts that pointed out the characteristics of propaganda….

https://lobotero.com/2013/01/11/what-is-propaganda/

https://lobotero.com/2014/01/06/propaganda-2-0/

I bring this up because there is a way to tell what is fake and what is not…..well it works for me and that assumes that the reader wants to know the difference….but I am starting to think that that is a wrong assumption on my part.

Some readers have asked how does one know what is fake and what is not….for those that actually want to know here is the formula…..

  • Crazy claims. We’ve been told for years that the best way to spot a con artist is to remember that if the outcome he promises is too good to be true, it probably is. The same concept is applicable here: If a “news” story is too crazy to be true, it probably is.
  • Incredulous introduction. Watch out for phrases in the top of the story that acknowledge the incredible, unbelievable nature of what’s coming. Examples are “As preposterous as it might appear,” or “Unimaginable as it may seem.”
  • Audacious repetition. Consider this scenario: Your coworker walks into your office with a stunned look on his face and says, “Are you ready for this? Santa Claus is sick!” Your natural response is to roll your eyes and say something like, “Go away, I don’t have time for this.” But then he looks at you with a troubled expression on his face and says, “No, I mean it, Santa’s really sick.” The moment  he says that, he has suddenly captured your attention, and you find yourself asking something like, “What do you mean, Santa Claus is sick?” At that point, without realizing it, you’ve begun the process of buying into the fake story. You’re now asking a question about it, whereas just a moment earlier, you were telling the guy to get out, because you were too busy for this nonsense. Suddenly it matters in your life, because while Santa is fictitious to you, he’s not fictitious to your kids—it has some relevance to you. Writers of fake news stories have learned the value of leveraging the psychology of repetition—the more something is repeated, the more believable it becomes. Consider how Madison Avenue advertising works: The magic number is three. If the consumer receives the message three times, research has shown that he may not buy the product immediately, but the door has been opened to his willingness to at least consider buying it.
  • Hyper hyperbole. Over-the-top statements of degree permeate the story. The news isn’t just “significant,” it’s “absolutely astounding.” Similarly, if the story has to do with some misfortune, it’s not just “serious” or “bad,” it’s “the worst thing we have ever seen.”
  • Validation void. Invariably, fake news lacks substance in terms of sourcing—the sources tend to be vague and unidentifiable. At the same time, there tends to be no actionable information in the story, in the sense that there’s nowhere within reason to go to attempt to validate it.

This works well….but I have NO illusion that there will be those people that bend over for whatever confirms their thoughts…..without checking them out…..outrageous claims only fires them up more…..and then there are those “trust me” moments……that is when I start to roll my eyes…..trust without validation is STUPID!

Me?  I dig for answers…but I seem to think ALL news is fake until I check it out in detail…..I think that is what we all should do….but sadly most are too goddamn lazy for any work….they prefer to rely on CRAP for their “knowledge”.

So you continue to believe crap…..I will do what I do best…..DIG!

You see I refuse to read only partisan bullshit…… and make NO mistake it is bullshit……but then I do not expect others to put in the time to learn anything……it takes a special kind of person to look at all sides….and there are damn few of us anymore.

This will be my last post on the subject of “Fake News”……(to everyone’s relief I am sure)

The Ghost Of The USS Pueblo

Early Saturday morning I was having a hard time sleeping so I decided to watch some news……I found the Rachel Maddow Show…..she is so cute but she is just too damn redundant for me to watch often.

The show was about basically about the moves the China has made in recent years when we have a new president…..(oh Hell I hate typing this early…watch it for yourself)…..

https://t.co/Ox9Df4bklJ

As usual she was very through in her research but I took a different tack off of the piece……I remember on 23Jan68 the North Koreans captured a US Naval vessel, USS Pueblo……which was operating in international waters, according to the US……..is anyone old enough to remember this?

the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence vessel, is engaged in a routine surveillance of the North Korean coast when it is intercepted by North Korean patrol boats. According to U.S. reports, the Pueblo was in international waters almost 16 miles from shore, but the North Koreans turned their guns on the lightly armed vessel and demanded its surrender. The Americans attempted to escape, and the North Koreans opened fire, wounding the commander and two others. With capture inevitable, the Americans stalled for time, destroying the classified information aboard while taking further fire. Several more crew members were wounded.

