Friends         | A walking knowingly unashamed trope.  Geoff: "Shock Brexit charges" (which really aren't a shock at all, they were an obvious consequence of the UK becoming a third country) are putting countless businesses in the UK at risk of going under with thousands of potential job losses by the end of February. Oh, and that's on top of one of the most ineptly managed responses to Covid-19 in the world. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/17/shock-brexit-charges-are-hurting-us-say-small-british-businesses "...feeling like an elder god leaning down through the clouds of some Armageddon and booming: ‘Didn’t I tell you? Didn’t I warn you? Did you listen? Too late to listen now!’" -- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal Geoff: This week's The Weekly Knob is a real treat. Stories (and a poem) on the subject of Dragons. And the field was so great this week, we almost abandoned the idea of three editors picks and just went with all of them, because they're all great. https://theweeklyknob.com/the-weekly-knob-prompt-is-here-239-cc7b68bdc2ff View all 7 posts  Geoff in reply to Arimyr: Oh, yes. The Man Who Sold the World. There was some controversy about his Thin White Duke phase, around the time of Station to Station. How much of it was him method acting the persona and how much was simply him regurgitating the ideas of those he chose to surround himself with at the time is up for debate (Bowie himself didn't talk much about it in his later life and often contradicted himself). Generally speaking, he was vaguely supportive of Hitler in particular and fascism in general. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_White_Duke  ruemorgueave: Those years produced his best music IMO. There's just something about fascism and cocaine.....  Arimyr: Ooooh, that's interesting. On one hand, there's the fact that racism was strong back then, but on the other hand his contemporaries (Lemmy came to my mind) weren't a racist bunch so I dunno, I'm a bit inclined to believe "it was just for show", as he said. Or the insane amount of drugs just messed with his brain a while.  Geoff: "Trump fomented the mob because he could not get the military to assist him." This article, as I read it, struck me as something written by a bit of a nut. But then re-reading it, and double checking who it is talking (it's a former GOP staffer who spent decades on the hill, with an impressive academic career before that) I can't help but feel that he might have a point. https://www.rawstory.com/cruz-hawley-2649961837/ View all 7 posts Geoff: TL; DR on the article, it's basically saying that Trump's collaborators in the Republican party shouldn't be shown any leniency, and the Democrats really need to keep the pressure selectively on the nutcases across the aisle while finding common ground amongst the sensible members of the GOP.q Geoff: Ignore that final "q". I hit tab to quickly move to the "post" button and fumble-fingered it. Geoff: I have to say, Alan Tudyk's English accent in Knight's Tale is so good I only learned that he was American today. That's fairly rare, believe me. Geoff: What is most astounding about this tweet is that Simon Hoare is a Tory MP. Perhaps some of the current crop aren't the sycophantic, idiotic, mendacious cronies we've come to expect.  Geoff: Here's a link to the Poke article, in case anyone wanted to see it. https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2021/01/16/laurence-fox-has-got-himself-a-mask-exempt-badge-7-responses/ Geoff: Taken moments before the Queen collected Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez's head. For there can be only one.  View all 6 posts  Corwin: I want a kilt like that... can I buy it on Ebay or Kijiji? I want to be SIR Corwin. You may all address me now as Sir Corwin... ... oh, but I also won that last election... ... Mr President Elect Corwin!  They stole that election from me. Geoff: The National Rifle Association of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday with plans to regroup in Texas, citing opposition in New York. The group intends to restructure and reincorporate, according to a statement on its website. The gun rights group said the filing will help it “exit what it believes is a corrupt political and regulatory environment in New York,” according to the statement. