You also can’t have kids being shot simply bc some leniency is within the mayors and DAs control while the fixes to the underlying society problems such as inequality in education are both not in their control and unlikely to change.
2 Likes
That is also true and fits with my entire point, they are simply jumping to the end without a proper system to ensure that it can work for those it can apply to doing the middle work is beyond their means and also something that is deeply unpopular with a lot of people. They are simply enacting something that is theoretically good while also just applying it to everyone thinking it will work and because the issue was hotly debated for a time.
3 Likes
In other words, trying to get fast solutions without going through the required process. The whole treating the symptoms without addressing the illness analogy.
2 Likes
Only thing missing is Ye.
Oh sure, now ID requirements are unfair in Texas.
Fun Fact: The state of Pennsylvania legislated a fuel that was supposed to fund infrastructure projects and instead they actually gave that money to the police instead.
Compare and contrast
Or we could do the right thing and just scuttle the damn things.
2 Likes
Just disgusting.
5 Likes
Conservatives have no standards at all and just when you think they do they also deface your Tomb of the Unknown soldier while carrying Confederate flags and Swastika banners.
4 Likes
I can’t post in funny right now but I did find this and the convoy is still news so…
Oh and they also tried stealing food from the homeless. I flogged the first article I could find on it.
5 Likes
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s Socialist Party won a surprise majority of seats today in an election you probably didn’t even know was happening.
The rise of CHEGA is pretty concerning though.
4 Likes
4 Likes
While I’m here just for a few minutes, to check some things in the pm box, and see if we are still in the “players are great at identifying issues to the game, less so to express the right solution, besides there is no clear communication” stage of year two. I am still going to try a bit of General News.
First, something that I think is not in the international frontpage : the France/Mali relations are decidedly in free fall for a while now but just hit a new stage. The French ambassador has been told officially by the Malian government that he has 72 hours to leave the country.
France and Mali previously had a relatively friendly relationship, especially expressed in their alliance for the Serval Operation (military assistance against AQMI in Mali) in 2013, then transformed into the more general Barkhane Operation in 2014 (regional assistance in the Sahel)
Since then (and partially from the consequences of the conflict) Mali saw the rise in power of a Junte, and a part of the population is now decidedly against France. It has been hypothesised that some other Powers are at play to undermine the French influence in Central Africa for their own gains, including Mali, with the size of the current events as a consequence.
For anyone who doesn’t know, France historically has a large sphere of influence in Africa. Obviously born from colonisation, it has since transformed itself into what is known as Francafrique.
I would genuinely advise anyone to read on it since it is surprisingly unknown and extremely influential in the course of Central African recent history and its current political infrastructures.
Now for what is without a doubt in the frontpage : the Ukrainian/Russian conflict.
A lot of noise and a lot of articles about the small minutias of preparations, press releases, aids, and all the rest.
Now obviously pressions are high and it would be doubtful that they are here without good causes for genuine alarm.
Today the Security Council holded discussions.
They went as well as expected, Russia said that the US brought “pure nazis” in power in the Ukraine and that the West is responsible for “whiping up tensions”, while the West said that the Russian Federation is responsible for them through their mobilizations and current spike in desinformations and cyberattack.
In short everyone had their soundbite for their own news.
The most interesting part of the last few weeks was the shift in the use and relation with the media from some of the Intelligence Services (especially from the UK) with a much more direct line of information release.
This shift has been seen as a way for the western governments to counterattack against Russian disinformations. A way to close doubts, unknown factors, and cracks in the trust of the public before they are exploited for desinformations.
Another way of seeing it is obviously just as a preparation of the public for a potential escalation of the conflict.
More generally, from my understanding of Russian in-country talking points, it is currently feared that the Russian Federation will try to change (for them restore) the Ukrainian government to one more friendly to them (as it was before the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution).
This through a temporal escalation of the conflict to create a destabilising environment. Doing so quickly enough (and with minimal incursion) to underplay it and avoid international escalation.
Finally, something that I wouldn’t be surprised to see become a talking point soon : the Winter Olympics will start soon.
There are precedents of the Russian Federation to use them as a media smoke screen. The Georgian War in 2008 and the start of this very own Ukrainian conflict in 2014.
So expect some more tensions (at least in the behind the scenes and the background) during them.
Even then, this would be disastrous to the Russian/China relations since the chinese government really doesn’t want them to disturb their events.
Nonetheless, de-esclation is still the main goal and objective.
2 Likes
Nobody does but crazies. Nearly 90 percent of all of Canada’s truckers are vaccinated, these people just want to overthrow Trudeau.
3 Likes
Is it me or are socialists throwing communists under the rug in the 21st century? In the 20th century communists and socialists were staunch allies but now it’s no longer the case as socialists keep winning and making pacts with more centrist parties. I mean just check out Sholz in Germany, allying with The Greens and FDP and leaving Die Linke in the dust. Communists seem so lonely and fringe these days as they have no allies whatsoever just like the far right.
Here in the US, they’re apparently seen as one and the same, according to people who don’t know what either is. So by that logic(?), this is essentially political suicide.
1 Like
Yes Americans despise economic leftism that’s nothing new really. I mean they embraced The New Deal in the 1930’s but during the 1970’s Americans became very cynical of excessive government control especially of the economy as inflation grew and grew especially in the major cities and that kinda stuck. However, the U.S. is probably more socialist than most people think as they still do have things like Social Security and Medicare so it’s all rhetorical really.
In laymans terms though, socialists and communists are pretty similar, the biggest difference (probably) is communists are more authority loving than socialists and communists put more stock on manual labour.
1 Like
Communists are better organisers too (-;
1 Like
Not strictly news, but here’s a nice article on the independent redistricting commission here in Michigan. Basically, anyone who wanted could submit their name and four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents were drawn at random.
The map they came up with is being opposed by Republicans (of course) and some Detroit-area Democrats who don’t like the way they’ve split up the Black vote. It’s not perfect, but it seems to be a lot more in line with what people wanted when they voted for the referendum that created the commission in 2018. (Definitely better than what our Republican legislature would have come up with. 
)
It’s going to be interesting here in Grand Rapids, where both candidates who ran for the House in 2020 are running again. Incumbent Republican Pete Meijer is being primaried from the right because he had the temerity to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but there’s a chance it won’t matter. Our district looks to be leaning more blue than it ever has and there’s a decent chance I might be represented by a Democrat for the first time in the 25-ish years I’ve lived here.
2 Likes
Erin O’Toole is out as conservative leader after losing a vote of no confidence 73 to 45.
4 Likes
I would lose confidence in a man if I saw him support the Freedom Convoy as well.
1 Like
Well, good luck saying you aren’t a war criminal now.
Worse and worse and worse yet better and better and better,
3 Likes
First Sean Spicer on Dancing With the Stars, and now this shit? Really?
1 Like