Octopus Overlords

malchior wrote:Totally agree - thanks Internet - instead of a golden age of knowledge humanity has managed to fuck it up *again* by bringing small groups of hateful people together to become bigger dispersed groups to bully the rest of us with their inanity and bigotry. Giant Meteor 2016!

Underneath the ocean
So misunderstood
And he cries with emotion
They think it's up to no good
When your face has tentacles
And your friends are to scared to call
It can really make you An
emo Cthulhu..

hepcat wrote:...and the coworker I've come to learn is a vile, homophobic racist, and proud of it if his facebook posts are to be believed, is now throwing up news articles about the allegations that the Florida shooter was gay and insinuating that explains a lot.

Max Peck wrote:

hepcat wrote:...and the coworker I've come to learn is a vile, homophobic racist, and proud of it if his facebook posts are to be believed, is now throwing up news articles about the allegations that the Florida shooter was gay and insinuating that explains a lot.

The idea that the shooter was motivated by internalized homophobia (being gay, not being able to accept it and developing a sense of self-loathing that gets redirected externally) is getting some mainstream coverage today. I have no idea how your coworker is spinning it, but it seems to be a real possibility that would be consistent with background details that have been coming out.

Max Peck wrote:

hepcat wrote:...and the coworker I've come to learn is a vile, homophobic racist, and proud of it if his facebook posts are to be believed, is now throwing up news articles about the allegations that the Florida shooter was gay and insinuating that explains a lot.

The idea that the shooter was motivated by internalized homophobia (being gay, not being able to accept it and developing a sense of self-loathing that gets redirected externally) is getting some mainstream coverage today. I have no idea how your coworker is spinning it, but it seems to be a real possibility that would be consistent with background details that have been coming out.

Daehawk wrote:Saw where Conan O'Brien is calling for a ban on all semi auto rifle. Poor boy has no idea what he is talking about. that would mean most hunting rifles, kids 22 and so on. Sigh. Idiot speaking out hisbunghole.

gbasden wrote:

Daehawk wrote:Saw where Conan O'Brien is calling for a ban on all semi auto rifle. Poor boy has no idea what he is talking about. that would mean most hunting rifles, kids 22 and so on. Sigh. Idiot speaking out hisbunghole.

This meme seems entirely ridiculous to me.

Daehawk wrote:Actually many did turn in their guns and choose to move to reservations depending on the US gov to look after them....which they did not and many died. They could not hunt nor defend themselves..especially from the same gov that swore to protect them.

Unagi wrote:

Daehawk wrote:Actually many did turn in their guns and choose to move to reservations depending on the US gov to look after them....which they did not and many died. They could not hunt nor defend themselves..especially from the same gov that swore to protect them.

and this is connected to our current discussion on gun control, how?

Daehawk wrote:Actually many did turn in their guns and choose to move to reservations depending on the US gov to look after them....which they did not and many died. They could not hunt nor defend themselves..especially from the same gov that swore to protect them.

Max Peck wrote:

Unagi wrote:

Daehawk wrote:Actually many did turn in their guns and choose to move to reservations depending on the US gov to look after them....which they did not and many died. They could not hunt nor defend themselves..especially from the same gov that swore to protect them.

and this is connected to our current discussion on gun control, how?

As I see it, the last time that native-born Americans allowed the Federal government to take control of their firearms, they were forced off their land (which was given to immigrants) and made to convert to a strange new religion originating in the Middle East. One must learn from history, not forget it, and never repeat it.

Unagi wrote:

Daehawk wrote:Actually many did turn in their guns and choose to move to reservations depending on the US gov to look after them....which they did not and many died. They could not hunt nor defend themselves..especially from the same gov that swore to protect them.

and this is connected to our current discussion on gun control, how?

A lifelong Democrat, Bruce Rauner's wife Diana campaigned enthusiastically for the Republican multimillionaire businessman during his 2014 bid for Illinois governor. Now the child-advocacy group she leads is among 82 social service providers suing her husband's administration for payment of over $130 million locked up in Illinois' unprecedented budget fight with Democratic legislative leaders. The awkward situation has raised eyebrows and drawn some jabs about her twin roles as first lady to Illinois' first Republican governor in over a decade and as a longtime social services advocate in Democratic-leaning Illinois. The Pay Now Illinois coalition says its lawsuit is about honoring legally binding contracts. Chairwoman Andrea Durbin said Diana Rauner's involvement - as president of the Chicago-based Ounce of Prevention Fund - increases the awareness of their plight as Illinois has operated for nearly a year without a budget and there's little sign of change. Attorneys this week set a July hearing for the lawsuit, which Diana Rauner's group joined weeks after it was first filed. "Certainly we recognize that she's in an extraordinary position," Durbin said. "We were serious in this effort before the Ounce joined us and we continue to be serious about it. It wasn't a stunt." Though the move prompted criticism from Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The onetime vacation pals have been locked in an escalating war of words over state help for Chicago and its schools. "Is it any accident that his wife's own organization sued him?" Emanuel told Chicago's WLS-AM after Rauner vetoed a pension relief measure last month. "Part of being a leader is people being able to work with you and trust you." Emanuel later walked back his comments, but didn't apologize outright.

