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

LordofTendons · Dec 9, 2019

'Santa is now seen as gender-neutral,' claims mom shamed on Facebook

The war on Christmas just took a bizarre turn.

www.foxnews.com

'Santa is now seen as gender-neutral,' claims mom shamed on Facebook

The war on Christmas just took a bizarre turn.

A viral Facebook post caused a festive controversy on the social media platform when a mom claimed that she received backlash for not using a “gender-neutral” term for Santa Claus, sparking a heated debate.

The story originates from an unnamed mom in Plymouth, England, who claims that she was shamed on a Facebook group after referring to Santa Claus as Father Christmas, the Plymouth Herald reports. The woman told the outlet, “Santa is now seen as gender-neutral. I was only referring to the book ‘Father Christmas’ by Raymond Briggs, but it’s left me a little confused/on edge about what we are aloud [sic] to say.”

While the original post (or the responses) have not been publicly revealed, users on Facebook were still quick to respond to the alleged shaming.

In response to a post about the story, one user replied, “Seriously! He's a guy, quite clearly a guy. I would have bitten back by calling him St Nicholas to be honest. The clue's in the name, Nicholas not Nicola.”

Another user, once again replying to a post about the story, complained, “I would love to meet these people... seriously… how long has Father Christmas been just that? Why change!!?? This gender-neutral thing can’t be done to everything!”

Yet another user joined in, posting, “Glad my kids grew up knowing Father Christmas is based on St Nick ... a man! All for personal identities and encourage it but come on! How messed up is this world we live in?”

JosephStalin · Dec 9, 2019

What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa: Trump Is Right

Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town. Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health. That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peac...

www.americanthinker.com

What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa: Trump Is Right
By Karin McQuillan

Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town. Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health. That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peace Corps doctor, "a fecalized environment."

In plain English: s--- is everywhere. People defecate on the open ground, and the feces is blown with the dust – onto you, your clothes, your food, the water. He warned us the first day of training: do not even touch water. Human feces carries parasites that bore through your skin and cause organ failure.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that a few decades later, liberals would be pushing the lie that Western civilization is no better than a third-world country. Or would teach two generations of our kids that loving your own culture and wanting to preserve it are racism.

Last time I was in Paris, I saw a beautiful African woman in a grand boubou have her child defecate on the sidewalk next to Notre Dame Cathedral. The French police officer, ten steps from her, turned his head not to see.
I have seen. I am not turning my head and pretending unpleasant things are not true.

Senegal was not a hellhole. Very poor people can lead happy, meaningful lives in their own cultures' terms. But they are not our terms. The excrement is the least of it. Our basic ideas of human relations, right and wrong, are incompatible.

As a twenty-one-year-old starting out in the Peace Corps, I loved Senegal. In fact, I was euphoric. I quickly made friends and had an adopted family. I relished the feeling of the brotherhood of man. People were open, willing to share their lives and, after they knew you, their innermost thoughts.

The longer I lived there, the more I understood: it became blindingly obvious that the Senegalese are not the same as us. The truths we hold to be self-evident are not evident to the Senegalese. How could they be? Their reality is totally different. You can't understand anything in Senegal using American terms.

Take something as basic as family. Family was a few hundred people, extending out to second and third cousins. All the men in one generation were called "father." Senegalese are Muslim, with up to four wives. Girls had their clitorises cut off at puberty. (I witnessed this, at what I thought was going to be a nice coming-of-age ceremony, like a bat mitzvah or confirmation.) Sex, I was told, did not include kissing. Love and friendship in marriage were Western ideas. Fidelity was not a thing. Married women would have sex for a few cents to have cash for the market.

What I did witness every day was that women were worked half to death. Wives raised the food and fed their own children, did the heavy labor of walking miles to gather wood for the fire, drew water from the well or public faucet, pounded grain with heavy hand-held pestles, lived in their own huts, and had conjugal visits from their husbands on a rotating basis with their co-wives. Their husbands lazed in the shade of the trees.

Yet family was crucial to people there in a way Americans cannot comprehend.

The Ten Commandments were not disobeyed – they were unknown. The value system was the exact opposite. You were supposed to steal everything you can to give to your own relatives. There are some Westernized Africans who try to rebel against the system. They fail.

We hear a lot about the kleptocratic elites of Africa. The kleptocracy extends through the whole society. My town had a medical clinic donated by international agencies. The medicine was stolen by the medical workers and sold to the local store. If you were sick and didn't have money, drop dead. That was normal.

So here in the States, when we discovered that my 98-year-old father's Muslim health aide from Nigeria had stolen his clothes and wasn't bathing him, I wasn't surprised. It was familiar.

