RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/July 2015

July 2015
Hillary Clinton directs a salvo of criticism at Jeb Bush. Former president Jimmy Carter calls the United States "an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery". "Ebola vaccine is 'potential game-changer'". Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man stabbed six people at 2015 Jerusalem Gay Pride parade... weeks after finishing a 10 year jail sentence for stabbing three people at the 2005 Jerusalem Gay Pride parade. The U.S. Senate has lifted a ban on oil exports. Some stunning pictures from mathematical artworks. An Israeli court rules that two Jewish West Bank settlements are illegal and must be demolished. It's not really as reasonable as you might think - they are illegal only because they did not have correct planning permission, and in the mean time Benny has announced another 300... "Uncertain times fuel occult beliefs in China's Party hierarchy" "Kenya Catholic bishops call for polio vaccine boycott" "These Are The Most-Diverse And Least-Diverse U.S. Religious Groups" Donald Trump lambastes Scott Walker over his record as Governor of Wisconsin. The Boy Scouts of America have formally ended their ban on gay leaders. The Mormon church finds the lack of sanctioned gay hate "deeply troubling". Welcome to Circus Republicanius! Ladies and gentlemen, for our first performance, destroying a cell phone! Next, the amazing Huckabee will compare nuclear treaties to the Holocaust! And don't miss the mysterious, the enigmatic, the amazing Rand Paul and the Chainsawing of the American Tax Code! Truly a show for the ages, come one, come all! Hopefully, the professor claiming three scientists who investigated melting Arctic ice might have been assassinated is just paranoid. That would be nice. Iconic Zimbabwean lion Cecil was found beheaded and skinned, reportedly after a foreign hunter bribed local guides $55,000 for the opportunity. Varoufakis reveals his cloak-and-dagger 'Plan B' for Greece, awaits treason charges. Holy crap. Rick Perry wants more guns in cinemas. What could possibly go wrong? Clinton wants to have enough clean energy to power every US home by 2027. Sounds good, but that's really only about a quarter of US energy consumption. Renewable energy sources already make up 8.8%. Seattle man holds Straight Pride march. Total number of attendees: er, just him. China lifts restrictions on foreign-made game console sales. Wonder what kind of ethical issue Gamergate finds. Kenyan Communist Muslim rants about the evils of the homosexual agenda. Or not. Erv Brinker, CEO of mental healthcare/counseling organization Summit Pointe, has been charged with embezzling $510,000 by sending it to a psychic. House Democrats have proposed a bill that would update the Civil Rights Act to include LGBT people. The latest crazy from Trump: "The RNC is being unfair to me and if they don't stop, I may run as a Third Party." We at RationalWiki heartily endorse Donald Trump as a third party candidate. The latest casualties on the War on Women: A bill that would have provided injured veterans with IVF has been killed and Susan G. Komen has been removed from a breast cancer research bill. All of this for the GOP's crusade to end Planned Parenthood. With increased funding, the Chinese military has managed to liberate itself from a rather nasty problem. It looks like one of Emperor President Obama's first directives is being realized after all. Donald Trump's financial disclosure was released after last week claiming to be worth $10 billion showing he has about $1.4 billion in assets and $265 million in liabilities. His claimed $15.2 million per season of The Apprentice was also relegated to $14,222 over an unknown time on the document. While these are in broad categories and might not be entirely complete...the variance has not been explained. Oldest known fragments of the Quran, possibly written down by a guy who would have personally known Muhammad, discovered in the UK. Donald Trump has doxxed Lindsey Graham by publicly releasing his number. Meanwhile, his poll numbers have doubled compared to Jeb Bush. Most of the polling was done before his comments about McCain's war time, though. Republicans in Congress put up a barrage of propaganda before launching a full scale assault on Planned Parenthood. Now that a deal on its nuclear program has been reached, Iran seeks to avoid the return of economic sanctions by economic means. Meanwhile, existing nuclear power North Korea is not interested in dealing with the American imperialists United States. Drag queen performances banned from Free Pride Glasgow, an alternative "non-commercial" Pride event, at call of trans and nonbinary caucus. (The Pink News comments are a shitshow, but an instructive one.) Update: They have reversed their decision. Trump finally gains the ire of the GOP leadership by questioning if John McCain was a war hero because he was a POW. The GOP still doesn't seem to care about any of Trumps other antics enough to make a comment. Last but no least, John Kasich grabs a seat at the Clown Car. The Wall Street Journal is rebelling against Rupert Murdoch imperialism. Another reason why you should be careful with the Internet: AshleyMadison.com, a website devoted to matchmaking for cheating spouses, was hacked and the hackers are threatening to release all of their customer records unless it shuts down. Firefighters in California face a new growing hindrance in their efforts against wildfires: hobby drones. An awfully big picture of the Andromeda galaxy. Burning socialist Bernie Sanders attracts larger crowds than any other 2016 presidential candidate. And while we are at it, rabblerouser Elizabeth Warren continues to attract cheering crowds even if she is not running. Rise of the machines: First FAA-approved cargo delivery by drones. Rupert Murdoch fact checks Donald Trump's comments on the crime rate immigration causes. New study on pareidolia explores who is most likely to see faces in objects and patterns. John McCain criticizes Donald Trump for “firing up the crazies” during a rally in his home state of Arizona. Trump returns fire by saying that McCain is only a war hero because he was captured. Damage control by the GOP quickly ensued. Donald Trump attacks Rick Perry, bashing his work securing the border during his tenure as Governor of Texas. When Perry fired back by saying that what Trump offers as a candidate "is not conservatism, it is Trump-ism — a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense”, Trump retorted "Governor Rick Perry just gave a pollster quote on me. He doesn’t understand what the word demagoguery means.” and that "(Perry) should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate". Tone argument exemplified "When Will China’s Government Collapse?" The worse men are at video games, the more likely they are to be abusive and hostile to women. (Original study.) "Even Nuns Aren't Exempt From Obamacare's Birth-Control Mandate". "Are Americans Ready For A Muslim President?"

