Former Italian prime minister Berlusconi died. Current prime minister calls hime 'one of the most important men in Italian history'. Current prime minister happens to be from the extreme right faction as well.
Always good to know that politicans have a healthy sense of perspective. 
So, the church... Not politics, but I couldn't stomach making a seperate thread for it.
There's this documentary series on TV now about child abuse in the church and while I don't watch cable, some of it trickles down to the written press. Whatever I'm reading is downright abhorent. In every institution where the church was working with kids -and those were many, as the church had a monopoly on decent schooling at the time- it seems that there was abuse, often normalised and happening on a wide scale. There was this one example that was so horrific I'm not even going to write it down. Suffice to say, that woman has been scarred for life. I was taken so aback by it that I had to actually sit down.
Cover up stories, proof -whole files- that were made to disappear, people being paid off to shut them up. It was so systemic that it boggles the mind.
I think faith is a pretty cool thing in and of its own. I might not believe in it, but that's besides the point. It gives people a sense of community, something sorely lacking in most of society today. But the church itself can get stuffed.
It's hard to tell whether abuse in the church is worse than in other institutions with similar powers, because the church has lost a lot of power and prestige (unrelated to abuse) over recent years, and other institutions have not, so it's acceptable for this sort of stuff to come out now. But I don't know anything about Belgium in this regard, so wouldn't be able to comment. Awful either way.
Putin has given a press conference in which he stated that Prigozjin's plane came down because a hand granade was detonated from the inside. He then insinuated that they were probably all drunk and high.
Well, that's another case closed then. 
Good thing we've got Putin to tell us how stuff really, probably, maybe happened. Also happy to hear that he wasn't behind it himself as to get rid of a former ally who became unreliable. Because if so, Putin surely would have told us during his press conference.
Putin: Ulraine started the war and all we really want is peace
Also Putin
: 
The resemblance is striking. What can't AI do these days?
The Israelian ambassador appeared at a UN meeting wearing a David-star.
This is such an amount of wrong on so many levels. I'm happy to hear that even withing Israel some voices are stating that this was a very bad move indeed.
What happened to the Jewish people throughout history is a tragedy and inexcusible, but to refer to that as a kind of moral free pass to be able to inflict as much harm as you want on a populace yourself is repulsive.
I know it'll never happen, but it'd be nice if the US would, for once, reprimand Israel instead of just blindly supporting whatever they do.
The American view on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been lopsided for ages and I've always felt uncomfortable with that. The rhetoric about this conflict is so strong though that nothing will ever change. The map of that area looks like swiss cheese with the arab states and jewish states. I'm not sure how you can even govern properly like that.
travo said:The American view on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been lopsided for ages and I've always felt uncomfortable with that. The rhetoric about this conflict is so strong though that nothing will ever change. The map of that area looks like swiss cheese with the arab states and jewish states. I'm not sure how you can even govern properly like that.
Yep, bad is bad. Obviously the terror attack is horrific. But constant oppression and wiping out buildings and homes that end up killing tons of innocent Palestinians is also you know kind of terror like... but can't say that here cause this country is crazy.
There hasn't been much good news in here lately (if ever?), so let me be the first to announce that Henry Kissinger is dead. 
It could be spun into bad news: Scumbag lives incredibly long life.
Has anyone changed their opinion or viewpoint regarding Israel/Gaza/Palestine and the west Bank?
The sheer availability of different media sources, social media, alternative media, 24 hr news channel availability, has completely enlightened me to the real situation there.
For us here despite being over 40 and somewhat of a newshound I was never really educated on what was going on in that region. Israel was always depicted as democratic peaceful victims of some random terrorist group occasionally shelling them. And truth be told I never knew why, it was just something that happened and as a western style nation (America's ally) we just assumed that the white guys were the good guys.
The shit I've learned since October the 7th is somewhat mind blowing. And also the difference between what the (and I hate this phrase) "mainstream media" shows you, how they frame everything and the agenda they push, becomes so obvious when you can see the reality of things yourself online.
It breaks my heart when I see some videos of the devastation in Gaza and some of the horrific crimes going on in the west bank.
I of course abhor what Hamas did too. I've always been someone who just wants people to get along, for me it's easy, it's just my personality, it takes no effort from me.
But when I try and put myself in the shoes of someone whose house has been stolen by extremists, backed up by armour clad-machine gun wielding goons.
