The Wow I Can't Believe That News Story Thread

[Plankton]

Ground zero?

Harvard professor among three charged with lying about Chinese government ties

[OccultHawk]

WWII

The same dudes who ran through machine gun fire were afraid to clock out five minutes early on Fridays after they got home.

no-one seems to be criticizing the four prosecutors who have resigned in protest

Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus by Edward Behr

I read this a few years ago and goddamn if it ain’t some similar ****. Hopefully the “fall” comes sooner than later.

[Lisnaholic]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

The same dudes who ran through machine gun fire were afraid to clock out five minutes early on Fridays after they got home.

^ HA! That's a good point I never considered.

Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus by Edward Behr

I read this a few years ago and goddamn if it ain’t some similar ****. Hopefully the “fall” comes sooner than later.

^ wow that looks like a great book. A good title and I bet an fascinating look at a country that in the UK was a byword for misery.

The bolded, about the US I presume, is pretty worrying as all those much-praised checks and balances are proving to be ineffectual in curbing the steady decline of democracy in the US. I'm reminded of something I once read: the majority of authoritarian dictators do not gain power by revolution - they are voted into office.

[OccultHawk]

Anyone who knows anything about it can point to a million ways Trump and Ceaușescu are different but the important and frightening lesson there is how little it actually took to create a total atmosphere of paranoia and fear in Romania.

[Mindfulness]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DsVhaXx8_I

VICE News
Feb 13, 2020

Bats carry tons of viruses, but they don't usually get sick from them.

[Lisnaholic]

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

He believes in transparency of government, but he wants to be the guy deciding if the Mueller Report ever sees the light of day. He aspires to ethical conduct, but demands the personal right to overrule any decision the Ethics Committee makes about his own behaviour. Is anyone else worried about the upcoming Attorney General, Hobo Chang Barr ?

^ Red flag from a year ago about the guy who is now taking a kid-glove approach to Trump's band of felons and whose policy of implementing political vendettas is now making a travesty of "impartial justice" in the US.

I think lack of imagination is one reason why Trump and Barr can get away with this stuff: senators and voters both couldn't imagine that the US would have an authoritarian banana republic government - but if it walks like a duck, as they say, and that's how the Department of Justice is now operating:

- lying about the Mueller Report conclusions
- using frivolous investigations (McCabe, etc.) as a device of political harrassment
- re-investigating done-deal guilty verdicts (Flynn)
- downsizing sentence guidelines for cronies (Stone)
- scuppering legit investigations (NY's investigation into Trump's hush-money campaign violation)

That's all true banana republic stuff imo, and it looks like an election is the only way to curb it. That's why I suspect that the upcoming election is going to be an unprecedented sh+t fest of misinformation and voter repression from the GOP.

[OccultHawk]

I suspect that the upcoming election is going to be an unprecedented sh+t fest of misinformation and voter repression from the GOP.

[Cuthbert]

Caroline Flack (host of well known TV show in UK) found dead.

Was going to be on trial on March 4th for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend.

Media and the online nation tore her to bits and it looks like she killed herself.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51517973

[OccultHawk]

She ****ed a 17 year old when she was 31. Oh the horror.

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

She ****ed a 17 year old when she was 31. Oh the horror.

It's probably more to do with her breaking a lamp over his head, but nice Kobe apologism bro.