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MadFan
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Posts posted by MadFan
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3 hours ago, XXL said:
And can we please stop with the Madonna comparisons. The strong powerful women complex is poisonous, misleading and a tad juvenile. They are both strong powerful women but it doesn't necessarily mean that they should be equally celebrated.
I'd rather look at what a person says Vs what they actually do or have done, male or female
I agree. When Meryl Streep played that dreadful homophobe Margaret Thatcher there was a lot of commentary about her "strength" and iron-clad persona, a "fabulous strong woman" in a male-dominated field, for other women and gays to look up. In reality she was one of the most pernicious and evil political figures in our lifetimes, championing the notion of individualism rather than society -- which took the West by storm and still reigns today. That we're all just independent consumers and should put ourselves over the greater good. She and Reagan are a large reason people hate welfare and they kept the middle and lower classes fighting with one-another while the rich ran off with all the money and power. Just the way they want it.
I feel for left-leaning Americans and this endless cycle of being pulled toward centrism, if not the right altogether.
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1 hour ago, horn said:
Damage control for Brexit?
I'm going with yes.
Gold's a funny one 'cuz most people think it's this fabulous investment but it's not. $1 invested in gold in 1801 would be worth $54 in 2016 - you'd actually lose money because of inflation.
Meanwhile, $1 invested in the stock market in 1801 would be worth $16 million in 2016.
But, perception trumps truth in the current day.
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His momentum is undeniable.
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A points-based system?
What's next, a social credit system like China's?
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Bernie won Nevada by a landslide, getting over 50% of the vote.
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4 hours ago, XXL said:
I wish you knew enough about it too. Because what is happening right now in the world everywhere is nothing to make jokes about. We're slowly but steadfastly tiptoeing into WW3 and permanent economic collapse, not sure what would come first, followed by a 1984 Orwellian style global political system
Unless one means joke as laughing at the idiocy of the puppets the powers that be utilise to implement their own agenda. People like Boris Johnson fit the role perfectly. But yes, cheer on son, with this new immigration point system "we got rid of the Polish builder"
Exactly what I mean. Rampant xenophobia, mental health crises, the shift to the right, the social media divide, sublimating climate change, soaring costs of living and wealth inequality on a global scale - and Chile, Venezuela, and Hong Kong have already started violently. Yemen is being decimated. Revolutions and wars have started over less.
I don't see this going any other way but a breaking point, with major bloodshed. It's in the air - we all feel it.
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I wish I knew enough about history and society to gauge at what point people just revolt.
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@ all of this.
Release Hawaii and make England the 50th US state.
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3 hours ago, Intervention_78 said:
I think Bernie and Elizabeth are nice people and have the best intentions for this country but some of their views are hard to sell to the American people (student loan forgiveness? Medicare for all?). I think it'll be between Bloomberg, Pete or Biden.
Democratic socialism is a tough sell in the US because there's almost no sense of community there. It's all about ME ME ME and at most your 'nuclear family.' So how do you turn such an individualistic society into one who cares about, well, society?
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That article was fabulous and dead-on - it's not about silencing journalists anymore; it's about assaulting people with so much information that they question what's true, become exhausted finding it, and give up.
"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth."
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Coronavirus kills Chinese whistleblower doctor
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51403795
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Suuure it did.
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Buttigieg's a moderate Republican. He's being financed by corporate interests and his policies have been changing accordingly. Wants to keep medicare firmly market-based, supports charter schools, supports continued military invention in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, wants to increase the defense budget (which is already more than $700 billion).
No thanks, not interested. Sanders all the way.
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I feel as though we're on this trajectory toward peril that we just can't stop, until the breaking point. There's too much momentum and too much to undo.
It's sad, and scary.
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Wishing for a second Scotland referendum.
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Can't get over all this - so many people and animals displaced.
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In some smaller communities here, parents leave their children outside the supermarket in their pushchairs.
Americans would be mortified.
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You can't pass a TV screen here without seeing it - it's really awful and sadly will continue to happen (and worse) if climate change keeps being ignored.
I hope your citizens are less docile than Canadians are...
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Church officials can now share information with secular law enforcement authorities. Critics said the confidentiality rule led to the concealment of abuse.
ROME — The Vatican on Tuesday said it would abolish the high level of secrecy it has applied to sexual-abuse accusations against clerics, ending a policy that critics said had often shielded priests from criminal punishment by the secular authorities.
Removing that cloak of confidentiality, the Roman Catholic Church is changing its stance to make it acceptable — but not required — to turn information about abuse claims over to the police, prosecutors and judges.
In recent years, church officials in the United States and some other countries have shared with civil authorities information about some sexual abuse allegations. But that cooperation, in theory, defied a decree adopted in 2001 that made the information a “pontifical secret” — the church’s most classified knowledge.
Victims and their advocates said the restrictions hampered civil authorities and helped conceal crimes, and they greeted Francis’ new instructions as a step forward.
“Things are decidedly changing,” said Francesco Zanardi, an Italian survivor of clerical abuse and the president of Rete l’Abuso, an Italian anti-abuse group.
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a group that tracks abuse in the church, said the pope had taken “an overdue and desperately needed step.”
