What's in the News? 2.0

[Haibane]

Non-paywalled version:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/12/19/boston-police-officer-on-leave-after-release-of-troubling-body-cam-footage/

[Haibane]

Alexei Navalny has tricked a Russian FSB agent into revealing that it was them who attempted to murder him with Novichok.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55395683

The problem for us plebs though is who do you believe in all these shenanigans? Finding the truth is next to impossible.

[Beorning]

Non-paywalled version:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/12/19/boston-police-officer-on-leave-after-release-of-troubling-body-cam-footage/

I'd have been appalled by that, but considering how the police is currently acting here in Poland due to political pressure, I'm kind of... gone numb.

Pepper-spraying non-violent protesters, you say... how about the police pepper-spraying non-violent MPs, who approach the police with their MP IDs clearly visible? Or how about an plainclothes cop without any kind of badge jumping into the crowd of non-violent protesters and hitting people left and right with a telescopic baton in some sort of berserker fury?

Or how about a teenager getting her arm broken while being restrained by a cop during a protest... and the police spokesmen then declaring that, basically, this is what happens to you if you participate in an "illegal" protest, so it's all fine?

Or how about an officer from one of Polish intelligence agencies literally ramming protesters with his car - and being only fined for a driving infraction? And the state prosecutor who initially wanted to hit with him criminal charges having the case taken away from her - and facing disciplinary punishment herself?

Overall, not saying that what happens with US police isn't scary. It's just the same stuff is happening here - and directly because the government wants it to happen :(

[Beorning]

Ooooooh, I have a tasty news bit for you, guys 

Yesterday evening, the main of edition of "Wiadomości", Polish state TV news programme (which has, in the last few years, a crude mouthpiece for our government's propaganda), ran a story on the Saturn / Jupiter conjunction (AKA the Bethlehem Star). It was what you'd expect from a station supporting the strongly conservative agenda of our government, with a priest talking about the Bethlehem Star's religious connotations etc.

The problem?

The person that edited the news bit chose to illustrate it with a scene from Mothy Python's Life of Brian... you know, the scene where the Three Kings (played by the Pythons, of course, wearing not too convincing costumes) visit Brian in the crib...

This is so precious... The propagandists at TVP are so ignorant that they cannot tell honest Biblical movies from satire such The Life of Brian  And so they end up shooting themselves in the foot...

[clonkertink]

Oh man. I feel like that editor probably knew exactly what they were doing.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to mentally recite the whole dang movie to myself an giggle maniacally!

[Beorning]

Well, if the editor *knew* what they were doing, it would've been a case of brilliant internal sabotage! :)

But still, considering who is currently employed by TVP (especially by their news section), I suspect it was a case of the editor really not knowing what kind of movie The Life of Brian is. Which really does say something about the levels of ignorance of the current TVP staff...

[Haibane]

"He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy!"

[Oniya]

The question is, did they get far enough to see Brian's mum - I believe played by Terry Jones in pepper-pot drag.  (Going by the eyebrows here - not many other clues.)

[Haibane]

Yes, the late and great Terry Jones played his mum and basically stole the show.

[Beorning]

Yeah, playing cranky old women was one of his specialities :)

But nope, they didn't put *that* scene into the newspiece... I wonder why 

[TheHangedOne]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dp5kd/armed-anti-lockdown-protesters-just-tried-to-storm-oregons-state-capitol

So, this happened yesterday. Awful lot of this going on. And surprisingly docile police.

[Haibane]

Somewhat similar in that right wing militia vs police is the theme and its good to see that the police are cracking down on these guys and are apparently monitoring their movements. This is from 23rd October but I hadn't seen it before.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy8zyw/a-boogaloo-boi-leader-just-got-arrested-for-allegedly-firing-ak-47-during-george-floyd-protest

[TheHangedOne]

It is nice to see police do their actual job, but really, I'd rather see these terrorists getting shot in the face with tear gas canisters.

youtube video. It shows a protestor being shot in the face at close range with a tear gas canister. Viewer discretion advised.

yes, I double spoiler'd this, just to make sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acsSE5AZXsQ

[Missy]

Did the second cop shoot him the face with a flare gun?

Who belongs in Prison now?

[Haibane]

We can't know what was happening before the video starts and the man may have been instructed to leave the area multiple times... we just don't know. But yes, that seems excessive on the police's part, both shots in fact since the man was just standing there remonstrating peacefully, fully within his rights and not holding anything that looked like a weapon. If he was refusing  instructions to leave the area a couple of cops should have come out of their line and restrained and arrested him without excessive force. It annoys me so much that in the USA the police line of reasoning too often appears to be "pull the trigger".

[Skynet]

Prager U goes full mask off and makes a video listing why Robert E. Lee should be honored...by defending his pro-slavery actions.

[TheHangedOne]

Did the second cop shoot him the face with a flare gun?

Who belongs in Prison now?

It was a tear gas canister.

[Missy]

It was a tear gas canister.

What a jackass, still fucking counts as a projectile.

[Haibane]

Prager U goes full mask off and makes a video listing why Robert E. Lee should be honored...by defending his pro-slavery actions.

PragerU is basically a right wing Creationist think tank of individuals and not a proper university. Its pushing for Creationist teaching in schools among other things. YouTuber Potholer54 discusses them here.

[Haibane]

There is a Part 2 of that video as well.

[Haibane]

UK-Eu trade deal finally agreed! Woo-Hooo!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-55433447

[Haibane]

Oh my goodness I am so happy! This is such awesome lovely news. The perfect start to 2021 which I hope for everyone is a year that marks the start of a recovery and a new beginning for all, and we can begin to put #TwatTrump and the horrible mess of 2020 and all the tragedy behind us, in the UK, Europe, the USA and everywhere.

[Mechelle]

I notice a number of fishermen and the Democratic Unionist Party are already complaining about the Brexit deal, although I am sure it will get through Parliament on Wednesday as most MPs realise it is better than no deal. Going by his record, I wonder if Boris Johnson has actually read it - I fully expect him to criticise part of it at some point.

Meanwhile, there has been a strange story in the right wing press that the Queen has refused to knight Tony Blair because of her personal dislike of him. Usually Prime Ministers are knighted after they step down, but this means that Gordon Brown  and Theresa May, who would become a Dame rather than a Knight,  have also missed out so far as that would make it obvious he has been ignored.

Ironically, the current leaders of the Labour and Liberal Democratic Parties have already been knighted, as has Graham Brady who is the MP for the other half of  my town. He is the chairman of the 1922 Committee which is the association of backbench Conservative MPs and is supposed to be very influential. Apparently, does not reply to his constituents if they do not address him as "Sir Graham".



https://metro.co.uk/2020/12/28/queens-refusal-to-knight-tony-blair-is-gong-blocking-david-cameron-13815007/

[Haibane]

Blair does need to be hit on the shoulder with a sword. Hard.

[clonkertink]

Just finished reading "Dave Barry's Year in Review", which achieved the rare feat of making me gasp for breath laughing at several points.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2020/12/27/dave-barrys-year-review-2020/?arc404=true