Finally, the Pueblo was boarded and taken to Wonson. There, the 83-man crew was bound and blindfolded and transported to Pyongyang, where they were charged with spying within North Korea’s 12-mile territorial limit and imprisoned. It was the biggest crisis in two years of increased tension and minor skirmishes between the United States and North Korea.

All this was a continuing battle of intel between US and PRNK…..what does this have to do with Maddow’s talk?

Shen mentioned a couple of ships, US Navy ships, that were crewed by civilians….the Bowditch and the Impeccable….but they are research ships…..they are intel ships and I bet that half the crew are agents with some real scientist scattered in to make it appear legit.

The South China Sea is a hot bed of intel activity thanx to those islands that everyone in the region lays claim to….then there is the underwater  drone that China has lifted….

Pentagon officials are accusing the Chinese Navy of theft today after one of their ships made off with a US underwater surveillance drone, which officials described as “lawfully conducting a military survey” in the South China Sea.

Details on the incident are still emerging. The USNS Bowditch deployed 2 such drones somewhere in the South China Sea. The Pentagon described the incident as occurring “about 100 miles” from Subic Bay, which likely puts it in the vicinity of the Spratly Islands.

The Bowditch was being followed by a Chinese Navy vessel, the ASR-510, a Dalang-III class rescue and salvage ship. The Bowditch had its drones deployed about 500 meters from itself, and while Pentagon officials described the Bowditch itself as being in international waters, they weren’t clear whether the drones were. Obvious the US and China also have different concepts of whose maritime waters are whose in the South China Sea as well.

(antiwar.com)

Maddow said in her report that you can buy this drone on the market for about $155,000…but I bet that mine will not have the electronics in it that the one the Chinese scooped up has….wahtcha think?

This is all the same games that we have played for 60 years…..it is just a Game Of Spies……

Closing Thought–19Dec16

From the fires of Hell….

Everyone has seen or heard about the devastating fires that raged through Tennessee…..even those idiots that thought it was some sort of “Muslim” terrorist attack……but sad (for them) it appears that the fires were started by a couple of teenagers….and their fate does not appear to be bright…..

Everything, including murder charges that could bring a sentence of life in prison, is “on the table” for two teenagers accused of starting a devastating wildfire in Tennessee, prosecutors warn. The pair, whose names and ages have not been publicly released, were charged with aggravated arson earlier this month and are in juvenile detention. Authorities say a firestorm that began with a blaze the teens allegedly started in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Nov. 23 ended up killing 14 people, injuring another 175, destroying more than 2,000 homes and other structures, and scorching around 20,000 acres of the park. It’s not clear whether prosecutors plan to try the teens as adults.

CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos says the teens could be tried for first-degree murder even if they weren’t planning to kill anybody, because Tennessee law allows the charges “killing of another committed in the perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate” offenses including arson. Sources tell the Knoxville News Sentinel that the boys are 17 and 15 years old, making it possible that both could be tried as adults. The sources say the boys were tossing lit matches onto the ground around the Chimney Tops Trail, and they were tracked down with the help of a photo another hiker took of the boys walking away from the trail with smoke in the background.

It will be interesting to see just how sympathetic a jury will be…that is if they do not plead out (which I look for to happen)…..

Ain’t Karma A Bitch?

Today is a bitch!  It is 25 deg…I know child’s play but yesterday it was 67….so yes it is f*cking cold!

The big to do these days was that Russia seems to have interfered in the 2016 elections….of course like all issues in the US….some are outraged and others are just shrugging it off…..and there is some proof but few seem to want to believe it while others are drooling over this breach…..

Let’s say that Russia did hack the DNC and others and used the info to influence the election (for argument purposes only)……could it be karma coming home to roost?

Karma?  How so?

For at least 60 years the US has been interfering in the elections of other countries……countries like Iran, Guatemala, Gaza and Chile and probably many others but these are the ones we know about.

Take Iran, 1951, the people voted a dude into the presidency, Mosaddegh, but he was a bit too Left wing for the US so Truman approved deal where the CIA would overthrow him and install a puppet, the Shah.