In Senegal, corruption ruled, from top to bottom. Go to the post office, and the clerk would name an outrageous price for a stamp. After paying the bribe, you still didn't know it if it would be mailed or thrown out. That was normal.

One of my most vivid memories was from the clinic. One day, as the wait grew hotter in the 110-degree heat, an old woman two feet from the medical aides – who were chatting in the shade of a mango tree instead of working – collapsed to the ground. They turned their heads so as not to see her and kept talking. She lay there in the dirt. Callousness to the sick was normal.

Americans think it is a universal human instinct to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's not. It seems natural to us because we live in a Bible-based Judeo-Christian culture.

We think the Protestant work ethic is universal. It's not. My town was full of young men doing nothing. They were waiting for a government job. There was no private enterprise. Private business was not illegal, just impossible, given the nightmare of a third-world bureaucratic kleptocracy. It is also incompatible with Senegalese insistence on taking care of relatives.

All the little stores in Senegal were owned by Mauritanians. If a Senegalese wanted to run a little store, he'd go to another country. The reason? Your friends and relatives would ask you for stuff for free, and you would have to say yes. End of your business. You are not allowed to be a selfish individual and say no to relatives. The result: Everyone has nothing.

The more I worked there and visited government officials doing absolutely nothing, the more I realized that no one in Senegal had the idea that a job means work. A job is something given to you by a relative. It provides the place where you steal everything to give back to your family.

I couldn't wait to get home. So why would I want to bring Africa here? Non-Westerners do not magically become American by arriving on our shores with a visa.

For the rest of my life, I enjoyed the greatest gift of the Peace Corps: I love and treasure America more than ever. I take seriously my responsibility to defend our culture and our country and pass on the American heritage to the next generation.

African problems are made worse by our aid efforts. Senegal is full of smart, capable people. They will eventually solve their own country's problems. They will do it on their terms, not ours. The solution is not to bring Africans here.

We are lectured by Democrats that we must privilege third-world immigration by the hundred million with chain migration. They tell us we must end America as a white, Western, Judeo-Christian, capitalist nation – to prove we are not racist. I don't need to prove a thing. Leftists want open borders because they resent whites, resent Western achievements, and hate America. They want to destroy America as we know it.

As President Trump asked, why would we do that?

We have the right to choose what kind of country to live in. I was happy to donate a year of my life as a young woman to help the poor Senegalese. I am not willing to donate my country.

millais · Dec 9, 2019

JosephStalin said:
What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa: Trump Is Right

Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town. Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health. That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peac...

www.americanthinker.com

What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa: Trump Is Right
By Karin McQuillan

Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town. Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health. That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peace Corps doctor, "a fecalized environment."

In plain English: s--- is everywhere. People defecate on the open ground, and the feces is blown with the dust – onto you, your clothes, your food, the water. He warned us the first day of training: do not even touch water. Human feces carries parasites that bore through your skin and cause organ failure.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that a few decades later, liberals would be pushing the lie that Western civilization is no better than a third-world country. Or would teach two generations of our kids that loving your own culture and wanting to preserve it are racism.

Last time I was in Paris, I saw a beautiful African woman in a grand boubou have her child defecate on the sidewalk next to Notre Dame Cathedral. The French police officer, ten steps from her, turned his head not to see.
I have seen. I am not turning my head and pretending unpleasant things are not true.

Senegal was not a hellhole. Very poor people can lead happy, meaningful lives in their own cultures' terms. But they are not our terms. The excrement is the least of it. Our basic ideas of human relations, right and wrong, are incompatible.

As a twenty-one-year-old starting out in the Peace Corps, I loved Senegal. In fact, I was euphoric. I quickly made friends and had an adopted family. I relished the feeling of the brotherhood of man. People were open, willing to share their lives and, after they knew you, their innermost thoughts.

The longer I lived there, the more I understood: it became blindingly obvious that the Senegalese are not the same as us. The truths we hold to be self-evident are not evident to the Senegalese. How could they be? Their reality is totally different. You can't understand anything in Senegal using American terms.

Take something as basic as family. Family was a few hundred people, extending out to second and third cousins. All the men in one generation were called "father." Senegalese are Muslim, with up to four wives. Girls had their clitorises cut off at puberty. (I witnessed this, at what I thought was going to be a nice coming-of-age ceremony, like a bat mitzvah or confirmation.) Sex, I was told, did not include kissing. Love and friendship in marriage were Western ideas. Fidelity was not a thing. Married women would have sex for a few cents to have cash for the market.

