What's in the news?

[Hades]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-sources-house-speaker-ryan-125849912.html

AP is reporting that Speaker Paul Ryan will not be running for re-election to the House.  Which means his team must have seen internal polling that paints a pretty dismal picture, considering he was first elected to office in 1998 and has never had a serious challenge since that time to my knowledge and a quick bit of looking around.  Either way, he is the highest ranked GOP member of Congress to call it quits this cycle.

[MasterMischief]

That is interesting.  I remain cautiously optimistic about a 'blue wave'.  I was certain this country would not elect Trump.

[Avis habilis]

AP is reporting that Speaker Paul Ryan will not be running for re-election to the House.  Which means his team must have seen internal polling that paints a pretty dismal picture ...

That's what I was thinking as well. Which means he doesn't think he can beat his sole declared primary opponent.

His self-avowed anti-Semite, white supremacist opponent.

[Hades]

Considering in Illinois, a very vocal and proud neo-nazi won the GOP primary for a congressional seat*, it wouldn't surprise me to see Ryan having problems being that guy as well. I mean, Trump has said there are fine people in the white supremacist ranks, so that was bound to be a boost to the guy's fundraising efforts.



*Yeah, I know the district is heavily Democratic and the GOP don't expect to win there but still..they couldn't find someone to take one for the team that wasn't a literal nazi?  How mainstream and accepted into the ranks the once-fringe elements of the right have been in such a rapid pace is downright frightening.

[Lustful Bride]

Teachers caught mocking and harassing a student with autism.

http://www.wbrz.com/news/educators-fired-after-mocking-autistic-student-in-audio-recording/

Just, beyond disgusting. So easy to pick on someone who cant speak or defend themselves, I hope those teachers never work again.

[RedEve]

The principal's statement is possibly even worse.
She deflects blame to the mother and tries to frame the conversation as private between the two teachers. Though if that is the case, how would the recording device have caught it?
Pathetic damage control when she should really have been reaching out to the family and make a proper attempt at making amends.

[Lustful Bride]

I'm not sure if this is true or not...but it should be investigated just in case.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/stan-lee-denies-he’s-a-victim-of-elder-abuse-threatens-to-sue/ar-AAvO4Rk?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

[Iniquitous]

I'm not sure if this is true or not...but it should be investigated just in case.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/stan-lee-denies-he’s-a-victim-of-elder-abuse-threatens-to-sue/ar-AAvO4Rk?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

From reading an article on this, there have been claims that he is being taken advantage of by friends and employees. He is saying that the claims are not true - “You have been accusing me and my friends of things that are so unrealistic and unbelievable that I don’t know what to say. It’s as though you suddenly have a personal vendetta against me and the people I work with.”

He is also saying that he is going to sue anyone who doesn't print retractions and stop publishing these rumors.  I'd say he is not being abused, that this is just the rumor mill trying to post anything to get readers.

[Lustful Bride]

From reading an article on this, there have been claims that he is being taken advantage of by friends and employees. He is saying that the claims are not true - “You have been accusing me and my friends of things that are so unrealistic and unbelievable that I don’t know what to say. It’s as though you suddenly have a personal vendetta against me and the people I work with.”

He is also saying that he is going to sue anyone who doesn't print retractions and stop publishing these rumors.  I'd say he is not being abused, that this is just the rumor mill trying to post anything to get readers.

But if someone is being abused for a long enough time, wont they start lying for their abusers?

[Oniya]

Stan's always been pretty outspoken.  If he was someone who normally kept quiet about his opinions, I'd be more suspicious of that being a cover-up.

[Iniquitous]

But if someone is being abused for a long enough time, wont they start lying for their abusers?

As in Stockholm Syndrome?  Possibly.  But keep in mind, it hasn't even been a year since his wife passed, and this supposed abuse has only been since his wife passed. I wouldn't think less than a year is enough time for someone to start defending their abusers.  Not too mention, this isn't a physical abuse claim - rather a claim that his employees are taking monetary advantage of him.  The only physical abuse claim was his daughter had been violent towards him and his deceased wife.

Again, being that he is of sound mind (at least from what we can see) and is threatening to sue over this, I'd say he isn't being abused.

[Beorning]

Wait - didn't the employees claim not too long ago that Stan Lee was groping them etc.?

[Iniquitous]

Wait - didn't the employees claim not too long ago that Stan Lee was groping them etc.?

How does that factor into claims that Stan Lee is being abused?

[Beorning]

I don't know, honestly - I'm not even saying it's true. It's just that I first hear that Stan may be molesting his nurses - then, there are claims that he's being abused by relatives and / or caretakers (the same one he was supposed to be molesting)... I honestly don't know what's happening?

[gaggedLouise]

After a week of blatant infighting, exits, defamatory statements and threats in the wake of a bulging scandal, the Swedish Academy has imploded, sort of. A tense meeting between the 12 or 13 members who were still in the loop, both the chief spokeswoman Sara Danius and the member who has been at the heart of the controversies, Katarina Frostenson, were forced out. Even though technically the laws of the Academy don't allow for a member to exit and last time somebody was forced out it was because of high treason in politics. 

Earlier post by me about the scandal here, and a good synopsis in English here: https://www.thelocal.se/20180410/swedish-academy-members-husband-accused-of-leaking-names-of-seven-nobel-prize-winners

Two members out of eighteen had exited for different reasons years before the scandal broke, one of them thirty years ago over the Rushdie affair. Three more took a time-out last weekend. With two more out, the number of active members is down to eleven, one below the minimum required to elect new members, and in any case as long as the statutes of the society are not changed, none of those persons that are out can be formally cleared so that their seats are free, at least that's always been seen as off the cards. The only person or instance who definitely can change the statutes of the Academy is the King, and earlier this week he issued a clear warning to them to try to behave like serious-minded adults, and that if they didn't, he would take a look at revising the internal rulebook of the society.

