Not enough Whisky for this Tango Foxtrot

[Frelga]

It's one of those internet things I know by osmosis. But how one gets from friendship is magic to mass murder is not something I can comprehend.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I guess I'll put this here, as it is certainly worth saying WTF about (yes, I know it is from last year).

Secret recording: O’Donnell, Capps, Clendenin plot how to get away with Whipple smear

A secret recording released Friday shows that three Republican officials sought to frame the county’s Republican chairman for a falsified ad they put together smearing then-mayoral candidate Brandon Whipple. One compared their mission to that of the man who shot Wichita abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

“Us Republicans, we all agree,” Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell said. “The murder of George Tiller was bad. But am I sad that he’s dead? No. I’m just glad I’m not the one who pulled the trigger.”

Tiller was assassinated in 2009 by anti-abortion extremist Scott Roeder during a Sunday morning service while Tiller was serving as an usher at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita.

State Rep. Michael Capps said the anti-Whipple video was justifiable to derail Whipple’s candidacy, because he’s a “liberal Democrat.”

“It’s what we do,” Capps said. “It’s the way the system works. Nobody wants to know how the sausage is made, they only want the sausage when it’s done. And that’s the principle: This is the sausage making — nobody likes to see that.”

[N.E. Brigand]

The perpetrator of the Indiana FedEx facility shooting which killed eight people was an obsessive My Little Pony fan.

Posts on Brandon Hole’s since-taken-down Facebook page appear to indicate he was a member of the “Bronies” community — a group of mostly adult men who are extreme fans of the kiddie toys and animated television show, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Some members are sexually attracted to the characters, while the group also has allegedly displayed far-right tendencies.

“I hope that I can be with Ap­ple­jack [the main character] in the af­ter­life, my life has no mean­ing with­out her,” Hole wrote on his Facebook page at 10:19 p.m. Thursday, less than an hour before his rampage began, the outlet reported.

Apparently My Little Pony fandom is riddled with white nationalism and far-right extremism.

I have tried to write some sort of response to all this. I've got nothing.

One suggestion I saw as to why this is that Bronies already feel like outcasts from society and are thus easier picking for extremist recruiters. I'm probably oversimplifying the argument though.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Ethics Committee in Missouri's state House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans, has recommended the expulsion of Rep. Rick Roeber, a Republican representing statehouse district 34, located southeast of Kansas City, after determining that evidence he had abused his two children (now adults) when they were aged 5 and 9 was credible. Roeber was elected after those allegations came to light last year.

[Maria]

Ah... Missouri. Why do I stay here?

And don't forget when we elected a dead man to the US Senate back in 2000.

[Frelga]

Compared to some of the live ones we have, that may have been an improvement.

[Frelga]

It's one of those internet things I know by osmosis. But how one gets from friendship is magic to mass murder is not something I can comprehend.

Ah, so that's how.

https://twitter.com/PostCultRev/status/ ... 48808?s=19

So weird to see fans of “My Little Ponies” learn what every punk and metal bar in the 1980s had to learn the hard way: Let the Nazis in and regardless of your intentions you’re now the Nazi bar

The thread linked expounds on the premise specifically as applied to My Little Pony, but the moral is simple - don't let Nazis in.

https://twitter.com/woot_master/status/ ... 24737?s=19

[Túrin Turambar]

Can a fandom keep extremists out, though? Obviously site admins can ban them, but there isn't a door to liking My Little Pony which anyone can post a doorman at.

For comparison, there are a sizeable number of white nationalists who are Tolkien fans, to the point that Stormfront needed a sub-forum to discuss Tolkien-related content at one point. Was there anything we, or the broader fandom, could have done to stop them?

[N.E. Brigand]

And in a chilling article:
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/77024971 ... -and-trump
What else aren't we being told because it might damage a powerful person? I'm really, really, really freakin tired of the rich and/or powerful being propped up above the law.
And once again I wonder where we are with exposing and prosecuting those involved with Epstein. Nobody is a solo sex-trafficker.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/busi ... state.html
This has been my WTF browse through the news today. And it's only 10am

Unfortunately, the rich and powerful have far too often circumvented the law and consequences of their crimes throughout history. It is no wonder the poor and weak cling/clung to the idea of a divine being who sees all and will judge all from a purely moral perspective. It also explains why so many had a problem with the selling of 'indulgences' as if the church/priests could 'grease the palm' of God for entry into heaven. What a mixed up world of manipulation!

