The unimportant news thread

[Ken B]

Not true. Trump made no reference to the immigration lottery when he made that remark in his campaign announcement.

Full text:

https://historymusings.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/full-text-campaign-buzz-2016-june-16-2015-donald-trumps-presidential-announcement-speech-transcript/

The problem with that is the Mahlerian was referring to African immigrants. And Trump *did* say something about not the best that would apply to Africans, but in *that* case it referred to the lottery. So Mahlerian was indeed quoting Trump inaccurately.

[kishnevi]

The whole "Haiti is a shithole" thing is particularly telling given that Haiti is a country created by a slave revolution, which the US refused to have any relations with or allow any Haitians entry until the 1860s because they feared Haitians would incite revolts among American slaves, and which only won international recognition by taking out loans to pay back the slaveholders for their lost property, and then when they couldn't pay back the loans the US invaded Haiti in order to seize its financial reserves.... and later on the US backed a brutal dictator who essentially destroyed Haiti's wealth because of its own geopolitical interests in the Caribbean.... so when Trump claims Haiti is a shithole, guess who played the biggest role in making Haiti an awful place to live for the past 200 years.

Naomi Klein has talked about how the US is doing something similar in Puerto Rico (she calls it the shock doctrine) with the end goal of essentially depopulating the island in order to drive land values down and turn it into a tax haven/free market paradise/upmarket vacation home island for the wealthy. Estimates are that more than 300,000 Puerto Ricans have migrated to the mainland US since September, which is about ten percent of the entire population of the island. If the US still occupied Haiti it would probably be doing the same thing there.

True about Haiti, but unless Klein thinks the US government controls hurricanes, her speculation is more fantasy than anything else.  And in the interim, those three hundred thousand emigrants are immediately eligible to vote, which means Florida might get much bluer by the November election.

[Ken B]

And people call us obsessive ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=c47kn_Y4y8A

[Todd]

Margaret Atwood faces backlash for #MeToo op-ed

[Ken B]

Margaret Atwood faces backlash for #MeToo op-ed

Good for her.
I bet she's quaking in her boots.

[bwv 1080]

"There's great demand for treating warfighter injuries with more natural, holistic remedies," said Col. Thomas Sorrenson, commander of the new program. Holistic medics have to not only know their pharmacology, such as which essential oils to use for local anesthesia, but also practical skills, like stopping a sucking chest wound in under 30 seconds through the power of positive thinking."

[Sergeant Rock]

"There's great demand for treating warfighter injuries with more natural, holistic remedies," said Col. Thomas Sorrenson, commander of the new program. Holistic medics have to not only know their pharmacology, such as which essential oils to use for local anesthesia, but also practical skills, like stopping a sucking chest wound in under 30 seconds through the power of positive thinking."

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Oh, my . . . .

[Todd]

Brazil Joins France in Dangerous Pursuit to Snuff Out Fake News

[Karl Henning]

Oh, lawd:

("Oregon's weather is uniquely adverse"— i.e., it rains there.)

[Todd]

Oh, lawd:

("Oregon's weather is uniquely adverse"— i.e., it rains there.)

Oregon's state government is controlled by Dems, and Dems being Dems, the change mostly affects parts of the state that receive little rain.  Of course, many service stations in low population counties don't have modern pumps that accept point of service payment, so implementation will take years.  All in all, it's about as good a law as one can expect from the Oregon legislature. 

[Ken B]

I was just having a debate on another site. A normally sensible Brit complaining bout those who stand on escalators. Everyone should stand on escalators! At least in crowded condidtions. (The fundamental reason is that laminar flow beats turbulent flow, and the only achievable laminar flow is everyone stands.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/us/escalators-standing-or-walking.html

[Todd]

Comedy News Network HLN's Ashleigh Banfield, doing her part to keep public discourse elevated: "The only sentence a guy like that [Aziz Ansari] deserves is a bad case of blue balls..."

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Daniel Hope gets junior employee of Berlin's Konzerthaus fired out of revenge for a Youtube shred:

Offener Brief an Daniel Hope
VON MORITZ EGGERT

In German; translation coming soon.

[Turner]

Using a biplane for refugee smuggling to Europe

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/police-chase-pilot-after-vintage-biplane-lands-in-hungarian-field-with-migrants-1.3360290?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Todd]

Sexual harassment and assault rife at United Nations, staff claim

Et tu, UN?

[zamyrabyrd]

Welcome to Google where everyday is Halloween!

https://pjmedia.com/trending/damore-suit-google-caters-to-furries-transgenderism-and-a-yellow-scaled-wingless-dragonkin/

[zamyrabyrd]

True about Haiti, but unless Klein thinks the US government controls hurricanes, her speculation is more fantasy than anything else.  And in the interim, those three hundred thousand emigrants are immediately eligible to vote, which means Florida might get much bluer by the November election.

Not unless the Haitians have short memories for how the Clinton Foundation screwed them.

[Baron Scarpia]

Not unless the Haitians have short memories for how the Clinton Foundation screwed them.

? How could the Clinton Foundation have "screwed" them?

[Baron Scarpia]

Wouldn't it be interesting if Trump has to give the state of the union message, but the government is shut down.

"The state of the union is......shut down. Hey, is this microphone working? Did they sent the A/V guy home?"