F**king Mondays: Let's Move To Russia!

It's that time of the week again.

The Feenstra moved to Russia to own the libs.

Welcome to another edition of F**king Mondays! In the roundup today:

No airplane mode!

Ok, slightly offbeat topic here, but thank God someone is finally saying it (via Gizmodo):

There’s a collective fear about flying that plays into our belief in airplane mode’s necessity. We all want to play by the airline’s rules so everything goes smoothly. The myth about airplane mode being essential to our safety is so ingrained in us, that we feel guilty about not using it.

The reality is that phones haven’t interfered with in-flight electrical systems or terrestrial wireless services for decades. The actual reason you’re turning on airplane mode is for your fellow passengers.

I have to confess, I haven’t switched my phone onto airplane mode for years. I always thought it was ludicrous, and I reasoned that if my iPhone could take down a plane, we were doomed anyway. Apparently my logic was sound:

In 1991, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned the use of cell phones on planes, citing the reason of “ground network interference.” At one point, this may have been true, but in 2005, an FCC member testified before Congress that it was no longer an issue because of pico-cells.

“With advances in cell phone technology since 1991, [the FCC’s] rule banning 800 MHz cell phone use in flight, may not be needed in order to protect the terrestrial or ground-based cellular networks,” said FAA administrator Nicholas Sabatini in his testimony.

You’re welcome.

Biden’s age blowback

On The Emergency Meeting Podcast, Justin and I did a deep dive over the Biden age issue. The feedback has been harsh — at least on my position. A reader writes:

If I may, a summary of Ben's position seems to be "Sure Biden has been an incredibly effective and accomplished President on every issue you can name and is quite up to continuing to do the job very well, but we should bolster the drummed up concerns about his age because people are talking about it (while failing to acknowledge that the only reason people are talking about age is because people like me keep saying it's a legit issue solely because people are talking about his age)."

I understand the anger many Democrats and Biden supporters have when people bring this issue up. I want to make a couple of things clear here though. While I support Biden and the Democrats, it is not my job to defend them, recirculate Democratic talking points, or shill for any particular candidate. I do my best to give Banter readers my unfiltered analysis and opinion on political/cultural issues. Much of the time this lines up with what you might call “Establishment Dem” positions. Sometimes it does not. I am going to give you my honest opinion on the Biden age issue regardless of who finds it distasteful (for the record, again, I don’t think Biden should drop out, and I think he beats Trump soundly).

I’m not interested in fueling right wing talking points either, so I try to deal with the issue with a lot of nuance (it should be noted we also put this particular podcast behind a paywall for Banter Members). I believe our readers and members are an intelligent bunch who recognize the necessity of debate and intellectual honesty. We have had some members cancel over my willingness to talk about this, but I guess that’s just a cost we have to bear.

Sweden joins NATO, anti-LGBTQ couple joins Russia!

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine continues to backfire (via the WaPo):

Hungary’s parliament voted Monday in favor of Sweden’s long-delayed bid to join NATO, clearing the final obstacle to a historic expansion of the military alliance and putting an end to an uncomfortable standoff between members.

With Budapest at last onboard, Sweden is set to become NATO’s 32nd member, possibly within the week, completing a process that began with Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and saw Finland join last year. The addition of the two Nordic countries will bolster the alliance’s capabilities, strengthening its position in the high north and the Baltic Sea — all while sending an important message to Moscow.

The map below provides a good visualization of the buffer that now exists keeping the Kremlin in check:

Alt ideologues across the spectrum will no doubt decry this as a monumental act of NATO aggression against an entirely innocent Russia. Of course you have to forget the fact that Sweden is a democratic nation joining an entirely voluntary military alliance. But then reality has never been particularly important to these people, especially if it means owning the libs — like this Canadian couple, who left the oppressive sissy liberalism of Justin Trudeau to join Mother Russia:

Arend and his wife Anneesa Feenstra relocated their family from Canada to Russia to escape perceived LGBT ideology encroachment.

However, their dream soured when their bank accounts were reportedly frozen upon arrival.

Anneesa vented frustration in a deleted YouTube video, while Arend later apologized and clarified their commitment to Russia.

The conservative Christian couple from Canada made the bold move to relocate their large family of 10 to Russia to escape LGBT ideology.

However, their hopes of starting anew quickly turned into a nightmare upon arrival in Russia as their bank accounts, filled with the proceeds from selling their rural Canadian farm, were unexpectedly frozen due to "suspicious" activity, leaving them stranded and helpless in a country where they couldn't speak the language.

You have to at least give the Feenstras credit. Unlike most Russian zealots in the West, they actually had the guts to move to a country where dissidents are thrown out of windows. It doesn’t appear to be working out particularly well for them of course, but they have definitely owned the libs back in Canada.

Everything is fine…

As November nears, Democrats really need to hammer home what another Trump term in office would look like. While we’re in the midst of a “who looks older” contest, Democratic strategists have to force the public to think about what is going to happen to their government if a deranged sociopath committed to ending democracy takes over. This Politico piece does a pretty good job:

Former top officials from Donald Trump’s administration are warning he is likely to use a second term to overhaul the nation’s spy agencies in a way that could lead to an unprecedented level of politicization of intelligence.

Trump, who already tried to revamp intelligence agencies during his first term, is likely to re-up those plans — and push even harder to replace people perceived as hostile to his political agenda with inexperienced loyalists, according to interviews with more than a dozen people who worked in his administration.

That could empower the former president’s top subordinates to shield him from information that doesn’t conform with his politics and even change the wording of assessments with which he disagrees, many said.

Politico talked to dozens of former officials and analysts who worked in the Trump administration for the piece, and the picture they paint is terrifying, particularly given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine:

The Biden administration has also used its intelligence agencies over the past year to share threat information with countries in Africa — including Central African Republic and Congo — in an attempt to counter Chinese and Russian influence on the continent.

But much of the rebuilt trust could evaporate overnight if Trump is elected — especially if he continues to campaign on the idea that he would let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that don’t meet alliance defense spending commitments.

It would help if mainstream media outlets stopped doing their best to normalize Trump with nonsense like this:

See you next week!

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