[BREAKING] News Thread

[Dragon Lord]

8 years from sentencing until death isn't a bad amount of time really. It's definitely far better than decades which is what I'm used to associating the death penalty follow-through with.

The guy admitting to doing it should pretty much nullify a mental illness excuse, although I'm sure his lawyers will still push it by claiming he wasn't in a proper state of mind when he made the admission and didn't know what he was saying. I understand a lawyer has to always make a defense for their client no matter who it is, but I really wish the instant grab for the "mental illness" card wasn't a thing. I don't even care if every instance of trying to use it always leads nowhere; it just puts a further negative stigma on mental health.

Death sentences could be carried out much quicker in America if is wasn't for the problem of a lot of investigations boiling down to, "Let's find the easiest target to pin this on so we can get it over with" over "Let's actually take the time needed to thoroughly investigate this crime and find the bastard who actually committed it." That leads to years and years of appeals and "what if" scenarios that cause hesitation on whether or not the right person is being put to death. Japan is much more thorough and they usually won't bring someone to trial unless they have concrete proof that it is the person who is guilty of the crime. They want to find the actual culprit, not throw shit against the wall at random and hope that something sticks.

Aoba has also said that he didn't think the fire would spread as fast as it did, or that it would reach the second or third floors, putting absolutely concrete proof that he did it and he knew what he was doing, he just didn't think the result would be as big as it was. His comments about being inspired by Kato and that he decided he needed to "take matters into his own hands" (remember, this was all because he thought Kyoto Animations stole an idea for an animation from something he submitted for a contest). That pretty much shatters any hope the guy would have had at a "I was insane and didn't know what I was going" defense. As I said before, considering that Kato got the death sentence for killing seven people, I definitely don't see Aoba escaping it with a death count of over 30.

[Moonface]

Looking up the story again it seems pretty clear there's no room for doubt that the guy who is being charged for this is absolutely the guy who did it. If he does get the death sentence there isn't going to be a chance that an innocent person is being put to death for this one. However I can understand not wanting to put this sentence on someone without absolutely knowing you have the right person but I also think that should apply to throwing an innocent person away for years too.

As for this guy getting the death penalty, I can't say I'm fully against it honestly. Giving him life in prison would depend on what that situation is like to determine if it would be a reasonable sentence for what he did, but the guy is also an utterly lost cause where I don't feel it makes a difference what happens to him in the end because his life seems forfeit however it gets sliced.

[Maniakkid25]

If I didn't have a post I made that I wanted to get rid of, I do now.

So, in international news today, Venezuela is voting on something today that reads as nothing short of insane.

Currently, a public referendum is being held on what to do with the territory of Essequibo. "Why does that seem insane," you may ask. Well, see, the rest of the world agrees that the territory its voting on is Guyana's territory, a country that is much smaller in size, manpower, and GDP. So, basically, a public referendum is being held on what to do with the territory they are all but officially announcing that they will annex. This includes things like if the people they end up annexing will be given official citizenship. What the hell is going on?!

Quoting because this is an update on this situation: the Guyanese and Venezuelan governments appear to have made an agreement to stop inflaming the situation over there. This after several, much larger players (namely Brazil and the US) started making maneuvers to be ready in case anything happens.

A little background (Thanks, Perun!) : Essequibo has long been disputed between Venezuela and Guyana. Guyana got the territory from British Colonial rule, but Venezuela has argued that historically the territory has been Venezuelan. So far, so normal. Then, in this century, it was found out that Guyana has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, and most of it is in the territorial waters of Essequibo. This has lead to what is essentially a gold rush for Guyana, and they have been growing rapidly in the face of this resource boom, tripling its GDP within a decade.

