October 30, 2021

Somebody asked me if I thought the Pope would enjoy meeting Biden more than trumpolini

Told him that's a low bar to step over
The Pope would enjoy being in a room with Gilbert Gottfried, Bobcat Goldthwait, John Lovitz, and Pee-Wee Herman all talking loudly at the exact same time more than meeting il douche

October 22, 2021

If we still did elections like we did n 1796 what would be the 5 most toxic Pres-VP

Talking with friends and we were pondering, if we still did Presidential elections like we did in 1796 (Adams/Jefferson) where the 1st place vote-getter is President and 2nd place in Veep, what do we think would be the Five Most Toxic Pres-VP.
Essentially the rules are which 5 do you think would have the most problems in working together (one is undermining the other, won't speak to one another, loathe one another, etc). Also, you can't change the combinations; i.e. you cannot say, "Well, person A wouldn't have run in Year-X." It's the two people who finished first and second that ran in that election.

My five in chronological order:
1. 1828(and 1832): John Q. Adams and Andrew Jackson. Jackson would still have been fuming even with being Vice-President. 1832 would have been bad because Jackson was such a jerk, I am guessing he'd still be mad about 28.

2. 1864 Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan. I had 4 others to choose from (Roosevelt-Hoover, Johnson-Goldwater, Clinton-Bush, Trump-Clinton), but went with this. McClellan would have made a most difficult VP; he was angry and bitter he had been fired by Lincoln, that Grant had done a much better job as General, and so on. Lincoln would have likely had to keep him as far away from DC as possible, and have him watched every minute.

3. Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy is one of my favorite presidents. But, at the time, he was a larger-than-life persona who had been President and had an opinion on everything. Imagine trying to be President with Roosevelt's stature constantly looming over you as your V.P.

4. George Bush and Al Gore. I see this as a very messy co-existence. Everything that happened in Florida made for a very acrimonious relationship if this were the combination. I just see this being a mess between the two.

5. Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Unlike Jackson, Trump ran against two different people so he couldn't be lumped into one, like John Quincy and Jackson. Trump and Clinton would likely have been an ugly relationship, but look at how Trump acts now. He's created the Office of the Former President because he can't let it go that he lost. Imagine him as Vice-President with all the goodies available to him. It would likely be a million times worse than Jerry Brown and Mike Curb were in California. I could see, every time Biden left D.C. (even to go to Delaware) Trump proclaiming himself Acting President and issuing thousands of new directives -- most of which proclaimed that he really won the election. His fan club would be just as bad. Each day we'd hear how tomorrow was the day Trump would be president again. Oh... and he'd likely still be on twitter with the media presenting every tweet as if it were akin to Moses with tablets from God.

October 19, 2021

Nick Rolovich out as Washington State football coach after refusing state-mandated COVID-19 vaccine,

Source: ESPN

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Nick Rolovich is out as the Washington State football coach after refusing to become vaccinated for COVID-19, a requirement for all state employees, a source confirmed to ESPN.

Monday was the deadline for state employees to become fully vaccinated or receive an approved medical or religious exemption as part of a state mandate that was announced in August. Rolovich was seeking a religious exemption, but it is not yet clear how the university committee assigned to evaluate religious exemptions ruled.

Read more: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32426315/nick-rolovich-washington-state-football-coach-refusing-state-mandated-covid-19-vaccine-source-says

---

Last summer he said he'd get vaccinated if told to, and then filed near the end of the cut-off for a religious exemption
I went to WSU and am not sorry he is gone

October 19, 2021

Nick Rolovich out as Washington State football coach after refusing state-mandated COVID-19 vaccine,

Nick Rolovich out as Washington State football coach after refusing state-mandated COVID-19 vaccine, source says

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Nick Rolovich is out as the Washington State football coach after refusing to become vaccinated for COVID-19, a requirement for all state employees, a source confirmed to ESPN.

Monday was the deadline for state employees to become fully vaccinated or receive an approved medical or religious exemption as part of a state mandate that was announced in August. Rolovich was seeking a religious exemption, but it is not yet clear how the university committee assigned to evaluate religious exemptions ruled.

Defensive coordinator Jake Dickert is expected to be named the team's interim coach, the source said.

