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

[CaptainEurope]

The world is facing cataclysmic over population. The 10% of the population that is Gay doesn't have to do anything they don't want to. What a Maroon.

What Elon really means is: White, affluent gays and lesbians need to make babies.

[CaptainEurope]

Moscow concert attack live updates: Dozens reported dead after shooting

ISIS-K has claimed responsibility.

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. has intelligence confirming Islamic State's claim of responsibility for a deadly shooting attack at a concert near Moscow on Friday, a U.S. official told Reuters.
Here is information about the Islamic State's Afghan branch known as ISIS-K and their motives for attacking Russia:
WHAT IS ISIS-K?
Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), named after an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.

Earlier this year, the U.S. intercepted communications confirming the group carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people.
In September 2022, ISIS-K militants claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul.
The group was responsible for an attack on Kabul's international airport in 2021 that killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of civilians during the chaotic U.S. evacuation from the country.

[CaptainEurope]

Talk about plot twists

I was expecting that, because it reminded me of the Paris attacks and a former Moscow theater attack. People on ELon's Xitter were very quick to blame Ukraine, of course.

[CaptainEurope]

Your government is funded, albeit a bit after the midnight deadline
Senate vote: 74-24
60 yeas were necessary.

[Zelena]

Americans worship of wealth and the wealthy class can also be linked to the country’s Protestant/Calvinist roots. Calvinists view wealth as an outcome of great faith in god. It’s a simplification but if you’re wealthy it’s because god is rewarding you for being a good Christian. Basically the ultimate capitalist scam.

I was born in a Catholic family. I am not practising but I remember little things about Gospel: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy miser to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Maybe the idea is that once you are wealthy, you can give to the others…

[Robotman]

I was born in a Catholic family. I am not practising but I remember little things about Gospel: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy miser to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Maybe the idea is that once you are wealthy, you can give to the others…

The vast vast majority of wealthy Christians don’t seem to interpret it that way.

The belief seems to be “Money and the wealthy class are good and if you’re poor it means you aren’t working hard enough and you aren’t a good Christian.”

[Tendrin]

60 yeas were necessary.

Let's remember that 60 yeas were only necessary because the GOP has made it so.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Your government is funded, albeit a bit after the midnight deadline
Senate vote: 74-24
60 yeas were necessary.

As a government worker myself, this pleases me considerably.

[zinderel]

I was born in a Catholic family. I am not practising but I remember little things about Gospel: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy miser to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Maybe the idea is that once you are wealthy, you can give to the others…

In a lot of churches (like the one I grew up in), the very clear message about how the greedy accumulation of wealth makes it nearly impossible to get into heaven (due to the way great wealth separates you from your inherent humanity and capacity for empathy and compassion for those WITHOUT great wealth) has been twisted. I remember I was in high school when the message changed at my church. No longer did it mean that the wealthy won’t be going to heaven. No, NOW it meant that there was a LITERAL gate into Jerusalem, see, that people called ‘the eye of the needle’ because it was so narrow that you had to unload your camel to get it through. It was difficult, but possible to a camel through ‘the eye of the needle’ in THAT context, so being rich is totally cool with Jesus, y’all! Praise the Lord, and pass the tithe baskets!

Never mind that this is abject nonsense that anyone with half a brain can tell was invented to justify the canonization of Greed as a virtue.

Sloth has already been canonized when the social work turned into missionary work, exclusively.

The way Wrath was canonized when ‘hating queers’ became a Christian virtue.

The way Lust has been canonized by bigamists and ‘purity balls’ and countless pastors and priests and rabbis and imams molesting children placed in their care.

Or Pride, canonized by megachurch pastors with their shiny veneers and suits that cost more than most of their parishioners/congregants make in a year, and the ‘my religious freedom says I don’t have to do my job and serve the public if ‘the public’ is someone my religion lets me look down on!’ mindset.

[Malvolio]

Another billionaire bigot rears his head. Good lord, they already "have more money than God" and they still want to whine. Morons:
https://tinyurl.com/y97um2et

He doesn't have to have anything and he doesn't need any kind of movie. No one is forcing him to watch any of these movies. But they are doing well at the box office, so obviously a lot of people DO want to see them. So I would advise this guy to just, you know, shut his damn piehole!

[Zelena]

Never mind that this is abject nonsense that anyone with half a brain can tell was invented to justify the canonization of Greed as a virtue.
.

I suppose Jesus could have said “it will freeze in hell before…” and there would have been no talk about the size of a gate…

[Mister Mets]

Americans worship of wealth and the wealthy class can also be linked to the country’s Protestant/Calvinist roots. Calvinists view wealth as an outcome of great faith in god. It’s a simplification but if you’re wealthy it’s because god is rewarding you for being a good Christian. Basically the ultimate capitalist scam.

There have to be some good Christians among the Saudi Royal Family then.

[Tami]

There have to be some good Christians among the Saudi Royal Family then.

Is that a touch of sarcasm in there? Yes? No?

The three Abrahamic religions each have their own relationships with wealth and power. Historically the Jewish religion have always been the ones blamed as having the most wealth and the most power, which the other two branches treated as threats. So now it is the other two branches turn to have an unhealthy relationship with wealth and power.

As I have said to anyone who asks or doesn't, Religion is the Plow, Religion is the Sword. It can be used for good, it can be used for not-so-good. The Three Abrahamic religions are old enough to have had plenty of time to become widespread, influential, and powerful. That is the key, the amount of power and influence they have and how those who practice these religions choose to use them.

[Deathstroke]

Crotch Crickets Wrangler

Nope but that is funny.

[Mister Mets]

Is that a touch of sarcasm in there? Yes? No?

