All purpose news and politics thread part VII: News & Politics Total Landscaping

[zinderel]

Conservatism over democracy.

Racism and cruelty go hand in hand with religious extremism. Speaker Johnson is not a conservative. He is an extremist, no better than an American mullah, trying to turn the US into Iran in the early 80’s. And he thinks we can’t see it.

[aja_christopher]

Racism and cruelty go hand in hand with religious extremism. Speaker Johnson is not a conservative. He is an extremist, no better than an American mullah, trying to turn the US into Iran in the early 80’s. And he thinks we can’t see it.

A conservative extremist — one who should be “called out” for his duplicitous behavior, regardless.

[Tendrin]

The former FBI informant charged with lying about the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine told investigators after his arrest that Russian intelligence officials were involved in passing information to him about Hunter Biden, prosecutors said Tuesday in a new court filing, noting that the information was false.

Prosecutors also said Alexander Smirnov has been “actively peddling new lies that could impact US elections” after meeting with Russian spies late last year and that the fallout from his previous false bribery accusations about the Bidens “continue[s] to be felt to this day.”

Smirnov claims to have “extensive and extremely recent” contacts with foreign intelligence officials, prosecutors said in the filing. They said he previously told the FBI that he has longstanding and extensive contacts with Russian spies, including individuals he said were high-level intelligence officers or command Russian assassins abroad.

Oh boy.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/indicted-...225950527.html

[Tendrin]

https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMorn/st...34285527318688

A thread on the death of Nex and Chaya Raichik. Worth reading.

[Deathstroke]

This is dangerous

Alabama supreme court rules frozen embryos are ‘children’

Just when you think Alabama can't get any deeper into the depths of a horror show that would make Stephen King shudder.

[Deathstroke]

Honestly, the Bible barely cares about children who have been born, but not reached adulthood yet.

I'll be so glad when people wake up and realize that the bible is nothing more than the best selling work of fiction ever.

[Deathstroke]

I’m sure Loving v. Virginia is in the crosshairs as well. After all, no mixing the races, that’s bad.

That criminal f*ck Thomas is going to be so screwed when that happens.

[AnakinFlair]

If people hate Jews because of what’s going on, they always hated Jews. It might reveal anti-Semitism, but it didn’t create it.

That's true, but Israel's actions are causing anti-Semitism to explode into the light of day.

Russia arrests US dual national over alleged $51 Ukrainian charity donation

At this point, it really needs to be American policy that if you are an American citizen, and you're too f*ing stupid to get the hell out of Russia, then the consequences of that should rest solely on your shoulders.

My Zoomer nephew was telling me the other day that apparently, a lot of people his age think Tucker is hot.

And I just stared at him for a minute, and asked if he understood now why people tend to disregard the opinions of people his age..

And now I just threw up in my mouth a little.

That criminal f*ck Thomas is going to be so screwed when that happens.

Are you kidding? He'll write the decision, but will be sure to include a special exception just for himself. Or maybe Ginny will pull a Rachel Dolezal and claim that she's actually Black.

[tv horror]

Racism and cruelty go hand in hand with religious extremism. Speaker Johnson is not a conservative. He is an extremist, no better than an American mullah, trying to turn the US into Iran in the early 80’s. And he thinks we can’t see it.

Someone get on the phone right away to Ron De Santos, "Tell him that Disney have finally cloned Mickey Mouse in human form!" What next Boebert as Minnie and Green as Goofy?

[Mutant X]

My two cents as someone from outside the USA and not involved in American politics.

It looks like the United States has been undermined from the inside.

It's crazy to watch conservatives who were supposed to be patriots and defenders of the institutions following a ruffian acting in favor of the Russian megalomaniac.

Or the liberals that should care about civil rights and minority protection spreading so much hate and antisemitism.

This scenario leads us all to a less democratic, cooperative, and free world and is very sad.

[Tami]

My two cents as someone from outside the USA and not involved in American politics.

It looks like the United States has been undermined from the inside.

It's crazy to watch conservatives who were supposed to be patriots and defenders of the institutions following a ruffian acting in favor of the Russian megalomaniac.

Or the liberals that should care about civil rights and minority protection spreading so much hate and antisemitism.