Public opinion in Britain has swung sharply in favor of quitting the European Union, according to a poll published exactly one week before the country's historic referendum.

An Ipsos MORI poll published Thursday in London's Evening Standard newspaper found 53 percent of Brits now want to leave the trade and customs bloc — a so-called "Brexit" — with 47 percent wanting to remain a member, excluding 'Don't Knows'.

It comes two days after a similar poll in The Times also put the "Leave" side ahead for the first time, overturning what had previously been a steady lead for the "Remain" campaign.
...
On Tuesday, Rupert Murdoch's tabloid The Sun called on its readers to back Brexit — a blow to Cameron, who is in charge of the cross-party "Remain" effort.

The US Navy has held meetings to discuss highly controversial technology which could one day allow the government to track the movements of every single citizen in the country, The Sun has learned.

As Adolf Hitler's intellectual property rights were about to expire last year, Germany faced the agonising choice of how best to deal with the writings of the man at the heart of the darkest chapter of its history. For the previous 70 years, the Finance Ministry of the State of Bavaria had exercised Hitler's intellectual property rights. In doing so, it had prevented republication of Hitler's notorious anti-Semitic political treatise, Mein Kampf (My Struggle) in Germany. Germany faced the choice of following the liberal approach favoured by the UK, US, Canada and Israel, trusting and leaving it to civil society to engage with Mein Kampf. Another option was, as Austria and other countries had done in the past, to issue an outright ban of Hitler's book.

In the event, Germany rejected both options, favouring a heavily paternalistic approach instead. The State of Bavaria gave half a million euros to the Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ), a semi-state-run research institute, in order to produce an annotated critical edition of Hitler's book. At the same time, it stated that it would take anybody to court if they published editions that were not annotated. In a further twist, the Bavarian government cleverly tried to create the impression that it had withdrawn financial support for the annotated edition of Mein Kampf, thus leaving the IfZ to stand alone in the rain.

If states can drug test low-income residents seeking welfare assistance, why can’t they do the same for members of the one percent asking for hefty federal tax deductions?

So goes the thinking of Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), who spoke to the Guardian on Wednesday about her new Top 1% Accountability Act. The bill would force taxpayers reporting itemized deductions of over $150,000 to either submit a clear drug test to the IRS or accept the much lower standard deduction when filing their tax returns.

In a break from previous votes on the issue, the House on Thursday rejected two GOP proposals to prevent the Obama administration from enlisting young illegal immigrants to serve in the military.

Lawmakers voted down two measures offered by immigration hard-liners Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) that would have prohibited the use of federal money to enlist young illegal immigrants who have been granted work permits under President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

More than 30 Republicans with more centrist views on immigration joined all Democrats in opposing the two amendments offered to a Defense Department spending bill. The amendments failed narrowly with votes of 207-214 and 210-211, respectively.

Certain young illegal immigrants qualify for DACA if they came to the U.S. as minors and have worked toward at least a high school education, among other requirements.
The Obama administration has already enlisted some DACA recipients through a program, Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI), that recruits immigrants with valued foreign language or medical skills to serve in the military. Gosar said the Pentagon confirmed to his office that it had recruited 141 DACA recipients as of April.

The amendments would have blocked the Obama administration from using the MAVNI program to enlist people in the DACA program.

Reporter Emily Austen has been taken off the air by Fox Sports after she was caught on video making racist comments about Mexican, Jewish and Chinese people.

While participating in a Facebook video broadcast for Barstool Sports, the 27-year-old sports reporter and others appearing on the show mocked 18-year-old Mayte Lara Ibarra, who recently revealed that she was her high school’s valedictorian and an undocumented immigrant.

“I didn’t even know Mexicans were that smart,” Austen quipped to her co-hosts during the Barstool Sports broadcast.

She also asserted that “the Chinese guy is always the smartest guy in math class” and that Jewish people are “stingy.”

As a result of the tirade, Fox Sports said that Austen, who is a contract employee, would not be participating in future broadcasts.