The three Abrahamic religions each have their own relationships with wealth and power. Historically the Jewish religion have always been the ones blamed as having the most wealth and the most power, which the other two branches treated as threats. So now it is the other two branches turn to have an unhealthy relationship with wealth and power.

As I have said to anyone who asks or doesn't, Religion is the Plow, Religion is the Sword. It can be used for good, it can be used for not-so-good. The Three Abrahamic religions are old enough to have had plenty of time to become widespread, influential, and powerful. That is the key, the amount of power and influence they have and how those who practice these religions choose to use them.

An irony is that Jewish people are blamed for having wealth and power because Christians felt they couldn't work with loans and interest, even if these are useful things that on net make the world better.

I don't like stupid religious arguments that are based on obviously bullshit magical thinking. The idea that good things consistently happen to good people is disproven by millennia of suffering. And it would also imply that Christ deserved to suffer, which seems more like a Satanic argument.

This gets to a different tangent, but I wonder how successfully a Satanist church would be if it materially improved the lives of its congregants.

ISIS-K has claimed responsibility.

One point was that this is despite all that Russia does to suppress dissent and surveil the citizens.

Just saw THIS gem:

Attachment 138428

He wants his gay ‘friends’ - who he supports the erasure of, and calls a threat to the future of childhood innocence, and who he provides a platform for (and retweets of) the very worst of humanity to demonize and threaten and call for violence against - to ‘have children for the continuance of civilization’. I’m quite certain we all know exactly what color of civilization he wants.

But I wonder how much the population drop has to do with the things we’re all constantly talking about? Things that (white) right wingers who whine about (white) population decline ignore or deny or mock?

Things like:

- Every reputable, scientific reckoning shows that the planet is on fire, and it’s only getting worse, because no one with money or power takes it seriously. Why would I bring kids into a world on the brink of catastrophe? Why would I want to raise children in a world devastated by ecological disaster, all so that a few greedy men can squeeze every last drop of money out of the earth at any cost?

- Most people are struggling to afford the cost of living alone. In what universe can we seriously expect people to face that struggle AND expect them to take on the costs that come with raising a child? ESPECIALLY in a nation that has proven again and again that it only cares about ‘children’ until they’re born?

- Since fewer women are forced to settle for, or stay with, shitty men? Since abortion (used to be) safe and legal in every state? We have fewer unwanted babies driving up the population density. But more importantly, wealthy (white) men like Elon Musk care about ‘population’ density because a lower number of unwanted babies means less desperate parents. Means there has been a drop in cheap, renewable labor. Means the military has less unwanted young men to throw into the meat grinder of the military industrial ‘profit through human sacrifice’ business model. And that simply won’t do!

As for the so-called ‘male loneliness epidemic’ that Musk and the manosphere are also obsessed with, and it’s role in population decline? That is a DIRECT result of technology and progress providing women with information and options. Women are choosing to disengage from shitty men. Non-toxic men are disengaging from toxic men. And toxic men are lonely. And toxic masculinity has had a splash effect on non-toxic men.

How do I know this? Look at the personalities of the men who whine about their ‘loneliness’ rather than going out and DOING something about it? I was lonely. I had a long battle with depression that nearly wrecked me, years ago, and it made me lash out at people who tried to help, and it drove people away from me. But eventually, I got TIRED of being so bitter and alone, so after getting a diagnosis and therapy and medication, and with the encouragement of the few friends and family I had left, I decided to stop wallowing and TRY to put myself out there. I don’t drink much, but I went with a friend to her favorite dive bar ‘just to see how good people can be’. I was almost immediately adopted into a new circle of friends. And now, nearly ten years later, I still don’t drink. And I am not lonely. I have a partner. I have support network. I have family and friends. Because I chose to face my problems and deal with them.

I GET what it’s like to battle with depression and feel isolated. I understand what it’s like to have a close, personal relationship with the Everything Bagel. But I also understand that to get OUT of those mindsets and situations, you have to make a CHOICE to do so. And it’s not easy, and it’ll hurt, and you’ll have to swallow some bitter pills. But if you do the work, there IS light at the end of the tunnel. Despair is an old friend that still visits me from time to time, but I don’t have to face it alone, and it doesn’t have to win.

Wallowing in the manosphere and diving deeper into Alpha/Beta/Sigma male nonsense drives people away. Being a racist drives people away. Being a misogynist drives people away. Poor personal hygiene drives people away. These choices make it less and less likely as time goes on that a man like that will ever find love or have kids.

Nor should they.

They are abhorrent, toxic people no one in their right minds would WANT to be friends with/have sex with/raise children with. We USED to have to make room for abusive, toxic men. We learned we don’t have to. And those men (like Musk and…MOST of the GOP, it seems…) are FREAKING OUT about it.

Want populations to rise? Making abortion illegal and erasing queer folx and stifling creativity and regulating joy and restricting access to information won’t do it.

Not being awful to the people around you?

Addressing the ecological destruction of the planet - and the onrushing and growing disasters that come with it - and our role in it?

Working together to make the act of ‘being alive’ less of an exhausting, exorbitantly over-costed venture with a rapidly approaching expiration date?

That might help people see a point in having kids again.

Elon Musk is weird in pushing everyone to have kids, but antinatalism is also bad.

There is a problem in the Western world that women aren't having the number of kids they want to have.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/u...omen-want.html

This is still a better time to be alive than any other time, and the problems of the future are manageable just as we've got past the problems of the past (Wars, black plague, potato famine, etc.)

Capitol Storming Barbie will do anything to stay relevant when we all know she's just a CCW (very derogatory term that would probably get me suspended).

Concealed carry weapon? I'm guessing one of the c-words can be mis-spelled as aunt.