The Next Election, Political News, and Other Forms of Comedy (US, UK, & Intl)

All those involved need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Trump's failure was not to have the foresight to know that it was all going to go dreadfully wrong with the rally. He did tell everyone to go home in peace and respect the law, for which he was promptly de-platformed for.

I have a subscription to the The Telegraph in the UK, they've had a number of opinion pieces on the events in Washington DC last week. In all the ones I've read they've closed the comments very quickly. The bulk of the comments draw attention to the fact that political violence has been a staple of America these last 10 months and so the feigned outrage is a bit fake, as it's part and parcel of a Banana Republic. That's what the Brit readership think, which clearly isn't to The Telegraph's reality script.

I noted that Pelosi has lost no time in stating that the protestors/rioters/insurrectionists had fallen back on their ''Whiteness''. It's like there's a deliberate plan to create a schism between the races. Why would that be? I don't need an answer, it's already clear.
Some mobs are more equal than other mobs.
 
When terrorists incriminate themselves ...

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I am SO looking forward to more Q-types storming parliamentary buildings around the world, this is going to be great fun and it's such a pretty win-win no matter the outcome 🥰🥰🥰
 
FT has a great article about The Shooman The Shooman

Conspiracy theorists destroy a rational society: resist them We need to rebut propagandist falsehoods before they infect the real world John Thornhill



Buzz Aldrin’s reaction to the conspiracy theorist who told him the moon landings never happened was understandable, if not excusable. The astronaut punched him in the face. Few things in life are more tiresome than engaging with cranks who refuse to accept evidence that disproves their conspiratorial beliefs — even if violence is not the recommended response. It might be easier to dismiss such conspiracy theorists as harmless eccentrics. But while that is tempting, it is in many cases wrong. As we have seen during the Covid-19 pandemic and in the mob assault on the US Congress last week, conspiracy theories can infect the real world — with lethal effect. Our response to the pandemic will be undermined if the anti-vaxxer movement persuades enough people not to take a vaccine. Democracies will not endure if lots of voters refuse to accept certified election results. We need to rebut unproven conspiracy theories. But how? The first thing to acknowledge is that scepticism is a virtue and critical scrutiny is essential. Governments and corporations do conspire to do bad things. The powerful must be effectively held to account. The US-led war against Iraq in 2003, to destroy weapons of mass destruction that never existed, is a prime example. The second is to re-emphasise the importance of experts, while accepting there is sometimes a spectrum of expert opinion. Societies have to base decisions on experts’ views in many fields, such as medicine and climate change, otherwise there is no point in having a debate. Dismissing the views of experts, as Michael Gove famously did during the Brexit referendum campaign, is to erode the foundations of a rational society. No sane passenger would board an aeroplane flown by an unqualified pilot. In extreme cases, societies may well decide that conspiracy theories are so harmful that they must suppress them. In Germany, for example, Holocaust denial is a crime. Social media platforms that do not delete such content within 24 hours of it being flagged are fined. In Sweden, the government is even establishing a national psychological defence agency to combat disinformation. A study published this week by the Oxford Internet Institute found “computational propaganda” is now being spread in 81 countries. Viewing conspiracy theories as political propaganda is the most useful way to understand them, according to Quassim Cassam, a philosophy professor at Warwick university who has written a book on the subject. In his view, many conspiracy theories support an implicit or explicit ideological goal: opposition to gun control, anti-Semitism or hostility to the federal government, for example. What matters to the conspiracy theorists is not whether their theories are true, but whether they are seductive. So, as with propaganda, conspiracy theories must be as relentlessly opposed as they are propagated. That poses a particular problem when someone as powerful as the US president is the one shouting the theories. Amid huge controversy, Twitter and Facebook have suspended Donald Trump’s accounts. But Prof Cassam says: “Trump is a mega disinformation factory. You can de-platform him and address the supply side. But you still need to address the demand side.” On that front, schools and universities should do more to help students discriminate fact from fiction. Behavioural scientists say it is more effective to “pre-bunk” a conspiracy theory — by enabling people to dismiss it immediately — than debunk it later. But debunking serves a purpose, too. As of 2019, there were 188 fact-checking sites in more than 60 countries. Their ability to inject facts into any debate can help sway those who are curious about conspiracy theories, even if they cannot convince true believers. Under intense public pressure, social media platforms are also increasingly filtering out harmful content and nudging users towards credible sources of information, such as medical bodies’ advice on Covid. Some activists have even argued for “cognitive infiltration” of extremist groups, suggesting that government agents should intervene in online chat rooms to puncture conspiracy theories. That may work in China but is only likely to backfire in western democracies, igniting an explosion of new conspiracy theories. Ultimately, we cannot reason people out of beliefs that they have not reasoned themselves into. But we can, and should, punish those who profit from harmful irrationality. There is a tried-and-tested method of countering politicians who peddle and exploit conspiracy theories: vote them out of office.
 