“For decades, pontifical secrecy has been an obstruction to civil justice, spurring bishops worldwide to thwart prosecutions of abusive priests,” Ms. Barrett Doyle said in a statement. She called changing the policy “a first step toward decreasing the anti-victim bias of canon law.”
On Tuesday, the pope also made the canon law against child pornography more stringent, a change that victims’ groups had pushed for. Previously, possession or dissemination of pornographic images of children under 14 was considered a “most grave crime.” That category that will now apply to images of children under 18.
The secrecy change is the latest step in the church’s attempts to tackle the sexual abuse crisis that has dogged it for decades. Growing global pressure for greater accountability forced the issue to the front of Pope Francis’ agenda.
In response to the demands for change, Francis convened a summit meeting of church leaders in February to address the crisis. It ended with a call “for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors” and insistence that the church needed to protect children “from ravenous wolves.”
Weeks after that meeting, the pope issued a new canon law, requiring for the first time that church officials report abuse charges to Vatican prosecutors. Francis then issued a rule requiring that all church officials report to their superiors either abuse allegations or attempts to cover them up.
The rule announced on Tuesday was also a product of the February meeting, the Vatican said.
“This is a sign of openness, transparency and the willingness to collaborate with the civil authorities,” Andrea Tornielli, the editorial director of the Vatican’s communications office, wrote in a commentary.
Under the new norms, “any reporting, testimony and documents” related to sexual abuse “can now be handed over when requested to lawful authorities in their respective countries,” Mr. Tornielli wrote.
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I think karbatal means would you be willing to bend, and see "both sides". Whenever I hear that kind of rhetoric I think that that's what they said about us "regular gays" 25 years ago, and still do in many parts of the world today. Is there a "both sides" to passing anti-discrimination laws for gay people in employment, housing, education, public accommodations? How about black people using the same water fountains, movie theatres, schools, bus seats? What's up for discussion?
I'm glad that human biology was brought up - imagine the discussion was segregating black athletes from certain sports because on average they have greater lean body mass than non-black athletes. Or Dutch women because they tend to be taller. That would be absurd, right?
And yes, when gay men flirt with transphobia (and it happens often) it's particularly egregious. Just because we have it better than we ever have does not mean we should turn our backs on the group that is by far the most marginalized, and who has gone to bat for us many, many times.
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(NEW YORK) — J.K. Rowling is facing widespread criticism from the transgender community and other activists after tweeting support for a researcher who lost her job for stating that people cannot change their biological sex.
The researcher, Maya Forstater, had been a visiting fellow at the Centre for Global Development, which in March declined to renew her contract. A London judge this week upheld her dismissal, finding that her views of sexual identity were “absolutist,” even if they violate someone’s “dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.”
On Thursday morning, Rowling tweeted a response that said:
The Harry Potter author is otherwise known for her liberal political views and many on Twitter labeled her a TERF (Trans Exclusive Radical Feminist). Among those criticizing her was the Human Rights Campaign, which tweeted:
A spokeswoman for Rowling said that the author would not have any further comment.
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46 minutes ago, horn said:
First class had the most carbon footprint
She didn't buy a first class seat. She sat on the floor and then one became available, and she took it. I really don't get what your point is here...
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4 hours ago, karbatal said:
I don't like her because she's absurdly simplistic and a fake product.
Karby honey, who isn't simplistic at 16?
Her role is as public figurehead to inspire people and raise awareness across the world, hence the 'spectacles' like boating across the ocean etc. It makes people take pause and notice. A video conference would be like every other video conference about climate change: ignored.
The planning and policy should come from our governments, but they're doing fuck all.
2020 U.S. Election
in Politics and World Events
Posted
Absolutely. I've seen this point made in this thread, but it bears repeating that Bernie Sanders would be considered about centre-left in Canada and from what I gather most of the Western world. If any political candidate tried to abolish universal healthcare here, they would be considered further right than the most far-right party that we have, and laughed out of the room. It's heartbreaking for me that Americans will once again likely not be able to vote for universal healthcare. Having to make choices like putting food on the table or getting medical treatment - that's not histrionic rhetoric, that's reality. That the GOP party is so far right that any "electable Democrat" has to basically be 'Conservative-lite' is insane - and left-wing Americans have to compromise their values and desires every election. That's exactly why Bernie Sanders appeals to so many people - it's some long-needed fucking normality, and it's absolutely abnormal that he would not be able to pass common-sense legislation even if he were elected. That's not a failure on the part of Bernie, but on American society.
It might be frustrating for Americans to see the rest of us weighing in all the time, I honestly just want what's best for you guys because it impacts all of us and historically the US and Canada have had a fabulous relationship. Huge symbolic ripples across the world obviously - the far right globally feel more emboldened than they have in decades. Foreign policy, trade, etc. And back to healthcare, Coronavirus is going to spread much more than it would have, in your country and mine, because Trump's administration gutted the government agency that focused on tackling these scenarios, and disregarded the WHO. You also have a large population who are forced financially to work while symptomatic and especially to avoid medical treatment. And yet here we are watching as you go into yet another election where you likely will not have a candidate who promises healthcare to be free at the point of access, and couldn't get it passed anyway.
Obviously, I'd vote for a hair pin over Trump lol.
Wishing you guys the best.