“We were made aware that Emily Austen appeared in a social media video unaffiliated with Fox Sports in which she made insensitive and derogatory comments,” Fox Sports Florida General Manager Steve Tello said in a statement. “She was not speaking on behalf of Fox Sports, nor do we condone any of the statements she made in the video. Emily has been advised that her comments were unacceptable, and she is not scheduled to appear on any upcoming Fox Sports Florida or Fox Sports Sun broadcasts.”

Isgrimnur wrote:Fox Sports commentator fired

Reporter Emily Austen has been taken off the air by Fox Sports after she was caught on video making racist comments about Mexican, Jewish and Chinese people.

While participating in a Facebook video broadcast for Barstool Sports, the 27-year-old sports reporter and others appearing on the show mocked 18-year-old Mayte Lara Ibarra, who recently revealed that she was her high school’s valedictorian and an undocumented immigrant.

“I didn’t even know Mexicans were that smart,” Austen quipped to her co-hosts during the Barstool Sports broadcast.

She also asserted that “the Chinese guy is always the smartest guy in math class” and that Jewish people are “stingy.”

As a result of the tirade, Fox Sports said that Austen, who is a contract employee, would not be participating in future broadcasts.

“We were made aware that Emily Austen appeared in a social media video unaffiliated with Fox Sports in which she made insensitive and derogatory comments,” Fox Sports Florida General Manager Steve Tello said in a statement. “She was not speaking on behalf of Fox Sports, nor do we condone any of the statements she made in the video. Emily has been advised that her comments were unacceptable, and she is not scheduled to appear on any upcoming Fox Sports Florida or Fox Sports Sun broadcasts.”

One wonders if she'll get a Fox News appearance out of this.

A former Auschwitz guard was found guilty of 170,000 counts of accessory to murder on Friday, the Associated Press reports. The court in the western German city of Detmold sentenced Reinhold Hanning to five years in prison, though the 94-year-old will not be incarcerated while any appeals are heard.

"You were in Auschwitz for two and a half years, performed an important function,” said the judge, Anke Grudda. Hanning served at the infamous Nazi concentration camp complex located in occupied Poland from January 1942 until June 1944 after volunteering for the SS at age 18 and being wounded in combat. “You were part of a criminal organization and took part in criminal activity in Auschwitz,” she added.

Hanning was not on trial for participation in specific killings but rather for his role helping the killing apparatus function—at first working at the front gate registering patrols and work details, and later in a guard tower. His conviction is based on a legal precedent set in 2011 in the case of John Demjanjuk, who was found guilty of accessory to murder in the deaths of 28,060 people killed at the Sobibor death camp during the time he was a guard there. Prosecutors in Demjanjuk’s case did not attempt to present evidence that linked him to specific abuses or murders, instead arguing that he was guilty of participating in the crimes committed at Sobibor simply by working at a camp whose sole purpose was extermination.
...
Hanning remained silent in the courtroom during most of his four-month trial, but in late April he apologized publicly. "I want to say that it disturbs me deeply that I was part of such a criminal organization that is responsible for the death of many innocent people; for the destruction of countless families; for misery, torment and suffering on the side of the victims and their relatives," he said into a microphone in the courtroom. "I am ashamed that I saw injustice and never did anything about it, and I apologize for my actions. I am very, very sorry."
...
Though the remaining suspects are few and very old, German prosecutors continue to work investigating and initiating proceedings. “Year by year, it’s more difficult, but the state justice ministers last year decided that Ludwigsburg would keep working,” Jens Rommel, head of the Nazi war crimes investigative office in Ludwigsburg, Germany, told the AP in February as Hanning’s trial was poised to begin. “The state of North-Rhine Westphalia last summer talked about another 10 years as a time frame.”

A Wegmans outlet in Fairfax, Va., refused to decorate and sell a cake to the Ex-Muslims of North America. On May 31, the organization's staff emailed the Wegmans bakery in Fairfax and requested a cake to celebrate the group's third anniversary. The caption was to read, "Congratulations on 3 years!!" and the cake was to feature the group's name and logo:



But when the group's staffers called to confirm the design and status of the cake, they report that a "rude bakery associate" denied the request, calling it "offensive."

The organization's initial attempts at getting an explanation from Wegmans were unsuccessful. Finally, an employee called the group back and explained that the cake was declined because the store did not want to advocate "one way or the other." The worker said that the store has "a lot of employees who are Muslim," and that "employees may not know what this stands for."

Unlike the blatant discrimination some Christian bakeries have shown to gay and lesbian Americans in the name of religious freedom, this appears to be discrimination against customers' lack of religious belief, since Wegmans essentially refused to serve a group of nonbelievers. It raises serious concerns under federal, state, and local civil rights laws.
...
Even setting aside the legalities, the chain's discrimination is plain wrong. The cake was not for Wegmans, it was for the Ex-Muslims of North America. It wasn't denigrating a religion, and there is no need for Wegmans to construe the cake's message for employees about its meaning. Plus, Wegmans' behavior suggests that leaving a religion is offensive, reinforcing the stigma the 23 percent of Americans who identify as nonreligious face in this country.

