kiaa: (Default)
[personal profile] kiaa
First, Russia says it chased a British destroyer out of Crimea waters with warning shots and dropping bombs in its path.

You know, Crimea. Russia says this is their territorial waters (aquatorial?), Britain says it's Ukrainian waters so they were in their right... And then comes this.

U.K. Denies Russia Claim Warning Shots Fired at Warship

So which is it then? Yeah, I'm not asking whose waters these are, because, as far as I'm concerned, it's humankind's waters, etc, blabla koombaya. Call me a hippie. No, I'm asking how it's possible that two sides saw two completely different things here. Rather, one saw nothing while the other imagined a big incident. Is there a way to even know these things any more!? And, to troll you a little, what's a British ship doing in the Black Sea anyways?
nairiporter: (Default)
[personal profile] nairiporter


You knew these memes were coming, right? The Internet just looooves the Suez canal stuck ship saga. And the story definitely has the potential to beat Bernie Sanders' mittens if you ask me!

So without much further ado, here they are! Poor little ship...

Read more... )
dancesofthelight: (Saw it coming)
[personal profile] dancesofthelight
 Iran has nothing to gain from blowing up a civilian airliner deliberately. If anything more than most other countries it's entirely aware of the impact of even an accidental attack (not that the US attack was accidental on that airliner, of course). Iran was also launching a barrage of missiles (already area effect, and not accurate) and using Russian systems to do so (so automatically even less accurate than US systems, which are far from perfection or near perfection as is because Russian electronics are cruder than American ones). 

So when he says that the missile strike was probably accidental, that's the boring but practical view of what actually happened here. Iran's showpiece of Russian weaponry misfired and hit an airliner because one missile either didn't quite get off the ground or a plane activated its targeting system, what of it it had, and the plane went boom. 

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/champagne-asks-iran-to-let-canadian-officials-in-to-investigate-plane-crash

Now how much the USA believes this or accepts such a boring truth and lets the dogs it just soothed to rest by giving Iran a license to strafe one of its bases is the interesting question and where this goes from 'well, that blew over' to 'nope, it really was the Franz Ferdinand moment after all.' 


luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro
"Hatred has no place in our country", Trump said in the wake of the two mass shootings (were they #195341 and #195342 for the US already?)

Hmmm. Interesting. Well, if you do believe hatred has no place in your country, STOP FUCKING SPREADING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE!

The guy who shot all those (mostly brown) people in El Paso explicitly wrote in his manifesto that he was following the example of the Christchurch shooter in New Zealand, who was a sick racist trying to "cleanse" the place from migrants. This one was subscribing to a particularly vile conspiracy that's been circulating the Internet as of late, claiming the black, brown and generally non-white people are going to "replace" whites as the dominant race. So he acted upon his beliefs.

A previous recent shooter had also cited Christchurch as his inspiration.

Are we not noticing a pattern here yet?

By the way, where was Trump after Daton? The same place where he was now after El Paso. Nowhere to be seen for half a day. And where did he put the blame for the violence? As one might have easily expected. Nowhere near where it really is. He blamed it on mental issues. No word about loose gun control, no word about the racial hatred HE HAS HELPED SPREAD.

This is only going to get worse, folks.
asthfghl: (You may kiss me now!)
[personal profile] asthfghl
"After the Chernobyl series, the world ought to not be the same any more", a local columnist wrote here after the finale of the HBO mini-series ended. And it made me thinking. This is scary. You know what's scary? The fact that no, the world WILL remain the same. Things will keep being done the same old way over and over again. Because people don't change.

Or maybe they do, and I'm just being too nihilistic here (must be a byproduct of aging).

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/hbo-chernobyl.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1

Yes, this is about the Chernobyl series )
airiefairie: (Default)
[personal profile] airiefairie
Incredibly strong wild beasts? Severe hypothermia? Avalanche? Infrasound-induced panic? Military experiments? UFOs? A story about the mysterious violent death of several trekkers in the Russian wilderness still seems to capture people's imagination today, because the local authorities have decided to re-open a more than half-century old investigation...

Russia reopens investigation into 60-year-old Dyatlov Pass mystery

oportet: (Default)
[personal profile] oportet
One year ago today - one man in Las Vegas killed 58 people, and injured 851 more.

He had no help. He had no motive. He didn't leave a note. He didn't mail a video confession to the local news station, he didn't blog about it, he didn't mention it to anyone. With some help from the unknowing staff, he brought 22 suitcases (containing 24 guns) into his room - a fairly normal number I suppose - as it did not raise any suspicion among anyone. It took ten minutes to narrow down where the 1100+ rounds were coming from, and another hour and twelve minutes before his room was breached and he was found dead.

