What's in the news?

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.theroot.com/justice-for-jazmine-charges-dropped-against-mom-whose-1831019189

The charges against Jazmine Headley has been dropped. And should never have been filed in the fucking first place. But I understand that the NYPD has to be strict on the horrible crime of sitting on the floor while black (that is.. sarcasm btw). Now we need the idiot cops thrown out of the police force. The way they kept tugging and pulling on the baby is .. disgusting.. all because a mother was tired, didn't find an empty seat and sat out of the way on the floor while trying to get some day care vouchers so she could keep her job.

And shame on the people working at the office who didn't speak up against the cops. oh and the ones not giving up their seat for a mother with a baby. maybe I am old and old fashioned but I was brought up to offer my seat to someone with a baby, someone pregnant or the elderly. And I still would even though i am not exactly in the best of health myself.

[RedEve]

Lineham seems to hide his darkest impulses under the guise of "supporting women", whatever that is supposed to mean.

Just last week he tweeted some homophobic nonsense towards a gay reporter who had been threatened by some far-right scum.

[Tolvo]

That's good to hear about Jasmine.

And yeah Linehan does it a lot. When you pay attention a lot to what he says it becomes apparent he really hates women in general. But trans women he can somewhat get away with publicly hating. So he focuses on us. He often does contain a lot of "Biotruths" in the things he says, about women being weaker than men, how women are pure and innocent, etc, to argue his views that trans women can't possibly be "real" women because they don't have these attributes. Below is a sampling of some of the things he tweets and retweets. For the "Squeal" one that one is about a bunch of fascists shouting slurs and hatred at someone who supports trans people. You'll also see typically whenever real scientists, doctors, psychologists, support trans people openly he sends his twitter followers to harass them.

https://imgur.com/a/T1oDU8Z

[Oniya]

That's good to hear about Jasmine.

And yeah Linehan does it a lot. When you pay attention a lot to what he says it becomes apparent he really hates women in general. But trans women he can somewhat get away with publicly hating. So he focuses on us. He often does contain a lot of "Biotruths" in the things he says, about women being weaker than men, how women are pure and innocent, etc, to argue his views that trans women can't possibly be "real" women because they don't have these attributes. Below is a sampling of some of the things he tweets and retweets. For the "Squeal" one that one is about a bunch of fascists shouting slurs and hatred at someone who supports trans people. You'll also see typically whenever real scientists, doctors, psychologists, support trans people openly he sends his twitter followers to harass them.

https://imgur.com/a/T1oDU8Z

Pure and innocent?  Pure and innocent?!

Welp, I guess my obstetrician was wrong.

[Tolvo]

Sorry Oniya. Women are only pure and innocent. And if you aren't not a woman! I don't make the rules, this comedian does. He is the arbitrator of womanhood and we must live in his world.

There's actually a little famous comic about him surrounding some of his views of the new Dr Who being a woman.



There also is this from 2016, an examination from back then of his transphobic remarks including the IT Crowd clip of a man fighting a trans woman with "Man strength" as a "joke."

https://medium.com/@AlexaEphemera/its-time-to-call-out-graham-linehan-s-ugly-transphobia-30b15be317a5

[Oniya]

I'm quite familiar with the type, if not the individual - but to quote Tallulah Bankhead, 'I'm as pure as the driven slush.'  So in his eyes, I'm obviously the first man to give natural birth.  /heavy sarcasm  (Doesn't that mean I get the Disney fortune or something?  Aw, shucks.)

[RedRose]

I don't know if it's a normal source but it's the most recently updated. I had friends in lock down. Cops were distracted by gilets jaunes instead, so there were fewer of them around "critical" areas like this market. It had been threatened by Al Qaida already 20 years ago (which I didn't know). https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7958402/isis-supporters-celebrate-strasbourg-christmas-market-terror-attack-claiming-it-came-days-after-our-threats-against-festive-events/

[Deamonbane]

Possible trigger warnings

Ex-frat president at Baylor gets no jail time in rape case as judge accepts plea deal

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article222888435.html

He won't even have to register as a sex offender.

[gaggedLouise]

Look who's been here...Putin's  cold-war era Stasi ID card turns up in a German archive:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/12/europe/putin-stasi-id-card-grm-scli-intl/index.html

:D

[gaggedLouise]

Amusing bollocks statement on the theme of "greenwashing the names of holidays" (green=the colour of Islam). Nope, no one in Sweden has even suggested changing out the name of Christmas (in Swedish: jul, a word with pagan roots).

https://twitter.com/Imamofpeace/status/1072138478786437121

The reference to "vinterfirande" (Winter celebration) in a newspaper piece linked a bit down the twitter thread is not specifically about Christmas celebrations, it refers to a local sports event.

[TheVillain]

Speaking as an American, apologies for that.

I keep having to explain to people that the "War on Christmas" is pure bullshit, mostly made up by Bill O'Reilly for ratings. At most they just have to acknowledge that not everyone celebrates Christmas. But you know right-wing christian extremists and their persecution complexes.

[Sara Nilsson]

Amusing bollocks statement on the theme of "greenwashing the names of holidays" (green=the colour of Islam). Nope, no one in Sweden has even suggested changing out the name of Christmas (in Swedish: jul, a word with pagan roots).

https://twitter.com/Imamofpeace/status/1072138478786437121

The reference to "vinterfirande" (Winter celebration) in a newspaper piece linked a bit down the twitter thread is not specifically about Christmas celebrations, it refers to a local sports event.

