What's in the News? 2.0

[TheGlyphstone]

Makes you wonder what might have changed if we were all-in from the start instead of sitting on our asses for two years.

But yeah, Murican historical narcissism is pretty painful to see. Especially when it overlaps into stuff like the French 'surrender monkeys' slander.

[Skynet]

The USA also has regional revisionism which holds little appeal outside of their favored states. Many classrooms in the South still teach that the Civil War wasn't about slavery, while in Utah the Mormon Church's dark spots are taboo to talk about and denied by religious officials. And there are Americans from outside looking in going "those guys are nuts."

[Beorning]

I'd say that jingoism / narcissism is one thing - but these opinions from Russia that try to complete rewrite history and whitewash Russian / Soviet oppression of other nations is something much worse...

[Tolvo]

The USA does the exact same thing regularly. In public school most cases where we invade and conquer another country are "bringing freedom." Hell most schools still teach that Christopher Columbus was a good guy instead of possibly on par with Hitler as he really was. Andrew Jackson is still venerated despite openly genociding Native Americans. The Nuking of Japan was "Necessary." Our country constantly does it.

[Callie Del Noire]

That's pretty much the reasons that people are giving in the comments.  The fact that Milo is resorting to trying to attend fandom conventions to get an audience is also rather telling.

Supposedly he said he’d be coming anyway with a crowd of his alt right friends.

[Oniya]

And the con will have every right to call the cops on them.

[Callie Del Noire]

And the con will have every right to call the cops on them.

I imagine the organizers already are talking to them, I hope the smarmy shit steps over the line finally.

[Orval Wintermute]

With the Conservative party still in chaos after the expulsion of 21 MP's from the party along with Boris Johnson's trip to Luxembourg and his denial of the existence of cameras in front of a bank of cameras. Now is the time the far left of the Labour party has decided to make the most of the opposition's disunity by trying to fire their own deputy leader Tom Watson because he doesn't always agree with Jeremy Corbyn.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/49781152

There's nothing like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Skynet]

A prominent Democratic donor Ed Buck has been arrested for drugging at least 10 people with lethal doses of meth.

For those not in the know, there was a bit of a hush-hush open secret going around for a while that Mr. Buck had a series of mysterious deaths at his house, all invariably of drug overdoses. He would often hire predominantly African-American male sex workers to party at his place, and encourage them to take drugs with him as part of sexual activity. Sadly, Ed Buck did not care about the safety of participants and such incidents became a dirty little secret among the Democratic party. Although online news sources talked about him before, news of this then and now isn't really making the rounds outside of communities his victims belong to.

[Markus]

Saudi Arabia says it will be ‘an act of war’...

So when's Gulf War 3 kicking off? Or is it Gulf War 4, I cant tell.

[Kitteredge]

Saudi Arabia says it will be ‘an act of war’...

So when's Gulf War 3 kicking off? Or is it Gulf War 4, I cant tell.

Amazing. The Saudis invested heavily into 9/11 and got the Americans to invade Iraq for them. Now they've been wrecking Yemen and will manage to get the Americans to invade Iran for them. We're such a bunch of losers.

[Oniya]

Saudi Arabia says it will be ‘an act of war’...

So when's Gulf War 3 kicking off? Or is it Gulf War 4, I cant tell.

Plot twist: It's still Gulf War 1.

[Orval Wintermute]

Plot twist: It's still Gulf War 1.

Well it's been going on in one form or other since 1914 and why would you want lower the curtain on a show that's had a successful 105 year run?

[Skynet]

Amazing. The Saudis invested heavily into 9/11 and got the Americans to invade Iraq for them. Now they've been wrecking Yemen and will manage to get the Americans to invade Iran for them. We're such a bunch of losers.

I discussed a similar talking point in the Israel thread, but the idea that a foreign government manipulated the US into performing the 2003 Invasion of Iraq is a false precedent.

[TheGlyphstone]

A part of me is concerned that if Trump takes us to war (again) right before election season, it'll basically guarantee his re-election with the number of people hesitant to change horses mid-stream. Then the rest of me hates that this is the first thing I'm concerned with...

[Oniya]

He'd have to call it something other than 'declaring war' - as every President since WWII has had to do.

https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/h_multi_sections_and_teasers/WarDeclarationsbyCongress.htm

[Mechelle]

British travel company Thomas Cook, who were formed back in 1841, have gone bust, with the government now repatriating 150,000 holidaymakers over the next couple of weeks. They believe this is more cost-effective than bailing out the company.