What I did witness every day was that women were worked half to death. Wives raised the food and fed their own children, did the heavy labor of walking miles to gather wood for the fire, drew water from the well or public faucet, pounded grain with heavy hand-held pestles, lived in their own huts, and had conjugal visits from their husbands on a rotating basis with their co-wives. Their husbands lazed in the shade of the trees.

Yet family was crucial to people there in a way Americans cannot comprehend.

The Ten Commandments were not disobeyed – they were unknown. The value system was the exact opposite. You were supposed to steal everything you can to give to your own relatives. There are some Westernized Africans who try to rebel against the system. They fail.

We hear a lot about the kleptocratic elites of Africa. The kleptocracy extends through the whole society. My town had a medical clinic donated by international agencies. The medicine was stolen by the medical workers and sold to the local store. If you were sick and didn't have money, drop dead. That was normal.

So here in the States, when we discovered that my 98-year-old father's Muslim health aide from Nigeria had stolen his clothes and wasn't bathing him, I wasn't surprised. It was familiar.

In Senegal, corruption ruled, from top to bottom. Go to the post office, and the clerk would name an outrageous price for a stamp. After paying the bribe, you still didn't know it if it would be mailed or thrown out. That was normal.

One of my most vivid memories was from the clinic. One day, as the wait grew hotter in the 110-degree heat, an old woman two feet from the medical aides – who were chatting in the shade of a mango tree instead of working – collapsed to the ground. They turned their heads so as not to see her and kept talking. She lay there in the dirt. Callousness to the sick was normal.

Americans think it is a universal human instinct to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's not. It seems natural to us because we live in a Bible-based Judeo-Christian culture.

We think the Protestant work ethic is universal. It's not. My town was full of young men doing nothing. They were waiting for a government job. There was no private enterprise. Private business was not illegal, just impossible, given the nightmare of a third-world bureaucratic kleptocracy. It is also incompatible with Senegalese insistence on taking care of relatives.

All the little stores in Senegal were owned by Mauritanians. If a Senegalese wanted to run a little store, he'd go to another country. The reason? Your friends and relatives would ask you for stuff for free, and you would have to say yes. End of your business. You are not allowed to be a selfish individual and say no to relatives. The result: Everyone has nothing.

The more I worked there and visited government officials doing absolutely nothing, the more I realized that no one in Senegal had the idea that a job means work. A job is something given to you by a relative. It provides the place where you steal everything to give back to your family.

I couldn't wait to get home. So why would I want to bring Africa here? Non-Westerners do not magically become American by arriving on our shores with a visa.

For the rest of my life, I enjoyed the greatest gift of the Peace Corps: I love and treasure America more than ever. I take seriously my responsibility to defend our culture and our country and pass on the American heritage to the next generation.

African problems are made worse by our aid efforts. Senegal is full of smart, capable people. They will eventually solve their own country's problems. They will do it on their terms, not ours. The solution is not to bring Africans here.

We are lectured by Democrats that we must privilege third-world immigration by the hundred million with chain migration. They tell us we must end America as a white, Western, Judeo-Christian, capitalist nation – to prove we are not racist. I don't need to prove a thing. Leftists want open borders because they resent whites, resent Western achievements, and hate America. They want to destroy America as we know it.

As President Trump asked, why would we do that?

We have the right to choose what kind of country to live in. I was happy to donate a year of my life as a young woman to help the poor Senegalese. I am not willing to donate my country.

The open borders is also a bad policy because it causes a kind of middle-tier brain drain and wealth drain from the Third World, since it does take a modicum of intelligence and ability to surmount the not-insignificant challenge of sneaking across multiple international borders and oceans, and the migrants expend many tens of thousands of USD per person to pay off the human traffickers and middlemen.

If these migrants stayed in their home countries and utilized their motivation and intelligence and wealth to improve their country, there would be less need to flee to greener pastures.

CWCchange · Dec 9, 2019

Surprisingly, not Florida. Unsurprisingly, you know...

Long Island woman threatens to stab TGI Fridays worker over endless apps

Nothing was going to get between a Long Island woman and her “all-you-can-eat” doggie bag.

A Long Island woman threatened to stab a TGI Fridays employee who tried to stop her from heading home with an extra helping from their “all-you-can-eat” deal at the chain restaurant, police said.

The suspect, 32-year-old Skylar Williams, allegedly walked behind the bar of the restaurant on Sunrise Highway and tried to pack up food from the promotion at about 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, police said.

An employee told her she wasn’t allowed to be behind the bar — and Williams allegedly flipped out, grabbing a bottle of liquor and swinging it at the man, authorities said.

Williams and a friend then tried to leave with the bottle of liquor, but the same employee tried to stop her, cops said.

She then produced a black knife and threatened to stab him with it, police said.

