I doubt Ashton and Mila apologized because they actually regret writing those letters; this is just damage control because they got caught defending a rapist. Also, Scientology isn’t a religion, it’s a criminal organization, and it ought to be treated as such.

I was disappointed to hear that Kurtwood Smith wrote a letter in support of Masterson too. I really liked him in RoboCop… but I guess there’s a reason why he was so good at acting like a total bastard.

I only have a small amount of experience with generating images using AI models, but I have found this to be true. It’s like making a photocopy of a photocopy. The results can be unintentionally hilarious though.

You run the risk of being ostracized by a conservative social group if you share any opinion that contradicts the teachings of the church school. I’m straight, but the hicks I went to high school with shouted every homophobic slur they knew at me anyway, because my opinions sounded “gay” to them.

That being said, you could tell her that the church has held opinions in the past, which they decided to change when we learned more about the world. The church persecuted Galileo for suggesting that the Earth revolves around the Sun. They called Leonardo da Vinci a necromancer for studying human anatomy. And 98 years ago, Christians wanted to hang John Scopes for teaching evolution in Tennessee.

Basically, if you can’t tell her directly, you can at least suggest that the church is not infallible when it comes to certain topics. Again though, people will consider you subversive even if all you’re doing is relaying pure, historical facts. There’s no safe way to contradict a zealot.

The United States has very similar problems. The oppressed are encouraged to work within the system if they want things to change. They go to the system, and find it broken. So they protest, and the moment the protests turn violent-- or appear to turn violent-- the oppressed are labeled as being impatient or perhaps even deserving of being marginalized. Cries for freedom are willfully misinterpreted as the howling of barbarians, and used as populist propaganda.

Like you, I don’t know what it’s like to be treated like a second-class citizen in my own country, but I do know that racism doesn’t go away simply because the government declares that it won’t be tolerated. It’s hard to come up with any specific solution to this particular problem though, when it’s a conflict that humans have struggled with for their entire existence. Back in 2020, people were just trying to get the message out that black lives matter. Even when taken as a plea for solidarity with no specific policy demands, somehow that statement proved controversial.

Strangely enough, the best 4th of July I’ve ever had was when I was in Lyon.

France has been a big fan of revolution since the late 18th century. They’re on their Fifth Republic and I’m sure some French people feel they’re overdue for a Sixth, just for the sake of keeping the tradition alive.

It’s Florida, in the United States. The article is from a local news station, which is probably why they don’t mention their own state. Sorry for the confusion!

It’s insane that Thomas is still a Supreme Court justice

Absolutely zero argument with you there.

I think it’s interesting how Trump cultists have been screaming for months that the DoJ should leave their guy alone, and look into Hunter Biden instead.

Turns out, they have been looking into him, and Hunter’s going to enter a guilty plea. Because the DoJ can conduct multiple investigations simultaneously.

Sooo… Trump supporters should be happy now, right? Everyone can shut up about the Trump investigations being witch hunts?

Thanks for all the info! It’s especially helpful to know that naloxone/narcan is still recommended even if the fentanyl has been mixed with xylazine.

I’ll have to check that out. It can be hard enough to bring someone back from a fentanyl OD even with Narcan, so it’s definitely concerning to think that xylazine could make it even harder.

Scenario #1: GOP contenders believe that Trump’s legal troubles will be his undoing before the 2024 Republican convention. DeSantis will be sunk by similar legal troubles, or lack of electability outside of Florida. Despite current polling, the field will look very different by early 2024 and they want to position themselves now as the alternatives who aren’t going to prison.

Scenario #2: Trump and/or DeSantis avoid their many scandals, somehow, and they’re going to be looking for a vice president. It’s unlikely that Trump will run with Pence again, so Nikki Haley, Francis Suarez, and the rest are looking to distinguish themselves as vote-getters so they will be seen as a good addition to a Trump or DeSantis ticket.

Either way, I don’t know what the hell Pence thinks he’s doing in this field.

Interpol’s legal team will take one look at Malaysia’s request, laugh, and then respectfully decline to assist. They won’t be wasting any of their resources on this.

Malaysia has no power to actually do anything about this, so I think they’re just trying to use strong rhetoric to have a chilling effect on anyone who’s thinking about making similar jokes.

I don’t think there is a specific process for that outlined in NATO’s treaty. However, Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties suggests a member country could commit a material breach of the treaty, if that nation that violated the principles of the treaty in a systematic and egregious manner. The decision to suspend or expel that nation would have to be a unanimous decision made by all other existing members.

There have been calls to suspend Turkey from NATO in the past, but there’s no precedent for suspending a NATO member, and that’s probably part of the reason why the member countries have been hesitant to do so. The U.S. in particular might not back the idea, since this would be very damaging to our diplomatic relations with Turkey in general. However, Hungary has been so pro-Russia lately that there may be a strong case for suspending them from NATO, and I don’t believe they’re seen as important as Turkey from a diplomatic standpoint, either. So, that’s a possibility if they continue to block Sweden from joining.

If Southern Baptists could ban male and female pastors, I would be so happy.

Russia could only find one tank for their World War II Victory Day parade, and Prigozhin is openly rebelling because they couldn’t find enough ammo to supply the Wagner Group. The shortages have been obvious for a while now.

I’ve heard mixed reports on that… Trump is either being allowed to provide a photo in lieu of mugshot or, if a mugshot is taken, it will not be made public.

It boggles my mind that anyone, outside of the far-right lunatic fringe, is still on that platform. I left months before Elon Musk showed up, because they weren’t doing enough to fight misinformation in 2020, and now it’s an absolute dumpster fire. I can only guess there’s something like the sunk cost fallacy at work here, and that’s why people are reluctant to leave.