In a ban-heavy and restricted thread, neoliberals give their free thoughts in the aftermath of the Cornell Gangrape.

Link of the thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/s/yd2Bw1taPd

What even is a fraternity anyway?

I've not only never been in a frat or witnessed a frat event, I've never known anyone who was (or at least not well enough to be aware of it). I therefore have no idea which characterization of them being thrown around is accurate.

- As someone who was in one, honestly they are trash. 90% of them are obscenely filthy and even the best behaved ones promote and glorify excessive drinking.

Is freedom of association a big deal?

Are college students not adults? Universities should have no say in who their students associate with, and how they associate with them. This infantilisation of young adults needs to stop. They are perfectly capable of making their own informed decisions, and don’t need the university (or anyone else for that matter) meddling in their lives. Yes, frats are hotbeds for some really shocking sexual assault cases, but so is literally every space with young people and alcohol in it. Are we going to ban bars and clubs next?

- Should universities have a say in who the university associates with?

— No? Not really? If you pass the entrance exam and aren’t a criminal, why’s it the university’s problem that you’re a member of a fraternity?You could be the world’s most virulent racist and the university does not have grounds to expel you unless you hurt a student or fail too many classes. Who gets to set the standard regarding the moral character you need to be a university student?

- Are you going to be perfectly happy with an association of “X university students for Hamas” or “X university chapter of National Socialist party of America” then?

— Yes

But have you considered that they’re voters?

What if we just… got rid of them. Genuinely what purpose do they serve.

- I don't think getting rid of them would be good for the polls at all. College educated men are on average some of the most democrat-leaning men, and removing frats would definitely alienate them.

— If I have to speculate who makes up the 15% that votes Republicans in college towns, frats would definitely be up there, above business students. They are not the liberal segment of college men at all

— Fuck the polls, they're rape hubs and everyone knows it.

Like I said, the mods are using the ban hammer with gusto so a lot of the savory bits are already gone. The thread is still young though so there’ll be more.

UDIN DHUNGA, Nepal (AP) — Massive flash floods in a border area of Nepal and China on Wednesday killed at least 160 people and left hundreds of tourists, workers and others missing after sweeping through communities and bringing travel in some areas to a halt. Experts said an avalanche from a glacier was the likely cause in the warming Himalaya region.

Police in Nepal reported at least 157 dead. China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported at least three dead and 265 missing in the Tibet region’s Gyirong County near the border. Drone footage showed roads destroyed and buildings buried by thundering water the color of wet cement. State news agency Xinhua reported significant casualties.

The region’s steep valleys are economic lifelines and travel corridors but precarious ones when disaster strikes. Images showed what appeared to be the second floors of buildings in Nepal’s hard-hit Nuwakot district slathered in mud after the torrent rushed by. Debris hung from tree branches and wires, vehicles were buried and some stunned survivors were caked in mud.

There was little time for anyone to flee.
“When I reached Dhunge bazaar, in half an hour, the flood came and damaged all the market. People were preparing to go to office then,” resident Shoyam Rajbhandari said. “How many people are missing or dead, we don’t know.”

Many missing were on pilgrimage to a sacred site

Officials in Nepal said 403 people, including 341 foreign nationals, were reported missing. Sunil Sharma, a tourism board spokesperson, said 133 were from India on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus. Also missing were 47 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 24 from Canada, he said. The State Department said it was aware of Americans affected.

At least 62 missing Nepali citizens were among hundreds of locals trekking in the Gosaikunda Lake area in hard-hit Rasuwa district bordering Tibet’s Gyirong, coinciding with the local festival of Janai Purnima on Friday, Sharma said. Though the current monsoon season is less favorable for trekking in Nepal, it’s a major season for Kailash trekking, which follows the route in Nepal’s Rasuwa district.

Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told The Associated Press at least 28 police officials were missing.

Officials warned residents in several districts to stay away from the banks of the Trishuli, Bhotekoshi and Narayani rivers. At least 19 bridges and nearly 40 kilometers (25 miles) of road were swept away. The Bhotekoshi flooded around 9 a.m. Wednesday, destroying several villages and hydropower projects, officials said.

“We have asked both India and China to help us with the rescue efforts,” said government spokesperson Sasmit Pokharel.

The U.S. Geological Survey first reported a magnitude 4.4 earthquake early Wednesday, about 66 kilometers (41 miles) north of Kathmandu, near the border. The USGS later updated to call the shaking a 5.2 magnitude landslide.