Cops responded shortly after and tracked Williams down to a nearby yard.

Williams, of Wyandanch, had several Oxycodone pills on her at the time of the arrest, cops said.

She was hit with robbery, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a controlled substance charges.

A restaurant worker said Friday an “endless appetizers” deal is the only all-you-can-eat deal currently offered at the outpost.

keyboredsm4shthe2nd · Dec 10, 2019

CWCchange said:
Surprisingly, not Florida. Unsurprisingly, you know...

Long Island woman threatens to stab TGI Fridays worker over endless apps

Nothing was going to get between a Long Island woman and her “all-you-can-eat” doggie bag.

A Long Island woman threatened to stab a TGI Fridays employee who tried to stop her from heading home with an extra helping from their “all-you-can-eat” deal at the chain restaurant, police said.

The suspect, 32-year-old Skylar Williams, allegedly walked behind the bar of the restaurant on Sunrise Highway and tried to pack up food from the promotion at about 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, police said.

An employee told her she wasn’t allowed to be behind the bar — and Williams allegedly flipped out, grabbing a bottle of liquor and swinging it at the man, authorities said.

Williams and a friend then tried to leave with the bottle of liquor, but the same employee tried to stop her, cops said.

She then produced a black knife and threatened to stab him with it, police said.

Cops responded shortly after and tracked Williams down to a nearby yard.

Williams, of Wyandanch, had several Oxycodone pills on her at the time of the arrest, cops said.

She was hit with robbery, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a controlled substance charges.

A restaurant worker said Friday an “endless appetizers” deal is the only all-you-can-eat deal currently offered at the outpost.

What low iq trash. AT BEST you'd be banned from the restaurant for a month up to life. Also, shit sis, your eyelashes. Maybe she missed because she COULDN'T FUCKING SEE

Thank Fuck For Evil Otto · Dec 10, 2019

Chinese migrants found hiding in appliances at US crossing

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Eleven Chinese migrants were discovered hiding in furniture and appliances inside a truck stopped by agents as it entered the U.S. from Mexico at a Southern California border crossing, federal officials said...

apnews.com

Eleven Chinese migrants were discovered hiding in furniture and appliances inside a truck stopped by agents as it entered the U.S. from Mexico at a Southern California border crossing, federal officials said.

At least one person was crammed inside a washing machine and another was curled up inside a wooden chest, according to photos provided Monday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Authorities searched the truck Saturday evening at the border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, the federal agency said.

The truck driver, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen, was arrested on suspicion of human smuggling, a Customs and Border Protection statement said. He was not identified.

The 11 Chinese citizens were detained pending criminal and immigration proceedings, the statement said.

“These are human beings that smugglers subject to inhumane conditions that could have deadly consequences,” Pete Flores, director of field operations in San Diego for Customs and Border Protection, said in the statement. “Fortunately no one was seriously injured.”

Six Chinese nationals were found last month at the same border crossing concealed behind a false wall in a truck trying to enter the U.S., officials have said.

Titty Figurine · Dec 10, 2019

The guy who tried to steal a domain name at gunpoint a while back got sentenced to 14 years today.

Influencer jailed for plot to steal website at gunpoint

Rossi Lorathio Adams II is sentenced to 14 years in prison.

www.bbc.com

theshep · Dec 11, 2019

Bodybuilder set to marry his sex robot girlfriend ‘despite frequent arguments’
Yuri Tolochko, from Kazakhstan, will marry his sex robot girlfriend Margo after paying for the doll to have plastic surgery

A smitten actor and bodybuilder has vowed to marry his sex robot girlfriend after paying for real plastic surgery to enhance the doll's appearance when "she began to develop a complex".

Yuri Tolochko, from Kazakhstan, also revealed that the unusual couple has been invited on a Russian TV show Comedy Club although his relationship with Margo the doll is very much taken seriously.

Tolochko shared backstage images of the couple's television appearance with the teaser message: "I won't spoil it. You'll find it out at the right time!"

According to local media, Tolochko has been dating Margo for eight months and his Instagram is littered with loved-up selfies of the pair on dates.

Despite admitting that they have the occasional argument, devoted Tolochko insists that he plans to marry the sex doll.

Tolochko said he recently sent Margo to a clinic for plastic surgeons to make his synthetic girlfriend even prettier after he claimed her media appearances made her feel insecure.

He said: "When I presented her photo to the world, there was a lot of criticism and she began to develop a complex so we decided to have plastic surgery.

"She has changed a lot. At first, it was hard to accept but I got used to it later on.

"It was at a real clinic with real doctors."

Reports said the actor treats the doll, which has its own Instagram blog, like a living person and even found her a waitressing position at a local bar.

