Politics Thread!

[PFVA]

Larry the chief mouser at Downing Street had to be put out of the house when Trump visited because he doesn't like cats, or dogs for that matter, or any other pets and now he is trying to show himself as pets protector with some fake story.

[Orava]

you forgot about "Bitafiskur" ? And I'd LOVE to try that "fish soaked in lye" .. but I can't find it anywhere .

You can make your own Lutefisk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk

Just need some dried cod and drain cleaner (lye).

A Xmas delicacy it is.

[F-ZeroOne]

Larry the chief mouser at Downing Street had to be put out of the house when Trump visited because he doesn't like cats, or dogs for that matter, or any other pets and now he is trying to show himself as pets protector with some fake story.

Well, of course he wouldn't; a pet would draw attention away from him.

Oh, the Super Secret World Conspiracy Cabal of 5G Vaxxers has finally given Taylor Swift her instructions - shes voting for Harris.

[Little stoned kiwi]

Taylor Swift is one of the lizard-people David Icke warned us about and I claim my £5.

I don't think Trump's opinion of cats and dogs is relevant. All that matters is their opinion of him. Which is probably not positive as they are good judges of character.

[PFVA]

Small intermission here on the conversation above

Yesterday's fire south of me about 40 or 50Km if not less, was originally going in the direction of a storage for ammunition and explosives used by NATO
According to the media it got to 500m of it. However it's well built and they kept the fire away.

The fire went into another direction and is under control since last night. There is still 2 planes involved.

I have to mention that they found a Canadair very fast. It may have come from Spain I think that's where they are kept.

[Orava]

My only experience of forest fires is being in the national service and being called to 'damp down' one, a week in the forest sustained by MREs and toilet facilities of 'here's your spade'. By far the worst time in the army, you have to find a smouldering bit and dig down the bog to put it out, this for hundreds of acres. Well, got to test the water purification tablets as clean drinking water was not coming, yes like drinking swimming pool water.

[Harlequin]

[PFVA]

About the cat killing incident
It was not in Springfield but in Canton, OH
The woman is not fm Haiti, she is American
She is in jail right now and she most likely as psychiatric problems

This is from Euro News but I have seen it in the American media too:

An entirely unrelated incident that occurred last month in Canton, Ohio, quickly and erroneously conflated into the discussion.
On 26 August, Canton police charged a 27-year-old woman with animal cruelty and disorderly conduct after she "did torture, kill, and eat a cat in a residential area in front [of] multiple people,” according to a police report.
But Allexis Ferrell is not Haitian. She was born in Ohio and graduated from Canton's McKinley High School in 2015, according to public records and newspaper reports. Court records show she has been in and out of trouble with the law since at least 2017. Messages seeking comment were not returned by several attorneys who have represented her.
She is being held in Stark County jail pending a competency hearing next month, according to the prosecutor's office.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/09/ ... nsNltCmp=1

[F-ZeroOne]

It would be nice to think that actual facts might matter...

[KlaxonCow]

[Dio]

Larry the chief mouser at Downing Street had to be put out of the house when Trump visited because he doesn't like cats, or dogs for that matter, or any other pets and now he is trying to show himself as pets protector with some fake story.

Well, of course he wouldn't; a pet would draw attention away from him.

It's simple dehumanising racist bullshit about cannibalism. Pets are nearly human; these black people eat pets; all black people are cannibals. That some Asian countries eat dog, and that they might be stealing your pets to do it in the US, was previously a feature of the 'yellow peril' fears in the mid-20th century.

[KlaxonCow]

Haitian row: Photographer of viral 'man carrying duck' says he thought it was...

The photographer told the Columbus Dispatch that the photo was not shot at Springfield but in Columbus -- which is also in Ohio -- on July 28.
[...]
This photo served as one evidence for the Right-wingers who spread the conspiracy theory that got amplified by prominent Republicans. Another purported evidence was the video of a 27-year-old Allexis Ferrell who was arrested after allegedly eating a cat in Ohio. Neither of the incidents was in Springfield though it got dragged into the major controversy.
[...]
"Then all of (these claims) supposedly they're going and killing all of the wildlife and whatever. That's ridiculous. But people see things that are spread and have no idea what the truth is, but they spread it like it's truth. And I feel like the only person that knows what really happened to the goose is the guy that had the goose," the photographer said.