Or Guatemala in 1954, a similar scenario as Iran…Left winger comes to power so Eisenhower let the CIA put together a coup to replace him and install a more friendly power broker.

Then there was Chile in the 1970’s…again a Left winger was elected to the position of president and once again the US let the CIA overthrow him and install a power mad dictator, Pinochet.

Does anyone see a progression here?

My point here is if the US does not want others meddling in our elections then maybe we should bow out of theirs.

Keep in mind these days a twat with a computer can bring you or a country to their knees…..

But what is behind all this Russian hacking stories?  Is there a narrative that we may be missing?

Investigative reporter Robert Parry has a few thoughts on this…..

As the Electoral College assembles, U.S. intelligence agencies are stepping up a campaign to delegitimize Donald Trump as a Russian stooge, raising concerns about a spy coup in America, reports Robert Parry.

As Official Washington’s latest “group think” solidifies into certainty – that Russia used hacked Democratic emails to help elect Donald Trump – something entirely different may be afoot: a months-long effort by elements of the U.S. intelligence community to determine who becomes the next president.

I was told by a well-placed intelligence source some months ago that senior leaders of the Obama administration’s intelligence agencies – from the CIA to the FBI – were deeply concerned about either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump ascending to the presidency. And, it’s true that intelligence officials often come to see themselves as the stewards of America’s fundamental interests, sometimes needing to protect the country from dangerous passions of the public or from inept or corrupt political leaders.

Source: A Spy Coup in America? – Consortiumnews

After decades of meddling in the democratic process internationally has the shadow warriors decide that this country needs a tweak or two?

Parry also has thoughts on the whole Idea of turning Russia into an adversary…..

Despite conflicting accounts about who leaked the Democratic emails, the frenzy over an alleged Russian role is driving the U.S. deeper into a costly and dangerous New Cold War, writes Robert Parry.

The rising hysteria about Russia is best understood as fulfilling two needs for Official Washington: the Military Industrial Complex’s transitioning from the “war on terror” to a more lucrative “new cold war” – and blunting the threat that a President Trump poses to the neoconservative/liberal-interventionist foreign-policy establishment.

By hyping the Russian “threat,” the neocons and their liberal-hawk sidekicks, who include much of the mainstream U.S. news media, can guarantee bigger military budgets from Congress. The hype also sets in motion a blocking maneuver to impinge on any significant change in direction for U.S. foreign policy under Trump.

Source: Making Russia ‘The Enemy’ – Consortiumnews

Do tell!  Is the Karmic finger being flipped at the US?

If so, why is the media buying into the narrative?

In 1977, Carl Bernstein published an exposé of a CIA program known as Operation Mockingbird, a covert program involving, according to Bernstein, “more than 400 American journalists who in the past 25 years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency.” Bernstein found that in “many instances” CIA documents revealed that “journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of the managements of America’s leading news organizations.”

Fast-forward to December 2016, and one can see that there isn’t much need for a covert government program these days. The recent raft of unverified, anonymously sourced and circumstantial stories alleging that the Russian government interfered in the US presidential election with the aim of electing Republican Donald J. Trump shows that today too much of the media is all too happy to do overtly what the CIA had once paid it to do covertly: regurgitate the claims of the spy agency and attack the credibility of those who question it.

Source: Why Are the Media Taking the CIA’s Hacking Claims at Face Value? | The Nation

What is the truth of it all?

Ain’t Karma a bitch?

 

NATO Advisers In Syria Captured

Over the weekend I read a news report about NATO advisers in Syria….the report states that 14 were captured in a bunker in Aleppo when the city was being liberated……

At least 14 US-led coalition military advisers have been captured by the Syrian Special Forces in a bunker in the city of Aleppo, according to media reports. The event allegedly took place in the morning on December 16, 2016 (Voltaire.net): 

21stcenturywire.com also provided a list of names of the coalition’s military advisers captured in Aleppo, citing a Syrian member of Parliament:

Fares Shehabi, a prominent Syrian Parliamentarian and head of Aleppo’s Chamber of Commerce published the names of the Coalition officers on his Facebook page on the 15th December (emphasis added):

