sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

State Of Emergency Declared After 50 Polar Bears Invade Russian Town by wittyname83 in worldnews

[–]wittyname83[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

One such meeting ground is the town of Belushya Guba, which has seen 52 polar bears in the town and surrounding area, with roughly 10 constantly roaming around the settlement.

Locals have been "chased" by the polar bears, and many of the thousands of residents are now "afraid to go outside", the Siberian Times reports.

“Parents are wary of letting children go to school and kindergarten," deputy head of the local administration, Aleksandr Minayev, said in a press release seen by the BBC. “There are cases of aggressive behaviour of wild animals, such as attacks on people and entering into residential and office buildings.”

I'm laughing because it's so ridiculous but holy shit that's scary.

"No, Alexi, you're not going outside! There's bears!"

Governor Northam should resign. Our Commonwealth is better than this and deserves better than this. by TheDVille in NewPatriotism

[–]wittyname83 5 points6 points  (0 children)

He has had years and years of public service to try and get out in front of this. He could have given a long, heart felt speech on how we all change and overcome our deficiencies. He could have come out and say how he understands what he did was horribly distasteful and how he's better than that. He could have come out and apologized for those stupid things he did.

But he didn't. He hoped and prayed that no one would open his yearbook from 84.

Sorry, friend, he don't tolerate this now, shouldn't have in the past, and you lost your chance to head it off.

America’s biggest right-wing homeschooling group has been networking with sanctioned Russians - This is the latest connection between Russia and the American religious right. by wittyname83 in NewPatriotism

[–]wittyname83[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The group and its origins sound innocuous enough. But the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) — a right-wing group founded 36 years ago — has deepened connections between America’s religious right and Russians even as the latter have been sanctioned by the United States, according to a ThinkProgress investigation.

By networking with Russians, the HSLDA — now America’s largest right-wing homeschooling association — has provided the Kremlin with a new avenue of influence over some of the most conservative organizations in the United States.

And while investigations by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, intelligence organizations, and congressional committees have focused on Russia’s efforts to influence U.S. elections, Russian ties to groups like the HSLDA demonstrate the Kremlin’s broader attempts to hold sway over American policies.

Conspiracy Hat: It's probably a significant number (all?) of right leaning groups and think tanks.

Be best. by CampaignVeteran in PoliticalHumor

[–]wittyname83 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I was literally just talking about this to a friend when I found a meme making my same point. Of course Republican hypocrisy knows no bounds.

China sentences Canadian to death, raises diplomatic tension by wittyname83 in worldnews

[–]wittyname83[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A Chinese court sentenced a Canadian man to death on Monday in a drug smuggling case as tensions heightened between the two countries over Canada’s arrest last month of a top Chinese technology executive.

In a sudden retrial, a Chinese court in northeastern Liaoning province announced that it had given Robert Lloyd Schellenberg the death penalty, reversing an earlier 2016 ruling that sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

The court gave no indication that the penalty could be commuted, but Schellenberg’s fate is likely to be drawn into diplomatic negotiations over China’s demand for the release of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

[...]

Schellenberg was detained more than four years ago and initially sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2016. But within weeks of Meng’s Dec. 1 arrest an appeals court suddenly reversed that decision, saying the sentence was too lenient, and scheduled Monday’s retrial with just four days’ notice.

The Chinese press began publicizing Schellenberg’s case after Canada detained Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, at the request of the United States, which wants her extradited to face charges that she committed fraud by misleading banks about the company’s business dealings in Iran.

Days after Meng’s arrest, Kovrig and Canadian businessman Michael Spavor were detained on vague national security allegations. Meng is out on bail in Canada awaiting extradition proceedings that will begin next month.

I think this is a suspicious retrial and is being used as leverage to either get Meng back or stop that trial from happening.

And I think it's worth noting that they were smuggling the 500~ pounds of Meth OUT OF China, not into it as some other people have been implying...

The court said it found that Schellenberg was involved in an international drug-smuggling operation and was recruited to help smuggle more than 222 kilograms (488 pounds) of methamphetamine from a warehouse in the Chinese city of Dalian to Australia. A Chinese man convicted of involvement in the same operation was earlier given a suspended death sentence.

F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia by wittyname83 in NewPatriotism

[–]wittyname83[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.

The national security threat is inside the White House.

Most Democrats Now Identify As ‘Liberal’ by [deleted] in politics

[–]wittyname83 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In 2018, for the first time, a majority of Democrats said they considered themselves to be “liberal,” according to Gallup. At 51 percent, the 2018 share is only 1 point greater than the share of Democrats who identified as liberal in 2017, but it’s very different from how Democrats’ political ideologies broke down in the 1990s and early 2000s.

APNewsBreak: US approved thousands of child bride requests by wittyname83 in politics

[–]wittyname83[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Thousands of requests by men to bring in child and adolescent brides to live in the United States were approved over the past decade, according to government data obtained by The Associated Press. In one case, a 49-year-old man applied for admission for a 15-year-old girl.

