[Bones McCoy]

Why do they all look like Psycho Barbie?

Let's be fair.

MTG's no Barbie.
A leather coated Easter Island head perhaps, but no Barbie.

[Samanfur]

Mike Pence is up to something:

Mike Pence Meets With Far-Right Jewish Leaders In West Bank

Former Vice President Mike Pence (R) met with two prominent Jewish extremists during a visit to the Palestinian city of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

In photos circulated on Twitter, Pence appeared alongside Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right member of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, and Baruch Marzel, a far-right Jewish activist, whom the Israeli Supreme Court disqualified from running for Knesset in 2019 on the grounds that he had incited violence against Palestinians.

Matt Duss, a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), compared Pence’s meeting with the two men to a “foreign leader coming to the U.S. and hanging out with the Proud Boys,” a U.S. far-right gang.

HuffPost reached out to Pence’s group Advancing American Freedom for a response to the criticism, but did not immediately receive a reply.

Pence was visiting Israel as part of a political tour that observers speculate might be in preparation for a presidential run in 2024.

[Cyclist]

...Pence’s group Advancing American Freedom..

Why is it, whenever people like him start banging on about freedom, I immediately think of sharp uniforms, shiny boots, and the worst sort of oppressive governments the world has ever seen?

[Bones McCoy]

Beau of the fifth column chats about a unique proposal for pursuing oligarchs....

Letters of marque for privateers.
Bill presently before the house.

Yarrrr!!


Update:
Professional mentalist Ron Paul seems particularly keen on their use.
Probably something to do with moral libertarian warfare in the age of the small state 9or other palpable bollocks).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of ... _of_marque

[Abernathy]

Wait. Captain Jack Sparrow was real? I thought he was Keith Richards’ dad.

[Nigredo]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-sen ... 022-03-15/

Normally the senate can't unite to agree to the sky is blue so Putin's pulled off something special here.

[The Weeping Angel]

[Bones McCoy]

Don't understand

[RedSparrows]

Have... they now decided they're Unionists?!

[Cyclist]

The Chicago Bears wish everybody a happy St Patrick's Day, making the Chicago River the same colour as worn by the team. The City of Chicago dyes the Chicago River green for St Patrick's Day. Green isn't the colour of the Bears, so the Bear's social media guru has changed the colour.

Am I right? And if so, so what?

[The Weeping Angel]

Their colour is orange.

[davidjay]

And an awful lot of third generation Oirish have decided it's a Bad Thing.

[Watchman]

I must admit with WA saying orange and reference to Bears, I did think some element of sectarianism was creeping in. So just to annoy one group, an another group had coloured it shit instead of green

Maybe I’m overthinking it, or letting my bigotry show

[The Weeping Angel]

And an awful lot of third generation Oirish have decided it's a Bad Thing.

I suppose it makes a change from giving guns to the provos,

[Boiler]

The last time I saw a river that colour it was polluted by the run-off from the steel works in Sheffield...

[Samanfur]

I'm reminded of the Bridgewater Canal in the early to mid eighties.

[MisterMuncher]

And an awful lot of third generation Oirish have decided it's a Bad Thing.

Meanwhile, Ireland struggles to rustle up one tinned shit to give about what the plastics think.

[Cyclist]

True American Patriot shows exactly how patriotic he is:

A California man suspected of taking part in the US Capitol riots last year has been granted asylum in Belarus.

Evan Neumann fled the US after being charged in connection with the riots.

The 48-year-old first settled in Ukraine, before reaching Belarus where he asked for asylum - claiming he faced "political persecution" in the US.

A Belarusian official said Mr Neumann has been granted permission to remain in the country "indefinitely".

State officials also alleged that Mr Neumann had been forced to cross the Belarusian border "illegally" after attracting "interest from local secret services" in Ukraine.

Mr Neumann told Belarusian state-owned news agency Belta he had "mixed feelings".

"I am glad Belarus took care of me. I am upset to find myself in a situation where I have problems in my own country."...


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60843262

Sympathy have I none.

[Cyclist]

About these Patriotic Defenders of Democracy...

Civil rights groups in Colorado are suing a group of conservative political activists – some who were said to be armed – for alleged voter intimidation.

The group of conservative activists were reportedly working with the "US Election Integrity Plan," a group that organises canvassers. According to the lawsuit, the group and three of its leaders allegedly violated the Voting Rights Act by using "intimidating, threatening and coercive conduct" in the course of its actions.

The canvassers in question visited homes, allegedly in neighbourhoods where many people of colour lived, and went door to door interrogating people over what they claimed was a fraudulent presidential election.

According to The Huffington Post, the lawsuit claims the canvassers presented badges when they approached people's homes and were encouraged to carry weapons during their outings.

The group is said to have confronted voters "for allegedly casting fraudulent ballots" and took photos of individuals' homes.

The lawsuit claims the organisation used the tactics in Colorado as well as other states.

US Election Integrity Plan was reportedly started by supporters of former President Donald Trump following his 2020 election loss, and spread after he began to push conspiracy theories that the election had been stolen...

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/la ... d=msedgntp

I woder if these people can actually spell the word 'democracy'? They certainly don't know what it means.

[Samanfur]

See also:

Texas superintendent tells librarians to pull books on sexuality, transgender people

In early January, a day before students returned from winter break, Jeremy Glenn, the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas, told a group of librarians he’d summoned to a district meeting room that he needed to speak from his heart.

“I want to talk about our community,” Glenn said, according to a recording of the Jan. 10 meeting obtained and verified by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Glenn explained that Granbury, the largest city in a county where 81 percent of residents voted for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, is “very, very conservative.”

He noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, “You better hide it,” adding, “Here in this community, we’re going to be conservative.”

That’s why, he said, he needed to talk to them about some of the books available in the school district’s libraries.

“Specifically, what we’re getting at, let’s call it what it is, and I’m cutting to the chase on a lot of this,” Glenn said. “It’s the transgender, LGBTQ and the sex — sexuality — in books. That’s what the governor has said that he will prosecute people for, and that’s what we’re pulling out.”

Free speech and First Amendment rights, as long as it's the right sort of speech, for the right sort of people.