Rolovich was hired in January 2020 after a four-year stint as the head coach at Hawaii, where he compiled a 28-27 record.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32426315/nick-rolovich-washington-state-football-coach-refusing-state-mandated-covid-19-vaccine-source-says

I went to Washington State. Not sorry to see him gone. Last summer he said he'd comply with the mandate and then didn't trying for a religious exemption.
He expects others to follow his rules, but won't follow others
I have read there are several assistants on his staff that are unvaccinated

October 18, 2021

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on HOW TO answer the press on Covid issues

Visiting players, however, are exempt from the law, meaning that Irving is the only one who is unable to play as a result. Silver said he has heard nothing about the possibility of the vaccine mandate in New York being eased at any point this season.

When asked if it is "fair" that Irving is unable to play while other unvaccinated players -- including Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal -- are able to play without issue, Silver said that the framing of the question was off.

"I'm not sure if fair is the right way to approach it because there's nothing fair about this virus," Silver said. "It's indiscriminate in terms of who it impacts, and I think it's perfectly appropriate that New York and other cities have passed laws that require people who both work and visit arenas to be vaccinated. That seems to be a responsible public health decision made by those locales, and those are the circumstances in which the Nets find themselves operating.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32425851/nba-commissioner-adam-silver-wanted-vaccine-mandate-says-kyrie-irving-status-issue-new-york-city

October 16, 2021

It's Mid-October and 22 Percent of Republicans STILL Think Trump Will Be Reinstated as President Thi

Nearly a quarter of Republicans believe that former President Donald Trump will be “reinstated” to the presidency this year, even as the fantastical August 13 “deadline” for that event has long passed, and the end of the year is just weeks away.

It has been more than four months since the political media world was set abuzz after The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman first reported that Trump was telling confidants that he believed he’d be reinstated to the presidency in August, reporting that was later confirmed by other outlets — and fed by delusions floated by Trump allies like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and attorney Sidney Powell.

And Trump himself appeared to confirm this in June when he told a crowd in North Carolina that “we’re gonna take back the White House, and sooner than you think.”

snip

But according to a new poll from YouGov, a not-insignificant chunk of Republicans still think it is “likely” that Trump will be reinstated this year.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/wtf-poll-its-mid-october-and-22-percent-of-republicans-still-think-trump-will-be-reinstated-as-president-this-year/

No matter what any of us think of YouGov polls; that one person thinks that il douche will be reinstated shows that there are seriously deluded people in this country

October 16, 2021

Five Stories from Europe You May Have Missed

1. Relative Calm Reported At Prison In Southern Russia After Riot By Hundreds Of Inmates

Relative calm is being reported at a prison in the south of Russia on October 16, a day after a riot there by hundreds of prisoners.

The unrest was reported at the Correctional Colony No. 1 in Vladikavkaz, the regional capital of North Ossetia.

No one was injured in the riot, the human rights ombudsman in the Republic of South Ossetia, Tamerlan Tsgoyev, was quoted as saying by TASS on October 16. He added that prison authorities would meet with some of the prisoners to discuss their grievances.

snip

It’s still unclear what triggered the unrest.

https://www.rferl.org/a/31512310.html


2. Four Russians found dead at Albanian resort

Four Russian tourists have been found dead at a beach resort in western Albania, police have said.

Albanian police issued a statement on Saturday saying the tourists were found asphyxiated in a hotel sauna in the village of Qerret late on Friday.

snip

The Russian tourists, aged between 31 and 60 years old, were part of a group that had been staying for a week at the five-star resort.

Investigators think the people who died may be members of the same family because of their surnames.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/16/four-russian-tourists-found-dead-albanian-beach-resort


3. France pays tribute to beheaded teacher Samuel Paty one year on

France paid tribute on Saturday to slain history teacher Samuel Paty on the one year anniversary of his death.

Prime Minister Jean Castex said Paty was a "servant of the Republic" at a Saturday tribute to the teacher at the Ministry of Education in Paris.

The 47-year-old history and geography teacher was beheaded last year by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee who said the attack was revenge because the teacher had shown his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Paty taught at a school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

https://www.euronews.com/2021/10/16/france-pays-tribute-to-beheaded-teacher-samuel-paty-one-year-on


4. Source Of Russian Prison-Abuse Videos Flees To France To Seek Asylum

The source of a massive leak of information, including videos, of alleged torture and sexual assaults in Russia's penitentiary system has fled to France, where he plans to seek political asylum.

The news was confirmed on October 16 by Vladimir Osechkin, a prominent Russian human rights defender, who runs the anti-torture project Gulagu.net, which has released much of the video.