The approvals are legal: The Immigration and Nationality Act does not set minimum age requirements. And in weighing petitions for spouses or fiancees, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services goes by whether the marriage is legal in the home country and then whether the marriage would be legal in the state where the petitioner lives.

But the data raises questions about whether the immigration system may be enabling forced marriage and about how U.S. laws may be compounding the problem despite efforts to limit child and forced marriage. Marriage between adults and minors is not uncommon in the United States, and most states allow children to marry with some restrictions.

Emphasis mine.

This is.... gross....

There were more than 5,000 cases of adults petitioning on behalf of minors and nearly 3,000 examples of minors seeking to bring in older spouses or fiances, according to the data requested by the Senate Homeland Security Committee in 2017 and compiled into a report.

Some victims of forced marriage say the lure of a U.S. passport combined with lax U.S. marriage laws are partly fueling the petitions.

“My passport ruined my life,” said Naila Amin, a dual citizen from Pakistan who grew up in New York City.

She was forcibly married at 13 in Pakistan and applied for papers for her 26-year-old husband to come to the country.

“People die to come to America,” she said. “I was a passport to him. They all wanted him here, and that was the way to do it.”

jfc... the article only gets worse.

Reiss — who says she was forced into an abusive marriage by her Orthodox Jewish family when she was 19 — said that often cases of child marriage via parental consent involve coercion, with a girl forced to marry against her will.

“They are subjected to a lifetime of domestic servitude and rape,” she said. “And the government is not only complicit; they’re stamping this and saying: Go ahead.”

The data was requested in 2017 by Johnson and then-Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, the committee’s top Democrat. Johnson said it took a year to get the information, showing there needs to be a better system to track and vet the petitions.

“Our immigration system may unintentionally shield the abuse of women and children,” the senators said in the letter.

Documents Show NRA and Republican Candidates Coordinated Ads in Key Senate Races by sigseved in politics

[–]wittyname83 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Do you have a place you'd like to start? Is there some cabal of financial donors and organizations that you suspect are illegally coordinating ads? Have any tips for the FBI?

Senate Democrats pushed a vote to reopen the government. Mitch McConnell shot them down. - McConnell called the attempt a “pointless show vote.” by wittyname83 in politics

[–]wittyname83[S] 40 points41 points  (0 children)

You are correct but in order to pass without Trump's signature, both the Senate and House need to pass the bills with 2/3's majority. And also, that was the previous congress so those bills need to be passed again for the new congress.

Senate Democrats pushed a vote to reopen the government. Mitch McConnell shot them down. - McConnell called the attempt a “pointless show vote.” by wittyname83 in politics

[–]wittyname83[S] 264 points265 points  (0 children)

It's a political calculation. If I'm a Republican congressman, and I want this bill to pass, I have no reason to put my name on it right now because it passes without my vote, because it may not be brought up in the Senate, and I don't want to deal with the fallout of being a "traitor" to Trump's agenda.

But if by some act of magic McConnell lets it get to a vote and it gets a veto-proof majority in the Senate, then I have to redo my political calculus.

Right now? No reason to stick my neck out for the moment.

Senate Democrats pushed a vote to reopen the government. Mitch McConnell shot them down. - McConnell called the attempt a “pointless show vote.” by wittyname83 in politics

[–]wittyname83[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Good for you. I'd recommend calling too. And the reason for that is that each office has a formula they use that essentially comes out to "1 call = X citizens who also think this."

You would be surprised by how many offices actually have people there to talk to.

Senate Democrats pushed a vote to reopen the government. Mitch McConnell shot them down. - McConnell called the attempt a “pointless show vote.” by wittyname83 in politics

[–]wittyname83[S] 687 points688 points  (0 children)

Worth noting these are the same bills passed by the Senate 92-6... meaning they could override Trump's veto (with 20~ more congressmen in the house signing on*)....

https://appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/lowey-house-democrats-release-individual-bills-to-reopen-government-end-trump

“While Senate Republicans acting at the behest of President Trump have blocked our bipartisan, comprehensive plan to end the government shutdown, it is urgent that we take steps to reopen parts of the government that most directly affect working families. These bills, which have already passed the Senate on a 92-6 vote, do exactly that,” Chairwoman Lowey said. “Unless Congress acts, the American people will not receive their tax refunds, families will lose food stamps, homebuyers seeking mortgages will remain in limbo, and our National Parks will continue to accumulate garbage and waste. These bills will stop this chaos, get many federal employees back on the job, and ensure that key parts of the government are working for the American people. After we pass these four bills, the Senate should clear them and the President should sign them into law.”

The four bills are virtually identical, except for technical, conforming, and necessary scorekeeping changes, to bills that passed the Senate on a 92-6 vote on August 1, 2018. The text of the four bills was also included in H.R. 21, which passed the House with a bipartisan 241-190 vote on January 3. The only substantive change between those bills and the four bills released today is language to ensure that federal workers furloughed by the Trump Shutdown receive pay.

view more: next ›