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-15/national-rifle-association-files-bankruptcy-citing-n-y-politics Geoff: Here I am all excited for the first CR of 2021 and it starts with a gruesome teddy bear murder. Geoff: The man who brought a confederate flag into the Capitol during the insurrection last week has, predictably, surrendered. Kevin Seefried has been identified as the middle-aged goateed man who was photographed carrying a huge and historically racist confederate flag as he marched uninvited around the halls of Congress on Jan. 6. He surrendered to authorities in Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday, along with his son, Hunter Seefried, according to the Department of Justice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvx5a8/the-guy-who-flew-a-confederate-flag-in-the-capitol-has-predictably-surrendered  GritAroundAndFindOut: From Laurel, Delaware. Yes, Delaware! The First State! The Diamond State! The Small Wonder! Come for our beaches, stay for our Confederate memorial! The mailman might be a racist! The florist! Your pet groomer! That kid you just bought a hermit crab from at Bethany Trading Company! THEY might be racist! Your county councilman is DEFINITELY a racist! DELAWARE! Where the only thing whiter than the clouds coming out of the Broadmoor Road DuPont Chemical plant stack is our pride! Geoff: Having not been subjected to many "classic" US sitcoms during my life and certainly not during my childhood, I'm finding even the opening credits of WandaVision difficult going. The cheesy cringe is just a little too much. Geoff: The UKIP candidate for London Mayor is called Peter Gammons. I will never not find that funny. Geoff: Current polling is: S. Khan (Lab): 49% S. Bailey (Con): 28% L. Porritt (LDem): 11% S. Berry (Grn): 10% P. Gammons (UKIP): 2% (via Redfield & Wilton) Geoff: Found political philosophy of the day: Cats are anarchists and therefore unlikely to be recruited by Q propaganda. Geoff: Joe Sondow (the genius behind @PicardTips and @RikerGoogling on Twitter) has created a countdown bot that tweets how many hours until Biden is inaugurated. Currently, it's 223. twitter.com/InaugCountdown Geoff: Let us not forget that Murdoch's papers published this... interesting take. And by, "interesting take," I mean of course, "Ignorant pile of shit."  View all 16 posts  RochelleRochelle: I still, to this day, recall a documentary where a man was in prison for sexually molesting a child. Obviously, you want to just judge them a pedophile. But the documentary looks at the background of his story with reports and reports from case workers, counselors, family, and all saying basically as a child he was the one abused and sexually molested. As he got older, he began exhibiting behaviors of sexual and violent nature. One report literally said, "If the subject does not seek further treatment and rehabilitation, subject would be prone to exhibit sexual inappropriate behaviors such as sexual molestation to a minor based on subjects upbringing, expression of trauma from incidents, and their own molestation." The documentary continues to show time after time the system failing and allowing them to fall through the cracks with no real help. That was the only time I remember as the moment I really wanted to know the details of how a mind works, and how the past events of our lives can be a reflection of our present selves. How can a innocent creation become not so innocent anymore? Some people hate the whole PC topics and mental health movement or the idea of listening further to the emotional states of children and their needs and wishes, but there's too much learned now that what a child goes through when younger has a high impact on our current selves. And I personally love that a 200 years old book/story can still be a topic of interest and hold relevancy in today's world.  Nicotina in reply to RochelleRochelle: An apt phrase "It is a reason, not an excuse". In this context there are often reasons and being aware of those reasons might allow society to lessen the possibility of an action. The person is still culpable, the degree of culpability might be mitigated by the reason. |
"Give me liberty or give me dea.... OK, I surrender." 
Lopez found out about her in-law’s participation when the woman in question called her aunt from inside the Capitol to brag about “taking back the election”. Lopez, who is 42, said she had known the relative her whole life but had “no qualms” about reporting her.
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More than 140,000 people have sent tips to the FBI reporting participants in the riots on the Capitol on 6 January, resulting in at least 200 arrests. The vast majority of those, according to the Department of Justice, come from friends, family, and other acquaintances of those involved in the attacks.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/17/capitol-attack-reporting-family-internet-sleuths-qanon
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It seems that people have had enough of family and friends who have fallen down the Trump/QAnon rabbit hole.