What's in the news?

[RedEve]

Hm. I do agree that this new law is harmful and stupid, but I wouldn't say it codifies negationism and anti-Semitism. It's not *that* simple.

Still, it is a bad law.

So how would you describe it?
For one thing, the law more or less makes it impossible to acknowledge the Polish pogroms (e.g. the Jedwabne pogrom) that took place during WWII.

[Beorning]

I'd say that the thing this new law codifies is the "heroic", black-and-white version of Polish history our conservatives love so much.

This law seems to be opening a way to prosecute the people who, in the eyes of our conservatives, "smear" Poland by implying that there were such a thing as anti-Semitism in Poland, pogroms of Jews etc. Specifically, our conservatives admit that yes, there *were* some people who hated the Jews, who helped Germans murder them etc. But they always stress that such cases were marginal, most of the Poles helped the Jews etc. We were awesome, Poland deserves a collective Yad Vashem tree as a nation etc. Oh, and those pogroms? They only happened only because the Poles were forced to do it by the Nazis, or by the Communists. And so on.

Of course, this *is* a biased version of history and this new law might lead to the truth being falsified. So, I am not surprised that Israel and the Jewish community in general is angry about. I'm just saying it's not codifying anti-Semitism in itself. It's not saying that the Jews are evil or anything like that... Also, it doesn't say that the Holocaust didn't happen. It just makes it hard to say that the Poles behaved in any way other than heroic in the face of it...

[Oniya]

It basically sweeps any possibility of 'Polish antisemitism' under the rug - almost an official 'No true Pole' argument.  It's the sort of thing that antisemitism (and other forms of racism) thrives on, because it makes it difficult/impossible to acknowledge it exists.

[Sara Nilsson]

http://www.newsweek.com/male-escort-exposes-36-gay-priests-file-sent-vatican-containing-explicit-829968

A 1,200-page dossier containing the names of 34 ‘actively gay’ priests and six seminarians in Italy has been sent to the Vatican by the archdiocese of Naples.

The allegations were compiled by Francesco Mangiacapra, a gay male escort who told local media he couldn’t put up with the priests’ "hypocrisy" any longer.

"The aim is not to hurt the people mentioned, but to help them understand that their double life, however seemingly convenient, is not useful to them or to all the people for whom they should be a guide and an example to follow,” Mangiacapra said, as reported by the Corriere della Sera.

[Beorning]

It basically sweeps any possibility of 'Polish antisemitism' under the rug - almost an official 'No true Pole' argument.  It's the sort of thing that antisemitism (and other forms of racism) thrives on, because it makes it difficult/impossible to acknowledge it exists.

Oh, I completely agree. What's worse, the same thing is being pushed into schools, with new teaching guidelines mandating that when discussing Polish attitudes to Holocaust during WW2, the teachers should emphasize the deeds of people who helped. There are other things like this, too - for example, some time ago, when asked on TV about 1946's Jew pogrom in Kielce, our current Minister of Education just couldn't admit that it was Poles who did it. She kept dodging the question, claiming that the matter is "complicated", then - eventually - she said that it was "Communists" who did it. Disgusting...  >:(

[elone]

Is one any worse than the other?

https://972mag.com/between-polands-holocaust-revisionism-and-israels-nakba-denial/132744/

[Oniya]

Matt Furie is suing Infowars for their use of Pepe the Frog.

Matt Furie is the creator of the cartoon character, and doesn't like the fact that the far right has appropriated it.  Infowars is apparently selling a poster that includes the character along with Trump and several of his supporters.

[elone]

Why do we support this country?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/03/06/the-dark-roots-of-aipac-americas-pro-israel-lobby/?utm_term=.da6c51d8ebb4

[RedEve]

Is one any worse than the other?

https://972mag.com/between-polands-holocaust-revisionism-and-israels-nakba-denial/132744/

What-about-ism doesn't change the fact that the Polish law is an embarrassment to Poland and the E.U.'s inept reaction to it is an embarrassment to the E.U.

[Oniya]

I'm fine with calling both out.  *shrug*  Something, something 'mote in your brother's eye' something 'plank in your own'.

[elone]

What-about-ism doesn't change the fact that the Polish law is an embarrassment to Poland and the E.U.'s inept reaction to it is an embarrassment to the E.U.

It is not a matter of What-about-ism, it is an attempt to point out the utter hypocrisy of Israel's protests.

[ShadowFox89]

It is not a matter of What-about-ism, it is an attempt to point out the utter hypocrisy of Israel's protests.

It doesn't matter about Israel right now, the focus is on Poland.

[Beorning]

It is not a matter of What-about-ism, it is an attempt to point out the utter hypocrisy of Israel's protests.