Mutaz Kanoğlu – Turkey
David Scott Winer – USA
David Shlomo Aram – Israel
Muhamad Tamimi – Qatar
Muhamad Ahmad Assabian – Saudi
Abd-el-Menham Fahd al Harij – Saudi
Islam Salam Ezzahran Al Hajlan – Saudi
Ahmed Ben Naoufel Al Darij – Saudi
Muhamad Hassan Al Sabihi – Saudi
Hamad Fahad Al Dousri – Saudi
Amjad Qassem Al Tiraoui – Jordan
Qassem Saad Al Shamry – Saudi
Ayman Qassem Al Thahalbi – Saudi
Mohamed Ech-Chafihi El Idrissi – Moroccan

I have been trying to confirm this report…..so far most of the info comes from some “fringe” sites….I have been searching the sites in the Middle East and so far I have come up with little….so until I get some conformation I am calling this “suspect”…..

If and when I get my confirmation then I will post on this again…..until then….

Is Kanye Really That Important?

Last week one of the big stories the media just had to cover was something earth shaking…..President-elect Trump had a meeting with celeb Kanye West.  Why would our president waste his valuable time meeting with a loud mouth douche that only wants attention…oh wait…we elected such a person…..

Just in case you were part of the group fascinated by Kayne then you missed some pretty amazing stories……because the media just had to report on some mundane bullshit that meant NOTHING in the grand scheme of things……

1. Drug overdose deaths have surpassed gun deaths and car accidents: It emerged this week that according to data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), drug overdose deaths, largely driven by the nation’s ongoing opiate epidemic, have soared in the last year. Though heart disease is still the leading killer in the United States, over 55,000 Americans have died from drugs. The staggering figure comes even as the federal government has stepped up its efforts to combat opiate addiction, which have apparently failed to curb the health crisis brought on largely by pharmaceutical companies, the FDA, and overzealous doctors. This data suggests American’s aren’t getting their money’s worth: the DEA’s budget is almost $3 billion — but they’re still concerned about not being able to arrest people for weed.

2. Journalist calls CIA’s bluff on Russian hack claims: One angle the media has made sure to perpetuate is its unsubstantiated narrative that Russia hacked the U.S. presidential election. Over the last week, mainstream headlines have promoted the CIA’s anonymous claims of ‘Russian infiltration’ as fact, but while that story has received widespread attention, journalistic attempts to challenge it have not. Nevertheless, Jeremy Scahill, investigative journalist and author of Dirty Wars, offered a chance for the intelligence community to prove its claims. “U.S. intelligence agencies have repeatedly demonstrated that they regularly both lie and get things horribly wrong. In this case they may well be correct, but they cannot expect Americans to simply take their word for it,” Scahill wrote for The Intercept, pointing out the CIA’s own history of tampering with foreign elections and, worse, overthrowing elected leaders. Scahill effectively called the agency’s bluff and offered individuals within it a chance to validate the claims. “[I]f it comes to pass that the U.S. government refuses to back up these serious claims with evidence, then perhaps a patriotic whistleblower will do the public an important service,” he wrote, providing a link to The Intercept’s secure drop. One would think a media apparatus concerned with unearthing the facts about Russia’s involvement would promote an effort to substantiate their claims — claims other agencies have since disputed.

3. Man acquitted of charges of shooting at cops: After awaiting trial behind bars for nearly two years, this week Texan Ray Rosas was acquitted of attempted capital murder and aggravated assault charges against three police officers who incorrectly raided his home. The prosecution opted to drop those charges while retaining the counts of aggravated assault. But as local Corpus Christi outlet KRISTVreported, “The defense argued Rosas did not know he was firing at police, after SWAT actions were not carried out simultaneously and he was disoriented by a flash-bang grenade going off in his bedroom.” The jury acquitted Rosas of the remaining charges, setting a precedent that police should face consequences for incompetence and overzealous raid tactics (a similar scenario unfolded in Texas in 2014). Notable examples of police misconduct during raids include a baby who was seriously injured by a flash grenade that landed in its crib, as well as dogs killed by officers raiding the wrong homes. Considering SWAT raids have been on the rise in recent years — and according to the ACLU, 80 percent have been for search warrants — this court case is especially timely.

