What's in the News? 2.0

[Beorning]

Some more details about Saturday's "emergency meeting" of Polish ruling coalition got leaked / decyphered by the media.

Apparently, on Friday, Kaczyński really made (or was close to making) the decision to make the presidential elections happen in May... Note that he made this decision two days after he and Gowin (the leader of the coalition party Porozumienie) signed a written accord that there would be *no elections in May* - and a day after the Porozumienie MPs voted in favour of the mail-in voting bill based on the same accord. So, there was a bill that threatened to tear the coalition apart, an accord was reached that the bill would be voted through, but will not be used by Kaczyński to push for the May elections... and then, a day after the vote, Kaczyński started pushing for the May elections anyway. And backed away only because Gowin and at least some of his MPs really got pissed by being screwed over like that and threatened to quit the ruling coalition immediately... This is how the mind of Jarosław Kaczyński works: he doesn't respect the Constitution, the legal system, parliamentary good practices... and he doesn't respect even his coalition partners. And he's puppeteering the whole country right now!

BTW. Note that I mentioned that *some* of Porozumienie MPs considered quitting the coalition... It's because Kaczyński and his people are actively and openly poaching MPs from other parties, even from Porozumienie. So Kaczyński's PiS is a cooperating with Gowin's Porozumienie... while also trying to dismantle that other party. Niiiiiice.

Also, according to some journalists, this whole newest crisis was instigated by Zbigniew Ziobro, the Minister of Justice and the leader of the third coalition partner, another micro-party named SP (Solidarna Polska). It was Ziobro and his SP people who nearly convinced Kaczyński to break his accord with Gowin. Why? Supposedly, they tried to use this crisis to oust the current Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, whom Ziobro hates...

So, this is the state of Polish government right now: a government of three parties (PiS, Porozumienie and SP) that don't trust each other and are actually backstabbing each other. A government where the Minister of Justice is actively plotting against the Prime Minister, where the main coalition party is openly trying to steal MPs from its partners... and all of it is puppeteered by the leader of the main party. Who holds no official position whatsover, but nevertheless gives orders to the Prime Minister and to the President...

Gah!

[TheGlyphstone]

Sounds like it might be time to resurrect the liberum veto.

[Beorning]

Heh. Not really, no, please. Liberum veto was a really poor idea. And taking the responsibility of modern MPs into consideration... no, let's not reactivate this particular concept.

What we need is for our society to wake up and finally start noticing that PiS has turned our country into a madhouse. But, for some reason, about 40% of voters still support these guys...

[legomaster00156]

Gosh, that sounds familiar. 

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

[Markus]

Gunmen attack maternity ward in Kabul

[Sara Nilsson]

I am honestly at a loss for words and so angry

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A judge sentenced admitted pedophile and former Utah CEO Douglas Saltsman to 210 days in jail and 48 months probation on Thursday for possessing more than 13,000 files of graphic child pornography, some of which involved rape and bestiality.

https://kutv.com/news/local/utah-ceo-gets-210-days-in-jail-for-having-13k-files-of-infant-child-rape-bestiality

It gets.. fucking disgusting if you can stomach reading what he had. The man should be fucking locked away for life. All the trigger warnings if you read it.

[Callie Del Noire]

I am honestly at a loss for words and so angry

https://kutv.com/news/local/utah-ceo-gets-210-days-in-jail-for-having-13k-files-of-infant-child-rape-bestiality

It gets.. fucking disgusting if you can stomach reading what he had. The man should be fucking locked away for life. All the trigger warnings if you read it.

Technically, with time served, the judge could argue he got the minimum. Plus A ranking as a sex offender, which will never go away.

Personally I think he should have gotten LOTS more as this is ridiculous. Here’s hoping he violates soon and gets sent back for a much LONGER term. I mean, even interacting with a minor is a violation right?

