What's in the news?

[Sara Nilsson]

http://time.com/5290157/north-korea-summit-commemorative-coin-white-house-gift-shop/

The summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may have been canceled, but that hasn’t stopped the White House Gift Shop from promoting commemorative coins for the meeting as the “Deal of the Day.” A steal at $19.95 (regularly $24.95.)

Why let a small thing like it never happened stop you.

[ShadowFox89]

Never stopped Trump before, why let it now?

[gaggedLouise]

http://time.com/5290157/north-korea-summit-commemorative-coin-white-house-gift-shop/

Why let a small thing like it never happened stop you.

I'm sure the Dear Leader with the carrot hair approved it. :)

[Lustful Bride]

Guess who is back in the news?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rachel-dolezal-former-naacp-leader-who-posed-as-a-black-woman-accused-of-welfare-fraud/ar-AAxMKBh?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

I feel so bad for her children, this controversy after controversy can't be good for them.

[Lustful Bride]

Man comes into restaurant opening fire with a gun, but was killed by a conceal carry owner. Only two people were killed in the confrontation. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/armed-citizen-kills-shooter-at-oklahoma-city-restaurant/ar-AAxLGxa?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

[gaggedLouise]

Meanwhile in Sweden...the two factions of the Academy are digging themselves ever deeper into their trenches, basically led by recently deposed "permanent secretary" (and chief spokesperson) Sara Danius and her predecessor-but-one Horace Engdahl. They are now close to pushing one another into a complete deadlock that could cripple the Academy for a long time ahead. Only last hour, the head of the Nobel foundation said straight out on a radio show that a number of people in this illustrious society should consider stepping down; no doubt Engdahl was one of those he had in mind. They are normally all appointed for life, and until last month it was practically impossible to resign from a seat. If the club can't sort itself out and begin to return to business, he warned, they might permanently lose the right to award the literary Nobel award, which would land on the knee of some other institution. ::)

I hope they'll listen to that warning.

The Academy already announced three weeks back thet there will be no Nobel prize for literature this year.

Earlier post about the background to the scandal: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=214010.msg14109208#msg14109208

[RedRose]

Very very disturbing. The USA are so big on safety and teaching kids and all, and this?? https://www.dailywire.com/news/30885/mommy-blogger-sees-disturbing-pedophile-message-paul-bois I thought maybe it was made up but IMDB lists the various scenes and yup, it seems real.

[TheGlyphstone]

I read the article, and went down to the comments. Almost everyone was vehemently discussing the various standards of show dog competititons, AKC requirements, and occasionally mentioning how it was stupid for the writers to do this. Then I took a look at the followup article on the very same site about how Show Dogs is being pulled from theaters, and the comments section was an endless string of people talking about how commies, pedos, leftists, homos, and commie gay pedo homo leftists are insidiously corrupting society's morals. Was extremely surreal.

[Nachtmahr]

Very very disturbing. The USA are so big on safety and teaching kids and all, and this?? https://www.dailywire.com/news/30885/mommy-blogger-sees-disturbing-pedophile-message-paul-bois I thought maybe it was made up but IMDB lists the various scenes and yup, it seems real.

This sounds like a bad joke that failed miserable. If the scenes are exactly as she describes them (in my experience it's always better to take what these types of bloggers say with a grain of salt, at least until I can judge the source material for myself) then that definitely sounds creepy, but I don't think there were any bad intentions there. This sort of joke might well have gone under the radar 10-20 years ago, and it frankly sounds a bit like they lifted it from an episode of Family Guy, but these days stuff like this doesn't really fly.

If this controversy catches on properly, I doubt that Netflix (or any sensible streaming site) would ever stream this title. I think it would be relegated to the bargain-bin in your local discount supermarket. Judging by the reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, that's also where it belongs.

Just as a sidenote, I'm really not fond of movies that feature animals in prominent roles where they have to "act". I get that you can train dogs to gladly do lots of things, but it's just one of those things that kind of gives me bad vibes.

I read the article, and went down to the comments. Almost everyone was vehemently discussing the various standards of show dog competititons, AKC requirements, and occasionally mentioning how it was stupid for the writers to do this. Then I took a look at the followup article on the very same site about how Show Dogs is being pulled from theaters, and the comments section was an endless string of people talking about how commies, pedos, leftists, homos, and commie gay pedo homo leftists are insidiously corrupting society's morals. Was extremely surreal.

Some people are going to desperately grasp for any opportunity they can get to bash people they don't like. Online hate is nothing new.

- - - - -

In other, sadder news: Popular YouTuber, games critic and online personality John "TotalBiscuit" Bain passed away.

https://kotaku.com/game-critic-totalbiscuit-has-died-1826310517

That man was a great hero and inspiration of mine. His passing hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. I appreciate that a lot of you might not even know who he was, but he was an outspoken consumer-rights advocate and, in my opinion, a force for good in the gaming world. He will be sorely missed.

