General news thread

[Belesarius]

1 minute ago, Donward said:

 

And then taken to a triage utilizing only homeopathic remedies.

Oregano Oil!

 

Applied via a healing crystal in some random body orifice.

 

[ApplesauceBandit]

On 11/30/2018 at 6:00 AM, ApplesauceBandit said:

 

Full clip in spoiler

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Was rather busy at the time so wasn't able to give the full video a proper watch through, but the person I originally got that from neglected to mention that the person speaking was some dude stretching things to intentionally make it sound bad. I couldn't really find much at the time of posting that to fact check with, including the actual document, but my time has freed up now.   How bad it actually is probably depends on how pessimistic you are, but reads to me like it doesn't really change anything.

 

https://undocs.org/A/CONF.231/3

 

Relevant area is objective 17 "Eliminate all forms of discrimination and promote evidence-based public discourse to shape perceptions of migration"
 

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33. We commit to eliminate all forms of discrimination, condemn and counter expressions, acts and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, violence, xenophobia and related intolerance against all migrants in conformity with international human rights law. We further commit to promote an open and evidence-based public discourse on migration and migrants in partnership with all parts of society, that generates a more realistic, humane and constructive perception in this regard. We also commit to protect freedom of expression in accordance with international law, recognizing that an open and free debate contributes to a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of migration.

 

To realize this commitment, we will draw from the following actions:

(a) Enact, implement or maintain legislation that penalizes hate crimes and aggravated hate crimes targeting migrants, and train law enforcement and other public officials to identify, prevent and respond to such crimes and other acts of violence that target migrants, as well as to provide medical, legal and psychosocial assistance for victims;

(b) Empower migrants and communities to denounce any acts of incitement to violence directed towards migrants by informing them of available mechanisms for redress, and ensure that those who actively participate in the A/CONF.231/3 18-12606 23/31 commission of a hate crime targeting migrants are held accountable, in accordance with national legislation, while upholding international human rights law, in particular the right to freedom of expression;

(c) Promote independent, objective and quality reporting of media outlets, including Internet-based information, including by sensitizing and educating media professionals on migration-related issues and terminology, investing in ethical reporting standards and advertising, and stopping allocation of public funding or material support to media outlets that systematically promote intolerance, xenophobia, racism and other forms of discrimination towards migrants, in full respect for the freedom of the media;

(d) Establish mechanisms to prevent, detect and respond to racial, ethnic and religious profiling of migrants by public authorities, as well as systematic instances of intolerance, xenophobia, racism and all other multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, in partnership with national human rights institutions, including by tracking and publishing trend analyses, and ensuring access to effective complaint and redress mechanisms;

(e) Provide migrants, especially migrant women, with access to national and regional complaint and redress mechanisms with a view to promoting accountability and addressing governmental actions related to discriminatory acts and manifestations carried out against migrants and their families;

(f) Promote awareness-raising campaigns targeted at communities of origin, transit and destination in order to inform public perceptions regarding the positive contributions of safe, orderly and regular migration, based on evidence and facts, and to end racism, xenophobia and stigmatization against all migrants;

(g) Engage migrants, political, religious and community leaders, as well as educators and service providers, to detect and prevent incidences of intolerance, racism, xenophobia and other forms of discrimination against migrants and diasporas, and support activities in local communities to promote mutual respect, including in the context of electoral campaigns

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

 

[LoooSeR]

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The incident occurred near the village of Mays al-Jabal on the morning of 12/08/2018 when the Lebanese army intelligence soldiers approached the fence, where the enemy installed sensors. They made 2 shots into the sky.

LAF searched a place after IDF personal was working nearby, with IDF trying to scare them away with 2 rounds fired.

 

 

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   Some crap left on Lebanon side of border by Israelis:

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

Russian agent in Gorka working under disguise of French police.

 

 

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[LoooSeR]

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   SBU accused Moscow of organizing protests in France

 

   Russian intelligence services may be involved in organizing anti-government protests in France. This was announced on Facebook by the Security Service of Ukraine. Thus, the radicals in France act "under the supervision of" employees of the FSB and the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, the Security Service of Ukraine states.

