This Is Fine

It has been interesting to watch the discourse shift from "labour has antisemitic members and the leader isn't taking it seriously enough unlike the leader of the conservative party" to "Jeremy Corbyn is personally a blatant antisemite"

Private Pansy

@murgatroid99 Thanos creator labels Donald Trump a 'pompous fool' after Avengers tweet

Stormblessed

@Unionhawk ok maybe he's not but I really don't like him

Private Pansy

The thing I still can't get over is the fact that they put his face on the villain of the movies, as if that should be celebrated, and moments before he was thwarted

Stormblessed

@PrivatePansy "my Enemies are like Spider-Man (LOSER!), so I'm Very Cool"

Unionhawk

12:35 AM

We (as in the Libertarian Socialist Caucus of DSA) are in contact with some Labour libsocs with some american healthcare stories for Momentum to hopefully promote

murgatroid99

@PrivatePansy And the tweet is still up. Why?

Triggering the liberals by implying that the President would literally murder them

Private Pansy

@murgatroid99 I'm not even mad, I'm just confused

How did nobody look at this and think are we the baddies

murgatroid99

Being the actual bad guys on purpose to trigger the liberals

Yuuki

1:28 AM

Plus, the clip that's Photoshopped isn't the one where Thanos wins.

Honestly, I thought it was made as a satire/parody that Trump didn't recognize and retweeted blindly.

murgatroid99

1:40 AM

The part with the Democrats disappearing doesn't really look satirical though

Memor-X

2:39 AM

@PrivatePansy the same villain responsible for genocide, the kind of genocide where he would go to a place, split people into 2 group and kill one by firing squad

but also if they are making Trump as Thanos killing Democrats, well got to love the hypocrisy when you glorify what you already called fowl for because if i recall there was a stage performance showing someone who looked like Trump get assassinated which Trump supported called out

(not counting that Kathy Griffin photo, that was just stupid)

Tim Stone

12:52 PM

Russia's aircraft carrier is on fire and who is to say if it's an emergency or just its normal diesel-based mode of operation

Elva

Wait wait wait

There's a COAL BASED aircraft carrier o.o

Tim Stone

1:20 PM

@Elva Sorry, I meant diesel

Elva

I would not have thought coal has ... the energy density, both in volume, mass or the speed at which you can extract it

Tim Stone

Mazut

Mazut is a heavy, low quality fuel oil, used in power plants and similar applications. In the United States and Western Europe, mazut is blended or broken down, with the end product being diesel. Mazut may be used for heating houses in the former USSR and in countries of the Far East that do not have the facilities to blend or break it down into more conventional petro-chemicals. In the West, furnaces that burn mazut are commonly called "waste oil" heaters or "waste oil" furnaces. Mazut-100 is a fuel oil that is manufactured to GOST specifications, for example GOST 10585-75 (not active) or GOST...

Elva

Ooooh... That makes sense!

Tim Stone

Yeah, I haven't had coffee yet 🤦🏼‍♂️

Elva

Hehe

Tim Stone

1:30 PM

I mean it's kind of amazing it runs on Mazut but also it's followed by that team of tugboats so I guess technically it barely does

Unionhawk

1:45 PM

Tom, Mike, the Ohio primary is 3 whole months from now please do anything else with your money than buy TV campaign ads

buy a boat for all I care just do literally anything else

Tim Stone

> President Trump has posted 66 (!) tweets or retweets already this morning. It is not even 9 a.m. DC time

Oh good I'm sure today will be totally Normal and Good then

My understanding is that one of the tweets is him telling Greta Thunberg to essentially smile more? So yeah, just

And that, very cool

> Sinclair drops Boris Epshteyn and other political analysts. Sinclair, which owns 193 stations in the US, said it wants to focus on local news and investigative journalism

That is…a turn? This is the guy who does all those insane "must-run" segments they forced on local stations

Memor-X

@TimStone huh, was more expecting him to either complain about it or say "weclome to the club" as he doubles down on his fake cover

Tim Stone

2:01 PM

@TimStone Incidentally they didn't fire him but moved him to sales, which honestly is its own kind of hell so I'm torn

Frank

3:10 PM

@TimStone Is it just me, or do you read that in a southern old-timey accent?