[Lexandria]

trigger warning pertaining to the content of the article above

they found videos of him having sex with unconscious women. How was he at the very least not hit with rape charges for that? At least track that into the BS sentence he got for the disgusting child porn he had. Something more than the nothing he got.

[Sara Nilsson]

Technically, with time served, the judge could argue he got the minimum. Plus A ranking as a sex offender, which will never go away.

Personally I think he should have gotten LOTS more as this is ridiculous. Here’s hoping he violates soon and gets sent back for a much LONGER term. I mean, even interacting with a minor is a violation right?

True. But for a crime that horrible you really shouldn't be getting the minimum. If it was 20 pictures of "just" nudes I could see being more lenient, but this was a fuckton of really horrible shit as well as some shit he had done himself to adult women. People like that shouldn't get the minimum. Now I don't know obviously how easy it is to get child porn but 13k images sounds like you have to spend a fair amount of time to find. My RP folder is no where near that and I been collecting pics for roleplays for years.

And I will join you in hoping he fucks up and gets sent back to prison where he fucking belongs. I am all for giving people a chance but.. fucking hell.. people have got more for owning some weed

[Beorning]

I honestly don't understand American justice system. How come you get more for drug possession than stuff like this?

Three news bits from Poland:

1. A new documentary about Catholic Church-related child abuse premiered today on YT. It's the second movie on this topic made by the sibling team of Tomasz and Marek Sekielski. This new movie follows a specific case of a pedophile priest and shows rather clearly that the priest's superiors knew what was doing and, instead of stopping him, just covered everything up. The most infuriating, IMHO, are the bits that show that the Church is getting a lot of preferential treatment by the state prosecution (especially under the current right-wing government): that Church officials related to the abuse cases are given easy access to the files of ongoing investigations and that the prosecutors are heavily discouraged by their superiors to put any pressure on the Church. Ugh.

2. There was a public protest today in Warsaw by a group of businesspeople claiming that the government isn't doing enough to help them during the pandemic. There was a scuffle with the police - and, amid the scuffle, an opposition senator was detained by the cops. It happened despite the fact that the senator clearly identified himself as an MP to the cops and even shown his official papers. Considering that the MPs have really strong legal immunity when on the job, the cops really should've left him alone. Still, the cops completely disregarded that and pushed the senator into a police car. What's even more frustrating (while also laughable), the police HQ issued a statement later today saying that the senator was not detained... he actually entered the police car on his own. Yeah, right. 

3. Speaking of stuff that is both frustrating and laughable: Polish Radio 3, one of the state-owned national radio stations, decided to engage in insane self-censorship. See, PR3 has this weekly musical hit list where the public votes for songs they like. Last Friday, the song that won the vote was a song by Kazik Staszewski (a veteran rock / punk artist), highly critical of the PiS leader Kaczyński. At first, you could find an info about it on PR3's website (as it always happens with the weekly Hit List rankings) - but then, the info got deleted and the radio's management issued a statement that the whole voting was annulled due to some irregularities. Considering that all state-owned media are currently run by PiS-aligned people, it's pretty clear that somebody on the top decided to censor this week's Hit List vote. It might seem like a minor thing, but PR3's Hit List is one of the longest-running hit lists in Poland and has a lot of following. The whole situation shows how "democratic" Poland is under the current government...

[Beorning]

An update: the situation regarding the PR3 Hit List (would Charts be a better translation?) is turning quite *ugly*.

It seems that the PR3's head management is really determined to push their version of events... First, they tried to force the personnel related to last Friday's Charts edition to submit singed statements that the Charts have been manipulated. When one of the journalists refused to do so, he immediately got suspended... Eventually, the management decided to scapegoat Marek Niedźwiedzki, a veteran journalist and anchor of PR3 - and the *creator* of PR3 Charts (who was anchoring the programme on Friday). They openly accused Niedźwiedzki of personally manipulating the Charts to put Kazik's song into the top spot... Unsurprisingly, Niedźwiedzki immediately resigned from working at PR3.

