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These MAGA loons are even further gone than we thought

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Incels (an abbreviation for “involuntary celibate”) are males. They are members of online communities and subcultures. They consist of men who feel they are unable to attract women romantically. These men are often hostile to women, contemptuous of them for being too “choosy,” and can be found in many dark corners of the internet, mingling with other incels, finding support for their bitter world views.

Often their discussions tend to be filled with anger, misogyny, bitterness, and disdain. They came to be during the 1990s. And many of them are part of the Maga movement. The culture of incels and that of Maga share many similarities. Anger is most definitely president. So too, is a feeling of being “wronged” by society — of being on the fringes of society. Of not fitting in. Of feeling society OWES them something.

That is not to say that all incels are part of the Maga movement and vice versa. But many are. In an article published this past September by Amanda Marcotte she talks about how members of the group “America first” were arrested. This group’s leader is Nick Fuentes. He is the Hitler-applauding man who recently had dinner with Kanye West and Donald Trump.

He has made his distaste and hatred for women abundantly clear. America First appears to specialize in recruiting young boys of high school and college age and indoctrinating them to Trumpism by taking their insecurities and playing with them, morphing them into bitterness, anger, and rage.

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And one way he does this is by playing to their insecurities about women — and dating. And by teaching them the politics of hate. Fuentes has reportedly told many of his fresh new recruits to stay away from women as pursuing them would be ” degrading” themselves.”


It is fascinating that the world of the Incel and the world of the Maga share so many similarities. But what’s truly tragic is that some of these boys are being indoctrinated. We all go through insecurities when young. We all question ourselves. And for some of these boys, what starts as the usual insecurities often becomes the whole fabric of their identity.

That’s because of folks like Fuentes and other Republicans who see nothing wrong with taking a young boy’s fledgling insecurity and playing with it, until said boy becomes an angry, sometimes dangerous, damaged young man.

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China“s vast countryside in rush to bolster COVID defences

2022-12-29T02:41:33Z

China’s sprawling and thinly-resourced countryside was racing to beef up medical facilities amid a surging COVID-19 wave as hundreds of millions of migrant factory workers are due to return to their families for the Lunar New Year next month.

Having imposed the world’s strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and relentless testing for three years, China abruptly reversed course earlier this month towards living with the virus, leaving its fragile health system overwhelmed.

The lifting of restrictions, following widespread protests against them, means COVID is spreading largely unchecked and likely infecting millions of people a day, according to some international health experts.

China officially reported one new COVID death for Wednesday, down from three on Tuesday, but some foreign governments and epidemiologists believe the numbers are much higher, and that more than 1 million people may die across the country next year.

Hospitals and funeral homes in major Chinese cities have been under intense pressure, but the main concern over the health system’s ability to cope with surging infections is focused on the less affluent and poorly equipped countryside.

Each year, hundreds of millions of people, mostly working in factories near the southern and eastern coasts, return to the countryside for the Lunar New Year festivities, due to start on January 22 next year.

The travel rush is expected to last 40 days, from Jan. 7 to Feb. 15, the Ministry of Transport said this week.

State-run China Daily reported on Thursday that rural regions across China were beefing up their medical treatment capacities and ensuring availability of life support equipment and critical-care beds.

It said a hospital in a part of Inner Mongolia where more than 100,000 people live in the countryside was seeking bidders for a 1.9 million yuan ($272,308) contract to upgrade its wards into intensive care units.

Liancheng County Central Hospital in the eastern Fujian province was seeking tenders for ambulances and medical devices, ranging from breathing machines to electrocardiogram monitors.

A hospital in Huailai county, in the Hebei province, also said it needed equipment for its emergency wards.

The world’s second-largest economy is expected to suffer a slowdown in factory output and domestic consumption in the near term as workers and shoppers fall ill, but is also predicted to bounce back later next year once the COVID wave eases.

China’s re-opening also raises the prospects of Chinese tourists returning to shopping streets around the world, although some countries are taken aback by the scale of the outbreak and are sceptical of Beijing’s COVID statistics.

China’s official death toll of 5,246 since the pandemic began compares with more than 1 million deaths in the United States.

The Chinese-ruled global financial hub of Hong Kong, a city of 7.4 million people which lost control over COVID earlier this year, reported more than 11,000 deaths.

The United States, India, Italy, Japan and Taiwan said they would require COVID tests for travellers from China. Britain was considering a similar move, the Telegraph reported.