So the photo was not taken in Springfield, Ohio. It was in Columbus, Ohio.

And that separate story about a woman - who's from Ohio, not Haiti - eating a cat happened in Canton, Ohio.

And the photographer is talking about it being a goose, not a duck. Which, to be honest, makes more sense with what we see in the image, as it never looked like a duck to me anyway.

But I guess it changed from a goose to a duck, as it's more plausible that someone was "hunting ducks in the park" (if you imagine that any of Springfield's parks have a duck pond, which I couldn't locate using Google maps) than that they are hunting geese.

Also, we Westerners also eat ducks and geese anyway. So what's wrong with that either way?

So it seems to be bits and pieces of different things, in different cities in Ohio, that's been compiled and exaggerated into "the Haitians are eating the dogs and cats" narrative to, as Dio suggests, create a racist "they're cannibals / animals" narrative.

And I still stand by the point that, even if there were Haitian refugees hunting ducks and geese in a local Ohio park to eat them, then this paints a far worse picture of America than it does of Haiti.

How mistreated and in poverty would you have to be, before you resorted to hunting local wildlife - squirrels, ducks in the duck pond, etc. - to avoid starvation?

The story appears to be complete bollocks, as the bits and pieces of evidence are not only unrelated to each other, but completely unrelated to Springfield as well.

But even if there were a grain of truth to it, then I'd still say that the condemnation would be on America, not Haiti. If refugees were forced to scavenge the local wildlife to find something to eat, then it would be the unwelcome mistreatment of refugees to blame.

Like, if you heard a story that kids on a housing estate in Liverpool were resorting to eating the neighbourhood dogs and cats - let's take the racist "cannibals" element away - then I think you'd appreciate my point. Our first instincts would be to blame the government, because how the hell could anyone be getting so desperate, in a rich country, that they're scavenging local wildlife and pets. Why aren't these people being referred to the local food bank? Where's the government assistance to stop them starving to death?

And, you know, we're talking about America here. Richest country on Earth. How the hell could anyone be at threat of literally starving to death in a rich consumerist paradise?

If there were any truth to this story - which there apparently isn't - then I'm not blaming the Haitian refugees, I'd be condemning the system - because how the hell could there be any people stuck in some kind of Medieval malnutrition, on the brink of actual starvation, in any modern 21st century developed nation?

There is no such thing as "the deserving poor" - there is no God "punishing" poor people for being sinful - so, simply, if there are genuinely people starving to death or working families being referred to local food banks in Sheffield as they can't afford to eat and be warm simultaneously despite having a job, or any of that shit going on in a modern rich 21st century developed country, then our system is atrociously broken - preposterously so - and I'm not laying a single finger of blame on any of its undeserving victims.

It's not true. Even if it were true, then it's a fucked up system that's to blame for allowing anyone to get anywhere near starvation to even consider doing this in the first place.

[KlaxonCow]

Allexis Ferrell

Also, the fact that the mad woman who ate the cat in Canton, Ohio, has the surname "Ferrell" is some major Dickensian nominative determinism right there.

[Harlequin]

So the photo was not taken in Springfield, Ohio. It was in Columbus, Ohio.

And that separate story about a woman - who's from Ohio, not Haiti - eating a cat happened in Canton, Ohio.

And the photographer is talking about it being a goose, not a duck. Which, to be honest, makes more sense with what we see in the image, as it never looked like a duck to me anyway.

So the people who posted earlier in this thread were right, then?

[KlaxonCow]

So the people who posted earlier in this thread were right, then?

Apparently so.

Just bringing the news reports that are now confirming these details.

And the linked article has the photographer's own words regarding the circumstance of that photo - including that he deeply regrets posting it on the Internet now, after it's been taken up by right-wingers for their own agenda. When he only took the photo as a "you don't see that every day, do you?" curiosity.

(And, honestly, the reason I was even looking into this was I was wondering if there was any evidence that the photo was perhaps AI generated. In this day and age, seeing is no longer necessarily believing. But with various news agencies interviewing with the photographer, it does seem confirmed that it is a real photo.)