What's in the News? 2.0

[Beorning]

Biological Continuity sounds spectacularly...ethnic? As well.

Polish Catholic Church is really invested in the whole idea of Polish nation etc. Being a good Polish Catholic is tied to being a good Polish patriot and so on.

Which is, in my opinion, utter nonsense and some sort of nationalistic crypto-heresy. Christianity trancends borders, nations and ethnicities, there's no reason for a Catholic to be beholden to any particular country or nation...

[Missy]

Yep, and I call them on it, too.  Part of what we marched for was the right to choose how to use (or not use) our 'fertility'.  And I will beat them with my cane until they understand that - or until the cane breaks, which is more likely.

Alternatively you could beat him with your cane until he's black-balled and definitely 'infertile' himself.

[Fox Lokison]

Alternatively you could beat him with your cane until he's black-balled and definitely 'infertile' himself.

Pretty sure he'd just argue that men's infertility is the fault of women, I've seen that one before.

... Albeit, in that case, he'd be right XD

[Oniya]

Alternatively you could beat him with your cane until he's black-balled and definitely 'infertile' himself.

I mean, I could do that, but a lot of terfs are cis-female.  Takes a bit more precision.

[Fox Lokison]

In related TERF news, one such TERF is being charged under malicious communications.

Marion Millar, from Airdrie, has now been scheduled to appear in Glasgow Sheriff Court next month.

It has not been made public what Ms Millar’s tweet or tweets were, but the mum-of-two, has been described by friends as “upset” that Police Scotland has pressed charges.

The 50-year-old feminist campaigner had previously revealed on Twitter that she had been told to report to a police station over two complaints she had posted "homophobic and transphobic" tweets.

She tried to use GoFundMe for her legal costs, which is against the ToS. It got taken down, and since then, there's been a lot of blame slung towards the "trans cult" and the "trans lobby" for taking it down. They've also claimed GoFundMe hates women, and have mobbed their twitter account. David Paisley, an actor who TERFs believe was the complainant (with no evidence) issued threats that drove him from his home for a time, and have the police on rapid response to his home if he calls.

It's not been a fun day to be a trans person on Twitter.

[Beorning]

If you're interested in archbishop's Jędraszewski's exploits, I just read about his newest sermon. In this sermon, he praised the Zakopane poviat (poviat = Polish equivalent of a county) for *not* agreeing to introduce local measures against domestic violence. All Polish counties are obligated to create such measures by law - and the Zakopane county is the only county in Poland that has not done so (as far as it's publicly known). Why? The Zakopane county councilpeople claim that such measures would be a threat to "family unity". Jędraszewski apparently agrees - and he also claims that such measures would serve "as a backdoor for introducing the gender ideology".

Not surprised, sadly  >:(

[Haibane]

It always goes horribly wrong when the church meddles in politics.

[Saria]

It always goes horribly wrong when the church meddles in politics.

… or health… or education… or families… or culture… or…

[Annaamarth]

Speaking as a Christian? Yeah, I tend to agree.  The church - any church - should stay the fuck out of the above.  Religion and faith might have a place - but that's both a debate that's not for here and also not a point anyone was commenting on.  Rather than further opening that particular can of worms:

US FBI/DOJ recovered ~80% of the bitcoin DarkSide collected as illegitimate ransom for the US pipeline attack!

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/07/politics/colonial-pipeline-ransomware-recovered/index.html

I call the ransom 'illegitimate,' because I'm given to understand that any ransomware recovery tools provided were too slow and that the company's own IT were able to recover the systems faster without those tools - but I'm unable to cite those sources, so I may be incorrect.

This thread was talking about cyberwarfare and cyberterrorism recently, so I thought this an interesting followup - and I can imagine a beige office room full of people with security badges and polo shirts singing the Trollolol song.  Particularly since DarkSide has said they're shutting down.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/business/darkside-pipeline-hack.html

[Haibane]

Here's a link to the same story that isn't behind a paywall.

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/darkside-hacking-group-apparently-shuts-down-following-pipeline-attack

[Saria]

I call the ransom 'illegitimate,' because I'm given to understand that any ransomware recovery tools provided were too slow and that the company's own IT were able to recover the systems faster without those tools - but I'm unable to cite those sources, so I may be incorrect.

Another reason to consider the ransom “illegitimate” is the fact that it wasn’t really necessary to pay it at all. I have seen far too little commentary on this, but the hackers did not stop the pipeline from delivering fuel. The hack didn’t touch the pipeline’s operational software at all.

What the hack compromised was the company’s billing systems. In other words, there was no reason the company couldn’t have kept pumping fuel. The reason they shut everything down was because they wouldn’t know how much to charge people.

[Haibane]

Oxford academics boycott Oriel College over decision not to remove statue of Cecil Rhodes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57422751

[TheGlyphstone]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/lunar-new-deal-gop-rep-gohmert-suggests-altering-moon-s-n1270219


Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) asks the US Forestry Service and Bureau of Land Management whether they could alter the orbits of the Earth and Moon to prevent climate change.

[Haibane]

Aww, Glyphstone, another paywall site. Can people PLEASE give links to sites that are free to view? Thank you.

