WTF Sh*t's F*cked Up and Bullsh*t - a "Who Cares" thread for news

[Innula Zenovka]

So, last weekend, during the BLM marches and protests about the murder of George Floyd, a statue of an enslaver was pulled down in Bristol and thrown in the river, and a statue in Westminster of Winston Churchill was spray-painted

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, and his Democratic Football Lads Alliance , a fascist football hooligans group, have turned up in London today to protect the statue from further attacks, though BLM organisers are trying to keep supporters away from central London this afternoon and the police want the streets cleared by 5pm (so two-and-a-half hours from now, and we'll have to see what happens then).

Anyway, the Democratic Football Hooligans have turned up to find no BLM protestors but a lot of police.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Clashes as hundreds including far-right activists 'guard' statues

Bottles and cans have been thrown, while officers have moved members of the press behind police lines after some demonstrators became aggressive

www.standard.co.uk

 

[Innula Zenovka]

BLM stayed well away, and held large, peaceful, protests elsewhere in London and up and down the country.

London protests: Demonstrators clash with police

Boris Johnson says "racist thuggery has no place on our streets" after officers are punched and kicked.

www.bbc.co.uk

Boris Johnson condemns 'racist thuggery' of rightwing protesters in London

PM responds to violence as more than 100 arrests made during ‘guard our monuments’ protest

www.theguardian.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Man urinates next to PC Keith Palmer memorial during far right protest

Photos emerge of man urinating next to plaque honouring officer stabbed in Westminster terrorist attack

www.theguardian.com

Words fail me. They really bloody do.

ETA: After I had stopped spluttering with indignation, for a moment, I thought, "Hang on, this is just too perfect" -- the man's appearance, the way he's dressed, his attending a rally of drunken fascist hooligans purporting to protect a national memorial, and then literally pissing on a monument to a police officer who was murdered by terrorists only three years ago, hit all the elements of the story.

"Too good to be true," I thought, for a moment, and then realised this is how conspiracy theories about crisis actors start, so I applied Occam's razor.

Which, I asked myself, is more likely? Some agent or agents of the deep state, or George Soros, or Vladimir Putin, or Mossad or whoever, has, for sinister purposes of their own, staged a scene in which a disgusting fascist lout looks and acts like the liberal metropolitan elite's stereotype of a drunken fascist lout at his worst, or simply that disgusting fascist louts gonna disgusting fascist lout, and by the law of averages, one day someone must capture photographic evidence of the fact?

 

[Romana]

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Shhh... Nobody tell these people about these places called public libraries.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I read the the first one, and thought it was an entertaining variation on the English boarding school story, but had absolutely no desire to read any more.

The first book is enough of a grounding in the Harry Potter universe to understand the cultural references, which abound in social media. It's also the best of the series. I slogged my way through all of them during an illness, when I was too sick to read anything deeper. The narrative style of the later books falls completely apart, with long discursive ramblings as characters tell each other what they've been doing and the point-of-view shifts in uneven, unpredictable (and dishonest) ways as she struggles to cover an increasingly complex plot. The last book is an utter mess, but I suppose by that point her popularity was so cemented that her editor either didn't bother to make her clean it up or didn't have enough clout to make her rewrite it.

 

[Romana]

Shhh... Nobody tell these people about these places called public libraries.

That's what my friend said.
You can even borrow books online through the library, they wouldn't even have to get up off their asses

 

[Lady Darnk Juniorette]

 

[Romana]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The first book is enough of a grounding in the Harry Potter universe to understand the cultural references, which abound in social media. It's also the best of the series. I slogged my way through all of them during an illness, when I was too sick to read anything deeper. The narrative style of the later books falls completely apart, with long discursive ramblings as characters tell each other what they've been doing and the point-of-view shifts in uneven, unpredictable (and dishonest) ways as she struggles to cover an increasingly complex plot. The last book is an utter mess, but I suppose by that point her popularity was so cemented that her editor either didn't bother to make her clean it up or didn't have enough clout to make her rewrite it.