Isgrimnur wrote:

Longtime Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah (Pa.) was found guilty Tuesday on federal corruption charges, a stunning fall from grace for a one-time power player in the City of Brotherly Love.

Fattah, 59, had been charged with bribery, racketeering, money laundering, bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, and filing false statements as part of a years-long criminal scheme that even included Fattah lobbying President Barack Obama for an appointment for one of his co-conspirators. Fattah was found guilty on all charges, as were four co-defendants.
...
Fattah is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 4. He could face as long as 20 years behind bars on the bribery charges alone, but it is not yet clear how much prison time prosecutors will seek. Fattah is likely to appeal his conviction.

Fattah's son, Chaka Fattah, Jr., is already in prison on bank and tax fraud charges. He is serving a five-year sentence.
...
Fattah and several of his co-defendants, who include former campaign and congressional aides, obtained an illegal $1 million loan for him during the 2007 mayor’s race, then improperly used federal and charitable funds to help repay the debt. Fattah and the other co-conspirators submitted false billing statements to his mayoral campaign in order to keep the loan secret.

In addition, Fattah received bribes from Herbert Vederman, a former deputy mayor of Philadelphia and aide in Fattah’s mayoral campaign. Fattah used the money to pay personal expenses, including the congressman’s taxes.

In return, Fattah reportedly pushed Vederman for an ambassadorial position or for appointment to the U.S. Trade Commission, including hand-delivering a letter to Obama on the issue.. Fattah also hired Vederman’s girlfriend in his congressional office.

Vederman gave Fattah $18,000 in January 2012 so the Pennsylvania Democrat could qualify for a mortgage on a vacation home in the Poconos, the indictment stated. The two men allegedly created a fake car sale to account for the funds, although Fattah reportedly kept the Porsche that was supposedly sold.

Vederman also reportedly helped get a visa for Fattah’s “live-in au pair” and gave her money for tuition.

Mississippi officials are closing the investigation into the murder of three young civil rights workers by the Ku Klux Klan — more than 50 years after the men disappeared. The case had been closed for decades, then reopened after renewed public outcry. Now it's going cold again.

"It's just gotten to the point that it's 52 years later and we've done all we can do," Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said Monday.

The murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Neshoba County, Miss., inspired the movie Mississippi Burning. Exactly 52 years ago, on June 21, 1964, the men disappeared after working to register black voters. They'd been at a church that had been a target of Klan violence the week before.
...
In the years that followed, the state did not prosecute anyone for murder. A few men served a handful of years in prison on federal civil rights charges, but otherwise, the KKK mob that killed Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner escaped legal consequences.

Decades later, the state reopened the case and prosecuted one man for murder — Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen, aka Preacher Killen. Now 91, Killen is serving a 60-year sentence for manslaughter.
...
Hood says more prosecutions are unlikely at this point. There are a number of reasons for that, according to Debbie, who has covered the case for years. She reports that:

"The passage of time means that memories have faded. Both participants in this crime and many of the witnesses have since died. Evidence hasn't been preserved.

"There are at least two known suspects who are still alive, but the state hasn't been able to build a strong enough case against them to prosecute.
...
For his part, Attorney General Hood says he believes the state has done everything "that could possibly be done" in this case. He released an FBI report on the murders which addresses the two remaining suspects and explains that they had unsuccessful charges brought against them before.

Isgrimnur wrote:Cake

A Wegmans outlet in Fairfax, Va., refused to decorate and sell a cake to the Ex-Muslims of North America.

After corporate found out, the cake order was filled for the Ex-Muslims of North America. Workers were coached on other ways to better handle the situation, if something similar arises again.

"It was the wrong decision," Jo Natale, a company spokeswoman, said in an email. "We should have made the cake. The decision to not fill this cake order was made at the store level by a well-intentioned employee, who was trying to act in the best interest of a diverse employee population."

Alefroth wrote:More and more people are becoming comfortable being overtly racist.

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/32277324/ma ... in-polk-co

gbasden wrote:

Alefroth wrote:More and more people are becoming comfortable being overtly racist.

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/32277324/ma ... in-polk-co

This is what kills me when folks like Cheeba complain that the left calls people racist. At least from my viewpoint, it's because we are more and more dismayed that shit like this not only exists, but this candidate feels comfortable enough that it will attract more voters than it will repel. It's just repugnant.