[RedRose]

Comments on (almost?) any topic are awful. People use them as punching balls.
I agree that once upon a time it might have not been noticed. Many Indiana Jones movies feature things that shocked no one then. In France there is this singer who watched https://www.programme-tv.net/news/series-tv/103212-agatha-christie-dix-petits-negres-tmc-une-mini-serie-sexy-glamour-et-captivante-video/ and decided the title had to be changed (didn't happen).

[TheGlyphstone]

Comments are usually awful, yeah, but I was more weirded out by the exclusive uniformity. You'd think the same people would be present in both comment sections, but there was no overlap at all.

[Sara Nilsson]

Ireland appears poised to overwhelmingly overturn a constitutional amendment that bans abortion in almost all circumstances, according to a exit poll.
The poll released by Ireland's national broadcaster RTE shortly after polling stations closed on Friday night predicted that nearly 70% voted in in favor of repealing the Eighth Amendment to Ireland's Constitution. The RTE exit poll shows 69.4% voting "yes" and 30.6% "no."

So looking good :) You can do it Ireland!

[Sara Nilsson]

http://www.kron4.com/news/california/stockton-businessman-sentenced-to-90-days-of-house-arrest-for-raping-child/1197685546

A longtime Stockton businessman was sentenced Wednesday to just 90 days of house arrest and five years of informal probation after pleading no contest to statutory rape of a child.

The man, 79-year-old Lyle Burgess, does not have to register as a sex offender.

The girl was just 5 years old at the time.

[AmberStarfire]

A successful yes vote in the referendum means abortion will now be legalised in Ireland. I can't vote here but hubby did:
http://www.news.com.au/world/europe/exit-polls-predict-landslide-victory-for-yes-vote-in-irish-referendum/news-story/590396e0386dd58b8e5bf568e60f0b74

[RedRose]

Comments are usually awful, yeah, but I was more weirded out by the exclusive uniformity. You'd think the same people would be present in both comment sections, but there was no overlap at all.

Sometimes they are so, when the website caters to one type of population.

[Oniya]

Sometimes they are so, when the website caters to one type of population.

The odd thing (I read both articles as well) is that both of them were on the same website. 

The one about the mommy-blogger had the debate about AKC regulations (show dogs must be 'intact', so that they can be breeding stock if they show well - but it wasn't necessary to make this a major plot point), and the one about how the movie had been pulled from theaters had this cesspool about how Hollywood (and 'Dems and libruls' by extension) is a bunch of paedophilic homosexuals, grooming victims through kiddie movies.   

[RedRose]

I also tend to believe things are more likely to be mistake (or not true) than conspiracies... Dumb film, yeah. Attempt to help people attack children, nope. Problems with a vax, yeah. Attempts to "spread AIDS or cancer", nope. But conspiracies are a big thing today...

[Oniya]

Whether it was an attempt to normalize genital touching or not, that topic really didn't belong in a children's movie.  There are so many aspects of dog-showing that they could have used for the 'undercover tough-guy dog' to need to overcome.  Have him flub up on the agility demonstration or something, maybe even throw in a clip from the Flashdance theme as he successfully navigates the poles and hurdles.  (For those of you who weren't 80's kids, Jennifer Beals' character stumbles and has to restart her audition to the dance academy during that song.)

Having him 'go to his zen place' that's full of rainbows and fireworks as he's being inspected is just ... really ... weird.

[Valerian]

Having him 'go to his zen place' that's full of rainbows and fireworks as he's being inspected is just ... really ... weird.

Yeah... fireworks used to be a fairly common movie shorthand to indicate that yes, two characters are having sex, back in the days when you could barely even hint at such things on-screen (see To Catch a Thief, with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, as an example).  That reference is particularly inapt here.  >.<

[gaggedLouise]

Rally driver Chris Meeke is fired by the Citroën stable for...having excessively many crashes with his car(s). :D Unusual complaint.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/05/24/sports/ap-car-wrc-driver-fired.html

[Lustful Bride]

The reactions to Harvey Weinstein's court sketches have been hilarious.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/harvey-weinstein-courtroom-sketches-draw-online-buzz/ar-AAxOF7F?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

[Oniya]

Yeah... fireworks used to be a fairly common movie shorthand to indicate that yes, two characters are having sex, back in the days when you could barely even hint at such things on-screen (see To Catch a Thief, with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, as an example).  That reference is particularly inapt here.  >.<

To make matters slightly worse (as if there's much room left) - one reviewer that I saw linked from IMDB said that during the relevant scene, the soundtrack was playing 'Sexy and I Know It' by LMFAO.

[RedRose]

Police men have to defend a newspaper stand because some pro Erdogan people don't like him being called a dictator in Le Point.
https://www.laprovence.com/article/edition-vaucluse/4991694/des-militants-pro-erdogan-sen-prennent-a-la-une-du-point.html

[gaggedLouise]

Six women found killed (executed) by the side of the highway in Mexico, one day after they had been marched away at gunpoint from inside a food company (?!) building. Only the latest ones in an endless line of people, not least women, killed by gangsters in the country. :(

https://nation.com.pk/28-May-2018/bodies-of-six-women-found-in-mexico

[gaggedLouise]

The President is to be impeached, a few months after the latest elections - wait, this is Italy. Sorry! :P

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44275781