GnomeSlice

3:42 PM

University of Phoenix to cancel $141M in student debt

MBraedley

> For profit University of Phoenix agrees to cancel $141M in student debt in deceptive advertising settlement.

FTFY

Yuuki

> “Greta has not responded directly to the tweet - but has changed the description of herself on her Twitter profile to "A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend."”

Frank

@MBraedley I went from, "aww, that's nice", to, "...okay, they're idiots."

MBraedley

@Frank Same

Yuuki

Yeah, any headline with "University of Phoenix" needs to clarify that University of Phoenix is a for-profit college.

Optionally mention that it is the largest receiver of GI Bill tuition and largest for-profit receiver of Pell Grant funding while maintaining an online graduation rate of 5%.

BradC

4:11 PM

This is both, entirely unsurprising, and yet shocking that we have it documented, all at the same time:

Report: Trump’s Ukraine Extortion Scheme Was Financed by Russia

> Meanwhile, federal prosecutors charged yesterday evening that Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump who represented him in Ukraine, was wired $1 million from a Russian bank account weeks before his arrest. Which is to say, Trump’s Ukraine plot appears to have been financed by Russia.

Frank

@BradC Fake news! It's all part of the deep state to get me out of power! It's not me, it's the corrupt politicians!

BradC

@Frank That seems to be the only remaining tactic. Which has been... disturbingly effective in its brazenness.

"Just lie, they'll believe you"

Frank

@BradC Kicking up a fog of uncertainty gives supporters enough confidence that they're doing the right thing.

MBraedley

@BradC Because of course it was

Frank

It's harder to admit you might have been wrong than, "It could just be bad guys, not me!"

BradC

4:24 PM

@Frank I'm not so much surprised by Trump's actions... as by the willingness of pretty much 99% of GOP politicians (and 40% of the rest of the country) to go along with its obvious falsity

Actually, more like 100%. Because if you are the 1% that speaks up, and tells the obvious truth, they kick you out of the GOP. So the only ones left are those willing to bow to the "Trump can do no wrong" party line

Frank

@BradC His base believes in him. Conspiracy theories where they're not the problem are far more palatable than the message that you have to change.

BradC

@Frank His public base might; but I don't actually think that (most) GOP leaders do. I think they're being politically expedient but honestly disingenuous. And I can only hope it will come back to haunt them all

Frank

@BradC His public base gives the GOP leaders the cover they need to justify supporting him.

If enough of his base deserted him, supporting him would be a career ender.

Wipqozn

4:48 PM

Andrew Scheer stepping down as Conservative Party leader
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/andrew-scheer-stepping-down-as-conservative-party-leader-1.5393803

user15026

6:31 PM

@Wipqozn "Sources told the National Post that the resignation was prompted by the revelation that Scheer was using money from the Conservative Party to pay for his children’s private school tuition, which was first reported Thursday morning by Global News." (from here: nationalpost.com/news/…)

user15026

Well, I'm not exactly sad to see him go, curious who he will get replaced with.

Frank

@Ash ...why is it that people in power always think they can get away with things like that?

user15026

Because they think power puts them above notice. It's very silly.

Frank

As always, those that want the power are the last people that should actually get it.

user15026

Yes, but forcing people who don't want it into positions of power isn't a super great plan either :/

Yuuki

6:44 PM

i dun wan eet

Frank

Also a good point.

Yuuki

ah neva aff

Wipqozn

@Yuuki for Supreme Forever Emperor

Frank

Maybe oversight committees just need actual teeth to enforce consequences for unethical behaviour.

user15026

That would be nice

Yuuki

6:46 PM

@Wipqozn Nah, it makes far more sense for me to go off and join an army that's been rendered purposeless by the battle we just had and let my apathetic adoptive brother who may or may not have engineered this entire thing to get power become king.