“We have just limited information in terms of what’s being shared related to number of cases that are increasing, hospitalizations and especially deaths,” a U.S. health official said. “Also, there’s been a decrease in testing across China so it also makes it difficult to know what the true infection rate is.”

Americans should also “reconsider travel to China, Hong Kong, and Macau,” according to a U.S. official travel alert on Wednesday, which cited “reports that the healthcare system is overwhelmed,” along with the risk of new variants.

In Italy, Milan’s main airport, Malpensa, had already started testing passengers arriving from Beijing and Shanghai on Dec. 26, and the results showed almost one in two visitors was infected.

China has rejected criticism of its statistics as groundless and politically-motivated attempts to smear its policies. It also played down the risk of new variants, saying it expects future mutations to be potentially more virulent but less severe.

Omicron was still the dominant strain in the country, Chinese health officials said this week.

Australia, Germany, Thailand and others said they would not impose additional restrictions travel for now.

For its part, China, whose borders have been all but shut to foreigners since early 2020, will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine from Jan. 8.

($1 = 6.9774 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Related Galleries:

Medical workers attend to patients at a makeshift fever clinic inside a gymnasium, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China December 28, 2022. cnsphoto via REUTERS

A family member consults a doctor outside an emergency department of a hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China December 27, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
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S.Korea“s Yoon orders revamp of response to violations of country“s air space

2022-12-29T02:53:14Z

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Daewoung Kim/

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered a revamp of the military’s response to objects violating its airspace, his office said on Thursday, after an intrusion by North Korean drones exposed its difficulty in shooting down small aircraft.

Five North Korean drones crossed into South Korea on Monday, prompting South Korea’s military to scramble fighter jets and attack helicopters, though it failed to bring down the drones, which flew over South Korea for hours.

Amid criticism over South Korea’s air defences at a time of North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats, Yoon visited the state-run Agency for Defence Development to check the country’s reconnaissance and interception capabilities and called for an overhaul of the response system against “all flying objects”.

“North Korean drones’ intrusion of our airspace is an intolerable incident,” Yoon said. “We should let them learn that provocations are always met by harsh consequences.”

Yoon has slammed the military’s handling of Monday’s incursion, the first since 2017, urging it to hasten the reinforcement of drone units.

The military apologised for its response, and said it could not shoot down the drones because they were too small.

“To secure peace, we need to prepare for a war with overwhelming capabilities,” the president said, adding that the South’s defence procurement strategy should also be reviewed in line with the North’s weapons advances.

On Thursday, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the country’s military would hold drone-focused exercises.

“Our military will conduct joint air defence drills … simulating response to enemy’s small-sized unmanned aircraft,” a JCS spokesperson told a regular briefing.

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I got stuck in Southwest’s holiday meltdown. My ‘quick’ trip took 41 hours, I never made it to my destination, and I don’t know when I’ll see my bag again.

Brady Goodman-Williams with a drink cupBrady Goodman-Williams.

Courtesy of Brady Goodman-Williams

  • Brady Goodman-Williams, a recruiter in LA, booked a Southwest flight to see his mom for Christmas.
  • While he was traveling, Southwest canceled thousands of flights and left passengers stranded.
  • Goodman-Williams traveled for 41 hours, spent a night in Vegas, and never made it to see his mom.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brady Goodman-Williams, a 25-year-old recruiter living in Los Angeles. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m Jewish, but all I wanted for Christmas was to go visit my mom in my hometown of Denver. Luckily for me, it’s only a 2 ½-hour flight from Los Angeles, where I live and work.

But when I showed up to the airport on Christmas morning to check into my flight on Southwest Airlines, I was told it was canceled. Little did I know, this was the beginning of what would end up being a 41-hour journey — right back to where I started.

 

I was surprised to hear that my flight from LAX was canceled

I hadn’t been sent a text or email or anything to notify me of the cancellation ahead of time. If I had, I might not have left my apartment.

A line of Southwest customers.

Courtesy of Brady Goodman-Williams

But as it was, I decided to see whether I could get to Denver another way. I was put on a flight out of Hollywood Burbank Airport, another airport in Los Angeles, which took a $50 Uber ride to get to. When I made it to Burbank, it was a zoo. I started getting worried when I heard people talking about how they were still waiting to be rebooked on their flights from the day before.

My new flight was supposed to take off out of Burbank at 9 a.m.

