If you want to lean about the background to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, here’s a decent summary — about 35 minutes long (excluding the commercial at the end). Unlike a lot of these kinds of shows, the presenter doesn’t skimp on graphics to illustrate his point, which is a welcome relief.
Like I said: extremely interesting.
Motherfuckers… too late now, and I don’t have the money for another air ticket.
…and possibly for the ages, from Reader Preussenotto:
“Governmenting the problem only escalates the assholery.”
As any fule kno, I’m not into “verbing”; but I’ll certainly make an exception in this case.
A new national gun surrender will allow people to anonymously hand in weapons and ammunition including heirlooms, shotguns and antique revolvers, as well as illegal stun guns and gas-firing blank pistols bought overseas.
“They can do that anonymously and there will be an amnesty for them in order to transport that weapon or be in possession of that weapon at the point they surrender it.
“No-one needs to be concerned about walking into a station or contacting their local force.
“We don’t need to know your name, we don’t need to know how you came into possession of it, all we need you to do is give us the gun.”
Makes me sick. Fucking totalitarian assholes.
From GeekWithA.45, commenting at this post:
One of my old friends, a scholar of Talmud and Kaballah, once opined that there was a really important reason $DEITY lead Moses and the Israelites around the desert for 40 years between their deliverance from slavery and arrival at the promised land, and it had little to do with petty Divine annoyance on the subject of golden calves. It was, he explained, to give that society time to let the slave generation die off and train the new generation to conditions of self reliance, to become people fit to determine their own fate. I think there’s a lot to that. Slave instincts of servility are pernicious, and difficult for even the hardiest to shake off.
There’s more than a lot to that. There is so much truth in that brief summation that I’m mortified that I’ve never put it into words.
The concept of private property has always been a contentious one. It shouldn’t have been, as one of the few actual duties of any government is to protect private property — but ask any landlord in, oh, California how difficult it can be to evict tenants who haven’t paid the rent.
It’s even worse in Scotland — surprise, surprise — where temporary tenant-relief laws passed during the Covidiocy are now set to become permanent:
Previously, once a landlord could prove three consecutive months of rental arrears or more, eviction would have been guaranteed.
Under these latest plans, no eviction will be guaranteed, regardless of circumstance or grounds. It will be all discretionary.
The Bill proposes that a tribunal will still be able to grant an eviction if it considers it reasonable, including where late or no-payment of rent is the reason why the landlord is seeking an eviction. But campaigners have questioned what is deemed reasonable.
Instead of making it an ironclad guarantee — if tenants haven’t paid rent for X period, you may evict them — there’s now good chance that a court may say that such eviction may be “unreasonable”, by some standard undefined. Of course, that’s an egregious injustice which runs contrary to the concept of private property, and the landloards know it:
‘Generally, a landlord will have a reason to recover their property and once they’ve evidenced their grounds, they should be entitled to recover it.
‘It is unclear what – if any – evidence the Scottish Government are analysing to consider the removal of mandatory grounds for possession.
‘Abusing temporary provisions to satisfy a long-term policy objective appears to be an underhand tactic and the intention to permanently make all grounds for possession discretionary simply highlights the Scottish Government’s wilful and continued disregard of the value of the private rented sector.’
And here’s the weaselly response from the ScotGov:
‘It simply means a Tribunal can take into account all of the circumstances of both landlords and tenants relating to a case before making a decision. Good landlords recognise the case for keeping tenants in their homes where possible, so adding a final check from the tribunal will support responsible management, recognise financial and other pressures that tenants can face and help prevent homelessness.’
What utter, Class A, Deluxe bullshit.