All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[worstblogever]

Man, will this year's update just be you finally catching up with last's update because its so hard to keep up at this point? I wouldn't blame you.

A Trump update... I've said you can highlight 3-12 stupid f***ing things he, or his administration does a day. Really, hitting the "big" moments are enough. I'll leave that level of details to someone who gets paid for it and has time to document them all like Amy Siskind.

[Tami]

This is bad. ICE just told students here on student visas that if their school is going online-only this fall, the students must depart the United States and cannot remain through the fall semester.

SEVP modifies temporary exemptions for nonimmigrant students taking online courses during fall 2020 semester

Nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States. The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States. Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status. If not, they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.

Choice, risk getting COVID or leave the country.

Nonimmigrant F-1 students attending schools adopting a hybrid model—that is, a mixture of online and in person classes—will be allowed to take more than one class or three credit hours online. These schools must certify to SEVP, through the Form I-20, “Certificate of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status,” certifying that the program is not entirely online, that the student is not taking an entirely online course load this semester, and that the student is taking the minimum number of online classes required to make normal progress in their degree program. The above exemptions do not apply to F-1 students in English language training programs or M-1 students pursing vocational degrees, who are not permitted to enroll in any online courses.

[Ragged Maw]

It is a testament to the professionalism of historians that a handful of aristocrats getting executed is labeled the "Terror" but the deaths of millions of innocent civilians in French imperial adventures is not even considered an event worthy of a name.

It didn’t end with just the corrupt royalty. Rest assured, after they ran out of monarchy and shitty rich people to execute, those who claimed in public that they were starting to overdo it and those the Committee even remotely suspected were sympathetic to the late monarchy (which of happened to include those aforementioned “filthy moderates” who felt the bloodshed had gone overboard) were prime candidates for the chopping block as well.

[Gray Lensman]

It didn’t end with just the corrupt royalty. Rest assured, after they ran out of monarchy and shitty rich people to execute, those who claimed in public that they were starting to overdo it and those the Committee even remotely suspected were sympathetic to the late monarchy (which of happened to include those aforementioned “filthy moderates” who felt the bloodshed had gone overboard) were prime candidates for the chopping block as well.

Don't forget that it wasn't later historians who gave it the name of "The Terror" but the French Revolutionaries thenselves. "Let's make terror the order of the day!" is a direct quote, and there are more from other revolutionaries using the word terror to describe their actions.

[Kirby101]

A handful? 40,000 people were executed.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

He really has nothing better to do with his time than bitch, moan, and be racist and sexist.

Christ on a crutch. At this point, Trump is only a step above wearing a white hood and sheet and calling himself Grand Wizard instead of President.

[Tami]

Montgomery closes 3 business for violating virus rules; Gaithersburg restaurant says employees won’t wear masks

The Grille at Flower Hill, a smokehouse in Gaithersburg, posted on Facebook that it was visited by health authorities after a complaint that employees were not using masks.

The post, which has since been deleted, lambasted patrons for reporting the restaurant and told them not to dine there if they felt uncomfortable. “Let me be very clear,” the post stated. “My staff will not wear face masks while working here at the Grille.”

The restaurant, which county officials said usually operates Thursday through Sunday, posted another message on Facebook Sunday that said it would be closed that evening.

The post said the restaurant plans to reopen on Thursday, adding that “complaints regarding our limited hours of service” should be directed to Elrich and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R). The post drew hundreds of comments, the majority of which were critical of the restaurant.

“Hopefully not reopening ever!” one user wrote. “Since you’re explicitly putting your customers and staff in danger by refusing to wear masks. Horrible mindset in this challenging time.”

[Tami]

Christ on a crutch. At this point, Trump is only a step above wearing a white hood and sheet and calling himself Grand Wizard instead of President.

I get the feeling that the point has been passed when calling someone a racist is treated like a compliment for Trump and his followers. It used to be met with denials and verbal dances around the subject.

[Robotman]

Trump approval rating sinks even among his traditional supporters

I’m sure that Trump pretty much telling seniors that he doesn’t care if they live or die lost him that huge voting block.

Christ on a crutch. At this point, Trump is only a step above wearing a white hood and sheet and calling himself Grand Wizard instead of President.

He’s such a steaming pile of human garbage. He does everything in his power to divide the country and instill hate and fear among his cult members.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump approval rating sinks even among his traditional supporters

I’m sure that Trump pretty much telling seniors that he doesn’t care if they live or die lost him that huge voting block.




He’s such a steaming pile of human garbage. He does everything in his power to divide the country and instill hate and fear among his cult members.

The economy is in the toilet, millions are out of work while 130,000 and counting died from the virus Trump intentionally slow walked in the beginning and now appears to have walked away from. Hate and fear is all he has left to sell to his gullible base.

[godisawesome]

It is a testament to the professionalism of historians that a handful of aristocrats getting executed is labeled the "Terror" but the deaths of millions of innocent civilians in French imperial adventures is not even considered an event worthy of a name.

It didn’t end with just the corrupt royalty. Rest assured, after they ran out of monarchy and shitty rich people to execute, those who claimed in public that they were starting to overdo it and those the Committee even remotely suspected were sympathetic to the late monarchy (which of happened to include those aforementioned “filthy moderates” who felt the bloodshed had gone overboard) were prime candidates for the chopping block as well.