Yeah as someone from Malmö I laughed. Yeah we have vinterfirande. because we have lots of fun sports events at this point. But we also have Jul. And Julfirande. So tired of all the Swedes are abandoning christmas like a few years back they claimed a town was removing all christmas decorations as to not offend... no they where removed as they where a danger due to blocking traffic lights.

[Blythe]

https://www.koco.com/article/bomb-threat-against-wiley-post-airport-part-of-nationwide-investigation-okc-police-say/25575251

This is creepy--wish there was actually more info. I hope none of them are credible (something like 10 - 13 bomb threats apparently), but I hope they release more info about it soon. I've got family in OKC. :/

[Tolvo]

https://kotaku.com/call-of-duty-developer-evacuated-after-bomb-threat-1831082232

Uh, is something going on today? Cause a game developer also just got bomb threats. Is there some sort of organized thing for making bomb threats today?

[Lustful Bride]

https://kotaku.com/call-of-duty-developer-evacuated-after-bomb-threat-1831082232

Uh, is something going on today? Cause a game developer also just got bomb threats. Is there some sort of organized thing for making bomb threats today?

…...this is going past the point of being coincidence.

[Tolvo]

https://gizmodo.com/dozens-of-bomb-threats-reported-across-america-in-appar-1831080547

For those also who didn't click the links in the Kotaku article, this is also happening across New York.

I'm just wondering if it is a single person behind it or if someone organized this. Lots of people who work at tech companies have also shared on twitter getting similar things.

[Blythe]

Yes, the OKC threats may be related to the game dev ones. The article I linked looks like it updated and included a video that showed a letter that demanded a $20,000 ransom. The e-mail to the game dev also included a demand for a $20,000 ransom.

[Tolvo]

The ones in the various cities and sent to various people in tech all contain that ransom with similar wording, and ask for bitcoin.

[Sara Nilsson]

I think we can all agree that Flint was a major fuckup. And that the people responsible should be punished. Now, are they? well..

Eden Wells, the chief medical executive for the department, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, obstruction of justice, and lying to a peace officer, yet she never lost her job. Authorities allege that she threatened to cut funding for a local group investigating the cause of a Legionnaire’s outbreak that killed 12 people, per an investigation document. She also allegedly lied about her knowledge of what caused this severe form of pneumonia. We now know it was the water—the same water that exposed a city of nearly 100,000 to lead poisoning. At least one of these deaths is at the center of this investigation.

Sounds serious right? I am sure the government was serious about this, so what did they do? Offered her a better job of course.

Wells began a new job earlier this month, right before her trial started, as the new advisory physician to the Population Health Administration, a position that will help advise on issues related to HIV, Hepatitis C, and (ironically) environmental health, among other focus areas. Wells will also continue to carry out her old job as the DHHS medical executive through the end of the year.

Oh and the new job is no longer under the governors cabinet so she can't be fired that easily. Nice to fail upwards eh?

https://earther.gizmodo.com/top-michigan-health-official-on-trial-for-flint-water-c-1831049714

Oh and the new job? She got it as she was the only one applying, for a job that was on the market less than a week.. sure that wasn't intentional or anything.

[Tolvo]

God Flint makes me so depressed. As well as all the other places without clean drinking water here. And in the rest of the world. Just such a simple solvable thing that ruins lives that people cause out of greed and indifference towards the lives of others.

I wonder if we could use a thing by the way on media literacy and fact checking sites and things to help people have things to check or summaries on how to understand what things are credibly and how to verify news stories. I don't run into it too often where people just post untrustworthy sources as factual information but I wonder if it could help.

[RedRose]

Strasbourg terrorist shot. Bystanders clapped and a radio played "I shot the sherif", though they had to apologize later.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2018/12/14/01016-20181214ARTFIG00002-cherif-chekatt-l-ennemi-public-n1-tue-apres-48-heures-de-traque.php

[Lustful Bride]

Every day I find myself more ashamed of my homeland, and I hate the administration for it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/disabled-army-vet-after-ice-arrests-husband-‘this-is-not-really-what-i-fought-for’/ar-BBQXW6U?ocid=spartanntp

[Tolvo]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/13/us/guatemalan-girl-death-ice/index.html

Among those who have been dying in Ice custody as well there have been children. We know of cases of dehydration and beatings and various other forms of abuse and negligence leading to death. The autopsy won't be ready for reporting on the child for a time, but it is pretty grim in outlook.

[Mechelle]

We had our frist "gilets jaunes" protest in Britain today, although it was on a much lesser scale, when 80 or so pro-Brexit activists (therefore, I am puzzled why they copied an idea from the continent) blocked Westminster Bridge in London. They also prevented an emergency ambulance from getting through, giving an idea of the sort of people they are, and wanted to speak to Theresa May, although she wasn't in the country at the time.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/westminster-bridge-blocked-by-bizarre-yellow-vest-protest-a4017751.html

[Tolvo]

https://www.necn.com/news/national-international/Sandy-Hook-School-Students-Sent-Home-After-Receiving-Threat-on-Shooting-Anniversary-AP-502778722.html?s

On the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting the school had to shut down due to a bomb threat.