Venezuela, meanwhile, is under massive sanctions right now, but they've been loosened up in recent years in agreement for a free and fair election in Venezuela. This election is scheduled to for 2024, and Maduro is a massively unpopular leader. And while Venezuela is sitting on the literal largest proven oil reserves in the world (yes, more than even Saudi Arabia), that oil revenue has not been helping the economy. So, you can see Maduro's plan here: try to win over the people with a popular territory regaining, and also maybe boost their oil reserves, and hopefully turn the election in his favor in 2024. Everyone ELSE, however (namely, the US, UK, and Brazil), immediately turned their gazes to Venezuela and said "Are you sure about that?", like they were that John Cena meme.

Hopefully, this is actually real. The last thing this world needs right now is ANOTHER flashpoint for war!

[Moonface]

BBC | Queen Margrethe II: Danish monarch announces abdication live on TV

Not something I expected to see on the last day of the year or even any other day of the year really. I'm curious now to look up who and when was the last person of royalty to abdicate the throne.

[Maniakkid25]

...Wow. I actually know a couple of Danes, so I thought to ask their thoughts, and one of them legit said "I shall drink to her honor tonight", so, yeah, this is pretty big over there. Damn, monarchies are really going through change this century, aren't they?

[Dragon Lord]

BBC | Queen Margrethe II: Danish monarch announces abdication live on TV

Not something I expected to see on the last day of the year or even any other day of the year really. I'm curious now to look up who and when was the last person of royalty to abdicate the throne.

After reading that she had back surgery earlier this year, which is a hell of a surgery to recover from, especially at her age, I can imagine why she'd want to pass the baton to the next in line and just go enjoy the rest of her life in as much peace as she possibly can. Back surgery sucks and even when successful can leave you with a lot of pains and reduction in mobility. It's a surgery that younger people in their 20s and 30s can struggle to recover from, can't imagine how rough it has to be for someone 80+. Every time I've gone to try and figure out my back problems, the doctors do their absolute best to avoid even the thought of having to perform surgery, because they've all told me that back surgery is a 50/50 coin flip on whether or not it's actually going to help at all.

[Moonface]

Damn, monarchies are really going through change this century, aren't they?

Probably unavoidable right? I'm not aware of there being any young reigning monarchs currently so most of them are likely reaching the age of retirement or death. I won't be surprised if King Charles is replaced before we hit 2030 given how old he already is despite only recently taking the throne.

After reading that she had back surgery earlier this year, which is a hell of a surgery to recover from, especially at her age, I can imagine why she'd want to pass the baton to the next in line and just go enjoy the rest of her life in as much peace as she possibly can. Back surgery sucks and even when successful can leave you with a lot of pains and reduction in mobility. It's a surgery that younger people in their 20s and 30s can struggle to recover from, can't imagine how rough it has to be for someone 80+. Every time I've gone to try and figure out my back problems, the doctors do their absolute best to avoid even the thought of having to perform surgery, because they've all told me that back surgery is a 50/50 coin flip on whether or not it's actually going to help at all.

My only experience with anything involving back surgeries is when professional wrestlers require it after sustaining an injury, and even for them it's incredibly hard to recover from and people usually expect anyone who gets one to potentially announce their retirement from wrestling. At 80+ I'd expect someone to retire from any job after a back surgery even if it isn't something close to as physically taxing as professional wrestling.


So, 2024 isn't even 24 hours old and I've already seen some notable or crazy news stories this morning:

• Japan had a 7.6 magnitude earthquake this morning which led to tsunami warnings being issued - BBC
  
• Tom Scott announced they are retiring from producing YouTube videos after doing it for ten years - YouTube Video
  

[Dragon Lord]

The Kyoto District Court has handed down the death penalty on Shinji Aoba, the arsonist of the Kyoto Animation building that killed 36 people.

The defense claimed that Aoba was not of sound mind at the time of the attack, thus he cannot be found criminally responsible for his actions. However, the judge stated that he believed Aoba was completely sane. He noted that Aoba had a clear motive, made a conscious decision to blame Kyoto Animation, went out to buy the gasoline, and then set fire to the studio. Aoba also knew the difference between right and wrong.

