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We do that here too, and for undergrads too. it's pretty much how you imagine from TV, minus the part where everybody throws their graduation cap up in the air at the end.
It's very solemn. I wanted to go to mine but due to happenings I opted out (it's optional) so as to ensure the graduation itself would go smoothly. In hindsight I should've went, though I did go to the rehearsal and it was nice.
speaking of abortion rights, I recently ran across this
https://jezebel.com/interview-with-a-woman-who-recently-had-an-abortion-at-1781972395
Warning: emotionally heavy stuff.
In other news, Turkey agreed to let Finns and Swedes into the NATO. Gonna be a new spike in geopolitical memes.
If some nutcases want to start shit, who knows what's gonna happen.
While I'm at it, the Internet Archive is like even better as a repository of old magazines. At least books you have a gut instinct to keep, papers not really.
Recently the buzz has been about an intended new mandatory class in schools, "History and Society". The kids can learn that hippies are bad and commies, there are good rock bands (Mike Oldfield) and bad rock bands (The Beatles), that kids conceived by in vitro are not loved by their parents, and the rest of stuff like that. Of course, the chapters on democracy are well-illustrated with the images of members of the Party. I guess the revelation that Coca-Cola adds ground fetuses to their beverages for flavor will be in supplementary materials, since the author breaks the news in his other writings, but so far I've not heard it's in the handbook proper.
Though I have to say, I've heard you guys over in the United States have no less crazy, at least on state level.
If I wrote a curriculum myself I'd only make the slightest alterations.
Fetal cell lines are in every MRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
(also turns out I forgot how spoilers work around here)
I should let this go but; if any RW forces attempt to do anything I doubt there would ever be scale, either it'd end very fast (dispatched by law enforcement) or it would be exposed super quickly and then we'd have like Jan 6th The Sequel All The Hearings and every non-Marjorie Taylor-Greene politician would disavow so, so hard and everybody involved would be possibly quite literally gulaged.
Basically; it's not something you genuinely have to worry about I think?
Okay forget that stuff, I have stuff to say;
I wonder if Nancy Pelosi is some kind of magical being because as soon as she showed her face to some random Singaporean LGBTQ2IAAP+ groups the country undid a colonial era gay sexual relations law despite initially protesting her activities.
That's one thing.
I have been following this murder case in the US; the victim was a male twenty-something college student named Jimmie 'Jay' Lee who presented himself very effeminately. I initially became interested in the case because when CNN International reported it they avoided all gender markers (which was how I knew he was biologically male in the first place, since they did have pictures).
Anyways I assumed that this would be picked up in the narrative dragnet that is "Black Trans Lives Matter" in which basically every case (in the US at least) is just either a fight between paramours or a prostitution deal gone wrong (or, sometimes, a more general fight). Either that or a
13/507/30* case.Amazingly enough it was almost neither (though both perp and victim are black but that's irrelevant I guess), Jay Lee was indeed killed by his on-again off-again "sexual friend" Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. (friend did seem to be interested specifically in "transgender" Adult Content and probably didn't really care what Jay Lee thought of himself and saw him as such an individual).
Herrington's reasoning is currently unknown but we do know that his search history leading up to the murder was filled with gems like "how long does it take to strangle someone gabby petito" and "does post-workout boost testosterone".
So yeah; weird case.
*So Stormtroper and I actually did the numbers on this once and I figured only half the 13% of the black population commits crimes since only half is male and he provided the more accurate 30% number of total crimes from FBI crime stats.
By the way gacek for some reason I've started seeing a lot of stories where Poland is both the cheap-food and "don't trust that food" place. Not only because of this mysterious "fish are dying and it seems to becoming from Poland" thing but also this investigation into Polish food giants selling all this very uh... non-kosher meat.
This has yet to be fixed.
also
no.
more information:
https://hhs.co.yamhill.or.us/publichealth/faq/are-there-fetal-cells-covid-19-vaccine
https://www.health.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/COVID Vaccine Page/COVID-19_Vaccine_Fetal_Cell_Handout.pdf
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/here-are-the-facts-about-fetal-cell-lines-and-covid-19-vaccines (this one's probably the most detailed)
https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/coronavirus/Folder17/COVID-19_Vaccines_and_Fetal_Cells_031921.pdf?rev=730ea9bfcde34bea84c4dcde5b3bacee
Huh.