The thing is, Israel has a solid point. This law can be used to falsify history and, personally, I suspect that it *will* be used to do it. Israel having its own skeletons in the closet doesn't negate that.

[elone]

It doesn't matter about Israel right now, the focus is on Poland.

I thought that this was called "What's in the news?" My reference is about what is in the news and certainly related to the Poland issue. Please do not attempt to steer things away from the subject.

[Oniya]

I thought that this was called "What's in the news?" My reference is about what is in the news and certainly related to the Poland issue. Please do not attempt to steer things away from the subject.

I think both of them deserve to be called out on it.  There's something about 'revising history' that bothers me in a very Orwellian way.  Your country did something wrong?  Admit it.  Then try to be a better country.

[Lustful Bride]

Russian defector and his daughter left unconscious after being hit with a nerve agent while in the UK.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-43326734#ampshare=http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43326734

This is going to get ugly.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/08/health/duval-county-teacher-racial-slur-trnd/index.html

Just after lunch on October 6, 2017, a student told a school board investigator that their teacher, Swinyar, and students were discussing relationships.
"If your boyfriend says bad things to you and/or treats you wrong, that means he's acting like a n-----," Swinyar said according to student testimony in a school district investigative report. "You all should not be dating all these different African-American boys because they are not worth it."

Charming fella, 22.6% of the schools students are African-American and this is the shit he is spewing as a math teacher?

[Eye of Horus]

Russian defector and his daughter left unconscious after being hit with a nerve agent while in the UK.

I was reading about that the other day - the issue of assassinating people on foreign soil aside, the apparent lack of thought or care about bystander casualties seems shocking. The police officer who first found them is also critical, and something like 20 other people had to be treated as well.

Charming fella, 22.6% of the schools students are African-American and this is the shit he is spewing as a math teacher?

Urgh. It’s things like this that remind us that racism never really disappeared from our society, as much as we’d like to hope that it did. And now it’s becoming more obvious again, because some people think that certain recent events have made it acceptable once more to wear their bigotry openly.

[RedRose]

That's so weird to me. Bad people come in all ethnicities.

[Oniya]

That's so weird to me. Bad people come in all ethnicities.

Little Oni has said the same thing to me.  Ironically, she attributes it to the fact that her elementary school was mostly white, and she could see 'good' and 'bad' people there.

[Lustful Bride]

British military joins in investigation after Nerve Agent leaves Russian defector and 20+ others hospitalized.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-spy-attack-british-military-deployed-to-assist-probe/ar-BBK2ZMG?li=AA4Zpp&ocid=spartandhp

[Sara Nilsson]

http://addictinginfo.com/2018/03/06/update-kellyanne-conway-found-guilty-this-is-bad-news-for-trump/

“While the Hatch Act allows federal employees to express their views about candidates and political issues as private citizens, it restricts employees from using their official government positions for partisan political purposes, including by trying to influence partisan elections,” the OSC says in its report.

Conway had attacked pedophile Roy Moore’s opponent Doug Jones “during the ‘Fox & Friends’ and ‘New Day’ interviews” and “impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates in the Alabama special election for U.S. Senate” according to the report.

No sane person is all that surprised, she really crossed the line on that one.

[TheGlyphstone]

Betsy DeVoss tries to use Parkland for a publicity event.

Goes about as well as you expect when she walks off stage mid-event after people start asking her questions she doesn't like. I wonder where she learned that trick?

[Sara Nilsson]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article204034704.html

WARNING!!!!!!!! Possible triggers. Abuse and fake science.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

After he was accused of molesting his young special needs son, Jose Cordero spent 35 days in a Miami jail and was barred from seeing his family for months.

The allegations did not come directly from the 7-year-old boy, who has autism, speaks little and cannot write on his own. Instead, they came from the child’s elementary school teacher who claimed he relied on a technique called “hand over hand,” guiding the boy’s hands with his own to write down the disturbing details of sexual abuse.

The fact that such pseudo science was even taken seriously to begin with just scares me. Not surprise, I mean we again hear the old.. video games makes you a killer! And we again hear about the whole Satanic Panic. I thought we where past this shit? But that police takes it seriously?! Sure investigate of course, you have to when someone makes an allegation but this is taking it a tad too far. And yeah I understand they can't risk a child being in danger and I agree but come the fuck on. This kind of junk science should have made it easy to figure out..wait this is bs.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/03/09/tennessee-republicans-blocked-a-ban-on-child-marriages-to-avoid-recognising-same-sex-unions/

SO in order to be able to challenge same sex unions Tennessee republicans dropped a ban on child marriages. oO REALLY?! You hateful fucks!