What's in the news?

[Blythe]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/19/health/gupta-mccain-glioblastoma/index.html

McCain has brain cancer. Which explains his behavior lately with mixing up names etc.

*winces* Ooh. Primary glioblastoma. This does not bode well for his life expectancy, especially at his age. :/

[gaggedLouise]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/19/health/gupta-mccain-glioblastoma/index.html

McCain has brain cancer. Which explains his behavior lately with mixing up names etc.

:-(

O.J. Simpson will most likely be free on parole within the next few weeks.

[RedRose]

ROFL. I did notice... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4713098/Trump-says-Macron-loves-holding-hand.html

[ShadowFox89]

*winces* Ooh. Primary glioblastoma. This does not bode well for his life expectancy, especially at his age. :/

It explains his erratic speech, his tiredness. I'm sorry to hear it about him, he's kinda one of the better GOP at this point.

[Beorning]

I'm sorry to hear about McCain, he has always seen a decent guy to me.

New York Times on Poland:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/world/europe/poland-courts-law-and-justice-party.html

Note the photo of the crowds protesting the judiciary reforms. Meanwhile, politicians from the ruling party are saying that the protests are minor and only attend by corrupted judges who would lose their privileges and their families...  >:(

BTW. Two hours ago or so,  Sejm (the Parliament's first chamber) has approved the reforms. Now, the Senate will most probably approve them this evening or tomorrow... If President Duda doesn't veto these reforms, that will be it: no more indepedent courts in Poland :(

[Sara Nilsson]

That is scary as fuck about what is happening in Poland. When is the next election? From what I understood the president is rather popular still right?

[Beorning]

That is scary as fuck about what is happening in Poland. When is the next election? From what I understood the president is rather popular still right?

The President is popular - and PiS is popular, too. Seriously, my compatriots seem to be blind... :(

Next parliamentary elections are in about two years, I think. We'll see whether PiS manages to brainwash the country completely by that time. They already are talking about putting the independent media in order...

[Sara Nilsson]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40671590

"Two years after Cecil the lion was killed by a trophy-hunter in Zimbabwe, prompting global outrage, his son may have met a similar sad end.

Xanda, a six-year-old lion with several young cubs, was reportedly shot on a trophy hunt."

I dont care what people think of me if I say, but FUCK hunters. Killing something for sport disgusts me. "but you eat meat! you are disgusting" yes i do eat meat, but at least I fucking eat it. Not just kill it for sport. And I do feel bad about the farms where animals are kept in poor conditions. But to kill something for the thrill of it? I don't even kill spiders that crawl into my bedroom I carry them outside.

[Iniquitous]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40671590

"Two years after Cecil the lion was killed by a trophy-hunter in Zimbabwe, prompting global outrage, his son may have met a similar sad end.

Xanda, a six-year-old lion with several young cubs, was reportedly shot on a trophy hunt."

I dont care what people think of me if I say, but FUCK hunters. Killing something for sport disgusts me. "but you eat meat! you are disgusting" yes i do eat meat, but at least I fucking eat it. Not just kill it for sport. And I do feel bad about the farms where animals are kept in poor conditions. But to kill something for the thrill of it? I don't even kill spiders that crawl into my bedroom I carry them outside.

I despise trophy hunting but I will say that the meat of the animal that is killed is given to villages in the area.  While I abhor the thought of animals being lured out of protective areas to be killed, I can at least give a grudging thanks to the fact that the meat is used and not just discarded.

[la dame en noir]

Chester - Lead singer of Linkin Park - Dead @ 41 from possible suicide.

I cried at work, still crying now as I listen to their music.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/20/entertainment/chester-bennington-dead/index.html

[Oniya]

I despise trophy hunting but I will say that the meat of the animal that is killed is given to villages in the area.  While I abhor the thought of animals being lured out of protective areas to be killed, I can at least give a grudging thanks to the fact that the meat is used and not just discarded.

I thought carnivore meat wasn't good for humans to eat?  I could see that argument having some validity for things like elephants and rhinos, but lions?

[Avis habilis]

I thought carnivore meat wasn't good for humans to eat?  I could see that argument having some validity for things like elephants and rhinos, but lions?

Plenty of people eat snakes & carnivorous lizards though. Hell, I don't know what fish people eat that isn't carnivorous.

[himawari]

Rest in peace Chester from Linkin Park.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/20/entertainment/chester-bennington-dead/index.html

I just woke up and heard the news.


His music helped me through the tough times.

I hope he found peace.

[TheGlyphstone]

I thought carnivore meat wasn't good for humans to eat?  I could see that argument having some validity for things like elephants and rhinos, but lions?

Do pigs count? They eat anything, meat included. pig/boar meat can be tasty and good if cooked properly.

[Lustful Bride]

Hawaii begins campaign to prepare civilians for the possibility of a North Korean missile attack.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/hawaii-starting-campaign-to-help-people-plan-for-n-korea-attack/ar-AAoxBf7?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

Better to be prepared, just in case.