This was a scandal and half this one, when you factor in the costs of child care:


Good riddance!
 
This was a scandal and half this one, when you factor in the costs of child care:


Good riddance!

"Parents were branded fraudsters over minor errors such as missing signatures on paperwork, and erroneously forced to pay back tens of thousands of euros given by the government to offset the cost of childcare, with no means of redress. They were, as one junior minister who resigned in connection with the scandal put it, 'steamrolled' by the system."

And here I thought the Dutch were friendly people

 
"Parents were branded fraudsters over minor errors such as missing signatures on paperwork, and erroneously forced to pay back tens of thousands of euros given by the government to offset the cost of childcare, with no means of redress. They were, as one junior minister who resigned in connection with the scandal put it, 'steamrolled' by the system."

And here I thought the Dutch were friendly people


The childcare here is double expensive, so a lot of those families will have been utterly devastated financially. When my wife started back working, even with the government contribution to childcare, she ended up working full-time for €400 a month after you took the cost of the child care out.

From the news reports and interviews on television it does appear that ethnic minorities were targeted. It seems likely to me, as your average native Dutch has distinct legal/lawyer insurance and they'd mobilize a lawyer from the get go.
 
The childcare here is double expensive, so a lot of those families will have been utterly devastated financially. When my wife started back working, even with the government contribution to childcare, she ended up working full-time for €400 a month after you took the cost of the child care out.

From the news reports and interviews on television it does appear that ethnic minorities were targeted. It seems likely to me, as your average native Dutch has distinct legal/lawyer insurance and they'd mobilize a lawyer from the get go.

Dutch people are racist?
 
The Dutch need to sell some more weed and flowers.
They certainly buy and sell weed and flowers. One of the wife's friends works for one of the flower green houses and the turnover weekly is unbelievable. Millions a week and that's just one place.
Dutch people are racist?
The Dutch in general are not racist. The bureaucratic system here is quite elaborate and applying for things can be overly complex yet efficient. Also very rigid and not good dealing with non-standard cases. Not like Italy, but more complex than the UK.

With our first was born, I went to the local council officer to register their name. Well, you're meant to do this before the birth, not on the day, so they wouldn't register the name. I had to get the wife to come and the mid-wife helped and then they got suspicious about my passport and for years afterward I kept on getting letters advising I needed to get my passport notarized by a UK lawyer as they doubted its veracity. I just ignored them and eventually the letters stopped. So for the next kid who came along, I made sure we registered the birth well in advance and it was a 30 second visit, no issues.

In the case of the child care payment scandal, the department appears to have been over zealous and then at one moment gone full Kafka deciding to reclaim benefits and targeted those who were unlikely to be able to navigate the system.
 
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They certainly buy and sell weed and flowers. One of the wife's friends works for one of the flower green houses and the turnover weekly is unbelievable. Millions a week and that's just one place.

The Dutch in general are not racist. The bureaucratic system here is quite elaborate and applying for things can be overly complex yet efficient. Also very rigid and not good dealing with non-standard cases. Not like Italy, but more complex than the UK.

With our first was born, I went to the local council officer to register their name. Well, you're meant to do this before the birth, not on the day, so they wouldn't register the name. I had to get the wife to come and the mid-wife helped and then they got suspicious about my passport and for years afterward I kept on getting letters advising I needed to get my passport notarized by a UK lawyer as they doubted its veracity. I just ignored them and eventually the letters stopped. So for the next kid who came along, I made sure we registered the birth well in advance and it was a 30 second visit, no issues.

In the case of the child care payment scandal, the department appears to have been over zealous and then at one moment gone full Kafka deciding to reclaim benefits and targeted those who were unlikely to be able to navigate the system.
Never. Go. Full. Kafka...



















Ever...!!!!
 
In an ominous note, the FBI added that “W-1 further stated that members of this group, which included ‘Spaz,’ said that they would have killed [Vice President] Mike Pence if given the chance.”

 

Highly doubt any country has the focus or will to assist someone they formerly awarded the peace prize given all the stories of her turning a blind eye towards the treatment of Muslims.
 

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