What's in the News? 2.0

[TheGlyphstone]

Sadly it will come to nothing, because the Republicans are refusing to cooperate with any deal to censure or remove her.

[Haibane]

...in a spirit of unity then... :(

[legomaster00156]

In the eyes of Republicans, "unity" means "Democrats give us what we want, and we don't give up anything."

[ShadowFox89]

If you just did what I told you, I wouldn't have had to punch you.

[Skynet]

Arizona Republicans no longer believe in the democratic process.

Additionally, state-level Republicans across the country are seeking to pass laws to make it harder to vote.

[Haibane]

Arizona Republicans no longer believe in the democratic process.

    Referendums are expensive but I will raise the money to kill this Democracy killing bill. Follow this bill if it passes we will have 90 days after it is signed into law to collect the necessary signatures to get it on the ballot and then defeat it. https://t.co/i1M8lm5FCj
    — Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) January 29, 2021

Additionally, state-level Republicans across the country are seeking to pass laws to make it harder to vote.

This is Trump's legacy. This is what the self-delusion in one man can cause to an entire country. Ridiculous.

[The Lovely Tsaritsa]

I had to look that up and I am honestly impressed. If Mr Navalny is telling the truth, Mr Putin even does corruption and embezzlement more awesomely than anyone else. Though its also very easy to understand why people would be upset about it.

More protests today, in my city. And, Moscow and St Petersburg, others too.

[gaggedLouise]

More protests today, in my city. And, Moscow and St Petersburg, others too.

More than a thousand people arrested for taking part in demonstrations today, and it's only mid-afternoon in European Russia. :(

[The Lovely Tsaritsa]

4000 this far today, on what televison news says.

Also, news says American embassies, aid protests.

[HannibalBarca]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/2/1/2013254/-PA-Sen-Lt-Gov-John-Fetterman-D-Tells-PA-GOP-To-F-Off-Over-Flying-LGBTQ-amp-Marijuana-Flags

The Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, had his LGBTQ and marijuana flags--hanging outside his office in the state capital building--taken down over the weekend.  This morning he put them back up, and posted a pic of them on Twitter with the message "It’s kind of funny how the Pennsylvania GOP is outraged over my weed + pride flags, but *conspicuously less* outraged over past + current members of their caucus storming the U.S. Capitol earlier this month."



The proportions might look a bit odd, but that's because he's 6'9".  I love how he represents so well for us excessively tall, bald, bearded white dudes who wholeheartedly support LGBTQ rights 

[Haibane]

I am going to stick my neck out here and agree with them being removed. I think a state capitol building (in the UK any government building) should not display any badges, signs, flags or other emblems other than a national and state flag and in the case of govt. buildings, maybe a departmental flag or emblem. I have no issue at all with individual politicians having such symbols inside their offices or pinned on their lapels but a state capitol building needs to simply be a structure and not a wall on which individuals should display motifs of their beliefs and convictions.

I think people would be outraged if a Rep state senator hung the Confederate flag from his balcony.

[Haibane]

Myanmar's (aka Burma's) brief exposure to democracy appears to be over; a military coup has ousted the democratically elected government :(

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55893736

[Haibane]

Britain's youngest terrorist offender is convicted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-55891140

Right-wing neo-Nazi hate is alive and well in England :(

[gaggedLouise]

Imagine the kind of embarrassing comments Trump would have made about the military coup in Burma/Myanmar, had he still been president? The background to the south Asian coup is very similar to Trump's own obfuscations of the US election: the military-backed party bombed in the elections (last November!), the military are co-rulers of the country and they responded by spreading claims of massive voter fraud - and now have capped it off with a coup and martial law.

[legomaster00156]

Imagine the kind of embarrassing comments Trump would have made about the military coup in Burma/Myanmar, had he still been president? The background to the south Asian coup is very similar to Trump's own obfuscations of the US election: the military-backed party bombed in the elections (last November!), the military are co-rulers of the country and they responded by spreading claims of massive voter fraud - and now have capped it off with a coup and martial law.