Who do you consider to be a crazy conspiracy theorist - someone who doesn't buy all that, or someone that does?

I wish there was some kind of job - nay, an entire profession full of people trained to look into stories - figure out the who, what, when, where, and why of events like this.

I'm not putting all the blame on an incompetent(or lying, or both) government/law enforcement, and a completely useless news media.

At the core, it's our fault. Maybe there's only so much room in our brains - each new thing we learn threatens to fill it up and bump an old fact out - so we're forced to choose between knowing what really happened in Vegas, and how many scoops of ice cream Donald Trump likes to have.
luzribeiro: (Default)
[personal profile] luzribeiro

Trump Signs Bill Revoking Obama-Era Gun Checks for People With Mental Illnesses

And this, in the wake of yet another mass shooting at a school (I know, I know, "now is not the right time to discuss this").

Trump blamed the tragedy on "a mental health problem", a tactic straight out of the gun lobby's playbook. But then he went on to remove the background checks on mental health.

Actually he started making it easier for mentally ill people to get guns as early as February 2017, when he undid a relevant regulation, so now the Social Security Administration is no longer required to submit the names of certain mentally disabled beneficiaries to a federal agency that conducts gun background checks.

Does not compute. Like nothing the Asshole-In-Chief does.

But of course, it's STILL not the time to talk about these things. And never will be.
kiaa: (soundkitteh)
[personal profile] kiaa
One of the most memorable moments for me, tbh. You know, the one where Buzz Aldrin, the legendary astronaut, one of the first two men to land on the Moon, and the second to set foot on its dusty surface, delivered a knock-down punch on an ideological opponent. The guy had been literally thumping a Bible on him, so Buzz decided enough was enough.

Now, I'm not in favor of violence and all that, but I can't deny sights like these can't help but make even the most avowed pacifist snigger with delight. Here's why.

First, the event:



Read more... )
[identity profile] luzribeiro.livejournal.com
Car plows into crowd at Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, 28 revelers injured

Well, they said it's not terrorism. Just some drunken guy acting like crazy. Shit happens, you know.

I don't know how you'd define terrorism, but someone plunging with a car into a crowd of peaceful citizens and causing pain, destruction and even death, pretty much has the same effect: causing chaos, fear and insecurity. We've yet to learn if there were some additional motivations behind this act, or it was just the alcohol, but the point is this:

If we can't protect the public from every single act of violence by a deluded madman, then why single out specific segments as the potentially predominant sources of violence? Yes, I guess I'm talking about that arbitrary ban for citizens of 7 countries which aren't even the major sources of terrorists (hello? Saudi Arabia?)

No matter if this guy did this under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or in other cases, a twisted understanding of a particular religious doctrine, he IS a terrorist - because his acts have caused terror. So, how do we handle home-grown crackpots and/or drunkards? How do we protect the public? Who should we ban this time?
[identity profile] htpcl.livejournal.com
Greetings, comrades and comradesses! On the day when a rampant terrorist shot the Russian ambassador in Turkey dead, the Russian people didn't give a damn about that news, as much as they were shaken by other news coming from the heart of Siberia. And there's good reason they cared about it so much, because it directly impacts their sense of safety and security - to such an extent that the local authorities declared a state of emergency in Irkutsk, banning all liquid sales. The reason? 60+ people went to meet their creator after having ingested fake alcohol. And that's not just some obscure footnote in some online media, it's the fucking News.Ru being the first to report on it. So it must matter a lot, guys!


If that`s not the most Russian thing ever, I don`t know what is. )
[identity profile] airiefairie.livejournal.com
Those who organised yesterday's shooting of Andrey Karlov, the Russian ambassador in Turkey, likely wanted to take a revenge at Russia for her actions in Syria and to disrupt the ongoing warming up between Turkey and Russia. It seems they have failed in this, because no signs of another freezing of these relations are seen. The Turkish foreign minister is still going to visit Moscow for a trilateral meeting with Iran and Russia on Syria. The only thing the assassination will change is probably the level of security measures before the meeting.

Of course Russia will not just forgive and forget the death of their ambassador, so there will be some tensions. Especially because the memory of the downed Russian fighter jet is still so fresh.


Read more... )
[identity profile] badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com
A gunman opened fire at a gay bar in Orlando, Florida late last night. As of writing this, there are reports of 50 dead so far with many more injured. The shooter has been identified as Omar Mateen, and reports as of right now suggest he may have been on some FBI terror watchlists and may have declared an allegiance or sympathies to ISIS, which would make this the most deadly terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11.

