[Non-US] News That Makes You laugh/cry/neither...

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Sat May 09, 2015 10:31 pm

tussock wrote:But the UN doesn't have a military, or any other form of power.

That's why even in the out-there end of the world scenario it isn't the UN... its "the UN". Mostly just because there is unlikely to be another "Coalition of the willing" branding.

Orca · Post by **Orca** » Sun May 10, 2015 4:10 am

Given the way Cameron shouted One Nation during his victory speech I doubt he's going to give the SNP another bent penny-worth of devolution, or that he'll bother with EVEL (which was mainly a sop to the English base in the event of further devolution of powers to Scotland.)

In other reasons for the UK conservative victory - the economy took an upturn in the months before the election. The vast majority of the English media weighed in heavily against the Labour party.

Schleiermacher · Post by **Schleiermacher** » Sun May 10, 2015 7:53 am

FrankTrollman, 3 months ago wrote: As long as Syriza can hold their own party together, it doesn't look like anyone can call new elections other than Tsipras. And he's only going to call new elections if he thinks Syriza can get an absolute majority - which at present it doesn't even seem to need.

Alexis Tsipras is in a hugely strong position against Belgium. Greece is running a primary surplus, so if the Troika refuses a deal and Tsipras writes off all the debts, government finance doesn't collapse. Greece only needs foreign funding to repay its old debts, not its current obligations. If there's no deal, Greece can walk away and not have to turn to the bond market at all. And it doesn't look like there is any wedge possible in Greek Parliament - Tsipras has enough votes to pass any package from a hardline leftist, a hardline protectionist, to a doveish liberal one.

I'm not sure that the Germans understand how little leverage they have.

What happened here? I'm not entirely well-informed but from where I'm sitting it looks like the Eurocrats are well on their way to plundering Greece's treasuries and/or completey slash-and-burning the Greek economy.

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Sun May 10, 2015 2:18 pm

Germany is absolutely convinced that Greece will cave. Also if they don't then who needs them anyway? The ECB is absolutely convinced that a compromise will be reached. Why would anyone endanger the euro protecting the failed austerity program?

At this point, I think it's a deliberate attempt by the private financial sector to play world domination, and I'm only half-joking by phrasing that way. If Greece caves or the EU survives a Greek exit, then that is case and point the EU leadership is willing to be a bludgeon for the financial sector to wield against smaller member states, and that that they can use that bludgeon to demand crippling "economic reforms" in times of hardship that are really just "give our bankers all your money and sell them all your government assets on the cheap."

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Mon May 11, 2015 5:52 pm

There has been a hilarious interlude where Greece demanded Germany pay its WWII debts to Greece, both reperations and an actual loan that the Greek central bank was forced to give them, but Germany replied that those debts had been erased because of an agreement to which Greece was not a party. That is obviously complete bullshit but it gets Germany out of paying off Greece's entire debt so they're sticking to it.

Normally I'm all for tossing decades-old debts from multiple changes of government ago, but on the other hand fuck Germany.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon May 11, 2015 7:04 pm

What happened here? I'm not entirely well-informed but from where I'm sitting it looks like the Eurocrats are well on their way to plundering Greece's treasuries and/or completey slash-and-burning the Greek economy.

Interesting you should bring it up now. The Greeks have offered all kinds of concessions, up to and including allowing the Eurogroup to speak to a man who wears a tie instead of a leather jacket (one of the Eurogroup's more insane and petty demands). For this, the Eurogroup offered... nothing.

And the Greeks have fucking had it. They've publicly said that they aren't going to make any more concessions, and indeed started rehiring government employees that the previous government had been forced to fire. They paid back the IMF loan this week, but they've straight up said that if the Eurogroup doesn't get more realistic that the ECB and Germany aren't getting paid.

-Username17

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Tue May 12, 2015 1:44 am

Germany is trolling, then. That's what that is.

Why is Germany trolling Greece? Conventionally it would be because they want Greece to rage-quit. So Germany wants Greece to leave the Euro, but wants that to be "Greece's fault" where Germany "tried to come to an understanding".

I mean, that's what that would be if it was happening on the internet. Or, like, what Germany and the US are supporting in the Ukraine, with the bear baiting.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Tue May 12, 2015 2:27 am

So, apparently the EU's new solution to illegal immigration is to bomb them before they cross the border.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/m ... rant-boats

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue May 12, 2015 3:23 am

I imagine our government will try that any minute now.

(Never mind that just last month it cooperated with the Vietnamese government to send Vietnamese refugees back there where they face execution, which really is an International crime that would land him in front of a court in the EU... if he weren't white.)

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Tue May 12, 2015 5:52 pm

Koumei wrote:I imagine our government will try that any minute now.

(Never mind that just last month it cooperated with the Vietnamese government to send Vietnamese refugees back there where they face execution, which really is an International crime that would land him in front of a court in the EU... if he weren't white.)

