I wonder who’ll be next week’s Prime Minister?
Politics and Current Affairs
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Yeah, we’re really close to all-out war in the Middle East. And I don’t think Netanyahu is going to pull back; it’s become pretty clear that he’s looking to escalate the conflict as far as possible in order to achieve what he sees as victory against Israel’s enemies in an all-out war. Iran was very withheld and reasonable after the attack on that consulate, but with this provocation now they’ll like they have to answer more aggressively. We can only hope that the US and others are negotiating like hell behind the curtains in order to help everybody else keep their calm while Israel is losing its mind.
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Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
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Yeah, we’re really close to all-out war in the Middle East. And I don’t think Netanyahu is going to pull back; it’s become pretty clear that he’s looking to escalate the conflict as far as possible in order to achieve what he sees as victory against Israel’s enemies in an all-out war. Iran was very withheld and reasonable after the attack on that consulate, but with this provocation now they’ll like they have to answer more aggressively. We can only hope that the US and others are negotiating like hell behind the curtains in order to help everybody else keep their calm while Israel is losing its mind.
Well, the US not sending arms to Israel might be a good start.
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Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Probably the best of the choices, IMO
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Probably the best of the choices, IMO
Certainly the smart choice for the Democrats: this move keeps Mark Kelly in the Senate where the Dems can’t afford to lose a vote, and Walz is not person of color, Jewish, or gay. A cynical view, perhaps, but the party needs to focus on what is best for their brand in the long run (though my vote would have been for Pete Buttegieg).
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Walz is not person of color, Jewish, or gay
Couchfucker is already calling her antisemitic because of her pick.
He just needs to go find a nice sofa and think of dolphins.
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Do they not get that constantly complaining about the picks the Dems are making proves they’re afraid of said picks?
Considering the Republicans already had buyer’s remorse with Couchfucker before the announcement, I’d say yes.
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He comes across as very likeable. And I think he’s hitting the right notes by emphasising his working-class background and contrasting it with Trump and Vance. He’s definitely going to appeal to a part of the voters that Kamala finds harder to reach.
So yeah, I do think this is a good ticket to win against Trump. Also, I wouldn’t mind these people as President and VP of the US.
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Feck Around And Find Out News – UK Edition
News just in is the various far right thugs going looking for trouble found it in the form of thousands of anti-racists. They’ve either legged it, due to being out-numbered or are behind Police cordons.
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Yeah, we’re still relatively stable in comparison to other EU countries, but just looking at Germany, we’re less stable than we’ve ever been.
Poland has re-stabilised somewhat, which is very encouraging.
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There’s a slim chance that the politicians are waking up to the fact that they can’t cosy up to the far right.
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Not over here there isn’t. The conservatives have made immigration and unemployment benefits like the only topics everybody is talking about, and the only ones profiting from it are the AfD. And the conservatives just won’t wake up to the fact that they just keep shooting themselves – and all of us – in the knee.
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You don’t hear a lot about countries like Poland, but these Eastern countries are vital for the EU as it is currently. Or the other Visegrad countries. Putin has a good relation with Orban, but also with Fico in Slovakia. There is also a strong pro-Russian political movement in Bulgaria. The EU owes its status in a large part to the way it incorporated Eastern Europe, so losing these countries would be bad.
A Czech writer called these countries “EU opportunistic” meaing they are happy to get financial benefits but when it comes to certain core tenets of the EU, like the refugee policy, independence of the judicial system etc they are less enthusiastic.
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Kinda like the Brits used to be ;)
But yeah, I think that describes it quite well. But I think this is maybe due to a general process that’s been happening; in the Western EU countries, too, the idea of being European, the spirit of the whole thing, has been neglected and the focus has been almost exclusively on economic matters – and where those are concerned not always in a good way. The way the EU pressured Greece (and other countries) in the direction of austerity and privatisation was catastrophic and it won’t soon be forgotten by many people affected by this.
Speaking of Greece, those fires are fucking scary. And there was a report about the drought and lack of water in Sicily, and how like three fourths of it may become a desert pretty soon if something doesn’t happen. Climate change is going to chip away at us every year from now on; things are only going to get worse where all of that is concerned.
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Desert is fine, I just want this damn humidity to go away!
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Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out:
Also, who the fuck is Lil Pump?
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Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out:
Also, who the fuck is Lil Pump?
I have no idea. It sounds this is all a ploy to get attention.
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Well, he does seem like the kind of guy who’d be staunchly in favour of Trump:
In November 2021, the IRS filed a lien on his Miami home for unpaid taxes in the amount of $1.6 million.[85]
From his wiki, he did have times of moderate success. Now he’ll be mostly known for being one of the handful of artists who support Trump.
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This has been coming up a lot on social media, though it was more liberal Americans when Biden was in freefall. It got a lot of pushback because you can’t just move to another country.