Well, guess I was wrong.
I still think the use of fetal cell lines is extremely morally gray.
The J&J process still sounds a little sketchy though (though in terms of "It's a Conspiracy!!!" the fact that in practice it's the worst of all the MRNA vaccines makes that moot).
EDIT: Also vaguely related to what you guys were talking about earlier, it turns out abortion in general is so popular (unfortunate phrasing) that many Republican candidates for this November's mid-term election were actually forced onto the back-foot by the overturning of Roe v. Wade which is odd to think about.
So, the story's apparently that there were signals something is going on for like two or three weeks, both from local anglers (who are actually organized into a sort of lodge system responsible for stuff like taking care over local fish stocks) and government agencies. Oh, and the Germans too, since this is a border river and they would very much like to know as to why fish are dying on their side now. But, of course, all of that was ignored until dead fish were floating down the river by the tonne.
One of the earliest claims were that it's mercury, but now it seems like more generic industrial spill from one of the state-backed companies.
After the Party could no longer ignore it, they went for a multi-pronged defense:
You gotta know here that the Party, ever since they began to rule seven years ago, has been setting up government agencies like crazy, most of them named "National" or "Polish" or both. The inland waters administration agency I mentioned is actually called "Polish Waters". The purpose of that is a) make every single thing in the country answer to the Party through Party loyalists running these agencies, b) set up enough cushy desk positions for every friend or relative who might feel like it (and also double as Party loyalists, since without the Party, they wouldn't be making quadruples or quintuples of median income with their level of experience and skill more suitable for shopkeeping at best). As for point b), these are colloquially known as "apothecary assistant" and "daughter of a park ranger" after the most infamous examples.
things that have been blamed on jazz: a thread
Mandatory chorus for every student under 16 and every song would be pre-UZA AKB48 (with some 9nine and JUDY AND MARY peppered in for variety).
Best time to notice problems is when they're out of control.
Hey, at least he wasn't this guy.
Somebody needs to make a GIF of Buttigieg's mid-logistics crisis paternity leave face getting those pixel-art sunglasses for moments like this.
Wasn't there a phase of American politics when Republicans lost it and started calling things "Freedom Fries" because France sort of opposed the Iraqi invasion for like one day.
No less than twice, in fact. Last time it was about Germans. Liberty shepherd, liberty measles...
(Incidentally, we've had a fad to rename the pierogi ruskie as pierogi ukraińskie. Which is silly, since "ruskie" refers to Russia only as a slur or a slang term, while the broader meaning is actually "Ruthenian". Which may mean pretty much any part of Eastern Slavdom, including Ukraine. But then again, some pierogi manufacturers offer a separate-but-related Ukrainian pierogi flavour. I honestly don't know if they introduced them recently, or have actually always had them on the menu but I've never noticed it before. Pierogi: serious business.)
Goodness gracious.
The whole renaming Russian stuff was really big for a while but like "changing your profile pic to a Ukranian flag" and other such stuff it seems to not really be a thing anymore. We even had supermarkets around here do Ukranian-themed balloon displays to show like the possibly .35 Russians who live here they weren't welcome.
I'm very sorry.
Poland is really trying to do all the things this year.
Meanwhile just because I thought it was important; Shinzo Abe's killer seems to have targeted him over the LDP's oddly cozy relationship with the "Unification Church" aka the "Moonies".
Apparently Japan is basically the Moonies' largest source of income and the LDP has been receiving financial support from them as well as grunts for campaign work. It seems the relationship isn't all too big but when Shinzo Abe gave a speech to a Church-sponsored event last year that can't have helped the shooter's state of mind and probably fueled several conspiracies.
The way Moonies make money in Japan seems to be via donations but mostly by selling "o-mamori" (Shinto good luck charms) but Christianized versions (to the extent that Moonie-ism is Christianity related). Unlike normal o-mamori, these cost about 70,000% more and members are usually pressured to buy lots or start believing that they should buy lots via brainwashing. The shooter's mother reportedly spent ~$700,000 on said items.
Funnily enough the shooter's actions seem to have shone a light on this weird connection between the LDP and the Moonies and so current Japanese PM had to make a public statement about the LDP cutting ties with the Moonies and basically if somebody had done this several weeks ago maybe Shinzo Abe would still be alive.
