What's in the News? 2.0

[Mantis Shrimp Prime]

What triggers me, I think, is that we do have legit cases of violence against gays all the time. Like... real cases. It is definitely an issue.

If this is in fact, some elaborate publicity sham, then it only gives fuel to the fire and works against cases like this. It gives bigots something to gloat about and use as "cry wolf" ammunition in future incidents that are indeed real hate crimes.

I feel bad because on one hand, I hope Smollet wasn't just doing this for publicity. Except that would mean that all of this really happened to him. On the other hand... it would be relieving that he wasn't attacked in such a manner, yet upsetting that such deception hinders those that are actually assaulted in the future.

:-\

Well, perhaps think of it this way.
If he lied, there is evidence that he lied.
Yeah, people will think, "Oh, all of these cases must be lies, then".
But that's unreasonable.

If people want to believe someone is a liar with no evidence, that's as much a problem as any accusation.
Yeah, it takes someone reasonable to come to that conclusion, and the unreasonable people will still use this as "ammunition" for any future cases, but those people would react the same way in any case. 

[TheGlyphstone]

So everyone remember the MAGA hat wearing kid, who was news like two weeks ago before everyone forgot about him for a slightly newer ridiculous thing?

He's now suing the Washington Post for defamation and humiliation.

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/20/696245435/covington-catholic-teen-nick-sandmann-sues-washington-post-for-250-million

[Deamonbane]

But last week, the diocese announced that a private detective agency that it hired to investigate the incident had concluded that the Covington students had neither instigated a standoff with Phillips nor made "offensive or racist statements."

Now isn't that convenient?

[TheGlyphstone]

Now isn't that convenient?

Frankly, after having seen the whole context (including the involvement of the Black Hebrews, which all of the initial accounts of the thing completely failed to notice or mention), I'm slightly more sympathetic to Sandmann than I was then. I'm not 250 million dollars sympathetic, that's obviously a greed-driven cash grab (explicitly so even, the parents say 200 of it is purely to 'punish' the WP), but having a dumbass smirk on your face and standing in an old man's way doesn't make you racist. It just makes you a douchebag - aka a perfectly ordinary 16 year old.

[Deamonbane]

I'm not saying that attacking him on social media was right, in fact that opposite. But the fact that his family is jumping in with a huge claim lawsuit with the only investigation being conducted was one sponsored by the Diocese seems shady as hell. Like they want a quick settlement out of court.

So... yeah, greed-driven cash grab. If the WP doesn't go for an out-of-court settlement, I'm fairly certain that a third-party investigation will find guilty of very little. If they are found guilty and forced to pay up, that will set a legal precedent towards all kinds of defamation lawsuits against literally hundreds of tabloid news sources.

[Fierbali111]

I know there was quite a few asking for his death on social media so if say if that sort of news was directed towards me for something i didn't do i sure as hell would sue for libel. Thing is news is pushed out so fast that there usually isn't time to fact check it so we get incidents like these fairly often, for example people bashing the police for the Smollet arrest which I don't think they would have done lightly given his status.

[Beorning]

News bit from Poland - in Gdańsk, a battle for a monument of priest accused of child molestation gets really heated:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/poland-priest-henryk-jankowski-statue-clergy-sex-abuse.html

To summarize: Father Jankowski has a monument and a city square dedicated to him in Gdańsk. Jankowski was a chaplain of the Solidarity movement in 1980s - but he became an increasingly controversial person in 1990s and 2000s. The reasons for that included his anti-Semitic statements, his love of wealth, his general self-importance... as well as accusations of sexual misconduct. It seems that, at best, he was secretly a sexually active homosexual (not that it's wrong in itself... but he was supposed to be a priest) - but there are accusations of him actually molesting teens and children of both genders.

In the end of 2018, there was a newspaper article published on him, which brought to light new, very specific child abuse accusations against him. Since then, many people called for dismantling of the Jankowski monument, as well as changing the name of the Jankowski Square.

This week, as described in the article I linked, a few activists took matters into their own hand and toppled the Jankowski monument illegally. Since then, there have been a few developments:

1. The city officials took away the monument for safe-keeping, claiming it won't be installed again.
2. The actual owners of the monument demanded it back, saying the city has no right to take the monument away.
3. The city officials relented and gave the monument back - but they also said that it would be illegal for the owners to install it again without the city's permission.
4. The owners ignored the city officials and installed the monument anyway.
5. The anti-Jankowski activists keep repeating their protests against the monument - the protests include spraying the monument's plinth with anti-paedophilia messages, putting mascots onto it etc.
6. The supporters of Jankowski (yes, they exist), which include some politicians, put flowers next to the monument. Then, today, there was a mass in Jankowski's former parish, dedicated to the support of Jankowski. During the sermon, Jankowski was compared to Jesus Christ (!), accusations against him were described as a "smear campaign" and his accusers were said to be "rabble rousers".

Further developments surely will come...