The whole situation really caused anger among the fans of PR3 Charts (who started spamming PR3's Facebook page with the links to the censored song and laying down flowers at PR3's building in Warsaw) and the station's employees (who organized a protest). Other media started commenting on the situation, too...

All of this might seem surprising, but PR3 is a long-running radio station with the reputation for quality programmes related to arts and culture. Since PiS came to power in 2016 and put their people into the public media, multiple respected journalists have been fired (or quit) PR3. Marek Niedźwiedzki was one of the last PR3 veterans remaining - he has been working at the station for 35 years total (and, as mentioned, he created the PR3 Charts programme back in 1982). And the programme itself was really respected "brand" since then. So, treating a veteran anchor and an established programme like that really, really pissed many people off... And many people actually comment the situation is as bad as things that happened back in the Communist era.

[Beorning]

Some English-language links on the news above:

1. The PR3 Charts censorship scandal:

https://notesfrompoland.com/2020/05/18/polish-state-radio-accused-of-censorship-after-removing-chart-topping-song-critical-of-ruling-party-chairman/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-18/polish-state-radio-faces-boycott-after-censoring-political-song

2. The Hide And Seek movie about Church child abuse:

https://notesfrompoland.com/2020/05/16/new-documentary-reveals-paedophilia-and-cover-ups-in-polands-catholic-church-prompting-swift-official-response/

[Sara Nilsson]

Hana Kimura has passed away, age 22. Looks like suicide.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52782235

https://www.mandatory.com/wrestlezone/news/1187553-stardoms-hana-kimura-passes-away-at-age-22

Looks like too much cyberbullying of the young wrestling star, (and apperently reality tv show too (i dont watch those)). Really saddened to hear of it.

[TheHangedOne]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/San-Leandro-woman-arrested-charged-with-posting-15291546.php

Can we tar and feather her?

[Sara Nilsson]

The note in question apparently.

[clonkertink]

The note in question apparently.

I feel like if she's gonna be a racist asshat, she should at least learn the english language.

[TheGlyphstone]

I can't read the article because it's behind a paywall...

[Callie Del Noire]

I can't read the article because it's behind a paywall...

Ditto

[Sara Nilsson]

I can't read the article because it's behind a paywall...

https://patch.com/california/sanleandro/woman-arrested-after-discovery-threatening-notes-police-say

https://www.kron4.com/news/photos-circulate-of-woman-posting-xenophobic-letters-in-san-leandro-neighborhood/

[TheGlyphstone]

She must have gone to the same grammar school as We The Peaple and Free Pensynania.

[TheHangedOne]

https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/05/21/turkey-has-invaded-and-occupied-greek-territory-at-evros/?amp

"Turkey has invaded and occupied Greek territory", as the url says. Turkey is refusing to enter into discussions, so this could be the prelude to something worse.

[Sara Nilsson]

The space x Dragon launch was just scrubbed. Weather was not cooperating.

[TheHangedOne]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/05/5g-conspiracy-theorists-sell-350-usb-stick-to-fight-electric-fog/

For all those who fear the terrifyingly harmful effects of 5G, all you need to do is give this company the low, low, low amount of about 350 USD, and they will give you this beautiful, shiny BioShield that uses quantum technology to protect you.

Or, you know, turns out it's a fancy lookin' USB stick that holds 128mb. BUTT TATS JUS WAT THE GOBMINT WANT YOU TO THINK!!11!

...I actually can't get too mad at these people, though. A fool and their money are soon parted.

[Sara Nilsson]

https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1266193926316228609

Yeah its twitter but the video is clear.

Cop driving by and spraying people with pepper spray just indiscriminately.

[Mithlomwen]

Minneapolis ex-officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck is in state custody

Edited to add:  The County Prosecutor Mike Freeman has just announced Ex Police Officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with 3rd degree murder manslaughter.  He said there might be more charges forthcoming.