Tolochko said: "She can't walk by herself, she needs help.

"Margo doesn't know how to cook, but she loves Georgian cuisine. Her favourite dish is khinkali."

Discussing her personality, the eccentric actor added: "She swears, but there is a tender soul inside."

According to Tolochko, he met Margo in a bar when a young man attacked the doll and he managed to protect her.

They have reportedly been inseparable ever since.

It is unclear when the wedding will take place.

This comes after a sex robot manufacturer exclusively told Daily Star Online that many customers are already swapping human partners for next-generation dolls.

And a mum and daughter teamed up to open a brothel together in Sheffield – where their sex robot Samantha "works".

Bodybuilder set to marry his sex robot girlfriend ‘despite frequent arguments’

Yuri Tolochko, from Kazakhstan, will marry his sex robot girlfriend Margo after paying for the doll to have plastic surgery

www.dailystar.co.uk

AlexJonesGotMePregnant · Dec 11, 2019

theshep said:
Bodybuilder set to marry his sex robot girlfriend ‘despite frequent arguments’
Yuri Tolochko, from Kazakhstan, will marry his sex robot girlfriend Margo after paying for the doll to have plastic surgery

Bodybuilder set to marry his sex robot girlfriend ‘despite frequent arguments’

Yuri Tolochko, from Kazakhstan, will marry his sex robot girlfriend Margo after paying for the doll to have plastic surgery

www.dailystar.co.uk

Related:
Woman who wants 'fattest vagina in the world' says surgery transformed sex life

A woman who has spent £76,000 on plastic surgery is happy with her latest vagina op. While there have been some complications, she says its boosted her sex life

By Sophie Roberts Acting Lifestyle and Travel Editor

10:07, 10 DEC 2019

UPDATED10:11, 10 DEC 2019

A woman who hopes to achieve the “world’s fattest vagina” admits that her plastic surgery procedures have their drawbacks.

The “wannabe blow up doll”, who goes by the name Mary Magdalene, says she’s battled health complications as a result of her cosmetic ops.

The 24-year-old says intimate injections have caused her to swell up “down there”.

But despite these issues, she doesn’t regret spending £76,000 on her surgery transformation.

This is probably because the vagina op has had a positive affect on her sex life.

Mary discussed the pros and cons of intimate surgery (Image: Jam Press)

Mary plans to share snaps of her “fattened” vagina once the area heals up.

While she’s on the road to recovery, the Canadian influencer is still facing complications.

She said: “It’s a lot better than it was. However I have complications with the fat, so I will need to keep getting vagina injections to even it out.

“I am worried about one side, because it keeps growing. I think it’s probably from the swelling.

“But the doctor told me not to worry. So I’m trying to relax.”

The fetish model has experienced some swelling in her intimate areas (Image: Jam Press)

Thankfully, it hasn’t all been doom and gloom for the fetish model.

She says the surgery has helped her to feel more confident and creative.

Mary explained: “I feel more confident naked, and I love showing it off in clothes.

“My favourite type of cleavage now is my camel toe. Although when I bend over it looks like I have a ballsack…

“I have been making paintings with my vagina – so this surgery has really inspired me to be more creative as well.”

Mary before she spent £76,000 on plastic surgery (Image: Jam Press)

Mary adds that her vagina surgery has also improved her sex life.

She remarked: “When I have sex it feels a lot tighter – I can squeeze and hug the c*** before it even enters”.

It’s not the first time that the model has spoken about her plastic surgery transformation.

Previously, she revealed that she enjoys looking like a “bimbo”.

She said: “(My first op) was a boob job.

“I was working as a stripper since I was 17, and I’ve always loved the fake bimbo look."

Mary is a big fan of her 'bimbo' appearance – and says surgery has given her more confidence (Image: Jam Press)

Since then, Mary has had three nose jobs, twenty dental veneers and countless lip and cheek fillers.
She also braved the surgeon’s chair for three boob jobs and a trio of Brazilian butt lifts.

And despite her recent complications, the Instagram star doesn’t plan on giving up her obsession any time soon.
She said: “It's so exciting.
"I am scared but realistically it wont stop me. It is very addictive."

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/real-life/woman-who-wants-fattest-vagina-21063252

Spiteful Crow · Dec 11, 2019

Bystanders spring into action after a man tried steal a woman's wheelchair from beneath her

A man in reindeer slippers tried to steal a woman's wheelchair right from under her on a light rail car in Phoenix. Then her fellow passengers sprang into action.

www.cnn.com

The day after Thanksgiving, a man in reindeer slippers tried to steal a woman's wheelchair right from under her on a light rail car in Phoenix, authorities said.

