More accurately, a Bavarian cover.

7 years 10 months 2 weeks ago

Pauline Hanson and her party are completely bonkers don't get me wrong.

But they are also one of the only parties addressing the immigration issue, which is why they got some seats. No other party is really making as much of a fuss about immigration, so people that don't want Australia to turn into Germany/Sweden, have no sane person to vote for.

It's lose/lose unfortunately, until someone reasonable stands up and even addresses the concerns.

I'm all for multiculturalism, but not if some cultures don't reciprocate, which is what we are seeing throughout Europe.

Why would getting on and off a paternoster be different from stepping onto a normal moving staircase (escalator)? Its just one step.

As for "I can easily imagine severed limbs" or "slow moving guillotine" web articles - I have never seen severed limbs or heads anywhere near a paternoster. Difficult to compare but I would expect accidents to be similar to escalator accidents (which can be pretty bad, Ive had one myself).

In any case paternosters are just as popular (though rare) all over central (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria) northern (Sweden, Finland), part of western Europe (Germany, England, Denmark, Netherlands), and even as far as the Austrian Empire extended southward into the Balkans (Beograd).

If you don't realize by now that Trump is literally the worst choice you could ever make for president when you vote, I don't know what to tell you.

He has said FAR more things than just this that should "shock and alarm" you, because all of the statements he made could have the potential threat of causing the U.S. to become worthless, go into Civil War, go into Thermonuclear War, go into War "x", HUGE trade issues, HUGE financial issues, etc...

But hey, he'll be entertaining, right? Plus, as I've said before, if we DO vote him into office and something terrible happens to us, at this point I think the United States voters and it's people deserve what they get. Far too many idiots that need a HARD lesson (that is if the lesson is served to them...not the other way around where we become like a pre-World War 2 Germany, with those voting in Trump slowly blaming everyone else for our failures and rounding us up...leading to Civil War and an idiotic World War 3, where the U.S. doesn't learn from World War 2...).

Except you cant compare this to (car) accidents. You could compare this to occurrences of ambulance drivers driving through packed pedestrian crossings or firemen setting fire to buildings, soldiers driving tanks over cars on the highway etc. If that kind of thing happened once a week someone would notice. Someone would be responsible. Something would be done.

I only get involved with cops when speeding or parking and over here in central Europe it is a friendly affair of getting a fine or a reprimand. If I go to visit Germany or Austria I fear the police for the fines are heftier and a stern talking to in german is nothing to look forward to, in the east or south of Europe a small bribe and more extensive language difficulties are the norm. Visiting the US somehow always involves warnings about how to behave so as not to get killed by cops. Go figure.

They could have used this in the '80s when the US deployed Pershing II missiles around small villages in Germany. I know of one case where they got stuck on a tight corner and couldn't move back or forward. After several days they had to pay a farmer so they could demolish and re-build a corner of his house to get the thing free.

I'm not sure if the nuclear warhead was installed the whole time.

Germany vs Italy last night, Zaza's penalty... I'm dying here, bloody RedCafe.

The penaly: https://streamable.com/ooi8?t=2.3

Now...
- https://media.giphy.com/media/bLDc0I7ys2YN2/giphy.gif
- https://twitter.com/Perrinho/status/749357072341409792
- https://scontent-vie1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13529049_1069980763038818_6356986931617660465_n.jpg?oh=925b134bc8364b93acf7db9345649faa&oe=5833A2EA
- https://66.media.tumblr.com/0e57df39b131caf5678ce99305125c3c/tumblr_o9pkoekP6d1qz6z2wo1_540.gif
- https://streamable.com/zia0?t=5.4

And last but not least:
https://cdn.streamable.com/video/mp4-mobile/p02v.mp4

I know it's Colbert's shtick and I never really got into it, but still...

"I have friends who live and work in London. They said "don't worry,we're very sensible people."

What's sensible for people in London might not be sensible for people in Salford. Or Boston. Or Wolverhampton. London, or the South-East in general, is as representative of the UK as the East/West Coast is of the US.

The hinterland has been drained at the expense of the center, on both a global and a national scale. If you live and work in the City of London, things might look quite ok, and whatever issues there are only need some reforms to no longer be an issue. But if your factory, the factory that provided jobs for the people in your home town, closed down ten, twenty years ago and now the best you can get is zero-hour contracts, then no, things are not ok.

People up top keep telling you that the economy is growing, that everyone's gonna be better off, that it's ok for multinational corporations and rich individuals to optimise their taxes, while they cut your welfare. Banks get a bailout, you get to pay the bedroom tax.

So no, your sensible friends, if they exist, live in a different universe than many of their countrymen. That's the disconnect we've been talking about.

-----
"The British economy is tanking. The pound has plunged to its lowest level since 1985... The Dow lost 611 points."

Again, so what? If the economy is growing and it has no effect on you, why should you give a jar of cold piss about the value of the pound or the stock exchange? Arguably, a drop in the exchange rate of the pound makes it easier for you to export your goods and raises the prices for imports, thereby encouraging you to produce the shit yourself. The UK does have a sovereign currency, unlike the Spanish, the Greeks, the Portuguese or the Italians who have to suffer internal devaluations, because Wolfgang Schäuble says so.

"Equity losses over $2 trillion"

Why should that matter? QE has pushed up stock prices beyond any resonable level, so what meaning do these book values hold? Not to mention that a lot of people made a shitload of money by shorting these stocks, including George Soros against Deutsche.

