In the news

Gen VanHerck said when asked if it was possible the objects are aliens or extra-terrestrials.
"I haven't ruled out anything at this point."

dun duh duh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7Op86ox9g

Finding the coverage of murdered trans girl Brianna* Ghey really fucking weird.

It's a 'targeted attack' and she was subject to transphobic bullying, but there's 'no evidence' it was a hate crime.

The Times, Guardian, and BBC all falling over themselves NOT to mention that she was trans, and Times even going so far as to deadname her in the story.

This country is a fucking sewer.

*edited - thanks for heads up @skinny

Fyi auto correct seems to have got you on her name.

The guardian mentions she was trans, in both the subheader and then the second paragraph.

Guardian loves a bit of trans news.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/feb/12/teenage-girl-found-dead-serious-injuries-warrington-cheshire-park?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

They mention she is trans now.

The times em wtf????

Just read a couple of stories on this and they are very different from ones I'd read earlier (on the same site). I'd thought the "hate crime" bit was strange when I first read the coverage as there was no suggestion why it may be the case.

I wonder if the initial stories were just regurgitating a police press release.

regurgitating a police press release

There will be a lot of this due to the arrests of minors and the legal implications.

GP is near, so it the dentist

I've deliberately chosen a dentist 3o km away from where I live. Showing the reds that they'll never manage to shackle me. In a truly free world no small business would choose a location close to their customers, high streets chain stores are mere fronts for an international bolshevik conspiracy.

It's a 'targeted attack' and she was subject to transphobic bullying, but there's 'no evidence' it was a hate crime.

Times even going so far as to deadname her in the story.

This country is a fucking sewer.

Came here to post the same thing. As with the far-right attempted pogrom on Friday the Tories will deny any responsibility for the language they have used and the hatred they have stoked up.

What I don't understand is why go public with this. Are we supposed to believe that this isn't standard procedure among global powers? Didn't we in the west get basically real time images of the secret Uighur prisons in China, of the new government and military constructions in the deserts, of the nuclear sites and increase in nuclear armament? China has announced today that there has been more than 10 US balloons detected so far this year in their airspace, which to be fair is probably true.

Unless it's more cold war style US propaganda I don't get it

Possibly IPSO guidelines, which are pretty down on reporting someone's trans status if it's not directly relevant.

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🤣

Belfast high street is mostly big chains, it's the areas away from the city centre that kept most small shops as rates and rents are lower and you can find small shops accessible to all.

High street property firms often won't offer to new businesses excluding start ups.

The guardian mentions she was trans, in both the subheader and then the second paragraph.

They updated it. All initial coverage studiously avoided all reference to it .

Yeah, I'd read the Guardian and BBC story last night and didn't know she was trans until I saw your post.

This country is a fucking sewer.

Seconded,

read about brianna this morning after i'd spent the weekend with trans friends discussing various way our lives were policed and safety threatened, dodging my own transphobic harrassment and witnessing it happen to others. someone on twitter had shared a playlist Brianna had made and the music was the exact same hyper pop electronica i'd listen to when my head was a mess; i was upset that the wolrd wants us dead, it was so visceral i just started bawling, reading further of the bullying she faced and the way it was dismissed by various people in charge of safeguarding her. my heart goes out to her family and friends at this time.

now we can't know the motivations of why this happened at this time, speculation is useless, but we can know a few things are for sure

the reporting on this, a murdered trans girl is dehuminising and vile, especially the language used by papers so often willing to dehumanise tran people day to day. this is not a mistake or due to a single actor or editorial decision, this is a feature of the system which does not recognise trans existance.

secondly, it's important to remember that brianna ghey will not be burried as who she was to so herself and loved ones due to current gender recognition certificate laws. a final fuck you we deliver to trans people who are taken from us and one ALL trans people worry about.

we can improve and set both these things right very easily, but so often the reality and impacts of both these items which dehuminise the little girl at the centre of this tradjedy are presented by our media and politicians as sensationalist and unreasonable. let's see these things for what they really are, and the impact they have in the case at hand, the right for people to be treated respectfuly.

secondly, it's important to remember that brianna ghey will not be burried as who she was to so herself and loved ones due to current gender recognition certificate laws. a final fuck you we deliver to trans people who are taken from us and one ALL trans people worry about.

I've been torn between on the one hand pointing out that GRA reforms would've done nothing more than allow Brianna some respect in death, and being just utterly disgusted and furious at all the thinkpiecers and broadsheet journos and 'reasonable concern'ers who created a world in which this was not only possible, but inevitable.

I'm a 46 year old straight cis dude. I don't have any family members who are trans, just some pals, and not close ones at that, and I am losing my mind with fury. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be trans in the UK right now. It is a fucking bin fire.

I hope you're as OK as you can be.

more than 10 US balloons detected

Why are countries using balloons in the first place? Surely satellites are a bit more reliable, better quality and more 'secret' than a balloon wafting along...

Sometimes countries (i.e. security services of those countries) just want to keep testing each other? Or they just want to piss them off? Some of the security services still see it all as a big game? (edited, as these were all just suggestions really - the last one, not so much)

Cost. A high altitude balloon with sensors on would cost a fraction of a satellite I expect

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/13/german-ballet-director-smeared-poo-face-of-critic-who-wrote-negative-review-hanover-state-opera

Deserves to be in Epic WTF thread.

Am reminded of Max Reger's letter to a critic - "I am reading your review in the smallest room of my house. It is currently in front of me but will shortly be behind me."

Pretty sure I also heard that satellite blocking technology is getting more sophisticated. So your super expensive satellite may be rendered ineffective. Whereas a low tech balloon can be less easily blocked.

Assume you can also predict very accurately when a satellite will be overhead and stop doing stuff/hide it. A balloon/drone can bob about for a bit and is less predictable.

It's pretty fucking obvious that this is just a bunch of gender reveal events that have gone wrong.