What's in the news?

[AmberStarfire]

Yeah, that isn't good. :/ I read of families trapped up there with their kids.

This is the article I read (I haven't watched the video and I'm not sure I want to):

http://www.news.com.au/world/europe/firefighters-battle-raging-inferno-at-london-apartment-tower/news-story/917d5b38e55f0635fc94634841b00a30

They're saying there may have been as many as 600 people in the building.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.queerty.com/pastor-beat-gay-man-two-hours-walks-free-judge-declares-mistrial-20170607

I.. what?

[ererruz]

The Polish Prime Minister crossing yet another line.

[Iniquitous]

An explosion at the gates of a kindergarten in China has killed 7 and left 59 wounded.  ( http://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/china-kindergarten-explosion-children-reportedly-injured-blast-n772711?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma ).  It is still undetermined if this was a deliberate act or an accident.

[Avalon29]

A researcher has revealed that due to a misconfigured server Georgia's voting records and the intructions for the polling workers with their passwords could be found by google. The worst part is even after telling this to the center's director it still had not been fixed in March.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GEORGIA_ELECTION_SECURITY_FLAW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Lustful Bride]

US issues Warrants for members of Turkish security that were recorded beating US protesters outside the Turkish Embassy and fighting with US Capitol Police who moved to defend the protesters.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/us-arrest-warrants-issued-for-members-of-turkish-leaders-security-team/ar-BBCJm2x?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

Good. The video footage of the fights shows these thugs kicking women on the ground or punching protesters who held their hands up in surrender. I wish the capitol police could have gone all out and shown them what its like to fight someone who hits back.

[Beorning]

The Polish Prime Minister crossing yet another line.

I've heard that bit on TV. Not sure I'd call it Szydło crossing another line... I'd be tempted to rather call it an example of Orwellian duckspeak her and other PiS politicians are prone to. They do not think what they are saying, they just keep spouting the party line as programmed  This days, they are all about their "not a single refugee allowed" stance, so they keep blurting about it whenever they open their mouths...

On the other hand, if it was a deliberate attempt to use Auschwitz as a rationale for not allowing the refugees in... yeah, it's kind of awful. And still idiotic - there's no rational connection between these two subjects. You know, I happen to know one lady who is a staunch opponent of letting the immigrants in (as well as all things Muslim overall) - and even she commented that this analogy is just plain stupid.

[stormwyrm]

Seven percent of all American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. That works out to about 16.4 million adults, or about the population of the State of Pennsylvania, who don't know that chocolate milk is milk, cocoa, and sugar.
https://i.imgur.com/tqCoX.jpg

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/15/seven-percent-of-americans-think-chocolate-milk-comes-from-brown-cows-and-thats-not-even-the-scary-part/?utm_term=.286c95cc5701

[Lustful Bride]

Seven percent of all American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. That works out to about 16.4 million adults, or about the population of the State of Pennsylvania, who don't know that chocolate milk is milk, cocoa, and sugar.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/15/seven-percent-of-americans-think-chocolate-milk-comes-from-brown-cows-and-thats-not-even-the-scary-part/?utm_term=.286c95cc5701

Some of those have to be troll posts. No one can be that stupid. I refuse to believe anyone is that stupid.

[Sara Nilsson]

Some of those have to be troll posts. No one can be that stupid. I refuse to believe anyone is that stupid.

I was working in a butcher chop for a few years, and we had a couple come in with their kids. And the kids went crazy when they saw "pigs neck" (grishals) in Swedish in the rest of Sweden they call it karre, crying loudly "what have they done to the poor pigs!"

No the kids didn't know that meat came from pigs, and they where not tiny kids either. So I can believe people are that stupid.

[Beorning]

Speaking of Polish government crossing lines:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/polish-ruling-party-tweets-then-deletes-anti-refugee-remark/2017/06/16/a9cfb7fa-529d-11e7-b74e-0d2785d3083d_story.html

So, it seems that the ruling party is openly promoting xenophobia now. "Do not let yourself be convinced that the aversion to refugees is a bad thing"... And PiS still has the gall of calling itself a Christian party???

But, of course, we should not forget that, even before the last elections, the PiS leader openly warned the voters that refugees might bring "parasites and protozoa" into Poland...

*bangs head against the wall*

[TheGlyphstone]

So how does PiS feel about the Polish Jewish minority amidst their hyper-Christian rhetoric?

[gaggedLouise]

Some of those have to be troll posts. No one can be that stupid. I refuse to believe anyone is that stupid.

Seen this classic April fools' hoax? Spaghetti being grown on trees in the Mediterranean region and the Alps, yeah... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVo_wkxH9dU

Many people believed that one when it was shown on the telly, on a current affairs magazine in the late 1950s. I admit this was at a time before charter tourism trips had really broken big time, and before the pasta boom had taken hold in more northerly countries, but still...

(It's also a really creative and well-crafted hoax  )

[Beorning]

Heh heh. This is awesome, Louise :)

So how does PiS feel about the Polish Jewish minority amidst their hyper-Christian rhetoric?

Well, they are not saying anything against the Jews... I would be a bit tricky for them, considering that current First Lady is of Jewish ancestry. But I'm pretty sure that at least some PiS supporters aren't too fond of the Jews...