The flight was delayed. First, the delay was only 20 minutes, then 30 minutes, then an hour. Finally, it was announced that my flight was canceled.

I waited in line to be rebooked through Las Vegas. It wasn’t even noon yet, so I figured I still had a pretty good chance of making it to Denver. I had already checked my bag, which was worrying, but I figured it’d be waiting for me in Denver when I got there. If I could at least make it to Las Vegas, I’d probably be able to figure it out, since Las Vegas is such a major hub for Southwest.

I got on a rerouted flight to Vegas — but even that couldn’t save me

While I was in the air, my flight from Vegas to Denver was canceled. I was rebooked for a flight out of Vegas at 8:40 p.m., which would already bring my total travel time to more than 14 hours.

A line for rental cars in Las VegasA line for rental cars in Las Vegas.

Courtesy of Brady Goodman-Williams

The Las Vegas airport was a nightmare. People were beside themselves. Babies were crying, people were fighting with each other and with gate agents, and there was nowhere to sit. It felt like the airport staff didn’t know what to do with the sheer volume of passengers. 

It was total chaos — and then it got worse

My 8:40 p.m. flight was canceled. I left the terminal to go back to the check-in area to try to get rebooked and saw that the rebooking line was the longest line I’d seen in that day. It took more than three hours.

By that time, it was 10 p.m. and a Southwest worker got on a megaphone to tell us that the airline’s system was down and couldn’t rebook anyone. The worker said Southwest would be considering refunds but that if we wanted to be considered for a refund, we needed to start a new line.

People lost their minds over refunds and were literally shoving each other out of the way

Elbows and fists were thrown. The couple behind me was fighting so badly that I thought they might get a divorce.

I finally got a partial refund on my ticket, with the logic behind it being that the airline got me partially to my destination by getting me to Las Vegas, which is on the way to Denver from Los Angeles.

I was given a $250 voucher for a $350 ticket. I booked a hotel for the night in Vegas and rented a car for almost $300 to drive back to Los Angeles the next day.

I wasn’t the only person who had the idea to rent a car to get home

Waiting in line for my rental took more than three hours, and the drive back to Los Angeles took seven hours, instead of the usual four, because of holiday traffic.

The bags at LAX when Goodman-Williams returned — none of which were hisThe bags at Los Angeles International Airport when Goodman-Williams returned — none of which were his.

Courtesy of Brady Goodman-Williams

When I got back to Los Angeles International Airport, I went to talk to someone about my bag, but they didn’t have a solid answer. They knew my bag had made it to Denver, but they didn’t know when it would come back to Los Angeles.

I’ve always flown Southwest, but this made me rethink everything

I’m grateful I have enough of a financial cushion that I was able to pay for a hotel and rental car, but I feel for people who didn’t have that choice. Southwest says it’s going to reimburse “reasonable requests,” but I’m not holding my breath.

This whole situation was a huge disappointment, especially as a Southwest loyalist. I lost out on much-needed time with my mom during the holidays because of its scheduling issues, and I’m still waiting to see whether I’ll ever see my bag again.

Read the original article on Business Insider
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S.Korea“s Yoon orders revamp of response to violations of country“s air space

2022-12-29T02:18:13Z

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks at an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea, November 28, 2022. REUTERS/Daewoung Kim/

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered a revamp of the military’s response system against objects violating its air space, his office said on Thursday, days after five North Korean drones crossed into South Korea.

Yoon called for the revamp of the response system on a visit to the Agency for Defense Development to check South Korea’s reconnaissance and interception capabilities to counter North Korea’s drone threats.

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Raffensperger testimony nails Donald Trump in Fulton County DA criminal case

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At this point it’s fairly clear that Special Counsel Jack Smith and the DOJ are on track to criminally indict Donald Trump in early 2023. One of the big questions is whether the DOJ will be the first to bust Trump, or if someone else will get to him first.

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This brings us to Fulton County Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, whose special grand jury investigating Donald Trump is reportedly wrapping up its work. This means that the DA is ready to take the case back to a standard grand jury and start issuing indictments. It turns out one witness in particular has given Willis testimony that nails Trump.


In newly released January 6th transcripts, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger testified that he felt Trump was making a threat of physical violence when he called him on the phone and urged him to change the outcome of the 2020 election.