This scenario leads us all to a less democratic, cooperative, and free world and is very sad.

I would have to disagree about your assessment of Liberals. Democrats don't spread hate and antisemitism, that is what the Republicans are doing now. Democrats in the US, for the most part since we will never be a hive mind or a monolithic group and are instead still a group of independent thinkers, still believe in Democracy for all, civil rights for all, regardless of background, race, ethnicity, religion, etc.

Don't make a judgment based on what is going going on in the Middle East, as that is a very complex situation.

[Deathstroke]

Are you kidding? He'll write the decision, but will be sure to include a special exception just for himself. Or maybe Ginny will pull a Rachel Dolezal and claim that she's actually Black.

I hope that doesn't mean she'll be doing an Onlyfans page...LOL!

[Agent Z]

A 'Christian' family moved to Russia to escape 'LGBTQ, trans,' but now they're 'ready' to 'get out'.

The patriarch of a right-wing Canadian family of 11 had had just about enough of gay people in his country. “We didn't feel safe for our children there in the future anymore,” father Arend Feenstra told Russian media. “There's a lot of left-wing ideology, LGBTQ, trans, just a lot of things that we don't agree with that they teach there now, and we wanted to get away from that for our children.”

Yeah, if there’s one place that’s just not safe for kids, it’s Canada. Russia would be soooo much safer.

First, according to the family, the Russian bank where they moved the proceeds from selling their farm and belongings? It immediately froze their assets. The amount of money seemed suspicious, Arend states in a Feb. 9 video. I guess it would, since so many Russians outside of Putin’s circle are dirt poor. As a result, the family didn’t have money to live on—apparently those nice Russian officials offering to help them had disappeared.

Since no one in the family speaks Russian, they’ve also had a bear of a time trying to argue for their money—because Russia doesn’t require any bank, or any business, to hire English translators. In the meantime, they discovered that Russia is a pretty damn miserable place to be right now.

So Arend (and wife Anneesa) sold everything they had to move to sunny Russia and raise eight of their nine kids with “orthodox” values. They also gladly took donations on their social media platform from fellow right-wingers, all so they could live in Vladimir Putin’s wonderland. Russian officials assured them that they would work with them to get them established, and even help them get a farm. They did all of this just three weeks ago; long story short, they lived happily ever after.

Except they didn’t.

The Russian reporter noted that Anneesa spoke her mind in a since-deleted video on the family’s “Countryside Acres” YouTube channel.

"I'm very disappointed in this country at this point. I'm ready to jump on a plane and get out of here. We've hit the first snag where you have to engage logic in this country and it's very, very frustrating."

Hoooo boy. They just arrived and already she’s insulted Russia. Now, I’m not saying Russia doesn’t have freedom of the press, but it’s really just freedom to praise Putin and the country he controls. Anything that resembles criticism in Russia is NOT taken as kindly as it is in our godless Western dystopias. I’m also not suggesting that Russian officials paid the family a visit to remind them of where they are, but I will point out that Arend quickly posted an apology video to the Countryside Acres channel, saying that his wife misspoke and they’d deleted the video.

[4saken1]

It's crazy to watch conservatives who were supposed to be patriots and defenders of the institutions following a ruffian acting in favor of the Russian megalomaniac.

Or the liberals that should care about civil rights and minority protection spreading so much hate and antisemitism.

I understand where you are coming from with this post, but it is a little bit of a false equivalency. With the right, extremism has become the norm. The antisemitism that you see on the left is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, it has been made clear that there is some of it on the fringes, but then there has also been the assumption by many that ANY criticism of Israel is antisemitic. It might help to look at it from the perspective that their position on the topic is actually in line with their stated values - they care about the civil rights of Palestinians and want to protect that minority and are angry about how they have been treated by their oppressors (not to be conflated with condoning any actions by HAMAS).

I do, however, agree that there is a huge rift in this country. It's often hard to see where a middle ground can be found. At what point do people with such disparate views realize that they don't have enough in common to remain a united country?

[Tuck]

I'll be so glad when people wake up and realize that the bible is nothing more than the best selling work of fiction ever.

The problem is True Believers. One doesn't need religion for that. Just have to believe in one's own righteousness and the infallibility of one's belief.