Wipqozn

@Yuuki Makes sense to me.

user15026

I am obviously missing a reference.

Yuuki

@Frank As always, there are caveats. There are the few people who want to make good change and recognize that they need power to do effect said change. They are few and far in between but enough that "people who want power should never get power" isn't a hard-and-fast rule.

@Ash Game of Thrones.

user15026

Ah, okay.

Frank

@Yuuki Yeah, it wasn't quite thought out.

I think a good compromise is ensuring there are watchdogs who only have the power to enforce consequences against them.

But, then, who watches the watchers?

Yuuki

6:50 PM

@Frank Judging by the viewer ratings on the new series, a lot of people.

Frank

Can't have the politicians themselves having the ability to threaten their watchdogs.

I feel like a rock/paper/scissors option is the way to go.

Tim Stone

7:16 PM

@Ash lol, amazing how easy it is to just not do these things and yet!

Wipqozn

I wonder who will win the Uk election...

I'm assuming whatever the worst result is the one we'll get, since Eternal 2016, but who knows!

Tim Stone

@Ronan 2019

Wipqozn

"In a surprise victory, there's a four way tie between Boris Johnson, Doug Ford, Jason of Alberta, and Donald Trump"

Frank

@Wipqozn That's an awful lot of write-ins.

user15026

7:34 PM

@TimStone I know, right

Wipqozn

Quebec Appeals Court won't suspend province's religious symbols ban
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-bill-21-secularism-court-religious-symbols-appeals-1.5394084

Tim Stone

> Alexis Stern had just turned 18 when she got a call from the police. Someone had paid $5000 to hire a hitman to kill her on the darknet. She's lived in fear ever since—and she's not alone. In my cover story for @Harpers, I look at the tragic, sordid world of online murder markets

Private Pansy

@TimStone That seems awfully cheap for a life

Tim Stone

It did not work out for that person who outsouced the outsourced outsourced outsourced assassination, it's true

Yuuki

@TimStone This Bell person sounds like a real stand-up guy.

Tim Stone

7:50 PM

Yeah, I don't even know what to do with that

Yuuki

> In May of that year, another hacker, bRspd, broke into Yura’s operation and dumped these early messages online, and the FBI looked into the handful of identifiable targets found there. They visited the Allwines’ home and informed them that someone had ordered a hit on Amy. The agents suggested the Allwines beef up security, and then they left. Amy and Stephen installed a home security system and bought a gun. Six months later, Stephen shot Amy in the head with it.
> Stephen Allwine was dogdaygod

:\

> During the back-and-forth on one recent order, the user Happynewyear asked Yura if he could send hit men to Hawaii. “Yes,” Yura responded, “we have someone in a nearby state. He can drive to the location with a stolen car and do the job with no problems.” Overlooking the fact that the nearest state is 2,500 miles and a considerable swath of the Pacific Ocean away, the user paid him around three thousand dollars.

:/

how does someone like this have three thousand dollars to spend on an assassination

Tim Stone

I mean how does anyone who thinks assassination is the answer to this stuff have the money? Heh

Like that Stephen guy just didn't want to get divorced because he was an IT professional and elder in a church?

"Ah well guess I better assassinate my wife" is just

wtf

Yuuki

> Stern said. “I’ve learned more from you than I have in months from the FBI. They keep saying it takes time, but, like, how long? They told me, ‘If this was my daughter, I’d want this taken care of, too—don’t worry,’ and then they don’t do anything.”

ah the "if this was <female relation>" line

Tim Stone

> Any threat of immediate harm should be reported to local law enforcement, a bureau spokesperson told me, since the FBI can’t provide anything but support in such situations, whether that be conducting interviews or allowing the use of its crime labs. “We are not a world policing agency and must be mindful of our venue, resources, and limitations,” FBI special agent Efrene Sakilayan wrote Monteiro’s lawyer in an email.