Countries express alarm over missing citizens

South Korean government officials said nine citizens working on building a hydropower plant in Nepal were among those reported missing. Malaysia’s foreign ministry said its embassy received reports from travel agencies that they had lost contact with 11 Malaysians believed to be in Rasuwa district. Russia’s embassy in Nepal said four citizens reportedly in the affected area were missing.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah and offered help. “India is prepared to provide Nepal with all possible types of humanitarian assistance. Our teams are closely coordinating on rescue and relief efforts,” Modi said on social media.
Some United Nations bodies were deploying “in an effort to meet what will clearly be massive humanitarian need,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

In a joint statement, Australia, Britain, the European Union, Finland, France, Norway and Switzerland expressed solidarity with people in Nepal, adding: “We encourage all those in affected areas to follow the guidance of local authorities and official safety advisories as the situation continues to evolve.”

The same region saw flash floods last year

Climate experts at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development said an avalanche from a glacier likely caused Wednesday’s flash flood.
“Hydrological observations indicate the exceptional speed and magnitude of the flood wave,” they said in an emailed statement, noting that water levels at one point on the Trishuli river rose by as much as nine meters (27 feet) over half an hour.

The Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi, had maximum flooding, they said.
“The Lhende Khola has flooded twice in 14 months, this time triggered by an ice rock avalanche from a glacier on the Nepal side that blocked the river and released a sudden surge downstream,” said Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk reduction specialist at the climate research group.
He noted the importance of early warnings in “a warming Himalaya.”

The region saw similar flash floods in August last year, when a glacial lake in Tibet overflowed because of high temperatures. Nine people were killed, and critical infrastructure, including a bridge connecting Nepal and China, was damaged.

The Himalayan region, which spans several countries including India, is especially vulnerable to heavy rains, floods and landslides because of warming due to human-caused climate change. Research shows that extreme weather events, including heat waves, rains and melting glaciers, have become more frequent.

Researchers in Kathmandu found earlier this year that glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region are melting at an accelerating rate, with ice loss rates doubling since 2000, primarily due to rising global temperatures and climate change.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration Monday in a case over President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting, though it remains unclear how much can be implemented before the fast-approaching midterm elections.

The decision leaves room for additional court challenges that could further slow Trump’s order, and other similar cases have already been filed. The U.S. Postal Service laid out how it would implement the order last week, but time is running short to impose major changes with some states beginning to send mail ballots to voters in just a few weeks.

The court’s conservative majority didn’t decide the legality of Trump’s order, instead ruling that the states did not have the legal right to challenge it.
“The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell,” the majority wrote in an unsigned order.

The Supreme Court’s three liberal-leaning justices dissented.

Mail balloting has long been a favorite target for Trump, who has claimed that it breeds fraud despite strong evidence to the contrary and his own use of the voting method.

The case could be one of multiple voting-related challenges before the justices. The Justice Department had filed an emergency appeal asking the high court to allow work on implementing the changes before the midterms.

Trump’s executive order, signed in March, calls on his administration to create lists of eligible voters and orders the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists.

Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to block the order. They argued that the Constitution gives states and Congress the power to run elections, and Trump’s changes could lead to chaos and partisan abuse.

“The consequences of allowing such transformative changes to take effect so close to this fall’s elections would be extreme,” attorneys for the states wrote. Dozens of state and local election officials weighed in, asking the justices to leave the order frozen while election preparations are already underway.

A judge in Massachusetts blocked the plan for the midterm elections in those states. An appeals court upheld her decision. She later granted a second order blocking it nationwide, another potential stumbling block for Trump administration plan.

The Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court on procedural grounds in late July, arguing that the states sued too soon. They also pointed to another ruling out of Washington, where a judge allowed Trump’s order to proceed. An appeals court backed that decision, while still leaving room for future court action if the changes are implemented.

Federal attorneys argued that the Massachusetts order “blocks the government’s ability to finalize and implement the President’s proposed policies to promote election integrity for the upcoming federal elections in November.”
A dozen Republican-leaning states supported the federal government in their own appeal before the high court, saying states would have input on the final voter lists.

The Supreme Court has previously ruled against Trump-backed arguments on mail-in ballots, finding in June that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day. That case was decided after full briefing and arguments, rather than on the court’s emergency docket.

Trump has blamed mail voting — without credible evidence — for his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. He has promoted the proposed changes in his executive order as safeguards to keep non-U.S. citizens from voting.

He’s also repeatedly pressed for the passage of the legislation that requires proof of citizenship to vote. Noncitizen voting has been shown to be rare, and is a felony that can be punishable by deportation.

Using mail ballots has become increasingly popular with voters of both parties, with about 30% of all ballots cast that way during the 2024 presidential election, according to federal data. The process also is secure. A 2025 Brookings Institution study found only about four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.

