RationalWiki:What is going on in the world?/November 2014

November 2014
Bad weekend for Syria: While Islamic State militants drink expensive Red Bull in front of impoverished masses in Raqqa, Kobani appears to be under attack from the Turkish border. @keithlaw is back on Twitter. First tweet back: "Eppur si muove." Relevant to our interests: Swedish Christmas Goat built again this year. Last year it was burned down for the 27th time. Live feed here. “With prosecutors like this, Darren Wilson never needed a defense lawyer.” She gave to the Grand Jury a 1979 state law which was ruled unconstitutional in 1985. This unconstitutional law allowed police to shoot fleeing suspects just for fleeing. Same-sex marriage is coming to Finland. President Obama: the only people with the right to object to immigration are Native Americans. President Obama uses this year's turkey pardon to stick it to the GOP on immigration: "I am here to announce what I'm sure will be the most talked about executive action this month. Today, I am taking an action fully within my legal authority, the same kind of action taken by Democrats and Republican presidents before me, to spare the lives of two turkeys, Mac and Cheese, from a terrible and delicious fate. . . They'll get to live out the rest of their days respectively at a Virginia estate with 10,000 acres of roaming space. I know some will call this amnesty." Researchers: There isn't a STEM worker shortage, industry just wants cheap indentured labour. This title was derived algorithmically. That's why it's so bad.

Update on Ferguson: A Grand Jury isn't going to indict officer Darren Wilson over the death of Michael Brown. America. Israel says "fuck you" to 20% of its population. Yet another black American youngster, this time 12 years old, shot dead because he carried a fake firearm (an AirSoft replica with the identifying orange marker removed) and didn't obey a police order to raise his hands. (Update: Police allege he was waving his gun in the air. A surveillance video of the incident exists, and will eventually be released to the public.) Judge to sovereign citizen: No, you cannot just mint your own silver "liberty dollars." (47-page judgement, a masterpiece of judicial literature.)

The Plague is enveloping Madagascar. If it's anything like the Ebola reaction, expect Nigerians to be treated with misplaced suspicion. Former Reparative therapy leader John Smid marries same-sex partner BENGHAZI! ...what a waste of time. House Republicans vote to "turn the EPA into a Trade Show." (Will be vetoed.) When batshits collide: Christopher Monckton lends support to Australian right-wing evangelical Christian micro-party Rise Up Australia. [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/us/obama-immigration-speech.html? And so begins] the second (third?) phase of the Republican Civil War: Obama pulls a Reagan/Bush/whatever, announcing executive action to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation. (Get ready for a historic two years.) Ultra-conservative Arizona sues GM for $3 billion due to safety defects that are harming and killing Americans, supporting the American people for a change instead of corporations. The people of Rudolf Hess's home town find a constructive way to deal with the annual Neo-Nazi march "Not conducive to the public good" Julien Blanc not permitted UK visa. [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/us/politics/keystone-xl-pipeline.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news The Keystone XL pipeline is down... for now.] Catholic Church: Having to defend against discrimination claims is a violation of our religious freedom. Putin finds Wikipedia dangerously informative, and has announced already underway plans for a Government-controlled version. NRA claim: If more people had the right to carry guns in public, violent crime rates would drop. Stanford University study: Nope. While MRAs are busy complaining about video game journalism, UK charity #BEAT starts campaign to draw attention to men who suffer from eating disorders. US woman faces bankruptcy after being taken to wrong hospital, whilst unconscious. Oh, by the way, the U.S. government is tracking Americans' cell phones with a fleet of spy aircraft. Russia plans long-range patrols as far away as the Gulf of Mexico. Russia vs. the United States just got more likely... but probably to waste gas trolling. The Ferguson police now have some allies: The Ku Klux Klan. This will end well. Update: Anonymous starts unmasking Klansmen. Update 2: The Klan reacts predictably. "The credibility of Italy's entire scientific community has been restored." Manslaughter charges against six of seven Italian scientists involved in the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake forecasts have been overturned on appeal, with the remaining charge downgraded. Jovian, Lemur mascot and co-host of late 90's animal edutainment show Zoboomafoo, has passed. Philae touches down. Photos of the comet's surface have emerged. Also alien conspiracy theries have emerged. South Carolina becomes the next Homogay™ domino to fall. It appears we need to have a lot more of these APEC summits (aside from the Star Trek regalia and Putin hitting on everyone): China has agreed to its first serious climate targets, bringing the denial staircase to #10. Obamacare architect is bad at extemporaneous speaking. Glenn Beck admits he has a 'mysterious brain illness'. Any jokes would be tasteless. And redundant. With the clearing of a New York doctor, there are now no known possible cases of Ebola in the United States. Death panels are coming to the interwebz! Obama backs net neutrality; Ted Cruz:"'Net Neutrality' is Obamacare for the Internet." Sorry, Harry Reid, you're too Democratic to be a Mormon. Mexico's ongoing cartel problems seem to be going critical: Protesters Set Presidential Palace On Fire. (They're protesting missing students believed to have been murdered by the cartels and corrupt police.) Gorbachev warns of a new cold war caused by the west not handling the end of the old one correctly. Remember the craziest challenge to Obamacare yet? Well, four of those members of the Supreme Court have now decided to bring it up for a ruling next year! The results of the 2014 elections are in for science: everybody loses. Loathsome pick-up artist Julien Blanc thrown out of Australia. In a scene not unlike that one Torchwood episode, police in Wales kill a murder suspect after he is found eating a woman's eyeball. Perfect record ruined! U.S. Appeals Court upholds gay marriage bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. (Dubya really knew how to pick judges.) 53% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is fair to say that neither party in Congress is the party of the American people. Coming soon to a physics set in the store near you: Collider@home (LHC@home is taken already) What is Sarbanes-Oxley law good for? Nailing commercial fishers for throwing away undersized fish destroying evidence. We can't employ you. You're Irish and, thus, a drunk. Florida, where you are free to shoot your fellow man, so long as you make sure you kill them, but don't give homeless people food. Meanwhile in Britain: A new study concludes that migrants pay more through tax than take through Welfare. The Republicans have taken control of the US Senate and retain control of the House. In other news, Marijuana is legal in Alaska/Oregon/DC and we have 100 women in Congress. Update: Well that didn't take long.

"The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership threatens to blow the sovereignty of parliament unless it can be stopped" Baltimore toddler shoots three-year old in the leg with a shotgun. Solar power is getting dramatically cheap. New Zealand Green party to its MP's: we support evidence based medicine, so no you can't be health spokesman if you sign a stupid petition urging the WHO to treat ebola with homeopathy! A UK boy, 15 at the time admitted stabbing a teacher to death and planned more homicides. Fortunately guns aren't easy to get in the UK or there could have been a mass shooting. Death with dignity advocate, Brittany Maynard dies with dignity aged 29. Maynard suffered from cancer and became the latest spotlight in the right to die debate, surprise the Vatican and many social conservatives condemned the right to die.