[Beguile's Mistress]

I know there was quite a few asking for his death on social media so if say if that sort of news was directed towards me for something i didn't do i sure as hell would sue for libel. Thing is news is pushed out so fast that there usually isn't time to fact check it so we get incidents like these fairly often, for example people bashing the police for the Smollet arrest which I don't think they would have done lightly given his status.

Visuals play such and important part in things.  As they say an image can speak a thousand words.  Initial reaction to the shot of the young man was him showing total disrespect for the older man, especially with what looked like a smirk on his face.  No one really believes he cared one way or the other about the situation but was trying to get his fifteen minutes of fame out of it.  He needs to learn that if he is going to put himself out there he has to take his lumps just like any other public figure.  Even if he wins the law suit he should only get a dollar out of it and no more.

[Kitteredge]

I'm not saying that attacking him on social media was right, in fact that opposite. But the fact that his family is jumping in with a huge claim lawsuit with the only investigation being conducted was one sponsored by the Diocese seems shady as hell. Like they want a quick settlement out of court.

So... yeah, greed-driven cash grab. If the WP doesn't go for an out-of-court settlement, I'm fairly certain that a third-party investigation will find guilty of very little. If they are found guilty and forced to pay up, that will set a legal precedent towards all kinds of defamation lawsuits against literally hundreds of tabloid news sources.

The boy's lawsuit is backed by one of Mitch McConnell's buddies in Kentucky. Why are they attacking the WaPo, when the incident was news all over the place? Because they are trying to muzzle Jeff Bezos and his newspaper has been investigating shady deals between Trump and his family and Saudi Arabia in particular. This is why the National Enquirer was trying to blackmail Bezos, to get his reporters to stop investigating.

So you basically have this MAGA-hatted kid and his family as cheerful pawns in a larger game. I don't see the lawsuit going anywhere, however, although he might be able to do the GoFundMe thing and get a lot of rubes to send him money. It's all money-making for these types.

[Lustful Bride]

China pats itself on the back for human rights violations against the Uighurs of Xinjiang.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-tells-foreign-envoys-its-efforts-in-xinjiang-should-be-applauded/ar-BBTZNir?ocid=spartandhp

China is also lobbying hard to thwart scrutiny of the Xinjiang camps at the U.N. Human Rights Council's main annual session, which opens on Monday.

China has rejected all accusations of mistreatment in the camps.

But if nothing untoward is going on in their Internment Concentration Reeducation camps, why are they so worried about a UN investigation?

[Beguile's Mistress]

The boy's lawsuit is backed by one of Mitch McConnell's buddies in Kentucky. Why are they attacking the WaPo, when the incident was news all over the place? Because they are trying to muzzle Jeff Bezos and his newspaper has been investigating shady deals between Trump and his family and Saudi Arabia in particular. This is why the National Enquirer was trying to blackmail Bezos, to get his reporters to stop investigating.

So you basically have this MAGA-hatted kid and his family as cheerful pawns in a larger game. I don't see the lawsuit going anywhere, however, although he might be able to do the GoFundMe thing and get a lot of rubes to send him money. It's all money-making for these types.

The thing about this is that a law firm would take this case on a contingency basis which means they only get paid if they win.  They are more or less looking for a settlement rather than a court decision in their favor.

[Lustful Bride]

Trigger Warning; Suicide.

Suicide instructions were spliced into the youtube kids apps. Though some of it seems to be trolling others are alittle more malicious.

https://arstechnica-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/youtube-kids-cartoons-include-tips-for-committing-suicide-docs-warn/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&amp=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fscience%2F2019%2F02%2Fyoutube-kids-cartoons-include-tips-for-committing-suicide-docs-warn%2F

[RedRose]

I wrote it's legal and people sell what people buy so I got insulted too https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/26/decathlon-drops-french-sports-hijab-after-politicians-threaten-boycott

[Tolvo]

https://www.vg247.com/2019/02/27/thq-nordic-8chan/

https://www.pcgamer.com/thq-nordic-apologizes-for-granting-interview-to-the-toilet-of-the-internet-8chan/

So for some reason, THQ Nordic decided to do an AMA on 8chan, the home of Gamergate which is known for hosting child porn and Nazis and more. In their AMA they joked about lolis and talked about how they didn't like the social justice crowd, then liked a tweet from someone saying that as well. After they've claimed the person in charge didn't know what 8chan was when he agreed to do the AMA, even though their tweet stated they knew it had "nasty" stuff on the site, and are claiming it was just an accident. A very weird one, it's not the only time we've seen developers and people in the games industry supporting that hate group(CD Projekt RED's former community manager being an example) but this is really weird to go as far as to actually do an AMA on a site that openly has child porn on it, can get you put on a list for going to it, and is delisted from most services.

I'd link Dan Olson's writing on 8chan and the child porn it hosts, but while he did censor the images I still just really don't like sharing it since the only way to archive that stuff is to essentially look at child porn since law enforcement doesn't really care about it and even censored it is the deepest depravity of humanity available.