Oh, that's easy. No comment at all, because he wouldn't know it happened.

[Humble Scribe]

Imagine the kind of embarrassing comments Trump would have made about the military coup in Burma/Myanmar, had he still been president? The background to the south Asian coup is very similar to Trump's own obfuscations of the US election: the military-backed party bombed in the elections (last November!), the military are co-rulers of the country and they responded by spreading claims of massive voter fraud - and now have capped it off with a coup and martial law.

I'm a bit confused now as to whether Aung San Suu Kyi is still a war criminal or back to being a democratic martyr again. Life is complicated.

[PrincessBuggy]

I was thinking about that too, actually. She functionally made a deal with the devil in ignoring the military's atrocities to try and play peacekeeper (I am not discounting that she may legitimately have not cared a lick about the fates of the Rohingya though) and to cling onto her delicate grip on power and democracy and it got ripped away from her just like that anyways.

I feel like we can think of it both ways. She absolutely enabled horrific atrocities, but she still fought for democracy in a nation that had been starved by authoritarianism. All for naught, apparently.

[Haibane]

Mitch McConnell says Majorie Taylor Greene is not "living in reality".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-02/democrats-bid-to-remove-marjorie-taylor-greene-from-committees/13112588

"Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr's airplane is not living in reality.

"This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party."

[stormwyrm]

Good question as to whether any action ought to be taken on MTG. They say she's the right wing equivalent of AOC but AOC at least is clearly quite sane and doesn't believe in the moonbat equivalents of MTG's wingnut fantasies. Maybe the Democrats ought to let MTG stay, and do everything to make her the face of the Republican Party along with Trump. That would be sure to fracture the Republican Party if they can pull it off properly. It's a risky move though.

[Humble Scribe]

I was thinking about that too, actually. She functionally made a deal with the devil in ignoring the military's atrocities to try and play peacekeeper (I am not discounting that she may legitimately have not cared a lick about the fates of the Rohingya though) and to cling onto her delicate grip on power and democracy and it got ripped away from her just like that anyways.

It possibly indicates that some of those who laid into her for whitewashing what was going on with the Rohingya may not have appreciated how precarious her grip on things was, and how circumscribed her options were. Or that losing western support may have encouraged the military to think that removing her was now an easy option. As I say, life is complicated.

[gaggedLouise]

I'm a bit confused now as to whether Aung San Suu Kyi is still a war criminal or back to being a democratic martyr again. Life is complicated.

I think the double command that had been established in the country made it very difficuly for her to speak up on the Rohingyas. She was sort of "half-president" but not really in charge of the levers of state, and the military were sitting on the other chairs. In the eyes of the foreign media though, it was much more convenient to pin the blame on Aung San Suu Kyi since she was actually well-known /in the west), had good media contacts and had a reputation to defend, while the generals were just a bunch of goons and nobodies to most people outside Myanmar.

[Haibane]

Captain Sir Tom Moore has died of Covid-19.

He may well be quite unknown outside the UK, but last year he became a hero and a great symbol of giving.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-55881753

[Mechelle]

Captain Sir Tom Moore has died of Covid-19.

He may well be quite unknown outside the UK, but last year he became a hero and a great symbol of giving.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-55881753

Yes, he had quite a final year of his long life, and will be remembered, in a good way, as an iconic figure of this Covid year. It's so unfortunate that he couldn't be vaccinated himself, after all his fundraising efforts, as he had previously caught pneumonia.

[Haibane]

One woman who has escaped from China and is now in the US describes a regime of systematic rape and torture at the Uighur "re-education camps". Her timeline of movements and descriptions of places matches other known events, satellite imagery of the camps and other accounts.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55794071

[Haibane]

UK Ofcom media regulatory body revokes Chinese broadcaster CGTN's licence to broadcast in the UK.

After the news linked to in my post of yesterday concerning the Uighur camps, the information and diplomatic war is stepping up. There are calls for international investigators to be allowed to inspect the camps.