>DOUGH
>Australian police paying home visits to people they suspect may attend a protest
>by doing
>>14651703
sup, having a nice day?
what laptop
>Wonky image server again?
>Fuckery
https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2021/9/21/elvira-cassandra-peterson-comes-out-talks-19-year-relationship
Elvira, Cassandra Peterson, Comes Out, Talks 19-Year Relationship
Cassandra Peterson — best known to the world as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark — released her new memoir Yours Cruelly, Elvira today and, in the process, came out by revealing her 19-year relationship with another woman, Teresa “T” Wierson.
Their relationship began, as all the best do, at the Hollywood Gold’s Gym when Peterson spotted who she thought at the time was the hottest bad boy in Tinseltown. “Often, when I was doing my preworkout warm-up on the treadmill, I couldn’t help noticing one particular trainer — tan, tattooed, and muscular — stalking across the gym floor, knit cap pulled so low over his long brown hair that it nearly covered his eyes,” she writes in the book. “Dark and brooding, he gave off such intense energy that when he crossed the enormous gym floor, the waters parted and people stopped in their tracks to stare.”
It wasn’t until they had a chance encounter in the ladies room that she realized her “bad boy” was really a “bad girl” and the two soon became close, albeit platonically.
The friendship only became romantic following the end of Peterson’s 25-year marriage to (singer turned her manager) Mark Pierson. As Peterson tells it in her book, the path to a more serious connection began with Wierson arriving at her home one rainy night, also freshly out of a relationship. “There on the doorstep stood my trainer, T, holding a trash bag full of her belongings, looking sad and bedraggled. She’d split from her longtime partner, spent some time in rehab, and now had no place to go.”
The two lived together and took care of one another through a really challenging time and, in the process, something began to shift. One night, after they were out at a movie, Peterson felt a sudden desire to kiss Wierson. “I think I was even more surprised. What the hell was I doing? I’d never been interested in women as anything other than friends. I felt so confused. This just wasn’t me! I was stunned that I’d been friends with her for so many years and never noticed our chemistry,” she writes. “I soon discovered that we connected sexually in a way I’d never experienced.” She quickly realized she was falling in love with T.
The two have been together for more than 19 years now, with Wierson taking on the role of Peterson’s assistant. They had to keep the relationship quiet because, as Peterson writes, the couple felt they had to protect the Elvira brand. “Would my fans hate me for not being what they expected me to be?” she shares in the book, adding, “I’m very aware that there will be some who will be disappointed and maybe even angry, but I have to live with myself, and at this point in my life, I’ve got to be truthful about who I am.”
And Peterson’s truth? She writes that she’s never been happier. “For the first time in my life,” she writes, “I’m with someone who makes me feel safe, blessed, and truly loved.”
Yours Cruelly, Elvira is out now.
https://www.hachettebooks.com/titles/cassandra-peterson/yours-cruelly-elvira/9780306874352/
https://www.westernjournal.com/reporter-discovers-thousands-kabul-still-attempting-flee-including-us-citizens-green-card-holders/
Reporter Discovers 'Thousands' in Kabul Still Attempting to Flee, Including US Citizens and Green Card Holders
Thousands of people are still seeking to flee Afghanistan, including Americans, more than three weeks after the Biden administration pulled U.S. military forces from the Taliban-controlled nation.
https://twitter.com/TreyYingst/status/1441078316803543040
Thousands of people are still trying to flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
U.S. Green Card holders. People who live and pay taxes in the United States are trapped.
We met a man today who runs two businesses in Atlanta. He's stuck with his family right now in Kabul.
>Meng Wanzhou will appear virtually in a Brooklyn federal court to resolve the US charges against her.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/meng-wanzhou-us-court-1.6188093
Huawei's Meng Wanzhou expected to plead guilty today in U.S. court
Huawei executive was arrested back in 2018 on a U.S. extradition request
Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou is expected to appear virtually in an American federal courtroom today to plead guilty in the U.S. proceedings against her, say sources.