[Hades]

https://news.yahoo.com/india-pakistan-trade-fire-kashmir-u-urges-calm-055523317.html

For those out of the loop, India launched airstrikes into Pakistani territory to strike what they claimed was a terrorist training camp after the Pakistan government didn't strike the target.  Understandably, Pakistan was angry at the intrusion into their airspace and have launched a counter-strike.  And today according to Pakistan, they shot down an Indian plane and have taken the pilot captive. 

Because what's the worst that can happen when two nuclear-armed nations, that have already fought three wars against each other since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947, sending planes into each other's territory to launch strikes?  Other than mushroom clouds, that is.

[Lustful Bride]

Scientists claimed to have pulled CO2 out of the atmosphere and turned it into something similar to coal. I am not sure what to think of this. But it sounds groundbreaking.

https://www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/02/27/scientists-just-pulled-co2-from-air-and-turned-it-into-coal/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Ftrevornace%2F2019%2F02%2F27%2Fscientists-just-pulled-co2-from-air-and-turned-it-into-coal%2F

[gaggedLouise]

Scientists claimed to have pulled CO2 out of the atmosphere and turned it into something similar to coal. I am not sure what to think of this. But it sounds groundbreaking.

https://www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/02/27/scientists-just-pulled-co2-from-air-and-turned-it-into-coal/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Ftrevornace%2F2019%2F02%2F27%2Fscientists-just-pulled-co2-from-air-and-turned-it-into-coal%2F

I think that's one of the avenues we'll have to go for, and it sounds great if it could happen on a realistic scale. I read the other week about a project in Iceland working on the same aim - no idea whether it's the same research team or a different one, since Forbes doesn't say anything about the location, and I don't recall precisely where I read the other piece - well, here's an article from last year from BBC News about that project: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44396781

[Tolvo]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47399539

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-indicted-bribe-fraud-charges-n977571

Benjamin Netanyahu the Prime Minister of Israel is being indicted on charges of corruption. Hopefully they stick.

[gaggedLouise]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47399539

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-indicted-bribe-fraud-charges-n977571

Benjamin Netanyahu the Prime Minister of Israel is being indicted on charges of corruption. Hopefully they stick.

So he's a felon too. *looks in the direction of Trump*  O:)

[Tolvo]

I guess at least in Trump's regard I don't believe he has openly defended Hitler(Netanyahu claimed Hitler didn't want to cause the Holocaust it was a Palestinian adviser who thought up the whole thing and Hitler wasn't as bad as him).

[TheGlyphstone]

I guess at least in Trump's regard I don't believe he has openly defended Hitler(Netanyahu claimed Hitler didn't want to cause the Holocaust it was a Palestinian adviser who thought up the whole thing and Hitler wasn't as bad as him).

Whotheheckawhat.

[Tolvo]

https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/middleeast/netanyahu-hitler-grand-mufti-holocaust/index.html

Yep. It is pretty bad. He also suggested that Poland worked with Hitler during the Holocaust.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/uproar-over-poland-comments-lingers-for-israels-netanyahu/2019/02/18/d61d2886-3344-11e9-8375-e3dcf6b68558_story.html?utm_term=.3773c5c1b77b

He's pretty awful, on top of the whole running a genocidal state thing.

[gaggedLouise]

https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/middleeast/netanyahu-hitler-grand-mufti-holocaust/index.html

Yep. It is pretty bad. He also suggested that Poland worked with Hitler during the Holocaust.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/uproar-over-poland-comments-lingers-for-israels-netanyahu/2019/02/18/d61d2886-3344-11e9-8375-e3dcf6b68558_story.html?utm_term=.3773c5c1b77b

He's pretty awful, on top of the whole running a genocidal state thing.

Poland as a state didn't exist during the war, only individual Poles and the Polish people. It's always been a bone of contention to what extent the Nazis were able to draw on the assistance of some antisemitic Poles to drive the Final Solution forward - or how much popular native antisemitism there existed in the country before 1939. During the cold war, the whole question was very taboo in Poland (and not that welcome in the west either, I think) and these days; under the new chauvinist government, it has become so again.

I'm definitely not a fan of Netanyahu, and he took up this question in a really boorish and blunt way ("Poles drink in antisemitism with their mothers' milk" isn't a very smart thing to say if you want to try to commit to an anti-racist discussion) but it's true that the current government in Poland is trying to put a gag on almost any kind of debate on the extent of a pro-Nazi fifth column in Poland during the war.

[loki]

This is an very interesting speech, kinda long but worth the read.

www technocracy news/former-president-of-greenpeace-scientifically-rips-climate-change-to-shreds

Delinking. This is a fake news site.

[TheGlyphstone]

A professional lobbyist for the energy and logging industries, with no scientific credentials whatsoever, repeats the tired hypothesis that it's just a theory.

News at 11.