My suggestion for preventing illegal immigration into the EU is to make Europe so much worse that Europeans will swarm across the Mediterranean looking for better lives in Africa.

This, unlike all other proposals, has the advantage of potentially being effective at combating the problem.

karpik777 · Post by **karpik777** » Tue May 12, 2015 6:57 pm

hyzmarca wrote:This, unlike all other proposals, has the advantage of potentially being effective at combating the problem.

I'd imagine dropping nukes and napalm on every inch of Africa (or, at the very least, on every inch of it's northern half) could work. Though your idea seems like a more likely scenario...

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed May 13, 2015 3:35 am

hyzmarca wrote:My suggestion for preventing illegal immigration into the EU is to make Europe so much worse that Europeans will swarm across the Mediterranean looking for better lives in Africa.

Pretty sure Cameron is doing his best to make that happen in the UK, and Merkel is trying to do that to Greece, so you never know!

That said, if you see immigration itself as a problem that has to be stopped (as opposed to just letting them in, doing security and medical checks on everyone, and then doing your best to integrate them into the local community), then you're pretty much fighting a losing battle, and spending more money in the process.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 1:35 pm

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... syria-iraq

So Britain dropped a court case against some dude caught giving weapons to ISIS, because it turns out the British and US governments have been giving weapons to ISIS since 2012.

I mean, at some point they stopped, and are now giving weapons to Al Qaida instead, because obviously something something have always at war with ISIS. Except for supporting their overthrow of the Libyan government, and not giving a crap about them one way or the other when they're all Boko Haram. Or last year.

Dude makes the case that this is all just your typical divide, fund an oppressor, demonise them, and conquer the lot strategy playing out, including the silencing of criticism at home. I mean, what are you, on the side of the terrorists?

I'd more think it's part of the ongoing effort to prevent states who aren't Britain and the US from gaining access to cheap middle-east oil supplies. Or Ukrainian oil, or, well, check your local newspaper for the baddy of the week and note the oil they're sitting on.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sun Jun 07, 2015 3:18 pm

In the ongoing war of my sanity versus the Duggar family, someone did some sleuthing, and discovered that the mysterious man doing construction work that Josh Duggar, the repeated molester, was sent to for counseling was in fact Bill Gothard, founder and head of the Institute for Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and the Advanced Training Institute (ATI), who stepped down last year because it came out that he has sexually molested at least 30 teenage girls and young women at his facilities.

So they sent their child offender son off to be counseled by a repeated sexual offender, and now the Duggars just somehow, purely by accident, and certainly not deceptively, have never once mentioned the name of the person who they sent their son to for "counselling."

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfem ... he-duggars

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 8:08 pm

NATO apologizes for bombing Yugoslavia

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sat Jun 13, 2015 10:07 pm

Longes wrote:NATO apologizes for bombing Yugoslavia

"Unfortunately, in the concrete case we could not avoid the suffering of civilians. I sincerely regret that. The goal of the operation was certainly to establish peace."

"The goal and purpose of NATO's air operation was also to protect civilians — and we succeeded in that," Jens Stoltenberg emphasized.

Translation: "I'm sorry you stupid assholes made us bomb you."

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Sun Jun 14, 2015 1:40 pm

hyzmarca wrote:
Longes wrote:NATO apologizes for bombing Yugoslavia

"Unfortunately, in the concrete case we could not avoid the suffering of civilians. I sincerely regret that. The goal of the operation was certainly to establish peace."

"The goal and purpose of NATO's air operation was also to protect civilians — and we succeeded in that," Jens Stoltenberg emphasized.
Translation: "I'm sorry you stupid assholes made us bomb you."

That's unfair. It's not like he's blaming the specific civilians caught in the blast.

On the flip side it's not really an apology either, just an admission that resorting to warfare gets people hurt.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:45 pm

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/14/ ... n-two-days

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 2:33 am

Ancient History wrote:http://m.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/14/ ... n-two-days

Wow. I literally got back from the Dominican Republic today and this was news to me.

I knew election season was on and that the sitting president is popular and of what was described as the left-wing party and has been holding power for several terms. On a tour our guide was talking about how the government were building lots of schools, and that people from Haiti illegally immigrate usually with construction or plantation jobs but kids are allowed into free public schools and government services, but he was more playing up the positive aspect of helping people rather than the burden of "illegals".

I guess I didn't meet people who openly hated Haitians.

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:04 pm

Taking a page of The Gaming Den playbook, Ricardo Boechat, famous radio news host, told Silas Malafaia, Religious Right MP, homophobic bigot and very rich evangelical preacher to go look for a cock. It should be said that Boechat isn't a shock radio host - while he uses humor in his newscasts, his program, on Band News FM, is one of the closest things to a source of unbiased news on Brazilians mornings. I don't know an english-world equivalent for him, but Malafaia is pretty much the Brazilian Jerry Falwell.