Speaking of Shinzo Abe, the very second episode of the Bushiroad please-play-this-game-and-spend-all-your-money comedy anime adaptation Teppen!!!!!!!!!! had to be punted from it's original air-date last month because the plot involved assassinating the Prime Minister. A similar second episode of the original anime (by the creators of that great work of art, Date A Live) Engage Kiss was however not shelved because it was more broad about the sort of politician the protagonists were meant to kill.
And still on the issue of assassinating major politicians (and somehow, Ukraine), yesterday, beleaguered Argentinian vice-president Christina Fernandez de Kirchner hit a major snag (literally) when the Brazilian (???) would be assassin's gun failed to fire.
So, how is this related to Ukraine? Well, the shooter seems to have an Azov-style "Sonnerad" ie neo-nazi tattoo on his left elbow, just like one of the "Warrior Heroes" that comedian Jon Stewart honored at Disney World.
It's more like "a crypto-fascist wannabe dictatorial system tries to shore up its flagging support by diverting the attention of the citizenry towards a drummed-up external enemy".
(edit: I just heard, the Supreme Leader had offered to share with Israel. Which is just another level of demented. "Hey, you beat up that guy so we can share the money!")
Well, I'm not the one to defend Nazis, but I'll point out that one doesn't need to be pro-Ukraine to be a neo-Nazi. Also, it's curious that folks who would otherwise be so fond of Rhodesia, Confederate battle flags, viking runes, and other edgy imagery suddenly are so opposed to Nazi-adjacent symbolism. I mean, shouldn't they rather be cheering them on? It's their kind of stuff. They're the first to go on and on how a valknut tattoo is just about honoring tradition or whatnot rather than a far-right thing, I don't get why won't they do so now.
No wonder Al Jazeera is mad.
Well I think it's more that early on (and sometimes even nowadays, see Jon Stewart) Azov was very whitewashed into heroes by people who would need a fainting couch just at the mention of such things just because they wanted to whitewash the Ukranian counter effort itself.
After winning Eurovision, those Estefania guys were like "hey everyone help Azov" and then a room full of gay men clapped.
As for the other stuff, I've personally only seen vaguely mainstream Republicans defend confederate flags (or just Robert E. Lee), and there
arewere a lot of black Southerners who also seem(ed) to enjoy the confederate flag as an anti-elitist anti-coastal symbol regardless of, let's say, "past details" (all before BLM became a thing in 2014 I guess).I don't know if anybody unironically likes Rhodesia or it's just to be edge because man that'd be something else (in a weird way).
Basically Azov hypocrisy is a left-wing phenomenon rather than a right-wing one whereas the right-wing edge position is just they want Russia to win. Frankly the biggest defenses of Nazism I've ever seen involve justifying/commiserating with rampant anti-Semitism* or eugenics rather than actually liking Nazis or anything they actually stood for.
*By the way have you ever heard of the "Early Life" meme?
In general, the far-right supports Russia because "Russia based", or, in more demented, pseudo-intellectual takes, "Russia is katechons". (You've heard of the term, haven't you?) The far-left either supports Russia or assumes a stance of condescending neutrality because there are Nazis in Ukraine or because "USA bad, therefore Russia good".
Unless you have you been on /pol/ or Stormfront, I'm not surprised neo-Nazis pretend they aren't really neo-Nazis. (Just your average community of palingenetic ultranationalist racial suprematist blood-and-soil totalitarians.)
(edit: oh well, what was I thinking. The very concept of "defenses of Nazism" is already suspicious enough that asking where you could have seen them is kind of redundant.)
My life is richer now knowing it's this.
edit: If I had to guess, I'd say it's to be edgy, because it's not like Rhodesia was ever important in any way. Like, compare to the RSA, there are hardly any memes whatsoever about bantustans or the Boers. (Not saying there are none, just that it's Rhodesia which became a meme.)
Now, there might well be some people who post Rhodesia memes in a non-ironic way, but I very much doubt they ever had anything in common with white Rhodesians. Probably just a subset of racists who have picked Rhodesia as their imaginary white paradise of choice.
Basically if Early Life comes up a lot in a comments section/social media it'll always be a super-weird situation like that (though sometimes Jewish people change their names for media-jobs, like Jon Stewart, who I will stop talking about now, which can't help the conspiracy-minded).