🤔

"Look sure someone paid money to have you killed but also someone copied a DVD and we can only do so much"

Yuuki

> The fear is that as more out-of-work men hear that it is possible to make money contracting on the dark web, even shoddy, scammy, and slipshod marketplaces could help arrange killings.

oh good thing that we're currently undergoing a massive boom in worker employment and satisfaction and the economy is so stable, so there's a significant lack of out-of-work men dissatisfied with their lives

> I asked him [Bell] how he felt about online marketplaces being used to target not government officials but regular citizens like Alexis Stern. “I would target no one other than those who aggressed against the public,” he wrote in reply. “I can’t prevent other people . . . from not being so selective.”

what a outstanding morally responsible citizen

Tim Stone

8:03 PM

Anarchro-libertarians, smh

murgatroid99

8:25 PM

British Conservative party on twitter: "Make no mistake. Get Berxit done"

Tim Stone

Incredible

Frank

Wassa Berxit?

user15026

8:42 PM

@murgatroid99 in an image no less

BradC

9:00 PM

MBraedley

9:21 PM

When do the polls close (if not already) in the UK election?

Tim Stone

10 pm I think?

> Big anti-vaxx crowd showing up to protest a bill that would remove religious exemptions to vaccines. But they went to the wrong room ... and won't leave

Yuuki

@TimStone Sounds pretty on-brand.

Unionhawk

@TimStone What time is that in relative to now, 25 minutes?

Tim Stone

yeah

Unionhawk

9:41 PM

Man this kind of hope is awful

Any other time I'd happily write this one off as a result of a multi-year smear campaign by every media outlet but it's too close for that

And yet it's too far to be sure

Apparently taking out Johnson and Swindon where they live looks maybe possible which would kick extreme amounts of ass

Also apparently it's against Twitter rules to provide false information about an election/how to vote. Also they'll suspend you under this rule if you provide correct information about an election/how to vote

Frank

@Unionhawk If Boris doesn't win his own seat, does that mean he loses the leadership?

Unionhawk

I assume he at minimum can't be prime minister as not a mp

Frank

That's how it works here in Canada, but I'm not sure how similar the systems still are.

Unionhawk

I assume it's the same, idk if there's something odd about the party that says the leader can be not a mp or anything stupid like that though

Not that an unelected party member would be a good leader anyway probably

Frank

Probably meant to ensure the leader is actually someone palatable to the populace, not just, "This is our leader. Like it or lump it."

Unionhawk

9:51 PM

I mean, the membership of the party would probably frown on that anyway

"this idiot couldn't even get elected" etc

Then again presumably a party without any seats has a leader

CP Canada etc (does communist party have any seats idk) (I heard they're not great anyway)

Frank

One of our previous provincial elections was very much a, "Anyone but that guy again" sort of election.

Unionhawk

8 minutes until Christmas

Frank

He reneged on one of his campaign promises, and his own party turned on him and forced a leadership vote.

He won anyways, but ensured his party wouldn't win the next election in the process.

@Unionhawk Haven't really paid much attention to them.

I'm actually encouraged with what our Green Party is trying to do.

Too bad they don't have enough backing to actually effect change.

(I voted for them federally)

fredley

@Unionhawk 2 minutes until infinite tory

Unionhawk

My prediction is Tory minority but we'll see

fredley

10:00 PM

Hope at least one minister loses their seat

Welp

Raab, JRM

Bad sign in discord

welp

First I see in our global politics channel is just "fuck"

How bad

fredley

10:01 PM

368

majority of 86

RIP

Unionhawk

Well BBC, Guardian, Sun, Telegraph, etc got what they wanted I guess

fredley

Probably the end of Corbyn

Unionhawk

Yeah looks like it

fredley

Fear he might try and cling on

Unionhawk

Idk this is v bad

fredley

10:03 PM

Yeah. Brexit in January, Scotland out shortly after.

Unionhawk

Pretty much back to the drawing board for the UK left

fredley

NI could well attempt to leave, and that's gone down really well in the past

Unionhawk

With any luck Labour leadership election doesn't return like, Tony Blair 2

fredley

@Unionhawk At least he could beat Tories. Nobody's been able to do that since him.