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Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out:
Also, who the fuck is Lil Pump?
He’s like Big Pump, but lil’er.
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This has been coming up a lot on social media, though it was more liberal Americans when Biden was in freefall. It got a lot of pushback because you can’t just move to another country.
And Lil Pump has already been banned from Denmark.
(Not anymore really, but he was banned for two years for being a dick.)
That Trump/Musk thing sounds terrible.
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Top quality trolling from Led By Donkeys.
Ex UK-PM Liz Truss is on a pro-Trump stage wittering on, when a screen unfurls behind her of a picture of a lettuce and the caption I Crashed The Economy.
Cue her going off on one about her free speech being curtailed and other bollocks.
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Interesting chart on gun ownership worldwide…in Europe the numbers are very variable, with high numbers in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France and Sweden, very low numbers in the UK, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania. Of course this is just legally registered guns…I assume most guns used in crimes are not legally registered.
edit: apparently it includes an estimate of illicit guns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country
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Heh. Yeah, that does look like a pretty clear hint.
Anyway, it was spectacularly dumb that our politicians held on to expanding Nordstream after the Krim invasion. They should’ve known better – and they probably did, but hey, Putin didn’t buy Schröder straight after his chancellorship for nothing, I suppose.
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Not because of any political convictions, mind you, but because our shambles of a three-party coalition government has failed to create a working budget. They still want to give money to Ukraine, they just want to conjure it out of thin air:
In a letter sent to the German defense ministry on Aug. 5, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that future funding would no longer come from Germany’s federal budget but from proceeds from frozen Russian assets, according to the German newspaper.
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Nah, the people I encounter are absolutely fine.
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There is also a rise in mental illness pretty much everywhere
I truly doubt there is a rise. It has always been there, but contemporary culture is finally at a point where people feel comfortable talking about it openly. A lot of the stigma surrounding it is fading. Before, people, especially men, were encouraged to “keep it to themselves”. Only the wealthy, who could do it in secret, and those with severe issues that made everyday life a serious challenge sought professional help.
A lot of this is compounded by the internet where people will freely express that they are receiving help. You also have the internet amplifying the voices of negative and malicious people.
Arjan, I think Christian has a good idea in that you should give the news a break for a while. You appear to be at the very beginning of a downward spiral. Back off and focus on more positive things and those things you can control.
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I think it’s both – the stigma around mental illness and health is reducing, but the expectations and demands people place on themselves have increased. Which is why part of mental health is encouraging people to be kinder to their self and others.
External factors individuals can do little about are things like climate change and cost of living, but they can still hit people badly.
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Of course not everybody is fine, Arjan. There are people struggling, too many of them. But the immediate world around you hasn’t really changed. The people in the real world outside of your appartment are mostly just going about their lives the best they can, and what I see is mostly that they’re being nice to each other on the street and saying nice things to the three-year-old I’m walking around with.
The craziness and nastiness is also there, but it’s always been. And I’ve known that climate change will end the world since I was 13 years old and saw a programme about it on the TV. And at the time I was living in a Cold War, as well. None of this is new to us, except for that we’re constantly being “bombarded by the craziest propaganda”, you’re absolutely right about that.Which is why I suggested taking a break from it. Get off the internet, look at the actual world.
Well, except for The Carrier, of course.
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Arjan, all is not lost:
Empathy is on the rise in young people. Here’s how to build yours
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Arjan, here are some websites you should check out. They also have free email newsletters you can sign up for.
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And to address a debate that is probably not going to help Arjan’s state of mind, but…
The image Lorcan posted in the picture thread about TERFs and Patriarchy made me want to talk a little about this.
Because I think the recent Olympics controversy did reveal this about the TERFs and other people in the anti-trans movement:
It showed that they don’t really give a shit about what they say they do. Like, the pro-trans side keeps arguing that biological sex is actually more complicated than whether you have a penis or a vagine and the anti-trans side is the one that always said “No it isn’t! You have a penis, you’re a man, you have a vagina, you’re a woman! (And between the lines: You have both, I don’t give a shit, you’re a freak and you’re fucked!”). And now there was a case in which a woman with a vagina didn’t look like they expect her to and suddenly it’s all about chromosomes and hormones and all that so they can keep trying to win their argument against somebody who doesn’t look like they think a woman should. Which, uh, really? So sexual identity is more complex after all?What this shows is what it’s really about is that these people think that they are the ones who should decide who is a woman and who is a man, and if you don’t conform to a very narrow and specific norm, you’ll be called a freak and cast out of society.
I hadn’t seen yet that Imane Khelif has filed a criminal complaint for cyber harrassment, which is awesome.