It is a shock to see such a well-known company go under; I am sure Brexit and the weaker pound is a contributory factor, but the fact that the company has foolishly invested in getting more retail "high street" shops while most potential customers have headed towards internet bookings is probably more important.

[Mechelle]

With the Conservative party still in chaos after the expulsion of 21 MP's from the party along with Boris Johnson's trip to Luxembourg and his denial of the existence of cameras in front of a bank of cameras. Now is the time the far left of the Labour party has decided to make the most of the opposition's disunity by trying to fire their own deputy leader Tom Watson because he doesn't always agree with Jeremy Corbyn.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/49781152

There's nothing like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

It gets worse, although Tom Watson has maintained his position.

At the conference today, the Labour Party supported Jeremy Corbyn's plan of being neutral on Brexit, against the wishes of most activists. Remarkably, although it probably isn't really, the chair of the meeting said that the vote, on a show of hands, had been for Labour to campaign for Remain, before saying that "Jennie" (the party's general secretary) had said that it was the other way, and reversed her decision. However, there was no formal count to determine such an evidently close decision, so it just looks crooked and chaotic.

A good day for the Liberal Democrats, whose position at least is clear.

[Orval Wintermute]

The UK Supreme Court has just ruled that the prorogation of Parliament by Boris Johnson was unlawful and they have unanimously voided the decision.

Johnson broke the law, he lied to the Queen.

Parliament has to get back to work.

HOLY CRAP!

[Beorning]

Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, delivers a speech at the UN and claims that Amazonia belongs to Brazil and that it's not "the lungs of the world":

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49815731

And so, it seems that he will continue to support the cutting down of Amazonia, as well as allowing heavy industry in there. :( Does Mr. Bolsonaro want to come down in history as the man who doomed humanity..?

[gaggedLouise]

Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, delivers a speech at the UN and claims that Amazonia belongs to Brazil and that it's not "the lungs of the world":

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49815731

And so, it seems that he will continue to support the cutting down of Amazonia, as well as allowing heavy industry in there. :( Does Mr. Bolsonaro want to come down in history as the man who doomed humanity..?

Well, he's technically right that the point about the Amazon isn't that we would suffocate without it for lack of oxygen - I heard a biologist saying that the atmosphere contains enough oxygen to sustain all life on earth for a thousand years, even if plants stopped producing new oxygen. *But* the amount of thick forest (and other life forms) in the huge Amazon is avery important coal sink, it keeps great amounts of CO2 out of the atmosphere, and a stabilizer on the climate. And it wouldn't take chopping down even half of the Amazon jungle before the rest started decaying as well - the less forest there is in the area, the less rain, so the grounds would dry up, soils would begin to blow off with the wind, like in the US in the 1930s. So we really do need to keep most of that jungle up.

But Bolsonaro hates native American tribes, he despises them as much as Trump despises Mexicans - so he probably couldn't care less if the natural environment there would be destroyed.

[Deamonbane]

Pretty sure that Bolsonaro has Trump beat in the 'hateful little prick' department. When he was still in the military, the guy threatened to blow his base up when they wouldn't give him a raise, which was followed by a court martial and being booted out.

[Tolvo]

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/viral-fake-news-story-linked-trans-healthcare-thousands-deaths-n1059831

Recently there was an article spread by a Catholic news site that was spread around the internet about how the hormone blockers that some trans children take have resulted in many thousands of deaths. This spread like wildfire and was one of the most shared stories on trans people at the time with people like Ben Shapiro using it to urge people to not support trans health care with many CRA(Cis Rights Activists, a rebranding of TERFs and Gendercrits) pushing this along with groups related to the Christian Far Right. Like many things like this it is a lie that uses real data to mislead people and target a marginalized group especially children of said group.

Many thousands of people taking this medicine have died yes. Those people were terminally ill with cancer and were being given this same medicine to help control the effects of hormones on their bodies. As it is commonly used by people to help manage their cancer especially in late stages naturally a lot of people will die while taking it. Anti-Trans writers like to not mention that aspect. So as a heads up an incredibly fake story that purposefully misunderstands data to try and argue against healthcare for trans children spread quite a lot online recently.

[Oniya]

CDC finds cyanide compounds in 10/10 samples of 'bootleg' THC cartridges

A pesticide used in all ten was found to break down when burned, producing hydrogen cyanide.  Licensed cartridges (California Phase 3 Compliance) showed no pesticide residue in any sample.

[Skynet]

Recruitment ads for the Los Angeles Police Department were found on Breitbart.

It's unknown whether or not this was intentional or a case of online algorithms, although the LAPD was later made aware of this and released a statement.