The thing that makes the Terror stand out isn’t so much the number of its victims, particularly those in Paris of the Committee of Public Safety, since it would be easy to argue that the commissioners sent out elsewhere went far beyond what Robespierre and Saint Just personally oversaw, and since it can and should be argued that French imperial and royalist policies had lead to similar death tolls.

It’s the fact that it was effectively a purge that spread beyond actual counter-revolutionaries to include a rather large peritonitis of the repviltionaries themselves, with Robespierre appearing to endorse the idea of simply trying to make even the slightest steps away from “virtue” lead to immediate death sentences, in the hope it would scare every living thing in France into perpetual virtue.

It’s also very much a thing that I don’t think we can really understand unless we were in France at that moment, with all the context around it. One of the reasons it’s hard to teach the French Revolution in America is because in a history full of grey morality, it’s maybe the most grey of them all.

[Tendrin]

If the spring of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the springs of popular government in revolution are at once virtue and terror. Virtue without terror is fatal; terror without virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing other than justice: prompt, severe, inflexible. It is therefore an emanation of virtue… a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country’s most urgent needs.

It has been said that terror is the principle of despotic government. Does your government therefore resemble despotism? Yes, as the sword that gleams in the hands of the heroes of liberty resembles those in the hands of the henchmen of tyranny. Let the despot govern by terror his brutalised subjects; he is right, as a despot. Subdue by terror the enemies of liberty, and you will be right… The government of the revolution is liberty’s despotism against tyranny…

-- Robispierre.

Pwrdon didn't have to show us his whole ass like that.

[Steel Inquisitor]

The thing that makes the Terror stand out isn’t so much the number of its victims, particularly those in Paris of the Committee of Public Safety, since it would be easy to argue that the commissioners sent out elsewhere went far beyond what Robespierre and Saint Just personally oversaw, and since it can and should be argued that French imperial and royalist policies had lead to similar death tolls.

It’s the fact that it was effectively a purge that spread beyond actual counter-revolutionaries to include a rather large peritonitis of the repviltionaries themselves, with Robespierre appearing to endorse the idea of simply trying to make even the slightest steps away from “virtue” lead to immediate death sentences, in the hope it would scare every living thing in France into perpetual virtue.

It’s also very much a thing that I don’t think we can really understand unless we were in France at that moment, with all the context around it. One of the reasons it’s hard to teach the French Revolution in America is because in a history full of grey morality, it’s maybe the most grey of them all.

Agreed, it was a revolution that kept on going and everyone who got power was subject to it. Eventually, this set the conditions for Emperor Napoleon. Everyone forgets that part.

[godisawesome]

I would add that I think the complexity of the French Revolution is very difficult to capture in America/Canadian media, because the instinct is to try and make one side “good” and another side “bad.” Someone like Robespierre was both capable of unleashing the Terror but also very clearly being worthy of his title “The Incorruptible.” The Marquis de Lafayette arguably offers the perfect contrast to the American Revolution because events move so far behind his stance so quickly that he basically became a non-entity in spite of being a major player early on. And Louis and Marie Antoinette aren’t really the worst of the Ancient Regime, but they are clearly never on board with the actual Revolution and are subverting what are ultimately necessary reforms until it’s too late, and their attempt to flee is effectively treason - honestly, their only “safe” play would have been abdication to some other unfortunate to try and navigate the situation, but Louis’s brothers were more belligerent than he was, and he was convinced his cousin, Phillipe “Egality” must be plotting to take their throne, when Phillipe seems to genuinely have been a reformer and revolutionary.

And eventually, enough of the French Republic’s potential Founding Fathers have fallen to their infighting that you get opportunistic, unscrupulous, but competent enough scheming guys like Fouchet, Talleyrand, and Napoleon to shoot into Empire... with Fouchet and Talleyrand both ending up betraying Napoleon twice.

...See, this is why that Assassin’s Creed Unity game disappointed me so much when it just tried to make the Revolution a Templar plot, like the stupid conspiracy theories that the original, pre-Marx right wing used to bray out.

[Tendrin]

I would add that I think the complexity of the French Revolution is very difficult to capture in America/Canadian media, because the instinct is to try and make one side “good” and another side “bad.” Someone like Robespierre was both capable of unleashing the Terror but also very clearly being worthy of his title “The Incorruptible.” The Marquis de Lafayette arguably offers the perfect contrast to the American Revolution because events move so far behind his stance so quickly that he basically became a non-entity in spite of being a major player early on. And Louis and Marie Antoinette aren’t really the worst of the Ancient Regime, but they are clearly never on board with the actual Revolution and are subverting what are ultimately necessary reforms until it’s too late, and their attempt to flee is effectively treason - honestly, their only “safe” play would have been abdication to some other unfortunate to try and navigate the situation, but Louis’s brothers were more belligerent than he was, and he was convinced his cousin, Phillipe “Egality” must be plotting to take their throne, when Phillipe seems to genuinely have been a reformer and revolutionary.

I think that's a little unfair. I think it boils down to reliance on trope as a short-hand versus any real difficulty doing so in media. The revolution isn't really talked about itself at all and is simply used as a way to talk about *some other thing*.

We understood they overthrew their king, hear 'let them eat cake', and think about poor Marie Antoinette because those are the popular images of the revolution. 'The Reign of Terror' is definitely almost never really gone into beyond the most general idea of it like what PwrdOn had in this here thread. 'Oh so they killed a bunch of aristocrats who probably deserved it'.

The sheer chaos surrounding the revolution, with armies marching towards Paris, is harder for us to grasp, I think.