Osechkin had described his source for the massive leak only as a Belarusian IT engineer who had been incarcerated in a prison in Saratov where he faced abuse, calling him only "Syarhey."

According to Gulagu.net, Syarhey arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris on October 16 on a flight from an unspecified country in northern Africa. It said he had immediately turned to police at the airport in the French capital for help on seeking asylum.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-prison-torture-asylum/31513103.html


5. ‘Sensational’: skeleton buried in Vesuvius eruption found at Herculaneum

The partially mutilated remains of a man buried by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius at Herculaneum, the ancient Roman town close to Pompeii, have been discovered in what Italy’s culture minister described as a “sensational” find.

Archaeologists said the man, believed to have been aged between 40 and 45, was killed just steps away from the sea as he tried to flee the eruption.

His skeleton was found on what would have been the ancient town’s beach with the head pointing back in the direction of the sea, and surrounded by carbonised wood, including a roof beam, that might have crushed his skull, the Italian news agency, Ansa, reported.

“The last moments here were instantaneous, but terrible,” Francesco Sirano, the director of Herculaneum archaeological park, told Ansa.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/15/sensational-skeleton-buried-in-vesuvius-eruption-found-at-herculaneum

October 15, 2021

New Zealand council ends contract with wizard after two decades of service

The official Wizard of New Zealand, perhaps the only state-appointed wizard in the world, has been cast from the public payroll, spelling the end to a 23-year legacy.

The Wizard, whose real name is Ian Brackenbury Channell, 88, had been contracted to Christchurch city council for the past two decades to promote the city through “acts of wizardry and other wizard-like services”, at a cost of $16,000 a year. He has been paid a total of $368,000.

The Wizard, who was born in England, began performing acts of wizardry and entertainment in public spaces shortly after arriving in New Zealand in 1976. When the council originally tried to stop him, the public protested. In 1982, the New Zealand Art Gallery Directors Association said he had become a living work of art, and then, in 1990, the prime minister at the time, Mike Moore, asked that he consider becoming the Wizard of New Zealand.

snip

The city is embarking on new tourism and promotional direction that will reflect its diverse communities and “showcase a vibrant, diverse, modern city that is attractive to residents, domestic and international visitors, new businesses, and skilled migrant workers”, she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/15/new-zealand-council-ends-contract-with-wizard-after-two-decades-of-service

October 14, 2021

Defectors tell court they were promised 'paradise on Earth' in North Korea

Before reading (or mocking these people w/o some understanding). As the article mentions, after WW 2, Koreans living in Japan were stripped of Japanese citizenship and the Japanese government spent many years trying to kick Koreans out of Japan (the government encouraged them to go to North Korea). Also, for the better part of 2 and a half decades after WW 2, North Korea (which had been the heart of the Japanese industrial base) was one of the wealthiest countries in east Asia (often 2nd only to Japan)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/14/defectors-tell-court-promised-paradise-on-earth-north-korea

Five people who say they were lured to North Korea decades ago as part of a resettlement programme have told a court in Japan they were promised a “paradise on Earth” but were instead denied basic human rights.

The plaintiffs – four ethnic Korean residents of Japan and a Japanese woman who went to the North with her Korean husband and their daughter – are seeking 100m yen (£644,000) in damages from the regime of Kim Jong-un.

While no one believes Kim will pay compensation if ordered to do so, the case is expected to highlight the plight of tens of thousands of people – mainly Koreans and their Japanese spouses – who went to live in the North as part of a programme operated by the countries’ Red Cross societies and funded by Pyongyang.

snip

Most of the settlers were among hundreds of thousands of Koreans who had worked in mines and factories in Japan, many against their will, during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, and 1,830 Japanese women who had married Korean men.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/14/defectors-tell-court-promised-paradise-on-earth-north-korea

October 12, 2021

May be hard to argue which WH pet was the best, but the best name is easy (IMO)

The Coolidge's had a raccoon, JFK a horse, van Buren tiger cubs, John Q an alligator and Andrew Jackson a foul-mouthed parrot and you could argue which pet was best among those and the other pets owned by almost every president.
But John Adams wins the prize for the best named pet -- his dog, Satan.
Yes, one of our founding fathers named his dog after the Lord of the Underworld.
There is no surviving record as to why he named the dog Satan. My take... Adams was a Satan worshiper (j/k), maybe a troll (hey reverend how you like my dog Satan?)