But a group of bystanders stepped in to help and successfully wrestled the wheelchair back from him.

The Phoenix Police Department shared security footage of the incident on Facebook. On Saturday night, they announced that a suspect, identified as 26-year-old Austin Shurbutt, had been taken into custody.

Shurbutt was still wearing the reindeer slippers at the time of his arrest, police said in a Facebook post.

"Despite his reindeer slippers, this criminal was NOT spreading holiday cheer," police said on Facebook. "He tried to steal a wheelchair right out from under a woman, but hero passengers on the light rail came to her rescue."

Safir · Dec 11, 2019

Indian SJWs on Twitter are pissed at Modi for the Citizenship Amendment Bill (wikipedia link). #CAB2019 is trending at #1 worldwide.

The bill clears the pathway to and fast-tracks citizenship for illegal immigrants from Muslim-majority countries belonging to persecuted religious minorities who've entered the country before 2015.
It does not directly invite additional illegals into India who aren't already there. It does not punish illegals who don't qualify for the fast-track. The only restrictive provision is aimed at the overseas Indian diaspora.

Nevertheless, there are massive anti-immigrant protests in New Delhi and the affected regions: native Indian ethnic groups such as the Assamese are afraid for their lifestyles and cultures.

What does WaPo report?

India passes controversial citizenship law excluding Muslim migrants
By
Joanna Slater and
Niha Masih
December 11, 2019 at 11:39 AM EST
NEW DELHI — Lawmakers in India enacted a fundamental change to its citizenship law to include religion as a criterion for nationality for the first time, deepening concerns that a country founded on secular ideals is becoming a Hindu state that treats Muslims as second-class citizens.
The new law creates a path to citizenship for migrants who belong to several South Asian religions but pointedly excludes Islam, the faith practiced by 200 million Indian citizens.
The measure was approved by a majority of the upper house of India’s parliament in a final vote late Wednesday. Its passage marks the latest political victory for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a strident nationalist in the mold of other right-leaning populist politicians around the globe.

Since winning a landslide reelection victory in May, Modi has moved swiftly to implement his party’s agenda of emphasizing Hindu primacy in India, a diverse democracy home to more than 1.3 billion people.

Hindu nationalist ideologues view India’s history as a series of humiliations — centuries of rule by Muslim kings followed by British colonialism — that must be redressed.

They despise the secularism embraced by India’s founders, who sought to create a country where all faiths were treated equally. And they accuse India’s previous leaders of pandering to religious minorities, especially Muslims, in search of votes.

Now, in just months, Modi has achieved some of their top objectives. In August, he reversed seven decades of policy in Kashmir, stripping the Muslim-majority state of its autonomy and instituting a crackdown that endures to this day. Last month, India’s Supreme Court greenlighted the construction of a grand Hindu temple at the site of a 16th century mosque illegally razed by Hindu extremists in 1992.

The government has also engaged in increasingly harsh anti-migrant rhetoric. The country’s powerful interior minister has called migrants who entered the country illegally “termites” and pledged to expel them. Earlier this year, Indian authorities completed a byzantine process aimed at identifying migrants in the northeastern state of Assam. Nearly 1.9 million people were left off the final list of citizens, raising the risk that they could be rendered stateless or deported.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill, which was passed by both houses of parliament this week, is another priority. It is effectively an amnesty for all Hindus, Buddhists and Christians (as well as adherents of three smaller religions) who illegally entered the country before 2014 from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The citizenship bill is “the first legal articulation that India is, you might say, a homeland for Hindus,” said Pratap Bhanu Mehta, one of India’s most prominent political scientists. Mehta believes the measure violates the Indian constitution, which guarantees equal rights before the law to all people within the country.

To name specific religious communities in the law is “nothing else but sending a signal,” said Mehta. “The signal is that Muslims are not on the same footing” as others in India.
Modi and his second-in-command, Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah, have said the measure is necessary to offer refuge to persecuted religious minorities. Proponents say India owes a moral responsibility to such communities who have faced severe hardship and even violence. But the law does not provide any relief to members of oppressed religious minorities — mostly Muslims — from other neighboring countries such as China and Myanmar.
After the measure passed on Wednesday, Modi wrote that it was a “landmark day for India and our nation’s ethos of compassion and brotherhood.” He said the bill would “alleviate the suffering of many who faced persecution for years.”

However, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom on Monday described the legislation as a “dangerous turn” that “runs counter to India’s rich history of secular pluralism.” It called upon Congress and President Trump to consider sanctions against Shah if the measure became law. India rejected the criticism as “neither accurate nor warranted.”
The heated debate in Parliament over the citizenship measure repeatedly raked up India’s original trauma, the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. While Pakistan was founded as a home for the region’s Muslims, India defined itself in opposition to the idea that religion was the basis of nationhood.
The bill runs counter to India’s “foundational values,” Anand Sharma, a leader of the opposition Congress party, said in Parliament on Wednesday. “It hurts the soul of India.”

For some in India, the citizenship law is a sign of the profound changes sweeping the country and a cause for deep sadness. Shah Alam Khan, 49, a doctor and columnist in Delhi, said his great-grandparents decided to stay in India at the time of partition, rather than leave for Pakistan as many Muslims did, because they believed in India’s pluralistic ethos.
“They trusted the sky over their heads and the ground under their feet,” he wrote. “I am happy they aren’t alive to see this collapsing India.”

The Modi government’s moves have intensified a sense of insecurity among India’s Muslim community, the second-largest in the world. Modi has long been a controversial figure among Muslims. In 2002, when he was chief minister of the state of Gujarat, he failed to stop the deadliest outbreak of communal violence in recent Indian history. More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed over three days. A court-appointed panel absolved Modi of involvement in the riots.
Now some Muslims worry that the current citizenship law is only the first step of a larger project. Shah, Modi’s lieutenant, has repeatedly stated that the government intends to launch a nationwide registry in which all Indians will be required to prove their citizenship, patterned on the exercise recently carried out in Assam. The opaque and complex process was riddled with errors and forced residents to provide ancestral documents going back decades.

Shah’s repeated references to migrants as “termites” and “infiltrators” who represent a security threat is coded language to refer to Muslims, critics say. Although Shah has said that Indian Muslims have nothing to fear, many worry they would be the target of a nationwide citizenship registry.

One of the effects of Modi’s new citizenship measure would be to help those left off the list of citizens in Assam — provided they are not Muslims. In September, Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of a powerful Hindu nationalist organization that is the ideological parent of the ruling party, reportedly assured politicians that “no Hindu” would be expelled from the country.
“We have to distinguish between the infiltrators and genuine persecuted refugees,” said Sudhanshu Trivedi, a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. “This is the right time for India to assert its security concerns, because we are living with neighbors which are the biggest security threats in the entire world.” He said the three countries mentioned in the legislation — Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan — were “theocratic states.”
As the citizenship legislation moved closer to a final vote, the furor around it grew. Hundreds of prominent scientists and scholars issued public letters to express their opposition.

In India’s northeast, violent protests broke out against the measure. In some areas, local authorities requested help from the Indian army, shut down mobile internet access and imposed curfews. States such as Assam have long witnessed tensions surrounding the arrival of Bengali-speaking migrants from neighboring Bangladesh, who locals fear will alter their culture and take away jobs. Now the citizenship measure will help some of those migrants to become citizens, provided that they settle outside of areas designated for indigenous people.
“There is a lot of anger since we have already absorbed so many people,” said Madhurjya Baruah, 32, a lawyer in Guhawati, the capital of Assam. “After making everyone in the state prove their citizenship, you are saying you will accept recent immigrants. Whatever religion they may be, we are not going to accept it.”
Opponents of the new citizenship law have vowed to challenge its constitutionality. But India’s Supreme Court has demonstrated that it is reluctant to rule in an expeditious manner on such challenges, particularly when they involve the policy priorities of the government.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-poised-to-pass-controversial-citizenship-law-excluding-muslim-migrants/2019/12/11/ebda6a7e-1b71-11ea-977a-15a6710ed6da_story.html

Protesters in the streets: no more migrants!
Opposition in the parliament: not enough migrants!

Water-T · Dec 11, 2019

The AVClub (a part of the Gawker cancer) recently put up a list of the 20 Worst films of 2019, and put "Joker" at #20.

https://film.avclub.com/the-20-worst-films-of-2019-1840320154

Yes, yes, we get it. You guys are still buttmad that it made over a billion and didn't result in a chain of mass shootings by incels like you were hoping for just so you could gloat about evil white men and get those sweet, sweet outrage clicks. I really look forward to the next wave of Gawkerite butthurt when the Oscar nominations start rolling in.

AnOminous · Dec 11, 2019

Water-T said:
The AVClub (a part of the Gawker cancer) recently put up a list of the 20 Worst films of 2019, and put "Joker" at #20.
https://film.avclub.com/the-20-worst-films-of-2019-1840320154

Yes, yes, we get it. You guys are still buttmad that it made over a billion and didn't result in a chain of mass shootings by incels like you were hoping for just so you could gloat about evil white men and get those sweet, sweet outrage clicks. I really look forward to the next wave of Gawkerite butthurt when the Oscar nominations start rolling in.