Hmm. https://newrepublic.com/article/161060/leon-black-american-tradition-impunity

After a year of mounting pressure from investors and outside critics, Leon Black, the billionaire chief executive of private equity giant Apollo Global Management, announced on Monday that he would step down later this year. Apparently the revelation that Black gave $148 million to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein for supposed financial advice was enough to provoke an internal revolt among Apollo’s leadership.

The author of that article notes: "I asked a tax lawyer and apparently it is not normal to be paid $148 million for tax advice, just so we're clear."

New reporting on Epstein from Vanity Fair:

"The Mogul and the Monster: Inside Jeffrey Epstein's Decades-Long Relationship with his Biggest Client"

Les Wexner, the founder of The Limited, whose company also owns Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie and Fitch, Express, and Bath & Body Works, is Ohio's richest man, according to Forbes, with a net worth of $4.5 billion. Until recently, he was Epstein's only known client. The article attempts to understand why Wexner entrusted Epstein to manage his money.

A couple passages from the article:

According to sources, Epstein took an interest in Wexner’s romantic life. In 1985, New York magazine put Wexner on the cover with the headline “The Bachelor Billionaire.” Wexner dated but the relationships didn’t tend to last. Around the time Wexner met Epstein, Wexner broke up with a Columbus woman. According to sources, Epstein showed up at her house with a multimillion-dollar check and told her to stay away from Wexner. (The woman declined requests for comment.)

Maria Farmer [Epstein's personal assistant in 1996, who later accused Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of sexually assaulting her at Wexner's estate in New Albany, OH] ... was also unsettled by strange visitors coming and going at the house. She recalled government officials making pilgrimages to meet Epstein for unexplained reasons. What frightened her most, though, were the children. Farmer said she witnessed Maxwell escorting countless high school–age girls to meet Epstein, supposedly to interview for modeling jobs. “Every afternoon. Ghislaine would run out saying, ‘I need to get the nubiles!’ ” Farmer recalled. (Maxwell’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.)

The article raises more new questions than it answers. It does debunk the rumor that Epstein bought his Manhattan home (one of the city's largest) from Wexner for just one dollar -- a rumor Epstein himself spread. He actually paid $20 million.

[N.E. Brigand]

Uh, per Politico, William Braddock, a Florida man who recently filed as a candidate for the U.S. House in 2022, was recorded by an activist from his own party last week warning her not to support Anna Paulina Luna, one of the other candidates vying for his party's nomination. Braddock said that if Luna looked likely to win the nomination, he'd have her killed:

I really don't want to have to end anybody's life for the good of the people of the United States of America. That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Luna is a f---ing speed bump in the road. She's a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood. ... I have access to a hit squad, too, Ukrainians and Russians ... don't get caught out in public supporting Luna … Luna’s gonna go down and I hope it's by herself.

The recording was turned over to police, and Luna has obtained a restraining order against Braddock.

(source: In secret recording, Florida Republican threatens to send Russian-Ukrainian ‘hit squad’ after rival)

[elengil]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There are aspect of this that could go in either the 2020 Election thread, or the Challenges Ahead thread, but really, this is the only thread that this can go in.

Video shows Osama bin Laden's niece waving a flag saying 'Trump won' on a lake outside the Biden-Putin summit

[Túrin Turambar]

For those who haven't been following the adventures of Milo Yiannopolous since he was banned from pretty much everything (and I don't really blame you), he's now trying to build a public profile in Evangelical circles as a high-profile ex-gay activist. His latest move is to announce that he's starting a gay conversion resort in Florida. Because apparently sending repressed gay men to hang out together on a beach in Florida will 'cure' them.

He also made a big deal of throwing his engagement ring into the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps one of the stunts will stick. Then again, people are talking about him again.

[Frelga]

Yes, but gay conversion which way?

I'm happy to say that none of my streams picked up anything at all about him, and I was able to erase his existence from my memory. Until now.

[elengil]

Yes, but gay conversion which way?

I always felt that the whole 'gay conversion' concept would get made illegal so fast it'd make your head spin if it was converting people to being gay. I want someone to open a to-gay conversion clinic just to force the issue and maybe we'd finally get rid of that damn idea all together.

[Frelga]

Apparently the Gulf of Mexico is on fire right now?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 021-07-02/

[Frelga]

20210702_162505.jpg (77.37 KiB) Viewed 4278 times

[Dave_LF]

Radioactive Boar-Pig Hybrids Emerge From Fukushima Disaster Site, According To Study

[Frelga]

Is this them?

Hidden text.

20210702_171502.jpg (10.52 KiB) Viewed 4268 times