However just looking at your single line of text I wonder... how did this person get elected?

[Haibane]

Oops, sorry, seems it isn't paywalled - my apologies.

[TheGlyphstone]

Aww, Glyphstone, another paywall site. Can people PLEASE give links to sites that are free to view? Thank you.

However just looking at your single line of text I wonder... how did this person get elected?

Because they are a Republican in Texas. Ignorance of basic science is a prerequisite.

[Kathadon]

Vice President Kamala Harris has taken a trip to Central America. Where she has told immigrants not to come to the U.S..

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/06/09/kamala-harris-vice-president-first-daughter-immigrants-second/7608288002/
https://nypost.com/2021/06/10/henry-cuellar-slams-biden-harris-over-illegal-immigration/
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/06/kamala-harris-immigration-guatemala.html

This looks to be just putting a smiley face on standard U.S. immigration policies, and the Biden administration should be called out for it.

[Beorning]

Because they are a Republican in Texas. Ignorance of basic science is a prerequisite.

Are we sure it was not simply an attempt at deadpan joke, though?

What I got from the article was that this guy doesn't believe in the climate change being caused by human activity. Instead, he believes it's due to grand-scale natural events, like changes in planetary orbits etc. So, when talking to government officials about possible measures to combat climate change, he made this deadpan sarcastic joke about changing the Moon's orbit - meaning, he wanted to say that there's nothing the government can do about the climate change...

That's how I read it. But maybe I'm in denial of how stupid people can be...

BTW. These kinds of situations remind me of a famous exchange that took place in Polish parliament a few years ago, during a hearing of one special committee investigating... something supposedly suspicious (I don't recall the details). Anyway, the hearings dealt, at one point, with a supposed corruption in one local court. One of the committe's members, one Marek Suski (a PiS MP, quite known for a multitude of moronic statements he's made over the years) tried grilling a witness about some influential person connected to said court, supposedly nick-named "Tsaritsa" in some circles. It went like this:

MP Suski: Do you have any connection to the person known as Tsaritsa?
Witness: *confused* I'm sorry, but I don't. The only "Tsaritsa" I know of is Tsaritsa Katherine.
MP Suski: *furrows his eyebrows* Hmmmm. "Katherine". Do you happen to know her last name, by chance?
Witness: *stupified pause*... Katherine the Great?

At this point, the committee's head, a female PiS MP that *always* kept a serious and solemn demeanour, gave up and broke into into laughter.

MP Suski: *annoyed* What? What's so funny?

You can see the incident here:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFx0Vb12aN0

[Ket]

That's how I read it. But maybe I'm in denial of how stupid people can be...

Oh, there are many, many people who are that uneducated in certain areas. Especially people from southern, deeply Republican states as the education systems there are abysmal.

[Haibane]

How long does the Chinese torture of Muslim minorities need to go on before the UN does something ... anything ... about this.

The west is basically witnessing an equivalent of Hitler's holocaust RIGHT NOW and doing nothing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-57386625

[Kathadon]

Washington state's liquor and cannabis board announced on Monday that it will allow adults to claim a free marijuana joint when they receive a COVID-19 vaccination shot. The promotion, called "Joints for Jabs," is in effect now through July 12, and is a part of the state's strategy to get more people vaccinated.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-washington-joint-marijuana/

[TheGlyphstone]

Are we sure it was not simply an attempt at deadpan joke, though?

What I got from the article was that this guy doesn't believe in the climate change being caused by human activity. Instead, he believes it's due to grand-scale natural events, like changes in planetary orbits etc. So, when talking to government officials about possible measures to combat climate change, he made this deadpan sarcastic joke about changing the Moon's orbit - meaning, he wanted to say that there's nothing the government can do about the climate change...

That's how I read it. But maybe I'm in denial of how stupid people can be...

Oh, he was very serious. If not, his follow up tweet after the news story broke would have said so, instead of angrily raging about how the reports mentioned 'BLM' instead of the Bureau of Land Management and #FakeNews.

[Beorning]

Oh, he was very serious. If not, his follow up tweet after the news story broke would have said so, instead of angrily raging about how the reports mentioned 'BLM' instead of the Bureau of Land Management and #FakeNews.

Ha! I checked his Twitter. He does seem not to get why people consider his question ridiculous... That said, I still think he could've been joking. Maybe he simply thinks the joke was obvious and that people were upset about the "BLM" thing...

I'll be waiting for any further follow-up to the story :)

[legomaster00156]

Ha! I checked his Twitter. He does seem not to get why people consider his question ridiculous... That said, I still think he could've been joking. Maybe he simply thinks the joke was obvious and that people were upset about the "BLM" thing...

I'll be waiting for any further follow-up to the story :)

I am afraid that Louie Gohmert, based on years of his statements, is exactly as dumb as he seems in this quote.

[Andol]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/lunar-new-deal-gop-rep-gohmert-suggests-altering-moon-s-n1270219


Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) asks the US Forestry Service and Bureau of Land Management whether they could alter the orbits of the Earth and Moon to prevent climate change.

Oh my god that is so ridiculous.  XD Did he really say that? It reminds me back when Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson (D) asked if Guam would tip over and capsize due to over-population. XD