"There'll be no more money"

QE never trickled down anyway, makes no difference. Corbyn's people call their version "QE for the People" and "Green QE" for a reason: the previous version was only meant to prop up banks and stock values.

--------------

On a more general note, the hatred, the racism, the xenophobia... in most cases, it's a pressure valve. You leash out against someone else, you need someone to blame. The narrative is that we're living in a meritocracy, which makes it your fault that you didn't inherit an investment portfolio. So you start blaming yourself. You're a fuck-up. You worked hard and not only didn't climb the ladder, you actually went down. There's depression for ya. Guess what happens if someone, a person of perceived authority, then comes along and tells you it's not your fault, it's the fault of the immigrants. That narrative is very appealing if history is any indication. Even the supposedly most prosperous country in the EU, Germany, has the very same issue in the eastern parts, where there is no hope for a meaningful job.

People need work, meaningful work. Wanna guess how many of those "xenophobes" would be out in the street protesting against immigrants if they had a meaningful job with decent pay? Not to many would be my guess.

So the likes of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson are providing the narrative. But the lack of social cohesion is a result of market fundamentalism, of Thatcherism, of Third Way social-democrats leaving the lower half of the income distribution to the wolves. You can't exclude large swaths of the population from the benefits of increased productivity, etc. Social dividend, they called it. It's what keeps the torches and pitchforks locked away in the barn.

Good article, but Greenwald is missing one key point:
it's not just the "media elite" who can't understand the Leave vote. Most "normal" people outside England and Wales are perplexed by this too.

Talk to the average person on the street in Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, etc. and they'll tell you the same things:
a) the leave vote was the wrong decision
b) it was brought about through fear mongering and lies

So that leaves two possibilities:

1. the rest of the EU are media-brainwashed idiots and the people who saw the light were Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson and the kind of people now screaming racist abuse at "foreigners" (aka anyone non-white or with a foreign ancestry even if they were born in the UK).

or

2. it really was a dumb idea.

I was backstage at a festival in Germany
talking to a cute fair skinned brunette
I asked her if she wanted to have a beer and if she liked our set
I noticed that her hair was longer in the back
I figure that’s cuz she’s Canadian
That’s why I was surprised when she told me she was fully lesbian

That's when I realized it was Sara, or maybe it was Tegan
I'm pretty sure that it was Sara
Cause Johnny Sampson said she was the cooler one

I told her I was a big fan of her band
She asked me if I had a favorite song
I admitted that I'd never actually heard them, but I like k.d. lang

I told her this Jew knows about the Juno’s
And how they got robbed three times in a row
And then I asked her if she knew of anyone who was selling pills or blow

That's when I creeped out Sara or maybe I just pissed her off
When I asked her if her sister and her had ever had a threesome?
Where they both ganged up one girl, a forgy or a fivesome?
Do they think strap-ons are groovy, and had they ever seen the movie
Bound and did they like Jennifer Tilly, did they like Jennifer Tilly?

Sara said she preferred Gina Gershon, Angelina Jolie
In the Gia movie that was on HBO
And “If These Walls Could Talk” made Tegan cry a lot
After that I forgot what she said
That's the problem with Diazepam, so many things I don't remember
But I've got a sinking feeling, it's not that I'm a clairvoyant

But I think that I creeped out Sara, I was creeping out on Sara
I hope it wasn't Tegan, cuz Matt Skiba said she is the cooler one

That's BS.

With a 5 round maximum capacity you're going to be reloading a lot and there's no reasonable argument why anyone needs more for hunting (and home defence is a red herring).

I think the whole law/culture issue addressed above is actually linked. Take the example of the Autobahn which is very much a parallel. Germans made a law saying you can drive as fast as you want on certain stretches of highway, a culture of high-speed driving developed, people die. The majority in Germany wants to do away with them, but the 10% who want to drive recklessly in their BMWs and Mercedes along with the manufacturers fight new legislation every time.

The law created the culture, and now the culture is preventing the laws from being changed. Just as in the US, the cycle has to break somewhere. Government can't legislate the culture, but they can change the laws and if the US ever gets to a point where guns aren't in the hands of whoever wants one then the argument for needing a 'home security' weapon drops. People feel safer, there are fewer shootings and the whole situation de-escalates.

I'm not saying barring suspected terrorists from owning firearms will accomplish that, but it would be a (very) modest start in the right direction.

Hmm. I'm not sure Britain leaving the EU would have the effect you desire. Who is to say Germany won't simply double down? After all, if we leave it will have less to do with Greece being thrown under a bus, and more do with migrant camps in Calais.

75 years, to the day, since the launch of the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany.

What's on the front page (online) of our 2nd (?) largest newspaper?

"Baltic nations practically indefensible", according to US General. Russian military would be able to capture capitals within 36-60 hours.

~27 million Russians dead at our hands and they have the audacity to print this warmongering horseshit, on this day...

My comment was rather egocentric in nature. Few countries have the means to upset the balance of power within the EU and a (vote for) Brexit might just be the least horrific way of poking the EU. Next down the line would be a Le Pen-administration in France, which most people would rather avoid. Or some unforseen poltical kerfuffle in Italy.

Bad options, all of them. But austerity will lead to even worse outcomes, so German hegemony must be curbed and broken -- or the EU as a whole must be reduced to countries whose economies work the same parasitic way.

The best of all options, of course, would be political change in Germany, away from this anal fixation on austerity. But looking at our parliament, I see 630 seats, 566 of which belong to parties in support of austerity. So no, not gonna happen.

My hopes, as always, are on the French people. Recent actions have made me hopeful that they will once again come to our rescue.