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

[Darkspellmaster]

6 Russian oligarchs have died in alleged suicides since start of 2022
https://globalnews.ca/news/8790242/r...cides-ukraine/

A sudden urge to murder all your family and then commit suicide seems to be the new trend. Hmm.

I've been seeing more of this. It fits in with a lot of the rumors rolling around about Putin apparently scaring the shit out of a lot of high power people.

[The Cool Thatguy]

6 Russian oligarchs have died in alleged suicides since start of 2022
https://globalnews.ca/news/8790242/r...cides-ukraine/

A sudden urge to murder all your family and then commit suicide seems to be the new trend. Hmm.

It's that or holidays with the In-laws

[Iron Maiden]

I've been seeing more of this. It fits in with a lot of the rumors rolling around about Putin apparently scaring the shit out of a lot of high power people.

Putin may end up like Mussolini if he goes off the deep end. I have a strong hunch that he could be assassinated.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

6 Russian oligarchs have died in alleged suicides since start of 2022
https://globalnews.ca/news/8790242/r...cides-ukraine/

A sudden urge to murder all your family and then commit suicide seems to be the new trend. Hmm.

I know, right? Putin knows the military won’t move against him, but oligarchs, losing money because of his war would, so he’s taking them out instead.

[Tendrin]

No foul play. Sure.

A reputed federal informant and whistleblower who went missing after reportedly turning over a trove of secret files about Deutsche Bank was found dead at a Los Angeles school earlier this week, a police official said Wednesday.

The body of Valentin Broeksmit, 46, was found Monday at Woodrow Wilson High School shortly before 7 a.m., Sgt. Rudy Perez of the Los Angeles School Police Department said in an email.

Records with the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner do not list a cause of death. Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Kenneth Cabrera told the Los Angeles Times that authorities do not suspect foul play.

Broeksmit was last seen driving a red Mini Cooper on the afternoon of April 6, 2021, on Riverside Drive and was later reported missing by relatives, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/re...2db4868d64cccb

(Yes, it's eminently possible that there's no foul play, but you can't blame a guy for being at least a little skeptical.)

[WestPhillyPunisher]

CEO: Boeing Should Have Rejected Trump’s Air Force One Deal

Boeing should have rejected then-President Donald Trump’s proposed terms to build two new Air Force One aircraft, the company’s CEO said Wednesday.

Dave Calhoun spoke Wednesday on the company’s quarterly earnings call, just hours after Boeing disclosed that it has lost $660 million transforming two 747 airliners into flying White Houses.

You'd think Boeing would've known better than to have agreed to Trump's terms, especially since there was no guarantee he would've won a second term. My guess? Trump threatened to take his deal to Airbus if Boeing didn't knuckle under. And the rest, as they say, is history.

[Tendrin]

ACAB.

https://www.propublica.org/article/i...witter#1321795

The nearly 30 students summoned to the Tazewell County Courthouse that January morning were not facing criminal charges; they’d received tickets for violating a municipal ordinance while at school. Each was presented with a choice: agree to pay a fine or challenge the ticket at a later hearing. Failing to pay, they were told, could bring adult consequences, from losing their driving privileges to harming their future credit scores.

Across Illinois, police are ticketing thousands of students a year for in-school adolescent behavior once handled only by the principal’s office — for littering, for making loud noises, for using offensive words or gestures, for breaking a soap dish in the bathroom.

Ticketing students violates the intent of an Illinois law that prohibits schools from fining students as a form of discipline. Instead of issuing fines directly, school officials refer students to police, who then ticket them for municipal ordinance violations, an investigation by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica has found. (Use our interactive database to look up how many and what kinds of tickets have been issued in an Illinois public school or district.)

[DanMad1977]

Germany will deliver Gepard Tanks to Ukraine. The problem with these tanks is that they are highly sophisticated and need special trained soldier for it to handle.

German soldiers want to train Ukrainian soldiers for that.

I wonder how that works? Do the German soldiers enter the Ukrainian border to train or do they use Teamviewer, or what?

[Catlady in training]

Germany will deliver Gepard Tanks to Ukraine. The problem with these tanks is that they are highly sophisticated and need special trained soldier for it to handle.

German soldiers want to train Ukrainian soldiers for that.

I wonder how that works? Do the German soldiers enter the Ukrainian border to train or do they use Teamviewer, or what?

I expect it will go like other trainings, for example the recent one in UK, some Ukrainian soldiers will train abroad.

[Catlady in training]

Ukraine war: Russia halts gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61237519

The escalation is real, and justified by the Kremlin on the basis of countries refusing to pay for gas by changing money into roubles in Russian bank accounts.

Everyone is now alert and frantically trying to find alternatives to russian gas as soon as possible. And because EU countries have different levels of dependency on russian gas, it will be a challenge for our unity. Some countries have already expressed villingness to open accounts where payments could be converted into roubles.

I hope we can keep a united stance on this issue, many experts have already pointed out that cutting everyone off would be more devastating to russia than to EU. But seeing how discussions about cutting off russian oil are going (slowly), I don't have high expectations.

[Catlady in training]

Russia deploys trained dolphins at Black Sea naval base
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...*******-crimea

Russia has deployed trained military dolphins at its naval base in the Black Sea – possibly to protect its fleet from an underwater attack – according to new analysis of satellite images.

Please tell me I am not the only one who had no idea that military dolphins were a thing.

[CSTowle]

I think I'd heard something about detecting mines, but that may have been a joke article.

[norj]

Russia deploys trained dolphins at Black Sea naval base
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...*******-crimea



Please tell me I am not the only one who had no idea that military dolphins were a thing.