The judge also stated that 36 deaths is a severe loss of life. He said that it was impossible to describe the hell that the victims went through as they attempted to escape the building, only to succumb to the flames, the high heat, or carbon monoxide poisoning. Delusions did not affect Aoba at all in his decision-making. As for Aoba, he was staring at the ground as the judge gave him his sentence. The families of the deceased were staring at the ground as well, or looking like they were holding back tears.

Best ending achieved. It could only get better if they carried the sentence out by letting him burn to death like the 36 people he killed did.

[Moonface]

I'm not surprised to see the death sentence given considering the severity of what Aoba did. I disagree on having him suffer like the victims did though just because we shouldn't resort to inflicting on someone the very thing we find inhumane and unforgiveable that they did, and whoever would have to be present for that to even take place would be horrifically scarred mentally by it. Better to just do whatever method does it as quickly and easily as possible so everyone handling him at the time can move on easier after it's done.

If the insanity plea had got him out of the death penalty he'd have been imprisoned for life until he died anyway. I don't know how bad that would be for him, but I wouldn't want the families of the victims to be wondering about him in terms of whether his conditions are punishing enough or something. At least with the death penalty it'll bring closure and no thoughts of what if or wishing certain things are being inflicted on Aoba or not; it'll just close the book on him and let people focus on themselves, which is what really matters here.

[Dragon Lord]

I'm not surprised to see the death sentence given considering the severity of what Aoba did. I disagree on having him suffer like the victims did though just because we shouldn't resort to inflicting on someone the very thing we find inhumane and unforgiveable that they did, and whoever would have to be present for that to even take place would be horrifically scarred mentally by it. Better to just do whatever method does it as quickly and easily as possible so everyone handling him at the time can move on easier after it's done.

While it won't be as satisfying as him burning to death, Japan does use hanging as their execution method, so at least it won't just be a quick and painless injection that costs taxpayers a ton of money.

[Moonface]

Reading comments on social media about this news, I saw some saying that nowadays hanging is usually always an instant death by neck breakage, so if that holds true I don't think Aoba would experience very much once the trigger is pulled.

It did also give me a good insight into the larger picture of the death sentence though that I was rather ignorant about before. For every person like Aoba where there is zero doubt, there's going to be others who could get a death sentence that turn out to be proven innocent when it's too late for it to matter. As much as Aoba can go get fucked either way, having the death sentence around for someone like him isn't worth the sentencing of innocents to the same fate.

[Moonface]

Vince McMahon has stepped down as Chairman, CEO, and Head of Creative of WWE. This comes after a slew of investigations into sexual harassment and affairs paired with hush money settlements to keep said activities quiet.

---

There is no way this man retired for any reason other than the shit storm coming his way with all the investigations into him. I truly believe this man would've remained at the helm of his company until his corpse would be peeled out of his chair.
Still, if he's out of creative maybe WWE can start putting out a better product instead of the same tired old shit. But I'm sure he's left people in charge of creative who were already helping to produce the current state of the product.

Dang, I forgot how long ago this moment was until I searched to see if I had posted about it at the time. While that incident and some others that came up following it never really saw anything happen to McMahon (he returned to WWE fully only six months after that original resignation tweet), a new lawsuit was filed a few days ago that accuses Vince McMahon of sexual assault and trafficking: [TRIGGER WARNING] Vice | WWE Founder Vince McMahon Accused of Sexually Assaulting Employee: Lawsuit

I barely even scratched the surface of reading the finer details and what little I read was heinous enough I noped out on even finding out what the rest of the lawsuit goes into detail about. I'm skeptical that McMahon will face an actual punishment on this one only because he practically got away with everything else that was discovered about him over the last 18 months. So far though, this lawsuit was bad enough that Slim Jim pulled their sponsorship for tonight's Royal Rumble event (they have since reversed that decision following what I'm going to write about) and other companies threatened to pull out of sponsorship deals too, which caused McMahon to willingly step down from his positions at TKO (the company who now own WWE):

I stand by my prior statement that Ms. Grant’s lawsuit is replete with lies, obscene made-up instances that never occurred, and is a vindictive distortion of the truth. I intend to vigorously defend myself against these baseless accusations, and look forward to clearing my name.