 

   As evidence of the accusations against Russia, the Ukrainian department published a photo from Paris, which depicts two people in yellow vests holding a flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

 

   “International borders are not an obstacle for Russian hybrid aggression. Using dirty methods, the Kremlin is destroying European stability, seeing in it a threat to itself,” said Vasyl Gritsak, Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine.

 

   In addition, the statement says that the Russian special services, which "behind the back of peaceful demonstrators are resorting to organizing unrest and acts of violence in France," allegedly are preparing "similar provocations" in Belgium, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria and other European countries.

 

Soon...

[LoooSeR]

 

 

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[Alzoc]

At least the protester will have achieved giving plenty of meme material to the whole world ^^

(that's one thing right?)

[Lord_James]

Are the people of France realizing they aren’t actually free? 

[Alzoc]

More like behaving like spoiled children.

You can't at the same time ask for less tax and more public service, that's just plain stupid.

 

I have no sympathy for those guys, and while I can understand that nobody would be happy about more taxes on fuel it doesn't gives them the right to use violence.

Protesting is a fundamental right but it has to be done within the boundary of the law, using violence and going against the results of democratic elections stripped them of any legitimacy they might have had in my eyes (~100 000 protesters do not represent the People as a whole).

Next elections, maybe some of them will actually bother to vote.

They didn't bothered to last time, so while they can say that they aren't happy with the results it doesn't gives them the right to overturn them.

[Ramlaen]

The yellow vests are demanding more public services? Over here the visuals are protests against rediculously destructive taxes.

[Alzoc]

36 minutes ago, Ramlaen said:

The yellow vests are demanding more public services? Over here the visuals are protests against rediculously destructive taxes.

 

The yellow vest are mostly an aggregation of people being discontent with one thing or another, there's no coherent whole, no political project.

They're just venting out anger, the increased taxes on fuel was just what set things up.

 

That's partly the reason why they have such a high support in the population in polls, everybody always have a reason to be unhappy with a government for something.

Le Monde did a compilation of all the request they heard and it's all over the place going from the far left to the far right with some wishful thinking thrown into the mix (Yes it would be wonderful if we could offer a roof to every single homeless, doesn't mean that it's possible).

 

Which isn't all that surprising given that during the last presidential election the far left and the far right got around 20% each, the conservative right 20% and Macron 24%

They are just an aggregation of all the discontent, so they were dismissed as inconsequent by a lot of peoples (me included) and everybody was waiting for things to just calm down.

 

What really surprised everybody was the size the movement took and the level of violence the protest reached.

Right now they are slowly losing support and the number of protester is falling.

No idea of how things will evolve, and I don't think that anybody would dare to try to predict it.

They are just like a wild unpredictable animal, you see that it is angry but you don't know why or how to deal with it.

[Ulric]

You will get many Americans who are sympathetic to protests over ridiculously destructive taxes.

[Alzoc]

1 minute ago, Ulric said:

You will get many Americans who are sympathetic to protests over ridiculously destructive taxes. 

 

I know^^

 

While the level of taxes in France is objectively extremely high it also serve to finance our extremely generous social system.

You can't have the cake and eat it and if there is one thing every French is extremely attached to it's their Public services, to an even higher level than most other Europeans.

I know that it's something completely alien to most Americans (just like the American system is completely alien for most Europeans).

[LoooSeR]

 

 

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[LoooSeR]

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   Military Media Media reports:

   The soldiers of the Israeli enemy after warning the Lebanese army removed three lines of sensory wires, which they installed yesterday outside the technical fence on the Lebanese border. Against this background, the Israeli enemy’s army began to create obstacles (rubble of earth and stones) in the occupied territories 40 meters away from the Blue Line opposite the city of Mays al-Jabal.

 

 

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[LoooSeR]

Brussels

 

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[Xoon]

On 12/5/2018 at 10:17 PM, ApplesauceBandit said:

 

Was rather busy at the time so wasn't able to give the full video a proper watch through, but the person I originally got that from neglected to mention that the person speaking was some dude stretching things to intentionally make it sound bad. I couldn't really find much at the time of posting that to fact check with, including the actual document, but my time has freed up now.   How bad it actually is probably depends on how pessimistic you are, but reads to me like it doesn't really change anything.

 

https://undocs.org/A/CONF.231/3

 

Relevant area is objective 17 "Eliminate all forms of discrimination and promote evidence-based public discourse to shape perceptions of migration"
 

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I am honestly wondering if Norway could be become a US state. 