As Ryan Goodman of Just Security has noted, Raffensperger certainly gave this same testimony when he also testified to the grand jury in the Fulton County case. This means DA Fani Willis has a highly credible grand jury witness who testified that Trump threatened him with violence if he didn’t overturn the election result. This kind of thing is what will allow Willis to indict, and convict, Trump on the most serious of charges.

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Jamie Raskin, prominent Trump foe in U.S. House, diagnosed with cancer

2022-12-29T01:50:01Z

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin announces criminal referrals against former U.S. President Donald Trump being sent to the U.S. Justice Department by the committee during the final public meeting of the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Jamie Raskin, a Democratic U.S. lawmaker who rose to prominence as he oversaw former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial in the House of Representatives, has been diagnosed with cancer, he said on Wednesday.

“After several days of tests, I have been diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, which is a serious but curable form of cancer,” Raskin, 60, said in a statement released by his office.

“I am about to embark on a course of chemo-immunotherapy on an outpatient basis at Med Star Georgetown University Hospital and Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prognosis for most people in my situation is excellent after four months of treatment.”

Raskin, who represents part of Maryland, oversaw the House’s impeachment of Trump for “incitement of insurrection,” finding that he encouraged the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The November 2020 election results were being certified by lawmakers when the Capitol was attacked after weeks of false claims by Trump that he had won the election.

The House voted to impeach the president, but he was acquitted in the Senate, with 57 senators voting for his conviction, short of the 67 votes required to convict.

Raskin has also served on the January 6 Committee, which investigated the Capitol attack and Trump’s role in it.

In the next Congress, Raskin is set to serve as the top Democrat on the House Oversight panel. In that capacity, he will butt heads with Republicans, who are expected to launch a number of contentious investigations, including an inquiry into the business dealings of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son.

Raskin said in the statement that he expected to continue working, but that he had been advised by doctors to minimize unnecessary exposure to contagious viruses including COVID-19 during the treatment period.

Raskin told MSNBC during an interview later on Wednesday that the chemotherapy treatments were scheduled to begin this week.

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As thaw from Buffalo“s deadly blizzard begins, troops check for more victims

2022-12-29T00:58:08Z

Police and National Guard members were going door-to-door Wednesday to check on residents of some Buffalo neighborhoods following the deadly Christmas blizzard that dropped about 55 inches of snow on New York’s second largest city. This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.

National Guard troops trudged door-to-door in search of additional winter storm victims on Wednesday, traversing parts of Buffalo hit by prolonged power outages, following a deadly Christmas blizzard that buried New York’s second-largest city in blinding snow.

The fiercest blizzard to strike western New York in 45 years was part of a wider winter storm front and arctic blast that drove freezing temperatures as far south as the Mexican border for days, leaving scores dead nationwide, including at least 38 in the Buffalo area.

Many of the dead in and around Buffalo, which lies at the western edge of Lake Erie near the Canadian border, were found frozen in cars or in snowbanks, while some died from cardiac arrest while shoveling snow, according to Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County executive.

Erie County updated the death toll from the storm on Wednesday, reporting 37 deaths in Erie County, with one other person reported dead as a result of the storm in neighboring Niagara County.

Poloncarz said the National Guard was conducting wellness checks in each neighborhood of Buffalo and its suburbs where electricity was out for lengthy periods, looking for anyone who may have suffered hypothermia or some other medical distress while trapped indoors without power and heat.

“We are fearful there are individuals who may have perished living alone, or two people who are not doing well in an establishment, especially those who still don’t have power,” he told reporters.

He said paramedic squads would also visit every household where residents had called the county’s special snowstorm hotline for help but were beyond the physical reach of emergency personnel at the height of the blizzard.

Nearly all electricity had been restored by Wednesday morning throughout Erie County, with fewer than 1,000 homes that utility crews hoped to have back in service by the end of the day, Poloncarz said.

At the same time, nearly 80 front-end loaders were working around the clock to shovel tons of snow into about 120 dump trucks to be hauled to disposal lots. The goal was to get at least one lane of traffic open on each street by Wednesday night, Poloncarz said.

As the storm’s remnants tapered off to flurries early on Wednesday, the National Weather Service reported that Buffalo, ground zero of the storm, had received more than 4-1/2 feet (140 cm) of snow since late last week. But howling winds piled up drifts far higher across the region, burying hundreds of vehicles, including snow plows, ambulances and tow trucks.

The mercury climbed above freezing on Wednesday, and forecasts called for the thaw to continue with spring-like temperatures and showers likely by week’s end. The abrupt shift was likely to cause flooding and ice jams on local creeks while rapidly turning the region’s frozen landscape to slush.