Fox News is not real news. You think they'd shut up about being outed, but no.....they brag about it! Airway Heights WA Mayor: I can't resign over my apparently-racist comment calling Michelle Obama "gorilla face", because that would mean I was racist. Prime minister Abe has successfully changed which has led to public outcry. Riots breakout across Athens as the Greek parliament allows for more austerity. The UK has rejected police water cannon use. (Except in Northern Ireland, where it's still used all the time.) The Republican members of the Senate have killed Al Franken's anti-bullying bill that would have protected LGBT students. Jade Helm 15 gets underway in several states, including Texas, and has aroused suspicion of a government takeover ordered by Emperor Barack Hussein Obama. But do not worry. The Texas National Guard and Counter Jade Helm is keeping an eye on the exercises. Large Hadron Collider has detected elusive particle, CERN physicists determine. A landmark deal with Iran has been reached. Scandal in Pakistan, as a homeopathy college is found to be teaching fake fake medicine, not real fake medicine! um, ok Mexican immigrant creates a 3D printed Donald Trump butt plug and the writer of this WIGO has nothing to add Mankind gets their first close-up of Pluto; holds its breath for the anticipated stream of data to follow the fly-by. Venezuela is again wanting 2/3rds of its neighbour, Guyana. International sanctions will be lifted in return for limits on Iran's nuclear program. The Pentagon will lift its ban on transgender soldiers. Scott Walker takes seat in the Clown Car. Welsh government uses Klingon to respond to serious UFO questions. The "serious" questions involve sightings of "UFO's" near Cardiff airport (what a mystery).

Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, has died. Exxon Mobil knew about global warming back in 1981. As the Taliban begins tearing itself apart thanks to DAESH, the US begins a new wave of drone campaigns on pro-DAESH leaders on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Ellen Pao has resigned from Reddit. And now for the latest moral panic: Parents think that the new Minion toys in Happy Meals are swearing. US torture doctors could face charges after report alleges post-9/11 'collusion' Consumers brought cases against supplement manufacturer GNC for claiming that its TriFlex supplements promote joint mobility because they contain glucosamine and chondroitin. Pretty much every study shows they do no better than placebo. The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, however, just threw the case out because the company could produce dissenters, or "some reasonable and duly qualified scientific experts", to support the claim. The UN has created a ceasefire in Yemen for the month of Ramadan. Greece agrees to more austerity in return for a €53.5bn bailout Jeb Bush thinks America can grow if Americans would just work more. Even though Americans already work more than those of any other country and productivity has doubled in the last 40 years as wages remained flat. South Carolina finally rejoining the Union. Dear Mr. Trump, ignore the naysayers! Whatever you do, stay the course! Update:Trump is leading in the GOP primary polls. God's Own Party wants to end family planning. Totally no War on Women here. China's stock market has crashed. Kent Hovind is free! Pictured: Hovind with Jim Bob Duggar. History books in Texas will downplay slavery's role in the Civil War while rejecting to mention the Ku Klux Klan and the Jim Crow laws. Making long-term birth control freely available reduced both teenage pregnancies and abortions among teenagers by 40% in Colorado. University of Toronto stands by health-studies course with Anti-vaccine material Update: Not any more, they don't. Here comes a clash of the titans. American and Japanese robots are getting ready to rumble. Only a fool would deny that the future of warfare lies with cyber space. Hackers briefly gained control over German Patriot missile batteries stationed in Turkey. Oklahoma governor refuses to follow state Supreme Court's order to remove Ten Commandments monument. Federal prosecutors seek 175 year term for cancer quack described as "worse than Madoff". Bitcoin is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week: a stress test has blocked the network for most of a day, the bad protocol change listed below ... and it turns out over 50% of mining power is just, ah, not bothering to validate transactions. Really real wireless charging. Obama escalates air campaign against Daesh and recognizes the need for "effective partners on the ground." Chicago celebrates 4th of July in the most American way possible. Tom Cruise, the Scientology poster child, may leave the faith. Obama plans mass clemency for nonviolent drug offenders. The DOJ says transgender students must be allowed to pick their desired bathroom. Remember that time your bank processed transactions without checking their validity, and inadvertently forked the US dollar in the process? Bitcoin does. 30 broken blocks so far. Justice John Roberts dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges has inspired a Montana man to get his polygamous marriage state recognized. Iceland's Pirate Party has passed a bill that legalizes blasphemy. After kicking out the worst people in the world, Reddit proceeds to fire the person who made the actually nice, popular, mainstream subreddits work, and the volunteer mods rebel. Whoops. Update: And it accelerates. Indiana's Religious Freedom Law is put to the test: Sex offenders, with ACLU, sue the state for prohibiting them from worshiping in churches that have attached schools. Dutch citizens sued their government for not doing enough to combat climate change and won! Jim Webb of the Democratic Party is now running for President.

First death due measles in US for 12 years. A "told you so" no-one wanted to make :( The F-35 may not be able to dogfight.  Then again if this is the standard then neither can the F-15E or F-18s!  Tea Party Republicans fail to renew the Export-Import Bank.  RIP Sir Nicholas Winton  James Jeffrey Bradstreet, Anti-vaccination doctor behind Autism therapy found dead under suspicious circumstances. The Clown Car is getting fuller as Chris Christie officially enters the race. Oklahoma Supreme Court rules that Ten Commandments monument must come down.