What's in the News? 2.0

[Snakes and Lasers]

Wait, I thought they were supposed to wait until after the election to fill those seats. Right?


Right?


(Jk I know not to expect consistency from these folks)

[Lexandria]

Mitch McConnell waited only about an hour before brushing her death aside and insisting that the Senate will vote asap on whoever Trump appoints.

I really, really hope McGrath takes his seat. She's not the nominee I wanted down there, but she's who won the nomination (by the skin of her teeth).

[Hades]

Mitch McConnell waited only about an hour before brushing her death aside and insisting that the Senate will vote asap on whoever Trump appoints.

I really, really hope McGrath takes his seat. She's not the nominee I wanted down there, but she's who won the nomination (by the skin of her teeth).

As someone that lives in the state that Yurtle Mitch-Turtle "represents" (in theory at least), I am sad to say that he looks comfortably posed to win re-election.  Last poll I could find gave him a 12-point lead.

[Aislinn]

RBG - Without talking about the politics of it all because I truly believe this person deserves a beat to allow humanity to appreciate the sheer magnitude of what she did for humankind, let me say that I can't begin to comprehend what her loss will mean. Part of me likens her to the song in 'Hamilton' - "Non-stop". Talk about the best of us. She was a titan.

[Lexandria]

First Republican you break rank and say that no justice should be voted on until after November 3rd when election results are in, and that the nominee, then, would need to be from whomever wins.

https://twitter.com/SenatorCollins/status/1307412600397987842?s=19

[Oniya]

Collins is desperate to be re-elected.  Maine has been getting more and more tired of her 'concern'.

[Haibane]

I don't see that we specifically have a climate change thread here which surprised me. I thought this article about the fraudulent but highly successful cover up and misinformation campaign by Exxon Mobil in the 1980s might be of interest.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-53640382

This subject angers me so much. We are discussing the biggest subject its possible to discuss - the survival of the human race - and petroleum and coal industry executives knew, thirty years ago, what their own scientific research predicted yet they put profits before (potentially) billions of lives.

[Oniya]

I don't see that we specifically have a climate change thread here which surprised me.

We did - https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=191318.0 - but the past two years have driven it off the main page.  Feel free to start up another one if you want.

[Haibane]

What a mess. I knew the banks were crooks but this is terrible. And this just four years after the UK Govt bailed them out with millions of taxpayers money.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54226107

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54225572

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-54176127

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54225577

[Avalon29]

Bit of good news. Supreme court of Maine approves use of ranked voting in the presidential election despite attempts to stop it and Maine becomes the first state to have ranked voting for the presidential election.


https://apnews.com/b5ddd0854037e9687e952cd79e1526df

[Missy]

Bit of good news. Supreme court of Maine approves use of ranked voting in the presidential election despite attempts to stop it and Maine becomes the first state to have ranked voting for the presidential election.


https://apnews.com/b5ddd0854037e9687e952cd79e1526df

*moves to Maine*

[TheGlyphstone]

*moves to Maine*

*Stares longingly at the Maine border*

[Callie Del Noire]

*Stares longingly at the Maine border*

Too bad it will have little effect. I’d LOVE to see a state like California, Florida or Texas get this.. you’d see Democratic candidate fighting for a bite of Texas, Republicans doing the same for California and Florida would be a center point.

[Fox Lokison]

*Stares longingly at the Maine border*

Seconded.

[gaggedLouise]

A Russian Navy ship has collided with a large container freighter just off Copenhagen, and near the Öresund Bridge linking Denmark and Sweden. Happened around 2½ hours ago in heavy fog. No one is dead or missing and it's being treated as a civilian accident; it's a narrow and shallow strait with heavy traffic all year round. There are few details so far - what kind of military ship? sounds like a fairly big one - but the coast guard and sea rescue patrol of both countries are on the scene. Expecting to hear from Moscow soon.

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/ryskt-orlogsfartyg-i-krock-vid-oresundsbron (in Swedish)

[stormwyrm]

A Russian Navy ship has collided with a large container freighter just off Copenhagen, and near the Öresund Bridge linking Denmark and Sweden.

Welcome to the club, Russia. The US Navy has had a couple similar collisions not too long ago. On June 17, 2017 the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container freighter off the coast of Yokosuka. A couple months later, on August 21, there was another collision involving the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker off the coast of Singapore. Bunch of sailors were killed in that latter accident.

[gaggedLouise]

WTF, this is completely unacceptable...   

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54277235

Strasbourg, France:

The student, identified only as Elisabeth, 22, said she was punched in the face "by three individuals who complained about me wearing a skirt".

(---)

In an interview with France Bleu Alsace radio, Elisabeth said she was walking home when one of the three men said: "Look at that whore in a skirt." Two of the three men then held her while the third hit her in the face, leaving her with a black eye, she told the station. The men then fled.

She said more than a dozen people witnessed the incident, but no-one intervened.

On Wednesday, junior interior minister Marlene Schiappa - who is in charge of citizenship and was previously in charge of equality issues - visited the eastern city to discuss the safety of women in public. She told France Bleu Alsace that "the skirt is not responsible for the attack and the woman even less".

Whether the young woman was beaten up "because she was wearing a skirt" (??) or because her assailants thought the skirt wasn't long enough, either way it's disgusting. And sadly, though the crime belongs with those three guys only, I feel 99% sure of what side of the Mediterranean they originated from. Which is only going to inflame debate about this in France even further.

It is the right of any woman (genetically born female or trans), or other person, to wear whatever kind of skirt she/they like and feel okay with.

[Formless]

I feel 99% sure of what side of the Mediterranean they originated from.

I'm not going to jump into assumptions.

The article did not say anything about the identity or the origin of the assailants.

Elaborate on your certainty, please.