The Huawei Technologies chief financial officer will pay a fine as part of a plea deal, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Her court appearance was first reported by Reuters.
Sources said if the New York court accepts the deal, Canadian Crown attorneys will appear in a Vancouver court later today to stay extradition proceedings against Meng. She could be free of house arrest as early as today.
The U.S. District Court said Meng will appear virtually at 1 p.m. ET in a Brooklyn courtroom to address a "resolution of the charges against the defendant in this matter."
Today's developments could mark a new phase in the strained relationship between the Canadian and Chinese governments.
The 49-year-old Meng was arrested at Vancouver's airport on Dec. 1, 2018 on a U.S. extradition request on allegations that she lied to a Hong Kong banker in August 2013 about Huawei's control of a subsidiary accused of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran.
A few days later, Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were detained in what is largely seen as an act of retaliation by Beijing against Canada.
Questions turn to release of Canadians
Both men were charged with espionage. Spavor has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. Kovrig has yet to be sentenced; his trial wrapped in March.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the charges "trumped-up." China has long claimed that the cases of Spavor and Kovrig are not linked to Meng's case.
Colin Robertson, who served as a Canadian diplomat in China, said he expects talks between Washington and Beijing will now pivot to returning the two men home.
"You would get the plea by Meng Wanzhou and then at some later date we would see the two Michaels deported back to Canada, but I would not expect it to follow in a matter of days," he told CBC's The Early Edition.
"This would be a negotiation involving Canada but it would be principally between the U.S. and China."
>After changing her vote from ‘no’ to a noncommittal ‘present’ at the last moment, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was seen crying as the House passed funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
https://youtu.be/54ItEmCnP80?t=45
> Give ‘moi’ a break: UK PM Johnson tells France to get over their AUKUS deal grievances
>https://youtu.be/54ItEmCnP80?t=45
got banned from streamable for posting one of these two
You have been suspended for violating our Terms of Service. (400)
Black Lives Matter
The Melbourne variant.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/22/greg-abbott-social-media-censorship-texas-law/
A new Texas law fights Big Tech censorship. Last week showed why we need it.
Opinion by Greg Abbott, Republican governor of Texas.
September 22, 2021 at 4:29 p.m. EDT
Big Tech has a big problem when it comes to censorship and double standards. Now, Texas is fighting back.
This month, I signed a law that prohibits large social media companies with more than 50 million active users in the United States from banning or censoring a Texan, or the content he or she shares or receives, based on that person’s political or religious viewpoints. The need for this law has been apparent for years, as our country’s public square has become increasingly controlled by a few powerful companies that have proved to be flawed arbiters of constructive dialogue. But two events reported last week revealed why the law is urgently needed now — and why state governments such as ours have no choice but to act.
The first was the Federal Election Commission’s ruling that Twitter did not violate campaign finance laws when it erroneously restricted the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 election. This essentially gives social media giants the green light to tilt public debate away from political opinions they disagree with.
The second was the Wall Street Journal’s bombshell report about Facebook. The social media platform, it turns out, has set an alarming double standard — exempting “whitelisted” users who are influential or famous from the company’s rules of conduct, allowing them to publish content that the average user cannot.
Both stories show how Big Tech companies can unilaterally decide which information enters the public discourse. They also show how a handful of individuals, operating without transparency or public accountability, can sway sentiment based on their preferred viewpoints. This should terrify anyone who values free speech in the United States.
If a social media company can apply double standards based on someone’s position of power or influence, as in the case of Facebook, what is to stop it from censoring a mother from Beaumont for sharing her religious beliefs or a rancher from Amarillo supporting the Second Amendment? The answer is nothing — unless we fight back against Big Tech censorship and hold these companies accountable.
That is exactly what Texas has achieved with this new law.