 

I liked the EU. Liked.

Honestly, the EU seems to be going more and more to the shitter. 

 

Oh well, maybe a Nordic Federation is a possibility now. 

[Lord_James]

26 minutes ago, Xoon said:

 

Oh well, maybe a Nordic Federation is a possibility now. 

 

Watch how fast the remaining EU will brand you as traitors or such if you leave and create a new (and/or better) northern EU. 

[Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect]

Ten years from now brexit will be remembered as a great idea.

[Xoon]

1 hour ago, Lord_James said:

 

Watch how fast the remaining EU will brand you as traitors or such if you leave and create a new (and/or better) northern EU. 

Simply fortify the Kiel canal and Baltic forests, and let time do it's job. 

 

Maybe ally the US and Russia. 

Scratch that, maybe ally visegrad group.

[LoooSeR]

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Presentation of the commemorative medal of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation "100 years of the Red Army" to a Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah Sheikh Naim Kassem.

 

Umm... what?

[LoooSeR]

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   Moscow. December 18th. INTERFAX.RU - The Treaty on Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (PRSMD) for the USSR has become virtually one-sided disarmament, said Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that he did not understand the reasons for signing the document.

/.../

   "Ground-based missiles were liquidated. And the Soviet Union did not have others. The USA had both sea and air-based. And we did not have. Therefore, from the point of view of the Soviet Union, this was unilateral disarmament. Why did the leadership of the Soviet Union agree to this unilateral disarmament - only God knows".

 

   At the same time, he stressed that if the United States leaves the INF Treaty, Russia will be able to modernize air and sea-based systems by placing them on ground complexes.

   “Let's see how this will happen. By and large, we already have everything, but if something happens that is trying to frighten us, well, we will have to respond accordingly, ” Putin said.

   He added: “As you understand, if we have air and sea-based systems, it probably will not be difficult to carry out appropriate R&D and put them on the ground, if necessary.”

 

   "Unique, which nobody else have in the world - 2 thousand km range “Dagger”, is a hypersonic weapon of more than 10 Mach speed, nobody has such a thing yet. Yes, we have it, but this is not a violation of the treaty on the elimination of medium-range and shorter-range missiles. Where is the violation here? This is a system located on the plane, and not on ground."

   At the same time, the United States, putting "Aegis" in Romania, and now in Poland, is directly violating the INF.

   “And the strike drones, which correspond to all the characteristics of medium-range and shorter-range missiles, are being used - and nothing. That is, [they] directly violated signed act. And they are making some hypothetical, unsubstantiated claims, ” Putin said.

 

[LoooSeR]

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   The number of Russians who regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union, has reached a maximum in the last decade, follows from the Levada Center poll.

   Now, 66% of respondents are talking about this, in 2017 - 58%, and before that for 10 years the figure did not rise above 61%. The absolute record was recorded in 2000 - 75%. 60% of respondents believe that the collapse could have been avoided - this is also a maximum of 13 years. The majority are nostalgic for the Union - people from 55 years old, although in the past two years such sentiments have been growing among young people aged 18-24.

   The main reasons why Russians lack the USSR are the destruction of a unified economic system (52%), the loss of a sense of belonging to a great power (36%) and the growth of mutual distrust and bitterness (31%). Respondents often recall the single economy in crisis years (for example, in 1999), but in the “well-fed” times in 2006, the first place was the loss of the feeling of a great power.

 

[Alzoc]

Massive leak of (rather) low confidentiality messages between EU diplomats:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/politics/european-diplomats-cables-hacked.html

 

Apparently, the hackers got in simply with pishing (which isn't surprising given that a lot of politicians aren't really aware of cybersecurity threats and how to deal with them).

The US intelligence community had given repeated warnings that this network was particularly vulnerable and outdated.

Fortunately the really sensitive stuff transit through more secure networks.

The company which uncovered those leaks believe that Chinese services are behind it.

 

Even if the extracted memo aren't really sensitive or their content all that surprising, they still give an interesting unfiltered insight on the position of EU diplomats on world events and threats.

Some of the extracted messages:

 

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/540-read-the-diplomatic-cables/27bc7c9cfe024869481d/optimized/full.pdf#page=1