BradC

So if Scotland and Northern Ireland leave the UK, do they still call it the "United Kingdom", with just England and Wales?

PK, the "Paired Kingdom"

KB, the "Kingdom Buddies"

Frank

10:11 PM

I want to make some sort of Kingdom Hearts reference.

BradC

TPOCFKATUK: The Pair of Countries formerly known as the United Kingdom

Frank

I wonder just how bad the economic fallout will be if and when Brexit happens.

Yuuki

United Kingdom II.9

BradC

@Yuuki the Slightly-Less-than-United-Kingdom

SLUK?

Yuuki

Also, if Scotland and Northern Ireland leave the UK, would NI join with Ireland?

Unionhawk

10:14 PM

I guess the lesson for the left is "the right will smear you as hateful always and the media will buy it"

I don't fucking know how you counteract that

No, not just buy it, promote it

Truth doesn't god damn matter anymore

BradC

So those exit polls are usually pretty accurate? How long does the actual vote tally take to come in?

Unionhawk

It's broad strokes accurate yeah

+86 isn't going to change by 86 anyway

BradC

@Unionhawk Right. If its off, it won't be off by that much

Mad Scientist

For a short time it seemed like there was a change to prevent Brexit after all. But now everyone doubles down on stupid

Unionhawk

Get as much healthcare stuff done as you can it's about to be a fucking right wing horror show for the next 5 years

fredley

10:20 PM

@Unionhawk The health care stuff is already well underway

BradC

@MadScientist I hope that isn't a portent of the next US election, like the first Brexit vote was.

fredley

@BradC Forever Boris, Forever Trump

BradC

@fredley God. Kill me now.

Unionhawk

Nah we're probably going to nominate Pete butigeg and lose instead

fredley

The Convservative manifesto included the abolition of the fixed term parilament act, so they're all going on about 5 more years of Boris, but that's not the case.

Mad Scientist

10:21 PM

@BradC If Trump gets reelected, we're done

Unionhawk

Ughhhhh that's right fuck

Voting is overrated

Why not just the conservatives in power forever

Everywhere always

GnomeSlice

It's been four years

fredley

@GnomeSlice We've had 10 already!

GnomeSlice

hue

We had a few a while back too

Yuuki

@BradC So this is @fredley's fault again, huh.

fredley

10:24 PM

Can't even pin it on @Ronan, what with him being 16 and too young to vote

GnomeSlice

@fredley uh, I think that was a while back

Unionhawk

He's in a safe labour anyway

fredley

As am I

Although, I guess we'll find out!

Ronan

You can pin it on me for other reasons though

fredley

Nostalgia for the simpler times of 2010

Ipswich By-election Rave

►

Unionhawk

10:29 PM

I'm so pissed but it should have been obvious the whole time

Ronan

Yeah it's not any different from the last few months of polls

fredley

There was a lot of uncertainty in the polls, this is a bigger con victory than they'd predicted

(if the exit poll is correct, and it's usually spot on)

Unionhawk

How does it feel to have every media company be owned by conservatives

Oh wait

That's the case literally everywhere isn't it

What was it, two days ago when the BBC politics editor or someone like that posted "hearing from sources that a labour activist punched a conservative mp in the face" "oops video shows that isn't what happened"

fredley

@Unionhawk Except Canada and NZ

And look how awful their leaders are

Unionhawk

You're lucky you didn't say "except BBC and the Guardian" because I'm substantially less equipped to handle Canada and NZ

I mean, "them too"

GodEmperorDune

10:51 PM

BBC and guardian are the most unbiased media outlets of all time

Unionhawk

Yeah hopefully anyone on the American left has reexamined "something like the BBC" as a cure all

Because uhh

Wipqozn

@Unionhawk CBC is fairly left. Canadian news was mostly pretty left, until Postmedia got taken over by literal Nazis.

Postmedia owns a lot.

Of course the next time the PC party gets in power we might not have a CBC anymore. Harper cut its funding, and Scheer wanted to axe it. Funny how Conservatives dislike honest newspapers.