Under the law, Texans who are wrongfully de-platformed or censored can file a lawsuit against the social media site to get back online and make the site pay their legal fees. The Texas attorney general can likewise file a lawsuit on behalf of any Texan who is wrongfully de-platformed.
The law also requires social media companies to share their policies for content management and moderation and to implement an appeals process for content they remove. The Texas attorney general can enforce these requirements through a civil action to enjoin a violation.
Opponents of the law argue that, because these platforms are private companies, any government action forcing them to convey messaging against their will is compelled speech, and thus a violation of the First Amendment. Moreover, opponents add, these social media platforms should be able to discriminate in which customers they allow onto their platforms, as any private firm has the right to do.
But Twitter, Facebook and other massive platforms aren’t just any private companies. They are our modern-day public square, and effectively control the channels we use for discourse. As the Texas law stipulates, they function as common carriers — which means they can’t restrict access to users based on political or religious viewpoints, or other arbitrary standards.
Nor should these platforms enjoy the First Amendment protections that newspapers and other news outlets enjoy — because they don’t shoulder the accompanying responsibilities. Newspapers cannot be censored, but they can be sued for libel. The social media platforms, by contrast, have received special legal status from the federal government in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects them from liability for the content they publish by declaring that they are not publishers or speakers. Having won market dominance thanks to Section 230’s immunity handout, these social media giants cannot claim to be speakers again now that it’s convenient.
Because the federal government has thus far shown itself unwilling to protect citizens’ rights on these platforms, states have an obligation to act. And in Texas, we’re showing how states can safeguard free-speech rights while still prioritizing the safety of social media users. Our law does not prevent platforms from moderating content altogether. It doesn’t interfere with their ability to block criminal activity on their sites, or to remove content that incites violence or is illegal or obscene.
And while many are concerned about the spread of misinformation, this law is the best solution to it. A robust marketplace of ideas ensures that truth rises to the top, and misinformation falls to the wayside, far better than censorship ever can.
Our country was built on strong public discourse, which has helped make the United States the greatest nation in the history of the world. When large social media companies are allowed to silence viewpoints they simply don’t agree with, they put that foundation at risk. This is why protecting everyone against censorship — whether they are staunchly conservative or far-left socialist — is essential. And it is why Texas has made it illegal for Big Tech companies to infringe on citizens’ fundamental right to free speech.
>A father in Oklahoma City tackled a local pastor who was seen inappropriately touching his son at a bus stop, leaving the suspect with a cracked skull and a bloody mugshot.
>Local residents said that Coghill is a local pastor in the area.
According to the police report, Coghill lives in a community nearby and residents said he is a minister at a church in Mustang.
“I just thought he was a runner in the neighborhood,” Ward said.
The victim told his parents Coghill ran by his bus stop several times and touched him in a way that made him feel uncomfortable.
“He knew the time he would be there every day,” Ward said. “That was the hardest part, the most disgusting part.”
Wednesday the boy's father waited in his car to see if Coghill would return.
“While he was watching the school bus stop, our suspect ran by him, ran past the bus stop where the children were waiting. Turned around, came back and stopped where he touched the child,” Sgt. Dillon Quirk with the Oklahoma City Police Department said.
The victim's father ran after Coghill and tackled him to the ground. When police showed up, the suspect had visible injuries to his head and face.
“He was in the cop car all bloody,” Ward said.
Coghill was seen placing his hand on the child’s side, before he moved his hand to the backside of the boy. The father recorded the incident, which was given to police, and proceeded to tackle Coghill.
Coghill's skull was fractured and his orbital socket cracked on the left side of his face.
>The father recorded the incident, which was given to police, and proceeded to tackle Coghill.
>Coghill's skull was fractured and his orbital socket cracked
https://media.bayer.com/baynews/baynews.nsf/id/Bayer-commissions-external-investigate-Monsantos-stakeholder-mapping-project-reaffirms-commitment