4. Lawmakers introduce “Stop Arming Terrorists” legislation: Late last week, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard introduced legislation with Rep. Thomas Massie and others calling on the U.S. government to stop arming, funding, and aiding terrorist organizations. Massie says the bill “would prohibit the U.S. government from using American taxpayer dollars to provide funding, weapons, training, and intelligence support to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, or to countries who are providing direct or indirect support to those same groups.” Indeed, the U.S. has long been arming al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria; Gabbard used mainstream outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to support her claims. Though the news emerged before Trump and Kanye met, it’s doubtful the story would have garnered much mainstream attention, anyway — after all, it does not fit the Western narrative on Syria.

5. Chaos in Aleppo, Syria: This week, the mainstream media has focused intensely on ongoing events in Aleppo, Syria, which is largely considered ground zero in the Syrian civil war. Though the area has been held by rebels since 2012, a recent onslaught by Russia and the Syrian government has further endangered the lives of civilians, which corporate media has thoroughly covered. But what the media isn’t reporting is that, as Gabbard and Massie are attempting to highlight, the rebels in Aleppo aren’t all freedom-fighting liberators. Many are as extreme as ISIS and seek to impose extremist interpretations of Islam. Still, the media is quoting these U.S.-backed rebels as reliable sources — the same ones who, for example, beheaded a ten-year-old child over the summer (the U.S. stopped backing that group in 2015).

Because Syria is too dangerous for many reporters to visit on the ground, much of the reporting is comprised of second-hand accounts. Russian, Syrian, and Iranian outlets sing the praises of the Putin-Assad-led offensive, neglecting to acknowledge how many innocent civilians are dying in the process. On the flip side, Western media is attempting to perpetuate the false dichotomy that because Russia and Syria are bad, the rebels and the U.S. are forces of good. Still, Western media frequently cites the Syrian Observatory on Human Rights — run by a Syrian expat who runs a t-shirt shop in England — to further its claims. While the motives driving media narratives are convoluted and difficult to decipher, however, there are ways to help those in need. Donate to organizations like Doctors without Borders, the International Rescue Committee, and Hand in Hand for Syria, which focus on directly aiding civilians.

This incident is why the MSM, and I am talking about ALL the media that focuses on bullshit while the world burns, is complacent in the dumbing down of America….helping the movie “Idiocracy” become reality.

Dethroning The “King”

Today is the BIG day…the electoral college will have its say in the 2016 election…..

How many have read the rantings of the lunatic Right and their constant bitching about the “attempts” to de-legitamizing the election of Donald Trump?

They whine about the protests….they condemn anyone that will not bow down and kiss the joint of our newly “elected” emperor…..

So in the spirit of cooperation I have read something about the possibility of some electors that may NOT sign on to the presidency of Trump…..

This is from the site “The Hill”……

Harvard University law professor Larry Lessig said Tuesday that 20 Republican Electoral College voters are considering flipping to vote against Donald Trump, more than half the number of anti-Trump votes needed to stall the president-elect from being sworn into office.

“Obviously, whether an elector ultimately votes his or her conscience will depend in part upon whether there are enough doing the same. We now believe there are more than half the number needed to change the result seriously considering making that vote,” Lessig told Politico.

Lessig has been offering free legal counsel to “faithless electors” who are considering casting a ballot for an alternative candidate as opposed to Trump, who earned 306 votes on Election Day, well above the necessary 270.

According to Politico’s report, 20 Republican electors have contacted Lessig’s group about voting against Trump.

Electors will cast their ballots on Dec. 19.

If anti-Trump electors manage to whip up enough votes against him, the decision would then go to the GOP-controlled House.

Here’s the problem…even if these 30 electors decide to go against the election and vote for someone other than Trump…he will still have enough votes to be the president…..if it does somehow go to the Congress then Trump will still be the winner….why?  GOP are cowards and will  NOT vote against their party.

So please stop your constant whining…..Trump was elected and he will be president…..move on to something that deserves attention.  That is assuming that you can actually think beyond what those idiots in the fringe media tells you.