Consider this a consolidated open thread.
[identity profile] dreamville-bg.livejournal.com
Dear America, contrary to what your (possible; but hope not) future president is telling you, the enemy is not a mysterious man speaking an exotic language on a commercial plane or the immigrant who cuts the grass in your garden. Ignorance is your real nemesis.

Professor suspected of being a terrorist because of a math equation

The professor in question:



Kinda looks like Yasser Arafat, right?

Funniest part: lots of people actually believe the lady who "turned him in" did the right thing. The "better safe than sorry" attitude seems to permeate a large chunk of the reactions to this incident. The argument in that camp is that the way to stop terrorists is for the average citizen to be vigilant and alert when using commercial aviation in particular. And while it's sad that the extra alertness requires a touch of paranoia, the world is much more dangerous now, it is what it is, so people should react accordingly.

I see three problems here )
[identity profile] ddstory.livejournal.com
We must have all learned by now. Several explosions have occurred at the international airport in Brussels. The number of victims is still to be specified, but there's been widespread destruction. Some report of at least 11 dead and multiple injuries, and the number is growing. Pictures of devastation, a pillar of black smoke, body parts, bloodied faces, etc. You know the story.

There've been reports of several more explosive devices that were found around the airport but never detonated.

The obvious reason for choosing Brussels is that the terrorists want to demonstrate their prowess in infiltrating even the most fortified and (presumably) well-prepared cities and locations (Belgium was already being warned many times about imminent attack, Brussels was put on high alert for days, and the most wanted man from the Paris attacks was caught).

Don't have much of a comment right now. Information is still raw and scattered at this point. Our thoughts are with the people and guests of Belgium. There'll be time for analysis later, I'm sure.
[identity profile] dreamville-bg.livejournal.com
Just when you thought I was one of those many pro-Russia Putino-trolls who'd suck Putin's dick on a regular basis...


Here's the deal. Russia has basically left 26 miners to die, and hasn't given a shit about it. Do bear with me.

Vorkuta is a town situated way beyond the polar circle, in the Russian republic of Komi. Population 60,000. Winter goes on for 8 months there, and in December and January the temperatures often drop below -60 C. The town was founded in 1936 by geologists and got town status in 1943. At the time, vast reserves of coal were discovered there. Coal mining has been its main industry ever since - a typical mining town.

Remarkably, until about a decade ago there was no asphalt road to the town, and railroad was the only means of reaching it. The town's main landmark is the huge concentration camp where the enemies of the Soviet regime were being kept. In the 50s it reached a population of 70,000 prisoners, which surpassed that of the town nearby. After Stalin's death in the 50s there was a rebellion in that camp. Thousands of prisoners participated. The rebellion became known as the Vorkuta Rebellion, although the prisoners were unarmed. The Soviet regime eventually decided to release the criminal convicts and keep the political prisoners in the camp. Thousands of Vorkuta inhabitants are descendants of those prisoners.

Now straight to the point )
[identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35598892

In news of the current Russian norm, Russia decided to buzz British airspace. Unlike the US Air Force's reactions, the RAF just intercepted them and deterred them. To be frank, if I was Putin and given a green light to invade my neighbors at will and support people with extreme prejudice, murder people I don't like overtly and not even try to hide it with crocodile tears and non-enforced laws and the like, I'd be doing the exact same thing. There is nothing irrational about Russia's provocations and intent to break up NATO. From the brute logic of Realpolitik, it illustrates that Putin's the only leader in broader Western civilization other than Merkel even trying to shape events.

What Merkel gets with the wallet Putin gets with tanks but the same result ensues.

Meanwhile the USA is an empire in relative decline with an ineffectual President and deranged lunatics driving the opposition into the ground expect to get paid for not working for a living and thus not really able to do much about what either of the other two do.

We'll see if Russia keeps this up and if NATO suddenly decides that doing this in Western European airspace, unlike Turkish Airspace, really is a problem or not. 
[identity profile] dreamville-bg.livejournal.com
There are so many shootings in the US, with so many victims, that the fact that the police are still wondering whether to treat the latest California massacre as an actual terrorist attack or not, does not appear to be that relevant at this point. We've got to put this in context, so here's some:

Number of people killed annually by firearms in the US: 30,000+
Number of people shot and murdered every day: 30+
Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-24 year-olds.
And the primary cause of death among African Americans of age 18-35.

And gun violence is actually rather costly )

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