“We’re actually expecting a rapid melt over the next two days, because we’re going to hit 50 degrees (Fahrenheit),” Poloncarz said. “We are preparing with the state for the possibility of flooding.”

A driving ban remained in effect for Buffalo with military and New York City police officers called in to wave cars off the road and turn away traffic trying to enter the city.

Even for a region accustomed to heavy bouts of “lake-effect” snow – the result of moisture picked up by frigid air moving over warmer lake waters – the latest blizzard ranked as one of the most paralyzing ever in Western New York.

In terms of its ferocity, duration and death toll, the Christmas storm exceeded a 1977 blizzard that killed nearly 30 people and was the local benchmark against which all such weather events had since been measured.

This week’s thaw was part of a larger warming trend unfolding across the eastern third of the United States and will extend past New Year’s Day, with temperatures remaining largely above freezing, said Josh Weiss, a meteorologist with the NWS Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

NWS forecasts called for potentially excessive rainfall and heavy mountain snow sweeping much of the West Coast beginning on Thursday, powered by a “potent atmospheric river” expected to hit central and northern California and southwestern Oregon hardest.

Showers and thunderstorms are expected in the Gulf Coast and lower Mississippi Valley, the weather service said.

Related Galleries:

Bulldozers move snow dropped off by dump trucks in front of Central Terminal during a cleanup effort following a winter storm in Buffalo, New York, U.S., December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario

Trucks line up to drop off snow in front of Central Terminal following a winter storm in Buffalo, New York, U.S., December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario

A street light is seen beneath a pile of snow in front of Central Terminal during a cleanup effort following a winter storm in Buffalo, New York, U.S., December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario

Abandoned cars are seen after being towed to a parking lot following a winter storm in Buffalo, New York, U.S., December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario

A woman helps jump start an abandoned car after it was towed to a parking lot following a winter storm in Buffalo, New York, U.S., December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario

Damage to an abandoned car is seen after being towed to a parking lot following a winter storm in Buffalo, New York, U.S., December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario

A front loader moves the piles of snow, following a deadly Christmas blizzard, in Depew, New York, U.S., December 27, 2022. REUTERS/Robert Kirkham

A worker uses heavy machinery to remove snow at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, following a deadly Christmas blizzard, in Cheektowaga, New York, U.S., December 27, 2022. REUTERS/Robert Kirkham
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Hong Kong asks Japan to drop airport restrictions with 60,000 travellers affected

2022-12-29T01:08:36Z

Passengers walk upon their arrival at the Haneda International Airport, on the first day Japan opened its doors to tourists after closing them for two-and-a-half years due to travel restrictions sparked by the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Tokyo, Japan October 11, 2022. REUTERS/Issei Kato

Hong Kong’s government has asked Japan to withdraw a COVID-19 restriction that requires passenger flights from the financial hub to land at only four designated Japanese airports, saying the decision will impact around 60,000 passengers.

Japan, which is a top travel destination for Hong Kong people, said it would limit flights from Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China to Tokyo’s two airports, plus Osaka and Nagoya from Friday. The decision comes during a peak travel season and ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday which begins Jan. 22.

“It is understood that around 250 outbound flights of Hong Kong airlines will be affected between December 30, 2022 and the end of January 2023, affecting around 60,000 passengers,” the government said in a statement late on Wednesday.

City leader John Lee said the government had indicated to the Japanese government it was disappointed.

“We think that Hong Kong people should be allowed to use not just these four airports,” Lee said.

Flights of Hong Kong airlines can still carry passengers back to Hong Kong from various airports in Japan, the government said, to “ensure the smooth return of Hong Kong people from Japan and to minimise the impact to Hong Kong travellers caused by the incident.”

Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific Airways (0293.HK)
said it was actively engaging with Japanese authorities since the latest travel restrictions were announced on Tuesday and would provide an update to customers and the public before noon on Thursday.

Hong Kong Airlines and Peach Aviation announced they would cancel some flight routes because of the rules.

The United States, India, Italy and Taiwan now require mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers from China after Beijing’s decision to lift stringent zero-COVID policies.

China in December began dismantling the world’s strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and extensive testing, putting its battered economy on course for a complete re-opening next year.

The lifting of restrictions, following widespread protests against them, means COVID is spreading largely unchecked and likely infecting millions of people a day, according to some international health experts.