Nevertheless, PiS seems to be much more concerned about Germans and, of course, Muslims. Their politicians have said some really awful things - one of the Ministers, when asked about the refugees, said that the Polish nation has the right to defends itself from annihilation (at refugees' hands, I guess). The Deputy Minister of Justice, when talking about the refugees, keeps making bold claims that will not allow any "Islamists" to come to Poland (because all refugees are Islamists, you see). And as I mentioned earlier, the Minister of Interior recently referred to Charles Martel, "stopping the Muslim storm" etc. Seriously, this is crazy :(

And, of course, Polish public TV, which is now fully controlled by PiS, is taking part in this hatemongering, too. Do you know what they did a few days ago? They found some old video joke of some French comedian, where he was running around a shop, trashing wine bottles and yelling about Ramadan. The bigots at TVP took that video and aired it during a news piece, claiming that it was a genuine footage of a Muslim man terrorizing a non-Muslim shop. All to show how aggressive the Muslims are and so on...

Of course, all of these politicians and journalists most probably claim to be good Christians... 

[Lustful Bride]

Cosby rape trial ends in mistrial.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/bill-cosby-rape-case-ends-in-mistrial-da-says-%e2%80%9cwill-retry%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-update/ar-BBCOagy?li=BBnb4R7&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

[HannibalBarca]

Beorning, how are lipka tatars treated in Poland right now?  Seeing as how many of them are Muslim, the right wing controlling the country must be very frightening for them.

[Beorning]

Beorning, how are lipka tatars treated in Poland right now?  Seeing as how many of them are Muslim, the right wing controlling the country must be very frightening for them.

You know, I do wonder how many of these right-wing hatemongers actually remember that we already have a Muslim minority in the country - and that it has peacefully existed here for a few centuries now...

[TheGlyphstone]

You know, I do wonder how many of these right-wing hatemongers actually remember that we already have a Muslim minority in the country - and that it has peacefully existed here for a few centuries now...

They're just immigrants who snuck in a long, long time ago? Them diabolical Muslims sending agents ahead centuries ago to infiltrate Poland just clearly shows how treacherous they are and how complex their schemes can be.[/obvious-sarcasm-is-obvious]

[Beorning]

Or, maybe, they just do not count as Muslims in the eyes of these people. After all, they are peaceful and completely Westernized people - no foreign clothes, no hijabs etc. No, Muslims are those other people, the ones that look foreign! And those other people are obviously aggressive, their religion is evil etc. They'd never co-exist with us! 

You know, there was recently a protest in Germany by a group of Muslims - who did everything that some of the anti-Muslim folks I know have always said they'd want Muslims to do. These Muslims openly condemned ISIS, protested against using Islam to justify terrorism etc. And what was the response of these anti-Muslim folks I know? They started saying that, quite probably, some of these protesters weren't Muslims at all. One lady actually pointed out that one of the female protesters on the photo was dressed too liberally to be a "true" Muslim! No, she was most probably some sort of apostate! So, it wasn't Muslims protesting against ISIS - these were just some Middle-Eastern non-Muslims! So, they don't count - and Muslims never protest against ISIS after all!

So, the reasoning goes like this: 1. All Muslims are hateful, oppressive and evil. 2. Muslims protesting against ISIS aren't oppressive. 3. Hence, they can't be "true" Muslims. 4. They don't count and all "true" Muslims are still oppressive and evil... 

[TheGlyphstone]

It's the No True Muslim fallacy.

[Beorning]

A van drives into Muslim worshippers leaving a London mosque at night:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40322960

A side note: I read comments for this situation at one Polish Facebook news page and I'm shocked. Most of the comments actually *congratulated* the attackers! People are cheering "At last!", saying that it's high time Londoners "took matters in their own hands" and that the attackers had "biggers balls than British Police" etc. I have no words... :(

[ererruz]

A van drives into Muslim worshippers leaving a London mosque at night:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40322960

A side note: I read comments for this situation at one Polish Facebook news page and I'm shocked. Most of the comments actually *congratulated* the attackers! People are cheering "At last!", saying that it's high time Londoners "took matters in their own hands" and that the attackers had "biggers balls than British Police" etc. I have no words... :(

Saw a screenshot of those comments too. I'm speechless. How bad a human being do you have to be to say things like that I wonder.

[Lustful Bride]

US student held prisoner by North korea dies.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-student-held-prisoner-by-north-korea-dies-days-after-release/ar-BBCU6Ly?li=BBnb4R7&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

[Lustful Bride]

It seems there are a big spot of Cellphone and internet outages across the US

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/cellphone-internet-outages-reported-across-us/ar-BBCTZdc?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

[Orval Wintermute]

A van drives into Muslim worshippers leaving a London mosque at night:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40322960

A side note: I read comments for this situation at one Polish Facebook news page and I'm shocked. Most of the comments actually *congratulated* the attackers! People are cheering "At last!", saying that it's high time Londoners "took matters in their own hands" and that the attackers had "biggers balls than British Police" etc. I have no words... :(

I guess pointing out to them that the attacker wasn't from London but drove to London from another country (Wales) would go completely over their heads.