[Beorning]

Two photos from protests in Poland. One is from yesterday's New York Times:


The second one has been made during yesterday's protest in Warsaw:



According to estimates, at least 14 000 people were in attendance... and it was only the protest in Warsaw. Other cities and towns had their protests, too.

BTW. Do you know what our Minister of Interior said when asked about all these people this morning? He said that they weren't protesters... they were tourists, as well as people making casual evening walks because of good weather... This shows how brazen this government is. They are openly lying through their teeth  >:(

BTW 2. Do you know what the *Deputy Minister of Interior* said about these people? He tweeted that they were all Communists, agents of Communist-era secret police and traitors. Even though some of the people present have actually been well-known in the anti-Communist underground before 1989.  >:(

BTW 3. Do you know what the state TV (which is fanatically pro-government these days) said about the protesters? Well, they say many infuriating things, but one time they made a claim that there are "pedophile apologists" among the protests' leaders. Why? Because one of the many publicly-known people that attended these protests was one actress who, some time ago, made some (really stupid, admittedly) comments in defense of Roman Polański. Ugh. Seriously, this is exactly the kind of propaganda that was being made back in the Communist era...

BTW 4. Do you know what's the most infuriating about all of this? Because the PiS MP that is headlining these anti-democratic judiciary reforms during parliamentary proceedings is a guy a named Piotrowicz. And guess what? Back in the Communist era, he was a member of the Communist party and a state prosecutor. And he was actually prosecuting members of the democratic opposition. And more than that - many years later, in the 2000s, he was still a prosecutor... and he cancelled the prosecution of one priest who was charged with molesting young girls. Piotrowicz went on record with saying that the priest was innocent, because him touching naked girls was simply harmless "bio-energy therapy"...

So, when PiS members and pro-PiS media are claiming that the protesters are Communists and "pedophile apologists", I can only scream: hypocritical much???

[Sara Nilsson]

I.. eh..

*goes to bang head against the wall*

I truly weep for Poland. I remember back before the fall of the Soviet Union lots of polish people would come to Sweden to buy used appliances, and I rarely met such nice people.

[elone]

Why is this even being considered? Do our senators even have a clue about what they sign on to? Freedom of speech; a thing of the past.

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/19/u-s-lawmakers-seek-to-criminally-outlaw-support-for-boycott-campaign-against-israel/

[Missy]

sounds like ineptitude, it's not very big, but doubtless a clear and deliberate assault on our civil liberties

(3) POLITICALLY MOTIVATED.—The term “politically motivated” means actions to impede or constrain commerce with Israel that are intended to coerce political action from or impose policy positions on Israel

[ShadowFox89]

Why is this even being considered? Do our senators even have a clue about what they sign on to? Freedom of speech; a thing of the past.

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/19/u-s-lawmakers-seek-to-criminally-outlaw-support-for-boycott-campaign-against-israel/

It's something that would get struck down as soon as it gets challenged, assuming it gets to a judge that isn't corrupt.

[RedRose]

As the article says, various European countries including France (which was the first IIRC) do ban BDS legally. Of course as a private person you can boycott whoever, and I know old European people boycotting say, Germany. A difference might be that in my experience, Europe is much more "private" about any political opinion. You won't see "vote for ____" stickers, "proud Republican" stickers, Pro Jesus, anti whoever... - and if you do, you can bet the person saw this online and copied it. Most children around me don't know who their parents are going to vote for - if they vote - and if they ask, the go-to answer is that those opinions are private or grown-up. One of my relatives traveled to USA quite recently and told me about children who cried over Trump's election, and kin fighting about politics very bad, friends of decades breaking up despite getting along in daily-life. I have friends and family communist to Front National and we know "not to discuss politics" ;)
That might be a reason why an all-out boycott was easy to ban culturally in France. I actually thought USA was already banning what they plan to ban.

[Lustful Bride]

Cultural misunderstandings with Syrian refugees highlight tensions in california. 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/when-syria-came-to-fresno-refugees-test-limits-of-outstretched-hand/ar-AAovD5F?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

Man, I almost want to say the Resettlement agency is as broken as the VA. :/

Still at least from reading the article it warms my heart to see the refugees getting so much help from Christian and Jewish churches just as much as they are getting help from Muslim churches. :) A true example of the American spirit. ^_^

[Lustful Bride]

So apparently a company tasked with cleaning up the damage from Fukushima has decided to dump Nuclear Waste from the Fukushima disaster into the ocean.

http://www.newsweek.com/fukushima-nuclear-waste-dumped-ocean-japanese-protests-637108

This is like something a parody of an evil businessman would do. It makes me sad someone is this stupid/greedy enough to actually do it.

[TheGlyphstone]

Planeteers, assemble?

[Trigon]

In an area of Syria that was recently liberated from ISIS, the women have taken to burning their burqas, and the men have shaved off their beards, to celebrate their freedom: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-syria-raqqa-women-civilians-burning-burqas-freed-liberated-shaving-beards-terrorism-terrorist-a7854431.html