Or people who have had their entire families dismembered and buried under the weight of a casually fired Israeli missile, I'm not sure how I'd change as a person.
You know what's sad is that I've had to delete half my post, before even posting it. Despite it being clearly evident and based on facts, I feel like you'll be jumped on and called an antisemite or something just for pointing out some fact based realities of the way Israel treats non-jews there.
Foolz said:There hasn't been much good news in here lately (if ever?), so let me be the first to announce that Henry Kissinger is dead.
Again I was told by news media that he was some kind of noble genius. Only to learn, after his death (thanks youtube) that he was a horrific war criminal.
He and Nixon dropped more bombs on Cambodia than the entire allied forces dropped over the entirety of WW2. He was also responsible in downing socialist governments, putting dictators into power who killed and tortured millions of people worldwide.
gamingeek said:Has anyone changed their opinion or viewpoint regarding Israel/Gaza/Palestine and the west Bank?
This is the one political sphere I give myself a break from. The only input I like to provide is that in the US, the obsession with Israel is driven by Evangelical Christians who see a thriving Israel as a necessary part of Biblical prophesy to bring about the end times. So when you look at the American right, which is in every other way perpetually antisemitic, being hyper-defensive of Israel, that's why.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobile
One thing is for sure; War fucking sucks for many reasons, least of all it's not effective.
I don't see why any side of the political spectrum could be for any war.
To be honest, Israel-Palestine has always struck me as one of the simplest post-WWI vanity projects.
gamingeek said:Again I was told by news media that he was some kind of noble genius. Only to learn, after his death (thanks youtube) that he was a horrific war criminal.
He and Nixon dropped more bombs on Cambodia than the entire allied forces dropped over the entirety of WW2. He was also responsible in downing socialist governments, putting dictators into power who killed and tortured millions of people worldwide.
To be fair to the guy, his project of dumping bombs on Cambodia was of great benefit to the socialist Khmer Rouge! He probably got his best obituaries in China, too.
aspro said:One thing is for sure; War fucking sucks for many reasons, least of all it's not effective.
I don't see why any side of the political spectrum could be for any war.
I'd argue it depends on who you are, and your definition of success.
robio said:Depending on who you talk to, this is about 70 years of oppression, or several thousand years of oppression.
What strikes me most about all this is how the Jews of all people feel so little remorse about inflicting such harm upon a minority group. They should know better. Of course it's not all Jews, those that flocked to Israël were of course the diehard zionists, so it comes as no surprise that a democratic regime there would lead to a hard stance on Palestine and a total disregard of the agreements made in the aftermath of the second world war. Add to that the West who still doesn't know how to handle Israël and turns a blind eye due to some idiotic form of historic shame.
Personally I think that Israël doesn't care about civilian casualties. They say they try to avoid them, but the only instance I've seen of actions that I'd classify as such is when troops invaded that hospital room by room to see if Hamas was there. And they only did that because they knew that if they actively bombed a hospital the whole world would have dropped their support. Now they've got this system with QR codes to warn people where they'll bomb. How are people supposed to read QR codes if they're being cut off from electricity? First they tell everyone to flee to the south, then they're told they can't stay there because they'll be bombing there as well. Where are these people supposed to flee to then? All borders are closed.
It's a humanitarian crisis and Israël doesn't care. I bet they feel like 10.000 Palesitens less is 10.000 less headaches. They're keeping international aid out, cutting off water and electricity. Do they hope Palestines will keep Hamas accountable? They're just planting the seeds for a whole new generation of even more radical terrorists.
What Hamas did was an act of terrorism and war, but Israël has themselves to blame because of their poor treatment of Palestines over the last 70 years.
Not per se politics, but a new law was passed here that states that in case parents want to dispute their sibbling's results, they'll need to prove that their kid should have passed themselves. Up to now, schools needed to provide the proof that the child really did not warrant passing to the next year.
This backwards rule has resulted in schools being very reluctant to not let kids pass, even if they clearly lack the knowledge and skills to do so, because most parents can't fathom the thought that their little snowflake just isn't up to it. Which then of course results in the bar being lowered for everyone and our level of education plumitting even further.
It's a small, but sane, step towards turning this boat around and I fully endorse this. Hopefully people will share my point of view and we don't get some dumb ass committee that wants to challenge this and tries to get it undone.