When it's considered alongside something truly creative, and aimed at similar young adult and adult audiences, like Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials , I think it becomes clear how small-c conservative JKR's imaginative world is in comparison.

 

[Beebo Brink]

When it's considered alongside something truly creative, and aimed at similar young adult and adult audiences, like Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials , I think it becomes clear how small-c conservative JKR's imaginative world is in comparison.

I would add Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series to that comparison. I read her books when I was still young, so they had more of an emotional impact on me than Pullman's books, which I read as an adult. In fact, it might well be worth reading Cooper's books again. I suspect I missed many of the layers -- like all truly good children's literature, it can be a good read for adults, too.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

When it's considered alongside something truly creative, and aimed at similar young adult and adult audiences, like Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials , I think it becomes clear how small-c conservative JKR's imaginative world is in comparison.

Try Diane Duane's Young Wizards series.

I got a few books in to Harry Potter, but it got too much of a slog.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Man urinates next to PC Keith Palmer memorial during far right protest

Photos emerge of man urinating next to plaque honouring officer stabbed in Westminster terrorist attack

www.theguardian.com

Words fail me. They really bloody do.

ETA: After I had stopped spluttering with indignation, for a moment, I thought, "Hang on, this is just too perfect" -- the man's appearance, the way he's dressed, his attending a rally of drunken fascist hooligans purporting to protect a national memorial, and then literally pissing on a monument to a police officer who was murdered by terrorists only three years ago, hit all the elements of the story.

"Too good to be true," I thought, for a moment, and then realised this is how conspiracy theories about crisis actors start, so I applied Occam's razor.

Which, I asked myself, is more likely? Some agent or agents of the deep state, or George Soros, or Vladimir Putin, or Mossad or whoever, has, for sinister purposes of their own, staged a scene in which a disgusting fascist lout looks and acts like the liberal metropolitan elite's stereotype of a drunken fascist lout at his worst, or simply that disgusting fascist louts gonna disgusting fascist lout, and by the law of averages, one day someone must capture photographic evidence of the fact?

A 28-year-old man has been arrested in Essex on suspicion of outraging public decency after a man was photographed urinating next to the memorial dedicated to PC Keith Palmer, the Metropolitan Police has said.

The man is currently in custody in Essex after presenting himself at a police station, the force said.

Essex. Of course. How could it not be?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Explains a lot

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Essex. Of course. How could it not be?

More from yesterday's demonstrations in London.

Moment BLM activist carries injured man to safety amid far-right demos

London man later said he was the person who helped: "It's not black versus white"

www.standard.co.uk

Listen to the clip the whole way through, please.

ETA: Interviews with Patrick Hutchinson, who carried the injured man, and some of his friends -- they are apparently security and martial arts experts who attended to protect the BLM protestors from right-wing counter-demonstrators and to keep the peace.

This is when punching nazis gets real:

Pierre Noah, a businessman and friend of Hutchinson’s, said of the incident: “It would have turned out really bad because someone’s life would have been taken and you know what would have happened. Straight away – black boys have killed somebody, and they’ve killed a white man – it’s just going to be worse. So we had to go out there. I couldn’t sleep.”

Describing his motivation to help the protester, Jamaine Facey, a personal trainer, said: “I’m not protecting him, I’m protecting our kids. I was protecting their future, because I know the judge would not have saw what happened before. I was protecting their future.”

BLM supporter speaks out after carrying counter-protester to safety

Photo of Patrick Hutchinson coming to the man’s aid went viral after Saturday’s protests

www.theguardian.com

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

NY Post: "OMG MAYAN CALENDAR" *picture of Aztec calendar*

 

[Romana]

NY Post: "OMG MAYAN CALENDAR" *picture of Aztec calendar*

That's the New York Compost for ya, lol.

 

[Romana]

This one's been dubbed Krackhead Karen:

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

NIce truck.