🐱 Interesting clickbait, op-eds, fluff pieces and other smaller stories

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/24/caitlyn-jenner-halloween-costume-sparks-social-media-outrage-.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...een-costume-labeled-817515?utm_source=twitter

It's nowhere near October, but one ensemble is already on track to be named the most controversial Halloween costume of 2015.

Social media users were out in full force on Monday criticizing several Halloween retailers for offering a Caitlyn Jenner costume reminiscent of the former-athlete's Vanity Fair cover earlier this year.

While Jenner's supporters condemned the costume as "transphobic" and "disgusting" on Twitter, Spirit Halloween, a retailer that carries the costume, defended the getup.

"At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes," said Lisa Barr, senior director of marking at Spirit Halloween. "We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that."

 

[BlancoMailo]

Translation: "Hey your country's better than ours so you should let us who fucked our own countries up fuck yours up as well."

I think the Euros have some kind of nationalist submission kink that they just can't get over (next up they ask to run the US military into the ground by merging it into the EU army)...

 

[Digital Thunder]

Opinion: The American Revolution didn't go far enough, we need to invade Britain and carry Big Ben back to DC as a war trophy.

See how silly that sounds? That's how this Britbong sounds.

At this rate, that is an idea I’d back sincerely.

I’d ask for whatever this writer is smoking to make them say and allow this shit to get published, but white guilt combined with tetanus from a bad shank sounds like a terrible high.

 

[AlexJonesGotMePregnant]

Lots of people truly do believe that the world needs a unified global government to stamp out any sort of nationalism. The EU is a good example of what that looks like in action but the US has fallen into this a lot in recent years as well- claiming that you support American first as an American citizen is now an automatic scarlet letter that will leave individuals run out of their careers. The moron who wrote that piece doesn't think he's lying, what he is proposing may be a bit facetious but it lines up with the philosophy of any globalist.

 

[keyboredsm4shthe2nd]

Lol that would defeat the purpose of even being a citizen in the united states. To have some foreigners vote on your policy and the laws you'll have to follow.

It's bad enough with the illegal aliens trying to get voting rights, I don't want no fucking cuck from bongistan telling me I can't drink a 32oz soda in one go

 

[CatParty]

Opinion: America should allow other countries to vote in the 2020 election

This is a country which calls itself 'leader of the Free World' and has huge global influence in terms of foreign policy and economics. Now that Trump won't acknowledge basic things like climate change, it's time other countries had a say

www.independent.co.uk

I was nine years old when I first seriously pondered the result of a US presidential election. It was 2000 and my father suggested we bet on who would win the 2000 vote – George W Bush or Al Gore. In the kitchen of our apartment in the Paris suburbs, I bet a piece of gum that it would be Gore. Two months later, the Supreme Court decided otherwise, and I didn’t realise until many years later how close I had come to being right.

Perhaps that’s when it originated: the idea that maybe other countries shouldn’t just be left wringing their hands every four years and waiting to see who US citizens had chosen to appoint as (to speak like a White House staffer on Scandal) the leader of the Free World.

And perhaps that seed of an idea continued to gestate in 2004, when we waited to find out whether John Kerry would deprive George W Bush of a second term; then in 2008, when T-shirts bearing Barack Obama’s red and blue “Hope” poster started cropping up on the streets of the French capital; and again in 2012, when we learned the names of his Republican challengers.

Then, of course, came November 2016, by which time I had moved from my native France to the US. I came home from work at approximately four the morning after the election and spent an hour or two on the phone with my mother (it was mid-morning in Paris) talking about Donald Trump’s ascent to power and what it meant for America as well as for the world.

One election after the next, we have seen how much the results of the US presidential vote impact not just the 50 states, but the rest of the planet too. And if the future of foreign countries is shaped to a significant extent by what goes on on US Election Day, shouldn’t they get a say in who gets to lead the most powerful nation in the world for the next four years?

In other words: shouldn’t foreign countries have a right to vote in the US presidential election?