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/jk-rowling-elon-musk-imane-khelif-lawsuit-1236105185/
You would hope that the reality that she has insulted and bullied a person who according to her own supposed views is clearly a woman would at least give Rowling pause and food for thought, but I don’t think there is any openness of mind left in her.
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Apparently Rowling has ceased tweeting for the last week or so. Interesting timing that.
But yeah, it’s the same pattern as seen with Brexit – give them what they say they want and they concoct some new greivance to go on about.
In other news, it appears that not only did Tim Walz own a Dreamcast, he may have played Crazy Taxi.
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You would hope that the reality that she has insulted and bullied a person who according to her own supposed views is clearly a woman would at least give Rowling pause and food for thought, but I don’t think there is any openness of mind left in her.
It seems to have stopped her tweeting, which is nice.
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And to address a debate that is probably not going to help Arjan’s state of mind, but…
The image Lorcan posted in the picture thread about TERFs and Patriarchy made me want to talk a little about this.
Because I think the recent Olympics controversy did reveal this about the TERFs and other people in the anti-trans movement:
It showed that they don’t really give a shit about what they say they do. Like, the pro-trans side keeps arguing that biological sex is actually more complicated than whether you have a penis or a vagine and the anti-trans side is the one that always said “No it isn’t! You have a penis, you’re a man, you have a vagina, you’re a woman! (And between the lines: You have both, I don’t give a shit, you’re a freak and you’re fucked!”). And now there was a case in which a woman with a vagina didn’t look like they expect her to and suddenly it’s all about chromosomes and hormones and all that so they can keep trying to win their argument against somebody who doesn’t look like they think a woman should. Which, uh, really? So sexual identity is more complex after all?What this shows is what it’s really about is that these people think that they are the ones who should decide who is a woman and who is a man, and if you don’t conform to a very narrow and specific norm, you’ll be called a freak and cast out of society.
I hadn’t seen yet that Imane Khelif has filed a criminal complaint for cyber harrassment, which is awesome.
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/jk-rowling-elon-musk-imane-khelif-lawsuit-1236105185/
You would hope that the reality that she has insulted and bullied a person who according to her own supposed views is clearly a woman would at least give Rowling pause and food for thought, but I don’t think there is any openness of mind left in her.
There’s an element of racism in here as well. Before Imane Khelif people were saying the same thing about Serena Williams because she was also insufficiently feminine, and it’s generally down to some people of colour having what we’d consider to be harsher features than is considered conventionally beautiful. There’s a persistent conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama is trans for some reason as well. (The reason is racism)
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According to crime statistics, trans people are less likely to be sex offenders than cis ones.
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“Caught” might be saying a bit much. He flew in in his private jet.
Well I don’t trust any official statistics
That is a bit of a funny sentence. Which statistics do you trust, then? Inofficial ones? Like, one conducted by one person off his rocker by randonly calling ten people?
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Macron just pretty much doing a coup in France, refusing to pick a PM from the party with the most seats in parliament.
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In case anyone was still hoping for polite discourse during this election:
JD Vance Says Kamala Harris ‘Can Go To Hell’
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I don’t think anyone particularly gives a damn about polite discourse this time (thankfully). I think everyone’s just waiting til Vance or Trump drop the n-word.
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As expected the fascists have won the county elections in Thüringen and Sachsen. They’re the largest party in both counties now, with over 30% of the votes. They won’t be able to form a government coalition presumably, but it still sucks.
Especially given that the candidate in Thüringen is Björn Höcke, who courts have decided can legally be called a fascist (as he could be demonstrated in court to be just that when he tried to sue people for calling him a fascist).
https://www.dw.com/en/afds-bj%C3%B6rn-h%C3%B6cke-a-fascist-wins-election-in-thuringia/a-67990287
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Yeah, the CDU ended up being one percent in the lead in Sachsen. And there’s a higher likelihood that they’ll be able to form a stable government there.
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And in “shit we already knew“ news:
Trump’s Nephew Torches Uncle’s Attitude Toward Soldiers: ‘He Doesn’t Give a Sh*t About Them’
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Yeah. It’s pretty funny that there’s a Trump nephew running around talking shit about his uncle, but honestly, it’s not like Trump hasn’t said out loud all of this himself dozens of times. That’s the fascinating thing about Trump, he does always tell you exactly what he thinks and what he’s going to do. I mean, he’s also habitually lying like 99% of the time but because he talks endlessly there’s still a lot of truth making it through.
EDIT: Okay, I stand by the comment regarding Trump saying the quiet parts out loud all the time, but some fact-checking made it clear that he actually did keep his mouth shut publicly when it comes to dissing the military. The whole losers and suckers thing goes back to anonymous sources. (Though somewhat substantiated later on by General John Kelly.)