However, out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all of the employees and Superstars who helped make WWE into the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the TKO board of directors, effective immediately.

Unlike his resignation in 2022, he will be unable to return this time due to not having majority control over WWE like he did prior to its purchase by TKO. The only way he could maybe return would be if this entire lawsuit turns out to be false, but that isn't going to be happening.

I expect this lawsuit could take down a lot of people associated with Vince and WWE though, because it mentions by name other people involved and references other people (not by name) who were in positions to have likely known about what was taking place and choosing to keep their heads down about it all. I'm actually surprised Slim Jim chose to reinstate their sponsorship with WWE because of the fact Vince isn't the only person involved (he's more or less the initial instigator that created this steaming shit pile) and it paints a really bad picture of WWE as a whole.

[Mr EliteL]

He needed to retire before these darn lawsuits, so yet another had to come about to force him out of WWE again. I briefly read the article about the lawsuit and it really is sickening how the top people just get to display their dominance through physical means, that feel they can simply treat someone that way. I'm pretty sure it has happened elsewhere and continues to until this day. Just whatever, hope Vince stays out now.

[Moonface]

He needed to retire before these darn lawsuits, so yet another had to come about to force him out of WWE again. I briefly read the article about the lawsuit and it really is sickening how the top people just get to display their dominance through physical means, that feel they can simply treat someone that way. I'm pretty sure it has happened elsewhere and continues to until this day. Just whatever, hope Vince stays out now.

I think what really forced him out this time was sponsorships pulling out; none of that happened last time. I doubt TKO took kindly to sponsors pulling out on them because of this new lawsuit, and although they couldn't fire Vince I bet they pressured him to go.
As for Vince coming back, he can't force his way back in this time so TKO can easily keep the door shut on him. It would probably be a slim chance for him to even show up near anything WWE related even if it was just as an audience member at the HoF ceremony.

So following last night's Royal Rumble event there was a press conference right after it (this is now a standard thing WWE do after every PLE event), and I was expecting any of the press allowed in to have been forbidden from bringing up this matter. Turns out that was not the case, so of course it got asked about when Triple H was taking questions and the response he gave was atrocious:

Q: It was about a year ago the WWE Board of Director's unanimously opposed Vince's return to the company as executive chair due to the ongoing investigations at the time before ultimately voting him back into power. You, Stephanie [McMahon], Nick Khan, you were all a part of that. What degree of knowledge of the current accusations against him did you guys have at the time and how does the situation affect WWE's relationship with partners going forward?

A: So I'm gonna do exactly what you would expect me to do here. Look, we just had an amazing week, and I just set a ten year $5 billion Netflix deal, Rock joining our board, we just sold out the Royal Rumble with 48,000 people at the Tropicana Field. Um, I choose to focus on the positive, and yes there's a negative um, but I wanna focus on that and just keep it to that.

Now of course no one expected an actual answer to that question but holy shit the expectation everyone would have when Triple H opened with that first sentence was that it's an ongoing investigation and he can't comment further on it, maybe add in that we currently strive to create a safe working environment for all of the talent and crew. Not just "stonks and good vibes plz". Oh, and apparently somewhere else during the press conference Triple H stated he had not read anything about the lawsuit at all, which has to be a load of bull because no way would you not look at the details of that lawsuit when you're in a position of currently running the company involved in that lawsuit.
Cody Rhodes got asked about the matter too (he's just a wrestler, he has no power in WWE like Triple H now does) and his response was considerably more professional and appropriate.

[ShiraNoMai]

The political "non-answer" has to be the most annoying thing coming out of public statements these days. I get why they do it but it honestly probably works out worse for them than it would if they just picked a side and stuck to it. Centrism is a a plague

Anyway I hope Vince gets held accountable on every account cuz all of that is some real fucked up nonsense, I gotta say.