Sad. They should just commit suicide en masse out of utter anal anguish that they weren't able to cancel something.

Water-T · Dec 11, 2019

AnOminous said:
Sad. They should just commit suicide en masse out of utter anal anguish that they weren't able to cancel something.

I'm sure they will soothe some of that asspain by declaring Star Wars Episode IX as #1 on their Best Films of 2019 list. $20 says they already have an article ready to go with it and are just waiting for the movie to drop.

PS1gamenwatch · Dec 11, 2019

https://www.euronews.com/2019/12/11/police-in-denmark-make-arrests-over-suspected-terror-plot

Police in Denmark make arrests over suspected terror plot
COMMENTS
By Euronews with Reuters• last updated: 11/12/2019 - 19:57

Danish police carried out raids around the country (File picture from 2016) -
Copyright
AP

Police in Denmark have arrested 20 people in connection with suspected preparations for an Islamist terrorist attack.
They said several raids were made throughout the country on Wednesday and that suspects were arrested for trying to obtain explosives and firearms.
The raids were mounted on the suspicion that several people had been planning an attack, the Danish intelligence service said in a news conference with police.
"It is our assessment, that those people are driven by a militant, Islamist motive," operational chief of the intelligence service, Flemming Drejer, said.
Some of those arrested would face preliminary questioning on Thursday on charges of terrorism, chief of police Jorgen Bergen Skov said.
"It's important to underline, that we detained all those, we have been looking for," Skov said. "We now have the situation under control."

Copenhagen Police said on Twitter its officers were carrying out a "major action" with searches and arrests being made around the country.

Københavns Politi

✔@KobenhavnPoliti
https://twitter.com/KobenhavnPoliti/status/1204758442986082304

Politiet er i øjeblikket i gang med en større aktion. Der foretages ransagninger og anholdelser flere steder i landet. Flere politikredse er involveret i aktionen, som ledes af Københavns Politi. Intet yderligere for nu #politidk

275
5:42 AM - Dec 11, 2019
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Denmark has not seen a militant attack since 2015 when two people were killed and six police officers were wounded. In that incident, a lone gunman shot and killed a man outside a culture centre hosting a debate on freedom of speech, and later killed a person outside a Jewish synagogue in central Copenhagen. The gunman was killed in a shoot-out with police.
This year, the Danish government-imposed temporary border controls at its border with Sweden following the bombing of the Danish Tax Agency in Copenhagen, which led to the arrest of three Swedish men.

Dec 11, 2019

Brittany & Jared have over 34.4k followers on the platform

TikTok content creators Brittany & Jared (@brittany.and.jared) have come under fire for a “racist” video involving a cat in the oven as a Panda Express ingredient.

In the now-deleted video, a live cat is placed in an oven with the caption “Recipe Leaked”. The oven is then turned on at 485°F. A Panda Express takeout is then seen in the oven after the timer runs out.

Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas’ is played in the background.

As the video has a #repost hashtag, it is unclear as to whether Brittany & Jared actually made the video. Nonetheless, the couple seemed to enjoy the joke and captioned it “performed by professionals… please do not try this at home”.

In any case, people seemed rather unhappy with the video. “Did you see the one where the kid put their cat in the oven and out came panda express? because fuck that kid for several reasons,” one person wrote on Twitter.

“It seems not many people really take racism against Asian people seriously,” a reader said to NextShark. “Making videos like this isn’t okay, at least in my book.”

emma on Twitter

“@KendallRaeOnYT did you see the one where the kid put their cat in the oven and out came panda express? because fuck that kid for several reasons”

twitter.com

Article (archive)
The cat appears uninjured. Has outrage culture gone too far?

Some Manajerk · Dec 11, 2019

"Forget the implications of animal cruelty that involves, hurting the slants fee-fees is the real issue here!"

RadicalCentrist · Dec 11, 2019

I hate the (mis)usage of words like "slammed," "on blast" etc to disguise butthurt as some sort of righteous indignation. Just garden variety ass pain IMO

Screw Danlon · Dec 11, 2019

people seemed rather unhappy ... one person wrote on Twitter.

As said above, 1 person is not a slam. Also, news articles need to stop quoting Twitter randos. It’s lazy, it implies a unanimity that might not even be there, it allows them to be biased while hiding behind merely “reporting public reactions” and they never even pick the best ones (see also, lazy).

Also, their little bottom of page pop-up blocker blocking ad (fuck THAT shit) is giving me an ad for Panda Express.

kidatari · Dec 11, 2019

I don't know much about this tik tok site
but i think this video is funny

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

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It's a link to 4chan's automotive board.

he put a baby in my butt

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