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Former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney says he’ll vote for Harris
https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-republican-vice-president-dick-192700155.html
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Well, great. Almost as good as an endorsement from Freddy Krueger or Hannibal Lecter.
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him,” he said in a statement.
This is missing the sentences “although I got pretty close” and “whereas I only lied to the American people to lead them into two senseless wars that laid the foundations for decades of violence all over the world”.
Dick Cheney can go fuck himself.
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Yeah, it’s very much a question of why a lot of Republicans are boosting Harris – is it because they see Trump as an existential thread who needs to be defeated, or is it because they recognise Harris as someone who’s policies are close enough to theirs that they’re comfortable voting for her?
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Yeah, it’s very much a question of why a lot of Republicans are boosting Harris – is it because they see Trump as an existential thread who needs to be defeated, or is it because they recognise Harris as someone who’s policies are close enough to theirs that they’re comfortable voting for her?
If only we had a board catchphrase that could effectively answer this question.
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Yeah, it’s very much a question of why a lot of Republicans are boosting Harris – is it because they see Trump as an existential thread who needs to be defeated, or is it because they recognise Harris as someone who’s policies are close enough to theirs that they’re comfortable voting for her?
If only we had a board catchphrase that could effectively answer this question.
The Winner: the fans!
feel dirty, must wash.
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is it because they see Trump as an existential thread who needs to be defeated
Honestly though, I think it’s mostly about this part, but not because they see Trump as an existential threat to Democracy like The War Criminal claims, but rather because he’s an existential threat to themselves. The old GOP is pretty much dead and powerless on the fringes, and a few more years of Trump would mean that the Trumpists would completely dismantle what is left of the traditional Republican power structure. That’s the only fun thing about all of this fuckedupness, that the Cheney and McConnell Republicans are absolutely overwhelmed and have no idea how to deal with the results of the seeds they’ve been sowing for the last twenty years.
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Oh, and just as a by the way, German politics right now are incredibly fucked. In the wake of the attack in Solingen, all of the political parties (excepting the Green Party) have made stopping migration their top priority and are talking about nothing else but who has the best idea for tougher and tougher measures to prevent people from seeking help and protection here (all of which are complete lies, by the way, because they’d be illegal in German, European and international law). And the tragically funny thing about that is that there’s actually quite a lot of research that demonstrates that when traditional parties take over the tough-on-migration talking points of the far right, the far right parties are the only one that profit from this issue dominating the discourse. None of those moderate parties who are trying to jump onto the anti-immigration train will gain a single vote from this, but it’s the absolutely best strategy to ensure the further growth of the AfD ahead of the national elections next year.
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And the Democrats have lost another one:
https://www.newsweek.com/alan-dershowitz-quits-democratic-party-slams-anti-zionist-dnc-1950247
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And the Democrats have lost another one:
https://www.newsweek.com/alan-dershowitz-quits-democratic-party-slams-anti-zionist-dnc-1950247
Dersh is probably one of the most evil people in the US.
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And the Democrats have lost another one:
https://www.newsweek.com/alan-dershowitz-quits-democratic-party-slams-anti-zionist-dnc-1950247
No great loss there.
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Remember when Labour kept criticising the Tories’ Rwanda policy but just for being inefficient and expensive and yet the media and their boosters kept spinning this as Labour not wanting to wholesale deport refugees, even though there was no direct evidence of this?
Yeah…
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Ah, but that’s all legal so it’s all OK. Just like scrapping winter fuel payments to pensioners is.
They are jumping into holes of their own devising. All the while in hock to conviction politics because never changing course is strong leadership, right? Sigh, that entire notion has to go.
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“That will be a matter for the chief whip,” he told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. “We’re going into a vote. I’m glad we’re having a vote, because I think it’s very important for parliament to speak on this. But every Labour MP was elected in on the same mandate as I was, which was to deliver the change that we need for the country.”
Well that’s a yes, isn’t it?
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Tomorrow night’s debate:
Last time, it was the VPs Kamala and Pence. When Pence tried to interrupt her, she said “I am speaking” and that was quite a soundbite.
Now, there will be no audience, the mikes will be on only when they have their allotted times to make their points.
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Our shitty BBB party – pro-farmer they say but in reality they are only pro big industrial farming – is threatening wolves, saying our country is “too small for wolves”. Yeah fuck you, we can fit in 18 million people, we have space for wolves.
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Concepts of a plan…
That is all… except it’s not, have you locked up your pets?
And, after that flaming car crash? Taylor Swift endorses Harris.
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To be fair to Trump, I have heard lots about people eating dogs, even heating them up to do so. Disgraceful.
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We know Trump loves a good fictional serial killer, so could he be getting migrants mixed up with famous dog eater Michael Myers?🤨.
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And in “pot, meet kettle” news:
https://www.rawstory.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-2669169224/
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