Some background: Brazil has seen a rise of religious intolerance, mostly at the hands of evangelical christians. The biggest victims so far have been the afro-Brazilian religions like Candomblé and Umbanda. These guys are a kind of perfect target if you're a shithead monster of a preacher:

They're a minotiry
They're usually black, poor and marginalized already, so it's not as if they can sue or fight back
Their practices center around talking with and being possessed by spirits
Some of these spirits are depicted like this

This country, which used to be celebrated by the religious syncretism and tolerance, is now having cases of Centros and Terreiros being vandalized, "saints" being broken and followers of these religions being intimidated out of their communities. Last week, two guys with Bibles on their hands threw stones at a group of people leaving a Candomblé service, shouting the typical evangelical battle cries ("the power of Jesus compels the demons out of you etc"). The result was a girl of 11 being hit on the head. The "good part" is that said girl escaped with just a couple of stitches, but's now obviously terrorized.

Now, all the Catholics and even most of the evangelicals condemned the attack and put the blame where everybody knows it is: the evangelical preaching, that gets more violent with each passing day. A usual canard of evangelical thinking here in Brazil is that when bad things happen to you, it's because somebody made "Macumba" to you (think voodoo curses), something that only Jesus can "break". The afro-religions are daily demonized on Brazilian churches these days, this is something everybody here knows. Then, of course, come a shithead like Malafaia and try to spin the situation into "we can't be really sure the attackers were evangelicals! You're all persecuting Christians!!!1"

Boechat called out this bullshit on his program, to which Malafaia replied asking for a "debate" and saying that Boechat was being an idiot by throwing baseless accusations and inciting hate (forgetting all his hate-inciting preaching in the process). Now, Malafaia has read the entire Religious Right playbook which means that he never debates on good faith, resorting to Gish Gallops and anecdotes to "win". He's very good at that.

Boechat would have none of that and went for the epic takedown instead. I'm kind of sad that it's in Portuguese, but he spent a good couple of minutes telling that Malafaia was a dishonest charlatan, a hipocrite that became a millionarie exploring poor people, etc. Malafaia obviously went bananas and is moving to sue, while not shutting up about that. The local internet is having a day with him.

TL;DR: Famous local radio host tells Brazilian Jerry Falwell to go seek some cock.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:54 pm

Russia and Greece signed a deal to build the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. The construction costs are about €2 billion.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 11:28 am

I thought it was weird how the news today was momentarily full of stories about how the German banks secretly love Greece and now want them to have all the monies with almost zero concessions. And then suddenly all those stories were gone, because Greece was all like, "Whut? No. No concessions."

But now it turns out Greece just got a billion dollars of work from Russia. So that's why people who Greece owes money to are happy, but the stories obviously couldn't mention Russia being a responsible international citizen and also Ukraine getting kicked in the nuts again. Thanks, Longes.

In other news, Pope Francis says science is an awesome gift from God and climate change is very fucking serious and politicians need to get their shit together.

Larissa Waters drew the ire of National party senators in question time when she asked whether Tony Abbott - as a committed Catholic - would support the pope’s encyclical on climate change. Waters was called a “bloody bigot” and asked whether she was married. George Brandis called her question disgusting.

Asked whether she was married. That's spectacular. I hear your insightful question and raise you a 'get back in the kitchen' and 'shouldn't you be all barefoot and pregnant by now?'. As a committed Catholic, you see.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 12:59 pm

tussock wrote:In other news, Pope Francis says science is an awesome gift from God and climate change is very fucking serious and politicians need to get their shit together.

I will believe it is anything other than johnny come lately jumping on the populist bandwagon the moment he excommunicates Tony Abbot.

Asked whether she was married. That's spectacular.

Overseas you call it spectacular.

In Australia it's just another Monday.

Every damned Monday for more than a year...

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 1:04 pm

PhoneLobster wrote:Every damned Monday for more than a year...

And could be another term, if Labor don't lure Shorten over to the edge of a cliff. As it is, he's like the best asset Abbott has.

Meanwhile the new Greens leader is amazing, and also a hilarious asshole.

"Have you considered changing the party name to focus more on humanitarian issues rather than the environment?"
"A rose by any other name..."
"Okay, Abbott has big ears, Shorten has a big forehead, what do you have?"
"A big nose and big.... IDEAS!"

Yes, Shakespeare followed by a knob gag. He is our fucking hero.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Mon Jun 22, 2015 4:41 pm

tussock wrote:I thought it was weird how the news today was momentarily full of stories about how the German banks secretly love Greece and now want them to have all the monies with almost zero concessions. And then suddenly all those stories were gone, because Greece was all like, "Whut? No. No concessions."

But now it turns out Greece just got a billion dollars of work from Russia. So that's why people who Greece owes money to are happy, but the stories obviously couldn't mention Russia being a responsible international citizen and also Ukraine getting kicked in the nuts again. Thanks, Longes.

Well, it's not like Russia is doing charity here.