I wonder if RT and the like still talk about Denazification or they stick to Donbass sob-stories now (which are real to some extent but they're not just talking about it to "shine a light" on the issue).
I mean even in Ukraine itself I think the Azov thing is a "they exist and are powerful therefore useful so why not". If they weren't bloodthirsty warmongers who happen to be swole men with guns, there's no way they would have ever been mobilized or whitewashed.
Isn't this some weird Christian neoliberal fantasy thing that somehow frequently includes racial integration via immigration.
Well;
a) the way we use "Nazi" post WWII is to mean "racist authoritarian" so of course the core concepts get lost
b) Any time even a somewhat normal conservative engages in "We were born here and our parents came on the Mayflower" or something similar, I find it weird because half your demographic is actively fighting you and has been for at least 80 years now (and you are currently losing) so there's no way if all the immigrants left anything would just be better (also the immigrants would immediately be let back in by the half that's fighting you) and on several issues things would immediately get extremely more left-wing in many countries.
...like, really 'really'? Well, then, okay...
A katechon ("that which withholds", or "the one who withholds") is a concept from Christian eschatology which has been repurposed by political philosophy of a conservative/reactionary bent.
Originally it meant something or someone who is the reason why the Antichrist hasn't yet arrived, despite the coming of the Antichrist being prophecied to come before the Second Coming of the Christ. Since you can't really have Christian theology without the Bible, the Second Coming is assumed a given, and so the coming of the Antichrist is also a given. So, why hasn't he appeared yet? Well, if the prophecy must come in full, and for that all the steps must come in full, then if they haven't yet all come in full we can assume someone or something which is already here is withholding them from happening.
As far as my understanding goes, it's a pretty lofty concept. But it gets funny when it comes to politics.
See, a katechon isn't the Second Coming of the Christ. Far from it. Second Coming means stuff folds up. It's, like, the opposite. It's a prevention of stuff folding up. There's nothing in there about the means used to prevent it. Freezing stuff in place is just as good as anything else. And that's where politics come in: by "stuff" we mean "society". A katechon might just mean a totalitarian government ruthlessly enforcing a reactionary social order.
Now you can see where's the appeal to righties.
Sure, Russia is a decrepit gangsterocracy ran by an old Soviet apparatchik which boasts AIDS and abortion rates through the roof, but whatever else may come, they are beating the gays. Katechon.
Regardless, the infamous Azov Battalion is basically wiped out at this point. And Russia's still clearly in the wrong, no matter how much whataboutism their supporters try to do.
Apparently "denazification" is not used as much anymore:
Maybe it turned out to be less meme-worthy.
Definitely seen these idiots before.
@Azov: I figure the ultranationalism part comes up in a big way when your country gets invaded.
@Putin: I remember ages ago being surprised to find support for the Russian government from the manosphere, on the basis of Putin being a strongman, apparently manly-man strength is relevant even if it's in the political sense. At the time my impression was that right-wing support for him was hard to come by (even if only vaguely right-wing), so it was odd to see it for a flimsy reason (and that support has only grown since, so here we are).
Things I never thought GMH would ever say.
Well, I appreciate the honesty and wish there was more of it. Plus, Ukraine knows how to play their audience regardless.
Well yeah after Azovstal fell they were all captured and possibly over half of the people who were huddled up in there were taken to Russia as POWs.
Naw I definitely knew this eschatology stuff.
I did not know the NRx plugin bit.
I've definitely seen these katechon people (conveniently enough, people love putting this sort of thing in their twitter or whatever bios) go up against anti-immigration people using essentially libertarian discussions of why immigration should be allowed.
This sounds worse than "we just need a king again!!!" style Yarvinism.
Oh actually this reminds me! Thanks to Monkeypox and gay men who can't keep it in their pants (and their many, many enablers), we've gotten a weird new thing where...
Basically people now claim (in an oddly Jacob Zuma way) that you can barely ever, ever get HIV/other STDs from straight sexual activity and then they went on weird tangents about how actually the super-high rates in Sub-Saharan Africa were due to super weird sexual practices that were detailed in exactly one paper ever from before 2000 and sounds like it did not have very good samples for what it claimed to be looking into.
From that point they would decry how they spent their teen years being afraid of getting an STD when really, only homosexuals would ever need to worry!
Point being I would have chipped in and brought up STD rates in certain European countries but I felt it was pointless to try and argue when somebody is that deep in.