They also use whales as spies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56956365

[JB]

Ukraine war: Russia halts gas exports to Poland and Bulgaria
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61237519



Everyone is now alert and frantically trying to find alternatives to russian gas as soon as possible. And because EU countries have different levels of dependency on russian gas, it will be a challenge for our unity. Some countries have already expressed villingness to open accounts where payments could be converted into roubles.

I hope we can keep a united stance on this issue, many experts have already pointed out that cutting everyone off would be more devastating to russia than to EU. But seeing how discussions about cutting off russian oil are going (slowly), I don't have high expectations.

According to Bloomberg "four European buyers" have made payments in rubles, though they didn't mention which four. But Austria made a statement yesterday "that deliveries are continuing unrestricted", so I would assume they are one of them.

Four European Gas Buyers Made Ruble Payments to Russia
https://www.yahoo.com/now/four-europ...091649434.html

Ten European companies have already opened the accounts at Gazprombank needed to meet Russia’s payment demands, the person said.

[Dalak]

The only study I can find that uses the '1 in 20' number is this one:

That's 3% for *all* manner of trans and gender non-conforming. Once you break down that supposedly 'alarming' statistic, it comes down to the usual set of numbers. As has been pointed out to Mets *many* times now, there is *no* scientifically proven 'spike' in trans masc children.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/02/05/one-2...ender-7289302/

Thank you for finally linking it. The change to the nature of the question and the inclusion of gender non-conformance explains much. This was pointed out last time.

Here's the actual breakdown.

7C) Which term do you use to describe your gender identity?
Trans/Gender
Cis Men Cis Women Non-conforming Total
Freq. Pct. Freq. Pct. Freq. Pct. Freq. Pct.
1 Woman or female 56.5
2 Man or male 39.4
3 Trans woman 0.2
4 Trans man 0.3
5 Genderqueer 0.5
6 My identity is not listed 0.5
7 Agender 0.3
8 Genderfluid 0.5
9 Non-binary 1.9
10 Intersex 0.0
Valid responses = 12

In other words, once again, the statistics do not bear out the breathless fear of conservatives who want us to protect white womanhood. That's what this is really about, after all.

So both studies seem to show that the 1-in-20 number is a gross exaggeration? Good to know! It also doesn't show a big jump in trans men compared to trans women, so that's good to see as well, even if one is also on UK folks.

I'm looking at issues that parents would deal with sensitively. Those tend to be taboo in many circles. As long as it between consenting adults, what is wrong with sexual deviance?

Kids who identify as LGBT will use "that's gay" as an insult in a winking and ironic matter, so that's still an issue.

With any point about how short a time ago things occurred, we should consider whether the issue is settled, and the implications. What do lawmakers, and candidates who wish to become lawmakers in the midterms, intend to do? That is a question for the voters.

Are you claiming that the number of students using "That's gay" is anywhere near what it was 10 years ago? I'd say that was well on the way to being settled and now I doubt that it will be. As for sexual deviance, bringing it up alongside LGBT isn't kosher as it seems you are conflating the 2 like so many conservatives who do the same with bestiality, pedophilia, and more. Whether anything is OK behind closed doors doesn't enter into it.

As a Republican, I tend to vote against Republicans when they do bad things. I'll go for Democrats when they're decent and the Republican candidate is terrible, as was the case with Biden.

I've been pretty clear that a focus on morality typically comes with the argument that one party is so much better than another than even if you disagree with the first party, you should vote for them. As I said in a response to an earlier post of yours, "One of the arguments is that the GOP is so much worse that it's important for people who disagree with Democrats and the left to support them. Anyone making that argument does insist that Democrats be held to a high standard."

Actually it applies to all politicians, and thus if far more of one side fail the smell test than the other it's not the same even if folks on both sides do fail. It's not about holding one side to a higher standard and letting the other wallow in filth without consequences.

But that's besides the point of finding actual named republicans that you support with your vote and/or donations.

I posted an overview from a source that seems to abide by decent journalistic standards (The Week) and another link.

The question of biased sources is a bit complicated. It seems to me that this is a sensitive topic that the left is less willing to explore, which means they're less likely to engage in some basic factual questions like how many people identify as trans, and whether there are any demographic shifts. As a result, there will be less reports in a way that makes progressives happy, as the people who would publish that work are less likely to touch that topic with a ten foot pole.

This may be something that benefits the likes of JK Rowling and Abigail Shrier. The people liberals think will decimate them in an argument don't want to give them that platform.

Actually it seems that if more people dealt with actual facts about how many identify as Trans we'd have less of an outrage going on right now. People accepting facts as they are parceled out without doing more digging seems to result in that, especially in todays age of deliberate misinformation aka Blatant Lies.

I said that conservatives have a variety of views (as do progressives.) By definition, I cannot advocate for all the views as there will be disagreements. There will be people to my right, and to wherever on the political spectrum the lady who wanted Beloved banned because it traumatized her kid would fall.

And my point was that if we don't do more to strongly distinguish what we actually believe it will be used as support by people that we don't. Bringing forward a stance of others (Most schools are affected by CRT) as something you can agree with as technically correct even when you don't agree that it is genuinely correct makes that harder instead of easier.

That's up to the voters, and I'm okay with that. Granted, you'll still have some conservatives winning who don't believe in evolution, either in red districts, or in good years for the Republican party.

I disagree that it is up to the voters, as someone who's going to cause their beliefs to be forced on others breaks the 1st amendment. Someone who shows they can't abide by the constitution should not be allowed to govern. I know not many agree with me on that, but it's something I believe in as strongly as any lies by those taking government $ should be punished severely enough to make them think before talking about something they aren't sure of.