I prepared the tweets for this post yesterday, but then the efforts of the previous few days overcame me. Translation: I spent the remaining three hours of the afternoon asleep! I haven’t looked at Twitter yet today, so some of the tweets may be out of date. However, New Zealand shuts down for three weeks over the Christmas/New Year period and you can’t expect me to break the habits of a lifetime! 😀

There were a couple of nasties in my news notifications this morning though. The first was from the Moscow Times. You may remember me writing about the efforts of the Russian Communist Party to align themselves closely with the Orthodox Church there. Russia likes to present itself as the last bastion of white Christian values, and to them that means opposing liberal democracy, humanism, “too much equality” for women and minorities, and political correctness in general.

The latest example of this is even more sickening than most. At least human beings can understand why they’re suffering abuse in one form or another. Now a law opposing cruelty to animals has been sent back to the Duma following Communist Party member Stepan Zhiryakov speaking against it.

The Moscow Times reports:

A Russian senator has warned of the slippery slope that legislators risked taking by passing a law against animal cruelty.

The Federation Council struck down a bill on Tuesday that sought to ban cruelty against animals used in the training of hunting dogs and birds. …

“We’re not only passing a law that won’t work for many reasons, but we’re also demonstrating that we’re following the same path, so to speak, of defending the rights of sexual minorities.”

Stepan Zhiryakov, the vice-chairman of the Agrarian Committee, retorted that dogs “should not be equated to sexual minorities.

The other dreadfulness comes from Dawn, a liberal Pakistani newspaper. They report that last year’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) has had some amendments. Blasphemy and pornography are now part of the act too.

Blasphemy, of course, should not even be a crime. It is a matter of extreme embarrassment to me that my country still has a blasphemy law. In so many ways we lead the world when it comes to human rights and similar matters, but I consider our blasphemy law a bad stain on our reputation. (I’ve written about that too several times, especially here.)

Pakistan is a fairly modern democracy, but a Muslim council has a strong influence over the laws of the country. Oftentimes parliament will try to pass good laws, such as forbidding child marriage, only for the Muslim council to overrule their efforts. I don’t know if they’re the ones that are insisting pornography and blasphemy be part of PECA, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Now, on with the (Twitter) show!

 

Political Tweets

What’s the bet bank fees in the US don’t go down, interest rates don’t go up, staff salaries don’t go up any more than they normally would in the circumstances, and executive bonuses do go up a lot?
(Via Ann German.)

 

This is a revolting story. The man has no dignity.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Here’s what the presidential coin looks like in Trump’s “reign”. He’s politicized it as well as making it look tacky, and it will be used on occasions it never was before (check link in above tweet.)

 

Disgusting!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Delusion Tweets

Every now and then I’m going to include a tweet or two proving Trump doesn’t think clearly. Here’s an example of him inventing a conspiracy.

 

And more evidence of his ignorance and prejudice informing US policy, instead of facts. But then “fact-based” is a forbidden term.

 

Of course, Trump isn’t the only one who’s deluded! This is un-effing-believable!
(Via Ann German.)

 

This is a good response to the above!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Trump Lies Tweets

I’ll have no problem filling this new section.

 

Ha ha!
(Via Ann German.)

 

More Trump lies.”
(Via Ann German.)

 

Pre-Mueller Time Tweets

This could be interesting.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Well said.

 

Human Rights Tweets

So now in Ohio you can have an abortion unless your baby has, or even may have, Downs Syndrome! FFS. This is outrageous.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Women do not have equal rights in the US Constitution. Some of the HuffPost article is a bit OTT (as almost always with HuffPost), but it doesn’t change the important fact. The US has yet to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to its constitution, first proposed in 1923.
(Via Ann German.)

 

What is happening in the country that likes to tout itself as a human rights beacon to the world?
(Via Ann German.)

 

What a fantastic young woman! I’m surprised she was surprised by the level of misogyny and street harassment in Palestine though. I wonder if that comes from the romanticisation (Is that a word? It is now!) of the Palestinians in relation to their conflict with Israel on US campuses.

Christmas Tweets

Here are the last of the series in Amanda’s Advent Calendar.
(Via Ann German..)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food Tweets

I have heard of these, but I thought I was going to get through life without being subjected to seeing them! That hope is now gone, so you all get to see them too!
(Via Ann German.)

 

History Tweets

Horrible.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Plague still occurs in the US. It’s unknown in countries with a universal health system like New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, and all of Europe.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Religion Tweets

Here’s a story you won’t want to miss (sarcasm alert!). Her cat scratched her on her hand, but a couple of the scratches formed a Christian cross. Voila! Proof God is real!

 

Science Tweets

I think I’ve put this one in before, but it’s a good one.

 

Symmetry in physics.

 

Science is cool.

 

Scenic Tweets

I haven’t been doing enough “Scenic Tweets” lately. Here’s a nice one from Spain.

 

Other Animals Tweets

The pika looks just like a bunny that’s evolved for a cold climate.

What a sweetie!

 

Oh wow! Extreme cuteness!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Hungry hedgehog getting stuck into the cat food!

 

Cool hedgehog!

 

Insect Tweets

Good news, and what a lovely critter!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Wow!

 

Marine Tweets

Octopuses are cool!

 

We all know people who sound like that walrus when they’re sleeping! (Or maybe you’re one of them!)

 

Bird Tweets

Now that would be a great experience! Look at all those baby kakapo!

 

Owls are cool!

 

Dog Tweets

Very cool.
(Via Ann German.)

 

This one is especially for my sister Brenda, who’s a big fan of corgis.

 

Nice story.

 

Cat Tweets

I want to hug it!

 

Some wonderful news from 2017. (This tweet is part of a thread that has several other good news stories in it, so it;s worth going to the tweet itself if you can.)
(Via Ann German.)

 

What a cool kitten!
(Via Ann German.)

 

I can’t stop watching this one! And what gorgeous animals!
(Via Ann German.)

 

This cat: The Boss! What a brilliant pic!
(Via Ann German.)

 

I’m sure I’ve posted this before, but you can’t have too many kittens!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Now that’s a cat!!!
(Via Ann German.)

 

If the Master* regenerated as a cat, he’d look like this!
(* Dr Who reference.)

 

Awwwww …


 

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