[gaggedLouise]

I'm not going to jump into assumptions.

The article did not say anything about the identity or the origin of the assailants.

Elaborate on your certainty, please.

I've checked with news outlets in French - newspapers, tv channels etc, not right.wing bloggers - and they all say that the reason those guys called out, to justify their attack and to call her a whore, was that she was wearing a skirt. Not "you're wearing too short a skirt" or "it should go at least down to her knees" but plainly the fact that she was wearing a skirt. Now, there's no way the implied alternative for them would have been "she needs to wear trousers or jeans" - what they're implying would certainly have been: a decent woman covers her legs down to her feet in a veil. Some news sources also add that they accused her of not lowering her gaze in the presence of men, on the street, This together was enough for them to label her a whore. The real grievance seems to have been precisely that she walked around town as a free woman and did not feel compelled to watch her steps or behave like a second-rate person in the presence of males. And they got away with the attack even with a dozen people watching. Nobody I've seen says that they were carrying weapons and pacified the onlookers that way.

I'm sorry but this reeks of a certain kind of cultural/religious background, where women are supposed to cover their bodies and get behind the men.  I decline to comment any further on this

[Formless]

I've checked with news outlets in French - newspapers, tv channels etc, not right.wing bloggers - and they all say that the reason those guys called out, to justify their attack and to call her a whore, was that she was wearing a skirt. Not "you're wearing too short a skirt" or "it should go at least down to her knees" but plainly the fact that she was wearing a skirt. Now, there's no way the implied alternative for them would have been "she needs to wear trousers or jeans" - what they're implying would certainly have been: a decent woman covers her legs down to her feet in a veil. Some news sources also add that they accused her of not lowering her gaze in the presence of men, on the street, This together was enough for them to label her a whore. The real grievance seems to have been precisely that she walked around town as a free woman and did not feel compelled to watch her steps or behave like a second-rate person in the presence of males. And they got away with the attack even with a dozen people watching. Nobody I've seen says that they were carrying weapons and pacified the onlookers that way.

I'm sorry but this reeks of a certain kind of cultural/religious background, where women are supposed to cover their bodies and get behind the men.  I decline to comment any further on this

None of these outlets divulged the identity of the assailants? But we're going with a common approach of sensational media, by describing an event without actual proof to it, nor any excerpts from the Victim?

Sure, let's jump on the bandwagon of hearsay.

I've recently were reminded not to jump to conclusions without proper proof. I hope we can all follow the same mantra.

[Formless]

nor any excerpts from the Victim?

To clarify on this point. I'm not denying the existence of the heinous incident, but rather the lack of any actual evidence to the identity of the assailants.

[Skynet]

A huge data leak of FinCEN Files shows that international banks intentionally sat by as organized crime, terrorists, and narcotraffickers used said banks to launder their money. Warnings raised by employees of the banks went ignored.

These documents, compiled by banks, shared with the government, but kept from public view, expose the hollowness of banking safeguards, and the ease with which criminals have exploited them. Profits from deadly drug wars, fortunes embezzled from developing countries, and hard-earned savings stolen in a Ponzi scheme were all allowed to flow into and out of these financial institutions, despite warnings from the banks’ own employees.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, is the agency within the Treasury Department charged with combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes. It collects millions of these suspicious activity reports, known as SARs. It makes them available to US law enforcement agencies and other nations’ financial intelligence operations. It even compiles a report called “Kleptocracy Weekly” that summarizes the dealings of foreign leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What it does not do is force the banks to shut the money laundering down.

The FinCEN Files investigation shows that even after they were prosecuted or fined for financial misconduct, banks such as JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of New York Mellon continued to move money for suspected criminals.

In a subsequent letter, FinCEN’s general counsel said that disclosure of SARs (Suspicious Activity Reports) can make banks less willing to file them, which “could mean law enforcement has fewer potential leads to stop crimes like human trafficking, child exploitation, fraud, corruption, terrorism, and cyber-enabled crime.”

[Skynet]

The Pentagon funneled money meant for COVID 19 relief funds (masks, swabs, etc) to buy more guns and body armor:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/09/22/covid-funds-pentagon/

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/518099-40-groups-call-on-house-panel-to-investigate-pentagons-use-of-coronavirus

Remember when 9/11 First Responders had to struggle for nearly 20 years just to get health coverage, and people kept saying "where's the money?"

Back in July most of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, turned down a proposed bill to reallocate Pentagon funds from a budget cut to domestic infrastructure, such as education, healthcare, and other vital necessities for our society:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/23/day-after-voting-down-10-pentagon-cut-37-senate-dems-join-gop-approve-740-billion

People keep asking how will be afford universal healthcare? How will be afford college tuition? How can Flint afford clean water? How will we afford things just about every other industrialized First World Country is capable of giving its own citizens?

Well, we do have the money and the funds for this. But the US government on both sides of the political aisle and their donors in the military-industrial complex have prioritized foreign military ventures over our own citizen's basic needs.

[stormwyrm]

Well, we do have the money and the funds for this. But the US government on both sides of the political aisle and their donors in the military-industrial complex have prioritized foreign military ventures over our own citizen's basic needs.

No one ever did listen to President Eisenhower, who was perhaps the last of the old-style Republican Party that would still have been slightly recognisable as the party of Lincoln. 67 years later we're still ignoring him.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

[Skynet]

For the longest time I've been debating whether or not I should make a thread of its own showcasing the Democratic Party's weaknesses in this regard towards the causes they proclaim to fight for, as well as not really being very left-wing these days for this issue and others. I've already been doing this with posts here and there in this very news thread and perhaps some others, but like my ICE thread I'm curious if people would be interested in a holistic compilation.

Although the question is how much of that would be preaching to the choir, and to what extent those that need to hear it regularly post here or not.