SS: relevant to this sub since Trump seems to be moving towards a rapprochement with North Korea under the dumbest bold belief that his personal relationship with Kim Jong Un will help lead to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

“The annual U.S.-South Korea drills, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, will end Aug. 21 rather than Aug. 27 as originally scheduled, a Defense Department official said.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint exercises with South Korea after he says it declined to help denuclearize Iran.

The announcement comes just before one of two large-scale joint annual exercises are set to begin this week between South Korean and U.S. troops. It also comes just days after North Korea resumed ballistic missile testing activities that are banned by the U.N

The allies have said the 11-day exercises are meant to strengthen their readiness against North Korean threats and reiterated that they are defensive in nature.

LONDON - A vast oil spill from a leaking tanker has started to ​hit Oman's coastline, its environment agency confirmed on Wednesday, in what threatens to become one of the world’s worst in years after spreading largely unchecked for ‌weeks.

The oil could end up impacting 40 km (25 miles) of coast near Ras Madraka as well as Masirah Island, the agency said.

The slick now covers an area of more than 2,000 square km, said John Amos, an oil spill specialist who reviewed satellite imagery obtained by Reuters.

The Caroline Bezengi tanker, carrying an estimated 800,000 barrels of Russian oil and under international sanctions, ran aground on ​June 30.

It is leaking near an island that is part of an Omani marine nature reserve that is home to wildlife including Arabian Sea humpback whales and ​Socotra cormorants.

The tanker first reported difficulties off Yemen on June 8 after what maritime sources said appeared to be a blast.

No party has claimed an attack, but ⁠the vessel was navigating two separate wars on its journey from Russia to India.

In April it sailed from the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, a flashpoint in ​the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine has carried out assaults on a so-called shadow fleet carrying Russian oil, which the Caroline Bezengi is part of.

It then passed through the Suez Canal ​at the end of May, ship-tracking data shows, before sailing past Yemen, where the Iran-aligned Houthi militants have entered a wider regional war between the United States, Israel and Iran.

A web of complex war- and sanctions-related rules governing shipping and oil spills is already hampering efforts to respond and could yet get in the way of halting an impending disaster, insurers ​and analysts say.

The IOPC Funds, an intergovernmental agency dealing with tanker spills compensation, told Reuters it would not be involved in clean-up costs because the incident was being treated ​as an "act of war" rather than a simple accident.

The 25-year-old tanker is also not insured by any recognised Western insurance provider.

"A nightmare scenario is there's no adequate response to keep the worst ‌from happening," ⁠said the oil spills specialist Amos, CEO of SkyTruth, a nonprofit organisation aiming to strengthen environmental conservation through the use of satellite images.

Amos said that in this case, the vessel would "continue to break up under the steady onslaught of wind and waves and to lose the entire cargo and that could be a spill upwards of 40 to 50 million gallons."

Amos said this would rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in sheer size.

The ship is similar in size and capacity to the Sanchi, an Iranian ship ​that collided with a freighter off China ​in 2018 in the world's worst oil ⁠tanker disaster in decades.

The U.N.'s International Maritime Organization said that seasonal monsoon conditions had limited access to the tanker and delayed salvage operations.

"Oil spill contingency planning is in place," an IMO spokesperson told Reuters.

Oman said on Monday the slick covered almost 400 square km. It has not elaborated on ​the containment efforts, but said it had used booms to try to stem the spread.

Environmental agencies and oil spill specialists estimated ​its size as far ⁠larger, noting the spread has accelerated dramatically since the beginning of August.

"The affected area went from around 45 square km by the end of July, to 150 at the beginning of August. And then within two days, it quadrupled to 600 by the 4th or 5th of August," said Hanen Keskes, political campaigns lead for Greenpeace in the Middle East.

SkyTruth's Amos said that ⁠measures required, ​beyond the use of booms, included stabilising the tanker and transferring whatever crude oil was left onboard to another vessel.

"The longer we ​wait, the more damaged and decrepit that tanker gets, the more complicated and difficult and potentially dangerous that salvage operation is going to be," he said.

So. Much. Winning.

SS: Give it up for peace deal number 1 2 3 4 5 6 ahh damn it who knows anymore

SS: relevant to this sub because free trade rules but mercantilism is unfortunately still on the menu.

SS: Relevant to the sub since Trump is looking for ways to shore up his weakening domestic stance which is drive by rising costs, foreign wars, and relationships that are, at best, quasi-pedophilic This is the result.

The convention will be held in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10.

SS: obviously relevant since the Trump administration is hellbent on protectionism and mercantilism to the point that event treaties signed under Trump I are getting rescinded.