'Murica

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:40 am

Bipartisan bill proposed to give Israel veto on US arms sales to Middle East

Legislation would require US president to consult with Jerusalem to ensure qualitative military edge concerns are settled; proposal comes ahead of planned sale of F-35s to UAE

WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bipartisan bill introduced in the House of Representatives would enhance protections for Israel’s qualitative military edge to include an effective Israeli veto on US arms sales to the Middle East.

The bill “would require the President to consult with the Israeli government to ensure [qualitative military edge] concerns are settled” when it comes to arms sales to Middle Eastern countries, said the news release Friday announcing its introduction the previous day. The release came from the office of the bill’s lead sponsor, Illinois Democrat Rep. Brad Schneider.

Existing law already guarantees Israel a qualitative military edge in the Middle East, but Congress — not Israel — is the arbiter of whether an arms sale meets QME standards.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/bipartisa ... ddle-east/

Fid · Post by **Fid** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:14 am

Goddammit how the fuck are we supposed to bring Jesus back without a red heffer and Jews as crazy as fuck?
"Well Fid it's like this...have a seat son this could take awhile...

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 11:50 pm

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Oct 09, 2020 10:35 pm

Reality killed satire.

Hotarubi · Post by **Hotarubi** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 12:17 pm

Losers.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:33 am

Richard Nixon gifting Leonid Brezhnev a Lincoln Continental, Camp David, June 19, 1973

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Sun Oct 11, 2020 8:00 am

Somebody was born in a barn.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:52 pm

No wolves?

Anaxagoras · Post by **Anaxagoras** » Mon Oct 12, 2020 1:55 pm

gnome · Post by **gnome** » Mon Oct 12, 2020 4:37 pm

Well then! I'm going to be living in the state of 2208 black bear observations. Wish me luck!

Jim Gaffigan wrote:Last time I went I got this pamphlet that said if a bear approaches you're supposed to play dead. Really, we're going to rely on my acting skills? Play dead? Who came up with that - maybe the bears? 'Play dead, cover yourself in honey, climb on a large white plate. Don't try to run away from us, I mean the bears.'"

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Oct 15, 2020 11:24 pm

Rural America 2020 billboard outside the Des Moines Airport where Trump will hold his hangar rally

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:30 pm

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/loc ... e-of-jesus

A priest in Bay Village says someone called police to report a homeless person. Turns out, it was actually a statue of Jesus.

Within 20 minutes of the sculpture being installed at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, police were called, according to Alex Martin, the pastor at St. Barnabas.

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Fri Oct 16, 2020 3:53 pm

Seem that that was suppose to be the point?

His brother Thomas told him to take a hike.

– J.D.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:07 pm

A cynical person might think that they installed the sculpture with full expectation that someone would do exactly what that law-abiding citizen did, thereby getting the church's name and the associated appeal for donations into the news.

Doctor X · Post by **Doctor X** » Fri Oct 16, 2020 9:59 pm

Well, he does look like a child molester.

– J.D.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:37 am

Vermont First State Requiring Secondary Schools To Give Out Free Condoms

Vermont will become the first state in the nation to make free condoms available in public middle and high schools next year after Gov. Scott signed a bill last week that expands access to contraceptives across the state.

Some of the country's largest school districts have free condoms available, but no other state requires its secondary schools to have them according to the National Coalition of STD Directors.

Barre Republican Representative Topper McFaun introduced the bill, and says if teenagers have more access to contraceptives and health education; it might lead to a reduction in the number of abortions that are performed.

Vermont's abortion rate for teens ages 15-19 is about seven per 1,000, slightly lower than the national average.

https://www.vpr.org/post/vermont-first- ... s#stream/0

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Oct 19, 2020 3:22 am

Kindergarten teacher Helen Hulick, who was a witness to a burglary, was given a five-day sentence and sent to jail because she wore pants to her courtroom testimony in Los Angeles, 1938.

https://www.latimes.com/local/californi ... story.html

shuize · Post by **shuize** » Mon Oct 19, 2020 6:19 am

I think there is reasonable suspicion she wasn't wearing a bra either.

Quite the rebel.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Oct 20, 2020 2:47 am

shuize · Post by **shuize** » Tue Oct 20, 2020 3:16 am

Wrong.

Funny but wrong.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:43 am

Credit: https://twitter.com/bocachicagal?lang=en

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 2:15 am

US, Saudi Arabia and Uganda join forces to declare women have no intrinsic right to abortion

Ten of world’s 20 worst countries for women sign declaration organised by Trump administration

The Trump administration has joined 32 illiberal or authoritarian countries in declaring that women have no intrinsic right to abortion.

The Geneva Consensus Declaration, which received no support from America’s liberal allies, calls on states to protect the health and “inalienable rights” of women, but appears largely aimed at curbing global abortion rights and promoting heterosexual family units.

It was co-sponsored by Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Uganda and the US, and was also signed by a host of autocratic countries including Saudi Arabia, Belarus and the United Arab Emirates.

“In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning,” states the declaration, which was signed during a virtual gathering of countries in Washington DC on Thursday.

It adds: “There is no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of states to finance or facilitate abortion.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 50419.html

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Nov 07, 2020 11:13 pm

Most Nebraskans voted to abolish slavery as criminal punishment. But 32% voted to keep it

The good news: Nebraskans voted this week to eradicate from the state’s Constitution the provision that slavery could be used as punishment for crimes.

The bad: An electorate the size of Lincoln said they were OK with punitive slavery.

The results left the architect of the constitutional amendment — State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha — scratching his head. On the one hand, Nebraska didn’t need two tries to strip prison slavery from its Constitution as Colorado did, finally passing it in 2018.