I know, I know. The idea sounds so absurd, so outrageous that it’s hard to know where to begin your rebuttal. I have floated it around, timidly, in bars and at various dinner parties over the years, and let me tell you – it’s hard to get people to agree with me. And I get it: it’s never been done. I will probably never be done. But last week, a terrorist killed 50 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The alleged gunman, who had referred to himself as a white nationalist, viewed Donald Trump as “a symbol of renewed white identity”. So, yes, I think it’s high time to acknowledge the fact that what happens in the US has immense, tangible consequences on the rest of the world, and I am tired of crossing my fingers hoping that American voters will do the right thing.

I remember the Iraq war debate, and how George W Bush expressed his disappointment at my country and others for deciding not to align with US forces – while insisting that he was “not mad” we had decided to opt out of the invasion. I remember our collective bewilderment at the term “freedom fries”, and I remember lacking clarity on some of the details, on account of being 11 years old at the time. But the feeling that the US, more than any other nation, shapes our collective future has only grown clearer and stronger since.


Perhaps it helps to imagine America as the pot in which tomorrow’s ideas are brewed, for better or worse. Perhaps it helps, too, to look at the more tangible signs of how US politics contribute to shaping all of our lives. The most convincing example may be global warming, and Donald Trump’s overt skepticism when it comes to climate change. In January this year, the president of the world’s most powerful nation infamously tweeted: "In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can't last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming [sic]? Please come back fast, we need you!"


It goes without saying that whatever the US does or does not do to limit the effects of global warming impacts every single being, human or otherwise, on this planet.

Then comes the economy: in June last year, we were warned that tensions between the US and its main trading partners could precipitate global trade turmoil similar in scale to the 2008 financial crisis. Whoever gets to sit in the Oval Office, then, plays a major role in shaping the state of our wallets as well as the state of the planet. Is it really that outrageous that people around the world might want to have a say on who runs the show?

I am, of course, aware that the US is extremely unlikely to go along with my idea. This isn’t a country that’s particularly known for avidly seeking external input. And of course, there’s the idea that the right to vote is intrinsically tied to residence, and that those who don’t live in a given country aren’t qualified to make a call on what goes in said country.

Except things are more complicated, and more nuanced than that. Take, for example, the idea that living in a country is a condition to having the right to vote there. Permanent residents such as myself, also known as green card holders (also known as people who aren’t US citizens but live and work in the US full-time) pay the same income tax as US citizens, but don’t get to vote. Naturally, US citizens (like citizens of many other countries) still get to vote for their president even if they permanently move to a different country. All this to say: there is an established disequilibrium between who gets to vote in the US presidential election and who arguably has the most skin in the game.

How would it work, then? If the US were to entertain the possibility of letting foreigners participate in the presidential vote (and again, I’m not holding my breath), how would we make it happen? Does each foreign country get the same weight as each of the 50 states? Surely, that would be giving too much weight to the outside world. Do we restrict the vote to member states of NATO and/or historical allies? This seems slightly more realistic – as realistic as it gets in this purely hypothetical scenario – but also somewhat unfair to those whose voices would be left out.


I have clearly disclosed my status as a French citizen, so I know the question will be raised: how would I react if someone proposed to let other countries vote in the French presidential election? Well, France is currently about five spots behind the US in the ranking of the world’s most powerful nations, and its GDP is more than seven times lower. But sure, should France ever have the kind of political and cultural influence the US currently yields, then I’d be inclined to let others have a say. In fact, I might even vote in favour of it.

 

[rocknrollmartian]

Mlle Michallon, what you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

 

[Splendid]

Can we vote in their elections and singlehandedly uncuck the commonwealth?
Also, what happens when China votes in American elections, installs a Communist dictatorship, and starts operating a state news agency?

 

[Regu]

Not only does this display an infantile level of understanding of politics, but it completely ignores the fact that the reason the US is the world's superpower is because those fucking Euros decided that instead of keeping the world in check, let's fuck everything up forever for us.

Reap what you sow, you communist faggot. You nearly killed us so I'll be happy to dance on your grave.