If things don't clear up, the King (and his advisors) may also, in time, find themselves with the unique opportunity of selecting several new members of the club at once.

How this is going to affect the Nobel prize for literature this year is written in the stars, but as a fellow Swede I feel the disgrace of this affair risks hitting things that matter more than just the Nobel prize. :( The Academy does a good deal of useful work for language care, dictionaries and support of literary publishing, research and culture, and those could be badly affected by this nasty story, the lack of judgment and all the shit hitting various fans.

[RedRose]

Fromage kills French people.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20180413/ten-die-in-france-after-eating-morbier-mont-dor-cheese-infected-with-salmonella
Not the first time, either. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/france-in-panic-over-killer-soft-cheese-1085461.html
I must say it IS a turn off from unpasteurized, though I don't see myself stopping.

[Regina Minx]

Quel dommage! Quel FROmmage!

[RedRose]

 

[Lustful Bride]

Welp, not sure how to feel on this. Part of me has lost all care about the middle east since we have lost and shed so much blood in that region. But at the same time, can someone who so openly and uncaringly uses chemical weapons on civilians be allowed to just run amock?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-orders-strikes-against-syria-over-chemical-weapons-attack/ar-AAvRrWC?ocid=spartandhp&ffid=gz

I hate that a part of me honestly considers a return to isolationism some days. :/

[Ket]

Turn on any US-based news source. The US has attacked Syrian chemical weapons targets. There is a briefing from the Pentagon happening right now.

[Vergil Tanner]

Does anybody actually believe that Assad is actually behind the chemical weapons attack? Really?

I mean...call me a conspiracy theorist, but it makes absolutely no sense. Assad is literally inches away from final victory over the Jihadi rebels in Syria, he's literally in the process of accepting the surrender of one of the largest rebel enclaves in the country, and then he uses chemical weapons on civilians for no apparent reason, thereby guaranteeing that the West is going to get involved. Why would he do that? What possible reason is there for him to use chemical weapons on an enemy he's already effectively defeated, especially when he knows that chemical weaponry is just going to get the West involved, like it did last time. Lest we forget that he willingly surrendered his chemical weaponry (as far as we know) last time this stuff happened, and we know that the rebels also have access to chemical weapons...

I just don't buy that Assad is stupid enough to use chemical weapons in this way. This seems like a desperate ploy by the rebels to get the West involved on their side, and the West is either falling for it...or are using it as an excuse. Call me a cynic, but I'm thinking the latter.

[Lustful Bride]

Does anybody actually believe that Assad is actually behind the chemical weapons attack? Really?

I mean...call me a conspiracy theorist, but it makes absolutely no sense. Assad is literally inches away from final victory over the Jihadi rebels in Syria, he's literally in the process of accepting the surrender of one of the largest rebel enclaves in the country, and then he uses chemical weapons on civilians for no apparent reason, thereby guaranteeing that the West is going to get involved. Why would he do that? What possible reason is there for him to use chemical weapons on an enemy he's already effectively defeated, especially when he knows that chemical weaponry is just going to get the West involved, like it did last time. Lest we forget that he willingly surrendered his chemical weaponry (as far as we know) last time this stuff happened, and we know that the rebels also have access to chemical weapons...

I just don't buy that Assad is stupid enough to use chemical weapons in this way. This seems like a desperate ploy by the rebels to get the West involved on their side, and the West is either falling for it...or are using it as an excuse. Call me a cynic, but I'm thinking the latter.

For what thought? What is there but another unpopular, wasteful, pointless, conflict.

[Vergil Tanner]

Also: Please, America, PLEASE return to isolationism. Every time you get involved, you fuck things up even more. The rest of the world does not need or want your "help." There's a reason nobody likes the US, and there's a reason why the US was voted the biggest threat to world peace in the same year that Russia invaded Crimea. If we want your help, we will ask for it. In the meantime, please mind your own damn business. Sort out your own shit instead of inflicting it on the rest of us. >.>

For what thought? What is there but another unpopular, wasteful, pointless, conflict.

For power. The West wants what it's always wanted in the Middle East; power and influence. And the West - especially America - has a history of toppling rulers in the Middle East that they don't like for short sighted gain, which bites them in the ass later because the people they helped are extremists who don't like the West either.
The West - especially the US - has been itching for a reason to get involved in Syria on the rebels side since the civil war began. This just gives them that excuse.

[Vergil Tanner]

The other thing is that the USA has a perpetual hate-boner for Russia, and Assad is an ally of Russia. Topple Assad, and Russia loses most of its influence in the Middle East.

[Lustful Bride]

Also: Please, America, PLEASE return to isolationism. Every time you get involved, you fuck things up even more. The rest of the world does not need or want your "help." There's a reason nobody likes the US, and there's a reason why the US was voted the biggest threat to world peace in the same year that Russia invaded Crimea. If we want your help, we will ask for it. In the meantime, please mind your own damn business. Sort out your own shit instead of inflicting it on the rest of us. >.>

You know what, I almost agree. Let Russia and China play world Police for a change. Let it be their headaches for once, their blood lost. We should look out for ourselves and no one else. Cut off all the aid we give to other countries, keep that food and resources for us. They would never pay it back anyway, we should only be focusing on keeping what we have safe, and keeping our people healthy, fed, and happy.

For power. The West wants what it's always wanted in the Middle East; power and influence. And the West - especially America - has a history of toppling rulers in the Middle East that they don't like for short sighted gain, which bites them in the ass later because the people they helped are extremists who don't like the West either.
The West - especially the US - has been itching for a reason to get involved in Syria on the rebels side since the civil war began. This just gives them that excuse.

Meh, I guess I can see that.