On the other hand, 274,138 Nebraska voters — nearly one out of three — effectively decided they weren’t ready to eliminate slave labor from prisons.

The vote on Amendment 1 differed sharply along geographic lines and population size.

The strongest support came from the eastern part of the state, and from the largest three counties: Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy.

The most opposition came from smaller, rural counties — especially in western Nebraska. Of the 10 least populated Nebraska counties, nine voted against Amendment 1.

https://omaha.com/news/state-and-region ... 97865.html

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Nov 09, 2020 3:37 am

Mississippians adopt new state flag after Confederate emblem flew for 126 years

Mississippi voters, after decades of debate and a failed ballot effort 19 years ago, adopted a new state flag on Tuesday, according to NBC News and Associated Press projections.

The flag, approved by a majority of voters, features the words “In God We Trust” instead of the divisive Confederate battle emblem that previously flew for 126 years.

The Mississippi Legislature in June removed the old flag, which was adopted by racist lawmakers in 1894. It was the last in the nation to carry the divisive Confederate battle emblem. Lawmakers faced growing pressure from religious, business, sports and community leaders to remove the vestige of the state’s Jim Crow past from a flag flying over the state with the largest percentage population of Black residents.

An appointed commission reviewed about 3,000 public submissions for new flag designs over the summer and in September chose the new design with a magnolia and stars — a combination of multiple submissions.

https://mississippitoday.org/2020/11/03 ... 126-years/

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 2:57 am

Gray wolves to be reintroduced to Colorado in unprecedented vote

Voters in the state narrowly approved a ballot initiative, Proposition 114, paving the way for gray wolves to be reintroduced into Colorado, where they were hunted to extinction by the1940s. This is the first time a state has voted to reintroduce an animal to the ecosystem.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife department will lead the effort to establish a sustainable population of the animals in the western part of the state beginning in 2022 or 2023. The Southern Rocky Mountains contain millions of acres of suitable habitat—where wolves once thrived—land that could support several hundred wolves or more, biologists say.

Opponents of the initiative conceded they had lost on November 5, but the vote was close: As of Thursday afternoon, with 90 percent of the votes in, there were 1,495,523 votes for and 1,475,235 against. But most of the remaining uncounted votes come from urban areas that strongly support reintroduction.

“Reintroducing wolves will restore Colorado's natural balance,” says Jonathan Proctor, a conservationist with the group Defenders of Wildlife, which assisted the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund in passing the measure.

Supporters say it’s especially timely, since the federal government removed Endangered Species Act protections for the animals in the contiguous U.S. in late October. (Learn more: Gray wolves taken off U.S. endangered species list in controversial move.)

The Colorado reintroduction initiative was opposed by many in rural areas, including ranchers, who worry that wolves will kill their cattle.

Many of these opponents have objected to leaving the question of reintroduction to voters, rather than state wildlife officials.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/anim ... roduction/

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:59 am

It's a noble idea. All will be well up until there is a shortage of field mice and hares. Then, they will remember why these wolves were hunted into extinction in 1940. That may be decades though.

Grammatron · Post by **Grammatron** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:15 pm

Yes, there are reasons why most old world folklore is about the dangers of wolves.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Nov 11, 2020 1:54 am

Rob Lister wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:59 am All will be well up until there is a shortage of field mice and hares.

One wonders how Nature ever managed without humans.

Grammatron · Post by **Grammatron** » Wed Nov 11, 2020 5:20 am

Witness wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 1:54 am
Rob Lister wrote: ↑Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:59 am All will be well up until there is a shortage of field mice and hares.
One wonders how Nature ever managed without humans.

Savagely.

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Nov 12, 2020 12:12 am

↑ Well said, Grammy. When one looks at the details it's often just horrible…

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:14 am

https://acleddata.com/2020/09/03/demons ... mmer-2020/ (lots of details, maps, &c.)

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sat Nov 14, 2020 1:17 am

Rob Lister · Post by **Rob Lister** » Sat Nov 14, 2020 7:19 am

I'm not sure what the current rules are but military enlistment is not an automatic path to citizenship. Last I remember it was ten years service.

Pyrrho · Post by **Pyrrho** » Sat Nov 14, 2020 6:43 pm

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Sun Nov 15, 2020 4:47 am

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Mon Nov 16, 2020 11:24 pm

New Alabama senator struggles with basic WWII history and says US fought ‘socialism and communism’

It’s not his only recent gaffe about history

Tommy Tuberville, the incoming Republican senator from Alabama, doubled down on his erroneous grasp of World War II history in comments on Thursday, telling a news site his father, a US soldier, fought to “free Europe of socialism.”

“I tell people, my dad fought 76 years ago in Europe to free Europe of Socialism,” he told Alabama Daily News. “Today, you look at this election, we have half this country that made some kind of movement, now they might not believe in it 100 per cent, but they made some kind of movement toward socialism.”

Last week, he made a similar remark in a speech to supporters, recounting that his father was part of “liberating Paris from socialism and communism.”

Though the full name of the Nazis was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, they were fascists, not socialists. And the Soviet Union, a US ally during the war, was communist.

During the campaign, in which Mr Tuberville, the former football coach of Auburn University, defeated Democratic incumbent Doug Jones, the Republican had another factual mix-up, appearing not to understand what the landmark Voting Rights Act is.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 22828.html

Only the best people…

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 12:59 am

Spoiler:

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Wed Nov 18, 2020 10:48 pm

"The New American Gothic" by Criselda Vasquez (her parents, in fact):

Witness · Post by **Witness** » Thu Nov 19, 2020 11:31 pm

Arizona. Sound on.

Fid · Post by **Fid** » Fri Nov 20, 2020 1:13 am

Cats...jeez