 

[Glad I couldn't help]

The European Union and the People's Republic of China are also massive behemoths that influences the entire world. So I would say that non-citizens should have as much say as the citizens in the high policy of those entities.

Except, for course, that non-citizens and citizens of the EU and the PRC already have the same amount of influence on their respective high policies of theose entities, i.e. none.

 

[heathercho]

Oh, so when "Russia" does it, it's a bad thing. But when this french whore wants it, it's a good thing.
I wonder if Clemence would let me "vote" on how she uses the money in her bank account. I vote it all gets spent on me, I'm sure she'd be happy to let that happen.

 

[Clem Fandango]

I know, I know. The idea sounds so absurd, so outrageous that it’s hard to know where to begin your rebuttal. I have floated it around, timidly, in bars and at various dinner parties over the years, and let me tell you – it’s hard to get people to agree with me.

So, you've repeatedly had this slapped down by people in bars and at dinner parties, but still felt the need to type up this garbage article? Why?

 

[Bassomatic]

To quote a wise man.

I hope you get raped by a pack of niggers.

People left European culture, society and safety for the raw new lands for one reason, freedom a term that can be defined only by each person. Some it meant praying to a "wrong or weird" god others the hope of wealth etc etc.

I honestly think this is a write up of click bait no one is this foolish in reality. I sure wish I had a magic wand too. If i as an American spoke how i want a no deal Brexit how will she feel? Probably I'm over stepping my bounds.

France is a weak nation filled with a weak people. The only two leaders of the country worth a shit didn't even have frog blood. If indeed she's serious, she's aware her dying nation doesn't matter and likely never will again. She's angry because she's the spoiled elite with no one to rule.

Also, thanks for Vietnam you cheese eating surrender monkies.

 

[Silence of the Troons]

This sounds like a great idea. In return for being allowed to vote in another country's elections, I am sure my fellow compatriot Clémence Michallon is also in favor of allowing all the people who live in the former New France area plus all inhabitants of our ancient colonies in Africa and Asia to vote in our presidential elections. After all, France is another leader of the Free World, and we wouldn't want to be worse than the United States, would we?

 

[The Pink Panther]

Collusion, basically?

 

[Feline Supremacist]

This is so phenomenally ass backwards its hard to respond without dissolving into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

 

[heathercho]

This sounds like a great idea. In return for being allowed to vote in another country's presidential election, I am sure my fellow compatriot Clémence Michallon is also in favor of allowing all the people who live in the former New France area plus all inhabitants of our ancient colonies in Africa and Asia to vote in our presidential elections. After all, France is another leader of the Free World, and we wouldn't want to be worse than the United States, would we?

You jest, but Clemence totally would. She's a brainless spoiled twat who has no idea of what normal commoners have to go through. She's too busy taking food snaps and indulging herself.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

Rest of the world elects some African who can't speak English other than "Don't eat the poopoo" and wants to nuke Israel.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

The only thing the democrats did successfully was hold back Trump from building the border wall and with that they might've had a chance at securing presidency for 2020. Now that they have some glimpse of an upper hand, they capitalize on it by embracing the ancient instinct of shoving their head into the dirt like a flightless bird with a lizard brain reacting to an unknown stimuli followed by endorsing a bunch of retarded and voter alienating policies that obliterates any chance they had of taking the mantle from the Republicans in 2020, all simply because they're too retarded to simply not propose policies born out the compulsive need & exclusive purpose of embodying an ideology diametrically opposed to orange man's policies by order of the furthest possible unrealistic extremes such a party of bird brains could conceive.

Just wait until they start endorsing this idea.

Except things are more complicated, and more nuanced than that.

I think this is by far the worst part of the article by far, the notion that this batshit idea should be granted an elevated dignity it doesn't deserve because global politics are more intricate than the surface level rejections it receives, which is ironic since this idea itself is a surface level take on global politics.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

Not gonna happen it will bite them back in the long run. For example

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

No, stupid, you don't live here or pay taxes here so you certainly shouldn't have any say in our politics. Why a responsible adult couldn't say that while slapping this moron upside the head is a mystery...