Mississippi Proves Itself Again

I live in the great state of Mississippi or as I call it, The Great American Cultural Wasteland….there should be a sign on every highway leading into the state that says “Welcome to Mississippi….Set Your Watch Back 150 years”……

Before I go any further I would like to share breakfast…..hash brown casserole, eggs, bacon and biscuits…..and about a gallon of good Sumatran coffee….now I am ready to face my adoring public….(tee hee)…..

Mississippi seems to always be at the top of every list of bad things like heath, pay, income, et al….and at the bottom of every list of good things…..recently a list was issued of the healthiest states in our great union……and we did it again!

What is the healthiest state in the USA? For the fifth straight year, the winner is … Hawaii, according to America’s Health Rankings. The Aloha State snagged the top spot for its low rates of uninsured people and obesity, though it scores above average for excessive drinking, reports USA Today. In last place was Mississippi, which fell the only place it had to go from No. 49 last year, faulted for problems including widespread childhood poverty, low birthweight, and smoking. (Iowa, at No. 17, was the most improved state.) The annual ranking relies on CDC data on a range of health and well-being measures. Here are the top five:

  1. Hawaii
  2. Massachusetts
  3. Connecticut
  4. Minnesota
  5. Vermont

Click for the full report.

Now this could explain their propensity to elect idiots both national, state and local…..idiocy begets idiocy……

Okay my friends….it is Sunday and time to do something completely different…..whatever that might be….

See you guys tomorrow for more stuff…..

New Strain of Fact-Resistant Humans

I am always on the lookout for stories that my readers may find informative or at least entertaining…..and I believe I have found a good one for this Sunday.

There has been a lot of reports about this site of that that passes off “fake news” as accurate….and then there will always be those comments about “facts”…how do you know that the “facts” you get are accurate….I would go into this situation but I have tired myself out debating this situation in the recent past…..

While reading different sites I cam upon this story in The New Yorker…and the title alone made me sit up and want to read it…….

Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.

The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.

“These humans appear to have all the faculties necessary to receive and process information,” Davis Logsdon, one of the scientists who contributed to the study, said. “And yet, somehow, they have developed defenses that, for all intents and purposes, have rendered those faculties totally inactive.”

Source: Scientists: Earth Endangered by New Strain of Fact-Resistant Humans – The New Yorker – Linkis.com

This situation seems to get worse with each passing election…..facts are NOT facts if they do not conform to what the person wants to believe…..

Time to bow out and enjoy the rest of my weekend and I suggest that everyone should try to do the same….life is too short without any enjoyment…..

Peace….out….my friends.

Bestiality Equals Higher Minimum Wage

The weekend begins and I was searching for something interesting for my readers….other than the mindless crap that the news produces daily…..something strange and unusual….something that would have my reader sitting there asking….WTF?

By George I think I found something…..and I ask any of my readers in Ohio that reads this and may have an inside track on this situation to clarify it for my other readers…..(I do attempt to be accurate)

Can you appreciate the games politicians play?  Their creativity is just amazing sometimes……

Most of my readers are aware of the movement to make $15 an hour the new minimum wage….of course most everyone in the GOP is having a stroke trying to find ways to avoid raising it…..

I believe that the good reps in Ohio have found a unique way to do so……

It is currently legal to have sex with an animal in nine states, but it seems Ohio may want off that list. The Guardian reports Ohio’s state legislature passed a bill this week that would outlaw bestiality and the selling of animals for sex. Gov. John Kasich has 10 days to sign or veto the bill. “The passage of animal sexual abuse legislation is a great victory for the animals of Ohio,” says a policy director at the Humane Society, which campaigned for the bill. The senators who sponsored the bill argued that sexually abusing animals can be a stepping stone to sexually abusing children.

But of course it’s not as simple as making it illegal to have sex with animals. WHIO reports the bill originally sought to stop local governments from regulating large-scale dog breeders, meaning animal-rights groups opposed it. Then Republican legislators added a section to the bill to stop cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati from raising the minimum wage, according to the New York Daily News. Now the bill was now also unpopular with workers’ rights groups. To make the controversial bill more palatable, Republican legislators then added the anti-bestiality legislation. And that’s how 40 legislators, mostly Democrats, ended up voting against making it illegal to screw animals while the state made it easier to keep screwing workers.

Ah!  The games our politicians play….how original of them.

Thoughts?